Negative Facebook reviews have plagued many a business owner in Singapore — some of whom unfortunately reacted badly to unhappy customers and turned simple feedback into viral PR fiascos. But it seems a new Orchard Gateway cafe called Fantasy Desserts didn’t take heed of what not to do from its predecessors, because it responded to a bad review with sarcasm, threats to sue and, er, blatant self-promotion.
So here we go again — another day, another F&B debacle.
Apparently, it all started when one netizen by the name of Celena Ho left a two-star review on the dessert joint’s Facebook page on Jan 28. According to her account, the staff were “uninterested” to serve her, and the ice cream egglet waffle looked haphazard with random “cheap sugary candies and a paper unicorn” piled on top of it.
She ended off her comment by saying other potential customers would be “better off spending your $12 on a good quality gelato elsewhere”.
As far as negative reviews go, this one’s rather tame. Heck, Ho even gave the establishment two stars instead of one. However, she ended up being accused by someone — presumably the shop’s owner – on a personal Facebook account of giving “fake feedback”. Said person also insisted that the so-called “cheap sugary candies” were from Candylicious Singapore.
Later on, the sarcasm continued with replies from the dessert shop’s official Facebook page, which called Ho’s review an “immature act” and asked her to stop her “childish acts” as the brand had “the rights to sue [her] for fake information”. Eventually, Ho’s Facebook review was deleted disappeared from the page.
Here’s the egglet she ordered.
If you’re thinking this looks like a far cry from the rainbow-colored ones modeled and gushed over by random ladies (influencers?) on the brand’s Facebook page, that’s ’cause the photo was taken when the item was melted — although Ho mentioned that the egglet was already “soggy and mushy” when it was served.
Nevertheless, she did admit her mistake when she later realized the egglet cost S$10.90 instead of S$12 as she had originally thought. It seems this price discrepancy could have been part of the reason for the “fake feedback” misunderstanding.
Unfortunately for Fantasy Desserts, things got messier when more netizens started to chime in on Ho’s side — so the business did a quick about-turn and ditched the mocking tone for a contrite one.
The shop apologized for the misunderstanding, thanked her for her “kind feedback”, and asked for the details of her visit so management could look into the CCTV footage and investigate. But it also, bizarrely enough, mentioned its involvement in local charities and commented on how Singaporeans should support local businesses… like how the Japanese do. By that logic, let’s give glowing reviews to all local food establishments no matter how shit they are!
A refund and a replacement egglet was offered as well, which Ho declined.
However, even after Fantasy Desserts’ official apology, the personal account that first came forward continued to comment on Ho’s post with very, very long and detailed replies, which you can feel free to dive into below.
As for us, we remain puzzled (and rather tickled) as to the need for the brand’s self-promotion after each comment.
