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Eating out plays a huge part of Malaysian culture: You come into a comfy establishment, order some food and drinks and lepak for a bit, then pay on your way out.
But what happens when that unspoken contract of trust between the customer and business owner is breached, abused and exploited?
That was the predicament that June, restaurant owner of C.A.F.F.E.I.N.E.E.S, found herself in one day.
A strange man with no IC ate RM150 worth of food and refused to pay
June owns two C.A.F.F.E.I.N.E.E.S outlets in Selangor. One day, she had a customer who tried to dine & dash.
After finishing his meal, the waiter handed him a RM157.75 bill. However, he refused to pay, no friend could help him pay and he didn’t bring his NRIC.
All he had on him was an expired driving licence. Then, he tried to leave the premises, but the staff blocked his path, and that’s when he started becoming more aggressive.
Not wishing to escalate the situation, June had no choice but to call the police.
When the police arrived, they told June there was nothing they could do, and asked her to file a report at the police station.
“This guy seemed professional and took advantage of me,” said June in a Facebook post she made documenting her encounter.
“He was not surprised at all when the police approached him. He casually left when the police told him not to cause trouble. He did not apologise or felt embarrassed at all.”
June felt flabbergasted and helpless. “We started to wonder, is there a way to protect us business owners then? What can we do?” she shared in her FB post.
Regardless, she sent her colleague to lodge an official report at Dang Wangi Police Headquarters.
The next day, June held a town hall meeting with her staff. She told them what to do if something similar were to happen again.
The man tried to do the same thing at the sister outlet
A few days later, June was alerted by one of her operation managers from the sister outlet.
“There’s a customer here that looks suspiciously like the same man you encountered,” he told her.
The operation manager suspected that this was the same person as before.
After looking at the security footage on the premises, they attempted to match his look with the picture they got 2 days ago.
He had the same bag, same bracelet accessories, as the man in the picture. It was indeed the same person.
June told her manager to serve him his order and bill him immediately.
He was offended and refused to pay at first, saying he did not ask for the bill.
“If you really want payment so badly, you should call me a Grab to send me home for my wallet!” he said.
Not only did he refuse to pay, he insisted on ordering more food. But the kitchen staff realised what was going on and told him that the kitchen was closed.
The man shaved his moustache at his table before the police arrived
The man started acting really strange and began to shave his moustache while sitting at his table.
For any onlooker, this would have been utterly confusing. Why did the man choose this time to do some personal grooming?
Perhaps, he thought if he changed his look it would make it more difficult to identify him on social media?
June instructed the operations manager to call the police again.
This time, he promptly paid his RM15.10 bill. He left just before they could confront him.
In the Facebook post, June shared the entire encounter with her followers.
At the bottom, she wrote: “Please do not misunderstand that I am here making any complaint against the Polis. They were friendly, kind, and good. They responded to our calls FAST & EFFICIENT and came to the outlet. They are responsible.”
“I was only wondering how the law and rules could protect business owners in such a situation? What is the proper procedure? Seeking advice, what else can we do? Also, wondering if having no identity and dine without paying is fine? What can we do? How can we prevent this from happening? What is the best action and solution when this happens again?” ?
Please do not try to avoid paying for your meal, it is an offence
We know that times are tough and it is getting harder to make ends meet but that doesn’t give us the right to exploit businesses.
The F&B industry was especially hit hard thanks to the pandemic, and it looks like the road to recovery is still a long way ahead.
So if you want to continue to enjoy Malaysia’s amazing dining culture, please support our local businesses anyway you can.
If you have any information about this man, please come forward.
Do you have a personal story? Email us at hello@inreallife.my
For more stories like this, read: https://inreallife.my/i-was-targeted-by-the-dead-monkey-highway-scam-in-perak/
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