Arabica Manila is under fire on social media after a customer complained about finding a cockroach in their order. The customer had to wait days before getting any response from the coffee chain brand and in the end, he was offered a mug and a voucher for his troubles. What happened?

Arabica Manila BGC

Last December 5, Migz A. Dado went on social media to share a horrible experience with Arabica’s flagship store in BGC. When he visited the store last November 19, Dado’s order of an Affogato Soft Cream came with a nasty surprise — it had a sizeable cockroach in it.

“I was chewing the ice cream I felt something weird in my mouth while chewing na parang cardboard and thought it was a coffee bean or some bits from the ice cream, then when I spitted it out, WOW it was a huge cockroach,” he wrote.

He included photos of the dessert; sure enough, a cockroach was in it.

Poorly handled?

Dado went back to the store to report his experience but he was left disappointed when the baristas told him “they had no senior or manager in charge to take care of [his] complaint.” Dado said the barista took his receipt and simply gave him a refund.

“So instead of getting mad since nasusuka na talaga ako and I was light-headed, I tried to calm down and asked them if there was someone I could talk to. Then he said na within the day someone from the management team would reach out to me,” he added.

At this point, Dado already vomited twice and was still experiencing stomach issues, dizziness, and lightheadedness.

Follow up

For the next two days, Dado tried to follow up with Arabica but he was ignored. He said no one had reached out or asked about his condition so he had no choice but to go back to the store. The same thing happened: He was told they didn’t have a manager present.

“So I was very disappointed, pinag-pasapasahan ako ng mga barista kasi no one can handle my situation. Worst part about it, habang nag rereklamo ako at the coffee machine area tinatawanan ako nung ilang barista nila like pano naging nakakatawa na nakakain ng ipis customer nyo? I don’t know what kind of training they had to be this selfish and rude,” said Dado.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the security was called on Dado for “creating a commotion.” When six guards from Shangri-La and BGC’s security team arrived, they found him sitting and waiting for Arabica’s manager.

“Imagine how unprofessional and insulting it is na nagpatawag sila ng security to escort me out, just because I am complaining about my incident and no one was trained enough to handle my concern,” said Dado.

Thankfully, the security guards understood the situation and even berated Arabica staff for calling them in. Shortly after, an attorney from Arabica came to hear about Dado’s concerns.

“Told me that they will get back to me DAW, and to trust them that it will get resolved in the best possible manner,” wrote Dado.

A representative also reached out to him: “They will resolve it quickly daw kaso may investigation process pa daw na kailangan silang gawin to find out what happened.”

A voucher and a mug

After 10 days, on December 2, Dado received a letter from Arabica Manila’s Operations Department signed by their Chief Operating Officer (COO).

“They are not liable for the incident because they had their scheduled cleaning and pest control. Hindi daw sa kanila galing ang ipis sa labas daw galing kasi take out order transaction ang wife and daughter ko,” Dado summarized.

Dado also said that Arabica gave him a voucher worth P1,000 and an Arabica mug as compensation.

“Uulitin ko 1K VOUCHER sa pagkain ng ipis. Do you think na gusto pa namin bumili sa inyo after everything? So I told them that if I was gonna give their management P2,000 and a mug to eat a cockroach would they do it? Sobrang nakaka-insulto ang pagtrato ng mga ganitong malalaking negosyo sa mga NORMAL CUSTOMERS nila,” said Dado.

“Worst experience ever”

Dado ended his long post with two questions for Arabica and its management.

“(1) If this happened to one of their influencers or endorsers or a VIP let us say, will they be handling it this way as well? Or would a 1K VOUCHER and a mug be enough to compensate for it? (2) Do we deserve this kind of customer service and treatment from a brand like theirs?” he asked.

Dado’s post has amassed 20k reactions and 12k shares as of writing. Arabica has yet to address the issue, but have disabled comments on their Instagram.

What do you think about this Arabica ipis incident? Share it with us in the comments!

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