Customer prickles over small durian pieces with scanty flesh; seller says meatiness not guaranteed

A customer has lodged a complaint after spending $70 to buy five red prawn durians, only to find one of them had less flesh than expected.

The stall staff stood by their pricing, explaining that the price was marked clearly and the size was chosen by the customer.

Ms Liu, a 56-year-old marketing professional, told Shin Min Daily News about the frustrating experience at a durian stall located at Block 810 Hougang Central on June 8.

She recalled that she had bought five red prawn durians for $70, and while four of them had an average of six segments of flesh, the last one only had five, with the flesh being unusually small.

"I didn't expect a durian costing over $10 to have only five segments of flesh, and they were so tiny, about the size of a pinky. It could all fit in the palm of my hand," Ms Liu said.

Feeling that the purchase was unfair, she attempted to approach the stall staff for an explanation. However, she was met with a rude response as the staff insisted the owner was unavailable.

"I wasn't asking for a full exchange, I would've been fine if they had given me a little extra flesh or a discount. Instead, they told me if I wasn't happy, I could go somewhere else," Ms Liu added.

When a reporter visited the stall on June 9, the same staff member Ms Liu encountered explained that the durians were clearly priced and displayed for customers to choose from, but the amount of flesh in each durian could not be guaranteed.

Several signs were displayed in front of the stall, outlining different durian varieties like "Musang King" and "Red Prawn", as well as the pricing according to the weight of each package.

Mr Su further clarified that if the customers chose the durians based on weight, and the staff opened it to realise that the durian contained less flesh, they would offer an additional durian to make up for it.

"If there's barely any flesh, we would open another one to make up for it. We don't want customers feeling like they paid for just the shell. But if the durians are sold in individual packages, this policy doesn't apply," he explained.

Regarding the complaint about his dismissive response to Ms Liu, Mr Su expressed that the stall was very busy at the time, and he had to juggle manning the stall and tending to customers.

He added that he had tried to explain the situation to Ms Liu multiple times, but she insisted on a replacement.

"If the flesh was spoilt, rotten or lacked flavour, we would absolutely replace it. But we can't guarantee that every durian will have a lot of flesh. We tried explaining this, but she refused to listen."

Ms Liu, however, denied that the stall staff had made any substantial attempt to explain the situation. "They just gave me a couple of brief responses and then ignored me," she said.