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| An owner of a small restaurant recently died after suffering from stress after a customer made excessive demands for a refund based on the claim that one of the three fried shrimps ordered through a food delivery app was a "strange color." This incident has led to mounting calls to improve the review systems of such apps to protect restaurant owners better. gettyimagesbank |
By Jun Ji-hye
Rating systems where consumers evaluate the quality of restaurants on food delivery apps are being blamed for producing malicious consumers who intentionally attempt to damage the reputations of restaurants, leaving the owners of eateries suffering from severe stress, civic groups claimed, Tuesday.
The operators of delivery apps, however, have failed to employ the necessary measures to protect restaurant owners from malicious consumers amid a surge in the number of delivery service users due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, they said.
The criticism was triggered by the recent death of a small restaurant owner apparently due to severe stress from what the bereaved family members claim was an unreasonable demand for a refund made by a customer who ordered food through Coupang Eats, the food delivery platform of e-commerce giant Coupang.
This customer ordered several dishes, including fried shrimp, from the restaurant in Seoul's Dongjak District, through the app on May 7.
A day after the delivery, the customer demanded a refund of 2,000 won ($1.77), arguing that one of the three fried shrimp the restaurant delivered was a "strange color."
While making the complaint, the customer verbally abused the owner of the restaurant, who was in her 50s, even insulting her parents.
As customer reviews are considered very important on delivery apps, the owner had no choice but to apologize to the customer and provide a refund.
The customer continued to complain even after receiving the refund. This time, the customer called Coupang Eats' customer center and demanded a full refund.
The customer also wrote, "The owner of this restaurant is clueless," in the app's restaurant review system, leaving a one-star rating out of five stars.
According to the bereaved family members, Coupang Eats did not try to arbitrate in the dispute between the owner and the customer. Instead, it just delivered the customer's demands to the owner, asking her to comply.
The owner collapsed while talking to a Coupang Eats employee on the phone, and was moved to a hospital where she was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage. She died there three weeks later.
Her husband claimed that she did not suffered from other illnesses, insisting that her death resulted both from the customer's complaint and from the app operator's pressure on her to satisfy the customer.
"Restaurant owners have no choice but to comply with customers' demands, even if the demands are unreasonable," the husband was quoted as saying by MBC Newsdesk.
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| Members of civic groups, including People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, hold signs calling on food delivery app operators to come up with proper measures to protect restaurant owners from malicious reviews by consumers, in front of Coupang's headquarters, Tuesday. The e-commerce company operates the food delivery platform, Coupang Eats. Yonhap |
60% of restaurant owners suffer from malicious reviews
Civic groups, including People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), held a news conference in front of Coupang's headquarters in Seoul's Songpa District, criticizing the company for avoiding responsibility for the difficulties faced by restaurant owners.
"Delivery apps' rating systems give enormous power to customers, but do not guarantee a restaurant owner's right to defend him- or herself," Kim Eun-jeong, a PSPD staffer, said. "This practice will also make it difficult for delivery apps to continue to grow."
The policy research institute of the minor opposition Justice Party also called for measures to better protect restaurant owners.
At an open forum held at the National Assembly, June 17, the institute cited a survey that showed how 63.3 percent of restaurant owners suffer from malicious reviews on delivery apps' rating systems. About 74 percent of the respondents said that such reviews harmed their sales.
The survey was conducted for a month starting from April 16, of 183 restaurant owners in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.
Amid growing controversy, Coupang Eats offered a public apology for its failure to protect restaurant owners who have suffered from customers' unreasonable demands or malicious reviews.
"We will set up a department dedicated to protecting restaurant owners and introduce a function in which owners can write a comment in response to a poor review," the company said in its statement, Monday.
