What the Bao Zhu Gong Fuzhou Complaint Story Shows About Online Rumors

A customer complaint at the Bao Zhu Gong tea chain's Fuzhou branch escalated into a nationwide controversy after comments appearing to come from employees claimed the entire store staff was fired over the dispute and that a student worker had been fined 1,000 yuan. Tens of thousands of comments followed, and the original post was deleted. The store owner has now denied the rumors and filed a police report.

The dispute began when a consumer said her milk green tea was made with a black tea base instead of green tea, and that similar mistakes had happened before. She received a refund plus drink coupons, then clashed with staff over how the coupons could be used. The employee allegations turned a routine service complaint into a broader story about labor treatment in chain tea shops.

Recently, a single customer complaint has dragged the chain tea brand Bao Zhu Gong's Fuzhou branch into a whirlwind of public opinion. A consumer claims that after her milk green tea was made incorrectly, she received a refund and coupons as compensation, but then got into a dispute with the store over the coupons' usage rules. Subsequently, comments appearing to be from an employee alleged that management fired the entire store staff over the complaint, and even dug up an old incident in which a student employee had been fined 1,000 yuan. The incident quickly escalated, with tens of thousands of comments forcing the original post to be deleted. At noon today, an account claiming to be the owner of the store in question issued a statement saying the online rumors were all false, and that those involved had gone to the police station to give statements and file a report. What is the truth? Front Street Coffee walks you through the whole story.

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Recently, a complaint post involving the Fuzhou branch of the chain tea brand Bao Zhu Gong has continued to ferment online, drawing a large crowd of onlookers and discussion.

It is reported that the consumer posted on social media that the store made her ordered milk green tea incorrectly—it should have had a green tea base but mistakenly used a black tea base—and that such mistakes had happened more than once. The customer then complained to customer service and received a refund for the order as well as several drink coupons as compensation.

(Image from a partial screenshot of the complaint post)

Afterward, the consumer disagreed with store staff over how exactly the compensation coupons could be used, so she made their chat records public, arguing that customer service had not clearly explained the coupon usage rules during the negotiation, which led to her misunderstanding and, in turn, her dissatisfaction with the brand and the store's service.

To bystanders, this was just an everyday customer complaint dispute in the tea beverage industry; many people casually left comments after learning about it and did not pay much attention. However, a few comments in the post's comment section that appeared to be from store employees set off a huge uproar, causing netizens' attitudes to shift dramatically as they began following the aftermath.

According to online screenshots, someone with knowledge of the matter said the complaint post had drawn management's attention, that "HR specifically came over to make employees submit resignation contracts," and attached a related screenshot.

Another netizen alleged that a student employee at the store had previously been fined 1,000 yuan over a trivial matter. Unable to afford the fine, the employee, pressed for payment, had no choice but to borrow money to cover it. When the store manager found out, he argued with the management that had tacitly allowed the employee to borrow money to pay the fine. This time, a customer complaint dispute happened at the store again, and with "old grievances plus new ones" piling up, the entire store staff was fired by management.

The unexpected turn of events left onlookers both surprised and puzzled, and they found it hard to believe that management would fire employees over a customer complaint dispute. So the consumer who originally posted asked the store to verify, and learned that the store had indeed dismissed employees, but the online claim of "everyone being fired" was not true. The other party also stressed that the reason for dismissing the staff had nothing to do with this customer complaint—"it was simply a coincidence."

However, this chat record failed to convince netizens who sympathized with the employees' plight. They left comments under the post expressing dissatisfaction with the brand, and some redirected their anger at the original poster. Tens of thousands of comments left the poster unable to bear the public pressure, and she deleted the post herself, with the related comments disappearing along with it.

Still, some netizens following the matter saved several images and posted them online, hoping the brand would see their concerns and give the public a reasonable explanation.

At noon today, an account claiming to be the owner of the store in question issued a statement saying the incident was not as frightening as the online rumors suggested, and that the rumors had brought trouble to the store and seriously affected the staff.

The account said that several people involved had gone to the local police station to give statements and sign declarations proving that the relevant online claims were all rumors, and had filed a police report, with the matter handed over to police for further handling. As for the public opinion still fermenting, the spokesperson earnestly hoped netizens would not spread misinformation and continue passing on false information.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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