A post by a small business owner on a social networking service (SNS) lamenting a so-called "no-show" incident?where a customer promised payment but told the owner not to come when called before delivery?has been drawing attention.
Mr./Ms. A, who runs a dessert shop near a university in Changwon, Gyeongnam, posted on their SNS, "I received an order for 70 dessert sets, but it was canceled on the day of delivery."
Mr./Ms. A explained, "The customer said, 'I'll transfer the payment, please proceed,' so I took the order, but the payment wasn't made. On the morning of the delivery day, I requested the payment again. When I called the customer before heading out for delivery, they told me not to come, saying the order was canceled because the payment wasn't made."
The dessert set ordered from Mr./Ms. A consisted of one coffee and one dessert, with the coffee priced at 2,500 won and the dessert at 3,000 won each.
Mr./Ms. A said, "I usually take a partial deposit, but the customer asked for a discount, saying they were ordering on someone's recommendation. I believed them when they said they'd pay immediately and gave a 1,000 won discount, but ended up being betrayed."
They also said, "I heard people didn't like the Dacquoise because it was too rich. If that was the case, shouldn't they have called to cancel the order sooner?"
Mr./Ms. A continued, "Since I run the shop alone, I couldn't take other orders properly for two hours while preparing the order. After setting out for delivery and then receiving the cancellation notice, I was left in a daze for an hour. It felt like being hit on the head."
"I even asked them to pay for half, but was refused. It may not be a large amount of money, but thinking about the effort and time I put into making the order, it really hurts," they said.
The customer in question was identified as a graduate student at a university near the shop.
It was found that the graduate department at the university held a welcome event for new students that day and distributed desserts from a different shop, not Mr./Ms. A's.
The customer is reportedly claiming that they only said they would discuss the order, never submitted an order form, and did not see Mr./Ms. A's messages due to driving all day. They are insisting that since no payment was made, there was no official order.
The SNS post by Mr./Ms. A received over 1,000 comments.
Netizens responded with comments such as, "That must be infuriating. You must have started working at dawn," "You should get a 100% refund," "It seems intentional," and "Where exactly did the no-show happen?"
What comforted Mr./Ms. A were other customers.
Mr./Ms. A posted the 70 canceled cups of coffee on a secondhand trading app at a discounted price. They were all purchased by a department at the university.
The day after the incident, the discounted desserts were quickly bought up by university students who saw the post, as well as netizens and local residents who heard about the situation, clearing out the display case.
Mr./Ms. A later posted, "Thanks to those who came to the shop after seeing the news, I was able to sell all the items I made that day. I was really upset, but people got angry and worried for me as if it were their own problem, which made me feel better and taught me a lot about how to deal with no-shows."
They added, "Since there are more good people, I'll find a way to overcome and endure. I'm truly grateful."
A university official said, "After learning about Mr./Ms. A's situation, we looked into it. Since the dessert purchase was handled by the graduate student council, the school is cautious about intervening, but we will contact both parties and help coordinate their positions to resolve the situation."
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