Write about coffee or milk tea: when a drink complaint ends in a legal dispute

A consumer in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, says she found what looked like insect remains in a delivered KOI milk tea on September 17. After about an hour she sucked out a mass with visible legs, head and wings. She and the brand failed to agree on compensation and an apology, so she filed a complaint with 12315 and insists on legal action.

KOI responded that store surveillance and a market supervision inspection found no foreign object entering the drink, and that the shaker cup's filter holes would block such material. The brand declined to apologize on the platform but offered to compensate in line with the law. Both sides hold their positions, and there is currently no new progress.

Recently, a consumer in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, posted on social media claiming that they suspected they found fragments of an insect carcass in a milk tea delivered from the well-known freshly made tea brand KOI. The consumer and the brand failed to reach an agreement after multiple communications over compensation and an apology, and have filed a complaint with 12315 and insist on pursuing legal action. KOI responded that neither the store surveillance nor the inspection by the market supervision department found any foreign object entering the drink, and that the design of the shaker cup's filter holes would also block such foreign objects, so it does not accept apologizing on the platform but is willing to compensate in accordance with the law. The incident has attracted widespread attention, with both sides holding their own views, and there is currently no new progress.

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According to media reports such as Southern Metropolis Daily, a consumer in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, posted on social media claiming that she suspected she drank "an insect carcass" in a milk tea purchased from the well-known freshly made tea brand KOI.

The poster described that on the afternoon of September 17, she ordered a cup of milk tea through delivery from a KOI store in Hangzhou. When drinking it, she found it tasted too sweet, so she planned to wait for the ice to melt before drinking it. About an hour later, when she drank it again, she "sucked out something like a steel wool pad." Because she was not sure what was in her mouth, she did not dare to swallow. After spitting it out and prying it open with her fingers, she found that it was actually a mass of insect remains, with legs, head, wings, and other parts visible.

From the photos taken by the person involved, the black foreign object was pried open and divided into four or five fragments, one of which had two sawtooth-like structures, like part of an insect's body. After the post was published, it attracted a large number of netizens to watch, and the person involved also contacted the store, the KOI regional manager, and the customer complaint department at the first opportunity. However, during the communication process, the two sides never reached an agreement on issues such as compensation and apology.

Because the communication was fruitless, the consumer complained to the local 12315. Because the netizens watching were very concerned about the follow-up, the poster shared the rights protection process on the platform. On September 28, when the person involved updated the progress, she said that after the local market supervision department intervened, she still had not received a satisfactory solution, "offline mediation failed, and I will continue to insist on pursuing legal action to protect my rights."

Regarding this customer complaint, on October 9, a staff member of the KOI store involved said in an interview with a Southern Metropolis Daily reporter that, judging from the photos fed back by the consumer, "there were many black foreign objects, and it would have been impossible for store staff not to notice them at all when making the milk tea." The person also said that the food and drug supervision and administration department had already inspected the store and found no problems, and that they were also maintaining communication with the consumer.

On the 10th, a KOI person in charge responded to a Southern Metropolis Daily reporter about the matter, saying that they had retrieved the complete surveillance video from the store that day from brewing the milk tea to serving the meal and provided it to the food and drug supervision and administration department for viewing, and no foreign object was found entering the drink during the production process.

The person in charge said that the customer purchased a hand-shaken milk tea called "Rose Galaxy." The store used a shaker cup to make this milk tea, and the small holes in the shaker cup lid are very small. If a foreign object of the size reported by the consumer fell in during production, it would ultimately be filtered out and would not appear in the milk tea.

In addition, the person in charge said that after the incident occurred, the brand and the consumer conducted multiple rounds of communication and negotiation, and store staff also apologized to the consumer multiple times because of this, but the other party's demand was that the brand apologize on social platforms and compensate in accordance with relevant legal requirements.

In response to the demands of the person involved, the person in charge believed, "For the unpleasant dining experience brought to the consumer, we can compensate, and we also hope mediation can be carried out, but we do not accept apologizing on the platform, because there is indeed currently no actual evidence showing that the foreign object mentioned by the consumer was produced during the store's milk tea production process. There are no problems in our milk tea production and sales processes."

On October 11, the reporter contacted the person involved, who told the reporter that there is currently no new progress on this incident. Regarding the handling of this dispute, the KOI person in charge said, "If the consumer files a lawsuit, we will also follow the legal process."

Image source: Internet

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