The dissonance between reality and expectations is real.
When customers ordered durians from Durian Delivery, they were disappointed to receive low-quality fruits.
The real problem here is that they thought they were ordering from established durian sellers in Singapore, like Durian Prince, Ah Seng Durian, and Leong Tee Durian.
They expected to receive high-quality durians; but as they say, the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
Many of these disgruntled customers lodged complaints to the respective sellers, leaving them confused.
The delivered durians were not from them.
One particular store gave customers free durians as a form of goodwill, and another even lodged a police complaint against Durian Delivery.
Beyond these actions, the sellers also turned to Facebook to publicly declare that they are in no way affiliated to Durian Delivery.
The sellers claim that Durian Delivery’s website is misleading, guiding customers to think that it delivers durian from the said sellers.
They added that they did not authorise any advertisement from Durian Delivery, and have never contracted their delivery service.
On its website, it links to its own blog where it reviews durian stalls in Singapore and shares other durian-related information.
Durian Delivery ends off its review posts with a call-to-action: “Get your durians from duriandelivery.com.sg today!”.
Below this statement, it wrote a disclaimer in a smaller font: “We are not affiliated nor deliver durians for the store above. Please contact them directly.”
A quick check on its website showed that it has since increased the font size of the disclaimer, as well as bolded it to make it stand out.
The post also included a recently-added FAQ (frequently asked questions) section where it clarified that unless stated, it does not sell durians from the reviewed stores.
Durian Delivery only sells durians from its own durian farms in Johor and Pahang.
Backlash From Durian Sellers
Vulcan Post has reached out to Durian Delivery co-founder Jonathan Poon today for comments on the matter.
He feels that this issue is just a “pure misunderstanding” and have since made clarifications on its website to clear up future misunderstandings.
Poon said that he is surprised to witness the durian sellers’ reactions, adding that they have never “deceived anyone in such a manner.”
In fact, we have received multiple threats from sellers attempting to intimidate us and they have even affected our supply chain by pulling their weight with the suppliers. While we welcome competition, the way these sellers have reacted is a whole new experience for us.
Some of them have called us acting as customers and [scolded] us. We have also received what we suspect to be a false review of a food poisoning incident, with no such customer ever purchasing from us.
We hope these sellers will stop with such attacks and let us continue running as an honest business.
– Jonathan Poon, co-founder of Durian Delivery
When asked about its “100% quality guaranteed or money back” promise, Poon said that they stand by this guarantee and have refunded customers “countless of times.”
If customers are not satisfied with their durians, Durian Delivery will get customers to send a picture of the fruit to their customer service officer via WhatsApp for evaluation.
Upon verification, Durian Delivery will arrange for a redelivery or issue a refund.
“[It’s] very clear and simple,” said Poon.
