Black Ivory Coffee Aside: The Chagee Negative Review Case

A man in Chengdu, Sichuan, said a Chagee employee came to his home asking him to delete a negative review he had left on an order. He had posted the review on July 20 after finding his drink tasted different from before, without requesting a refund or remake. The topic trended on Weibo the following Monday.

Chagee customer service said the store wanted an amicable talk, and the manager explained the visit happened because the rider, store and platform could not reach the customer by phone. The case, widely discussed alongside other chain disputes rather than anything related to black ivory coffee, has raised questions about how merchants should handle negative reviews.

Recently, a controversy over a customer being visited at home by a ChaPanda employee after leaving a negative review sparked widespread discussion online, with related topics trending on Weibo on Monday morning. According to Xing Video, on July 20, a man in Chengdu, Sichuan, posted a video saying that after consuming a drink at ChaPanda the previous day, he felt the taste was different from before, and instead of requesting a refund or a remake, he directly gave a negative review on the order. Unexpectedly, the next day, an employee showed up at his door without prior contact, asking him to delete the negative review. After the incident was exposed, netizens had mixed views on the employee's behavior, with some exclaiming "too scary," while others expressed understanding for the worker. ChaPanda customer service responded that the store wanted to communicate amicably with the customer, and the store manager involved explained that they went to the door because the delivery rider, the store, and the platform all could not get through to the customer by phone. This article reviews the incident and various perspectives, exploring reasonable ways for merchants to handle negative reviews.

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Recently, a dispute in which a customer was visited at home by ChaPanda store employees after giving a negative review has continued to ferment online, and the related discussion even briefly topped the Weibo hot search list early Monday morning.

According to a report by Xing Video, on July 20, a man in Chengdu, Sichuan, posted a video on social media recounting what happened the day before. After buying a drink at a local ChaPanda store, he felt the taste was not as good as before and that there was a clear difference in flavor. Because he thought a remake might not improve it either, he neither asked for a refund nor had the store remake it, but directly left a negative review in the order evaluation.

But what he did not expect was that just one day later, the store's employee showed up at his door without any prior communication and asked him in person to remove the negative review. The man said in the video that he had previously seen a blogger share an experience of being visited by store employees, and never imagined that something similar would actually happen to him.

From the video footage made public by the consumer, an employee wearing ChaPanda's black uniform can be seen standing at his door, holding a phone, apparently communicating and negotiating with him. After some operations, the employee also said to him, "Just give me a call, thank you very much."

Regarding this "door-to-door visit" by the ChaPanda employee, many netizens said bluntly that it was "too scary." In their view, whether a drink tastes good is a matter of personal subjective feeling, and consumers giving negative reviews is a legitimate right; asking to delete the review in person like this seems inappropriate and also inconsistent with the rules of review platforms.

In the comments section, several other netizens shared their own experiences of being contacted by phone by ChaPanda because they had left negative reviews, with some saying the store only stopped calling after they deleted the low rating. In this incident that drew attention, the employee used the address information on the order to directly visit the customer to communicate, and this approach indeed made people uncomfortable. One netizen commented, "Putting everything else aside, showing up at the door is pretty scary."

Of course, some views also expressed understanding for this employee, who is likewise a worker. They believe that negative reviews on the platform not only affect the store's overall rating but are also directly tied to the salary and performance of all employees, so the employee's urgent door-to-door communication was very likely carried out under instructions from superiors. One netizen left a comment saying, "If there's a negative review, the store manager will tell employees to call the customer to reconcile and delete it," and "the employee was also forced to go to the door."

In response to this controversy, a reporter contacted ChaPanda. Customer service staff responded, "Because the customer gave a negative review, the store wanted to communicate amicably with the customer to see what needs improvement." The store manager involved explained that after the customer placed the order, the delivery rider, the store, and the platform all could not get through to the customer by phone, so the employee chose to visit in person, with the purpose of communicating about the negative review.

As a merchant, when facing customer negative reviews and feedback about taste, rather than covering up the problem by "begging for review deletion," it is clearly more important to focus energy on improving product quality and service standards, and to win public praise through actual improvements.

As the saying goes, it is hard to cater to all tastes. Negative reviews given because a drink's flavor does not suit personal preference are inherently difficult to completely avoid, and merchants should respect every consumer's right to comment. Even for the purpose of communication, an excuse like "couldn't get through by phone" cannot be a legitimate reason to rashly visit a customer's home without consent and ask for the negative review to be deleted.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.