What Happened at the Luckin Coffee Store in Xinyang?

A Xinyang consumer found a fly stuck to the bottom of a drink bought at a campus Luckin Coffee store in late October. The store first offered a free order and a complimentary drink; the consumer refused and sought legal compensation. The employee involved was fired and the consumer received 500 yuan.

Luckin's after-sales team called repeatedly with coupons and was accused of implying the consumer planted the object. Under China's Food Safety Law, consumers can claim ten times the price or three times the loss, with a 1,000 yuan minimum when the amount is under that. Prior Luckin incidents involved a work badge and ants.

Recently, a Xinyang netizen exposed that a drink purchased at a Luckin Coffee store on campus had a fly settled at the bottom, sparking widespread attention. The consumer refused the store's initial offer of a free drink and a complimentary beverage, demanding compensation in accordance with the law. Luckin's after-sales service called multiple times, offering coupons, and was even accused of implying that the consumer had planted the foreign object themselves. Ultimately, the employee involved was fired, and the consumer received 500 yuan in compensation. This is not the first time Luckin has been embroiled in a food safety scandal; there have previously been incidents involving foreign objects such as work badges and ants. In today's fiercely competitive tea beverage market, a brand's sincerity in handling problems has become key to consumer trust. This article reviews the course of events and the legal basis, and includes related recommendations from Front Street Coffee.

Recently, a netizen from Xinyang posted on social media, claiming that they had found a fly in a drink purchased from a Luckin Coffee store on campus.

According to the netizen, they placed the order at nearly 3 PM on October 22, and discovered the fly when drinking it after 4 PM that day—there was a dark clump of sediment at the bottom of the drink, and upon closer inspection, it was a fly firmly stuck to the bottom of the cup. The netizen also uploaded a photo taken from a low angle as evidence.

Such a sight made the consumer extremely uncomfortable. He immediately picked up his phone and contacted the Luckin Coffee store that had made the drink, reporting what he had experienced while drinking it, hoping the store could provide an explanation and properly resolve the issue.

However, what dissatisfied the consumer was that when he went to the store in person to communicate as requested by the staff, the solution offered by the store was merely a free order for that purchase plus an additional complimentary drink.

The netizen explicitly stated that he could not accept this handling plan, pointing out: "No one is short of ten yuan, and no one would drink a cup of coffee soaked with a fly for ten yuan." This face-to-face negotiation ultimately ended in disagreement.

The netizen believed that he had the right to claim higher compensation. According to the provisions of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China: consumers who suffer harm from eating food that does not meet food safety standards may seek compensation from the operator; the producer or operator receiving the compensation request shall implement the first-responsibility system, pay compensation first, and must not shift responsibility.

But the matter did not end there. The netizen later updated that Luckin's after-sales service called twice more. The first time, they offered three coupons, which he did not agree to; the second time, they increased it to five, but overall it seemed lacking in sincerity to solve the problem.

Even more unacceptable, the netizen said that during the call, Luckin's after-sales service explicitly or implicitly speculated that he himself might have put the fly in to disgust himself. However, when he drank the beverage, he was in a training class, and the classroom had surveillance cameras. The entire process of drinking the bug was recorded and can be proven, so the after-sales service's biased inference simply does not hold.

Netizens who saw the post expressed deep sympathy for the customer's experience, and some also left comments with pictures, saying they had found bugs or other foreign objects in Luckin drinks they purchased, and suggested that the customer reject those practically useless coupons and directly demand cash compensation from the merchant.

According to Article 55 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, if a business operator commits fraud in providing goods or services, it shall increase compensation for the losses suffered by the consumer according to the consumer's request; the increased compensation shall be three times the price of the goods purchased by the consumer; if the increased compensation amount is less than 500 yuan, it shall be calculated as 500 yuan.

In response, relevant personnel from Luckin Coffee said that stores have a set of disinfection, cleaning, and pest protection procedures. Regarding the outcome of this matter, the employee who made the drink at the store involved has been fired, and 500 yuan in compensation was paid to the consumer.

In the public's impression, Luckin has always been strict in food safety control, but recently Luckin Coffee has frequently exposed food safety issues: previously, a consumer in Henan found an employee work badge in a cold drink, and later a customer in Yunnan saw more than a dozen ants upon opening the lid at a campus store.

Objectively speaking, in a beverage shop filled with desserts and toppings, it is indeed very difficult to completely prevent pests from flying in. For consumers, what they care about more is actually the brand's sincerity in solving the problem after it occurs. After all, in today's fiercely competitive tea beverage market, only brands that show sincerity can win consumer trust.

(Image source: Internet)

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