Tealive CEO Responds After Customer Allegedly Finds A Dead Cockroach In Their Drink
However, the viral image of the cockroach in the cup did not reveal if the top was sealed.
By May Vin Ang — 12 Oct 2021, 04:54 PM
A Tealive customer recently took to Facebook to claim that they found a dead cockroach inside their cup of bubble tea
According to Viralcham, the netizen wrote that they visited the Bukit Jalil Tealive branch on Saturday, 9 October, and finished their drink before realising there was a pest inside.
They also posted photos of their receipt and a large cockroach lying among leftover bubble tea pearls at the bottom of their drink.
However, the viral image of the cockroach in the cup did not reveal if the top was sealed.
Tealive founder Bryan Loo quickly responded to the complaint and said his company will pay for a health check-up for the customer
In an interview with Sin Chew Daily on Monday, 11 October, the Loob Holdings chief executive officer (CEO) said his company's customer service team has already contacted the customer to apologise.
At the same time, he said they will be responsible for the customer's medical bill but will not offer monetary compensation as they have yet to prove the incident was genuine.
"Regardless of whether the complaint is true or false, we will treat it equally and apologise," he said.
However, he also emphasised, "We believe the cockroach was not placed into the drink by an employee."
Loo told the Chinese daily that all employees follow set standard operating procedure (SOP) when serving drinks to customers
He said staff have to shake and check the drink before handing it over, and added that this specific customer had also checked the drink when receiving it, according to preliminary investigations.
Besides that, he said Tealive stores carry out pest control inspections every month.
He explained that there are two common types of cockroaches in Malaysia – smaller German cockroaches that are commonly found in restaurants and larger American cockroaches that are commonly found in households.
"After a normal restaurant has done pest control, you won't ever see the large American cockroach, and the one [the employees] saw was the largest they've ever seen," he said, adding that the last pest control exercise done at that branch was on 17 September.
Nonetheless, he said they will still conduct internal investigations
"Because we don't know the truth, we will also check the closed-circuit television (CCTV) in the store," he said.
Loo added that since apologising, the customer has not made any requests or responded to their follow-ups.
He said the customer only assured that they were in good health and has since deleted the Facebook post on their own volition.
SAYS was also unable to find and contact the customer, but reached out to a Tealive representative, who confirmed and reiterated the statements made by Loo regarding the incident.
