09/10/24 - Tips are just bribes for waiters, right?
A blogger arranges the timeline of someone complaining about Luckin’ Coffee discriminating against people with diabetes.
The original poster complains, “I ordered a Black Myth Oat Milk Coffee at the Luckin Store in Heshenghui, and I added a note “no sugar”. Despite seeing the note, without attempting to call me at all, the Luckin Coffee employee made me a full sugar coffee. When I went to get the coffee, he told me he made it with sugar and that they couldn’t do sugar free. I told him I specifically added a note. If they couldn’t make it, they should at least call me. And he was like, “I’m just following company regulations. Drink it or don’t.” And I was like, “I have diabetes. I can’t drink sugar. Can I get a refund?” And he was like, “I’m just following company regulations, I can’t give you a refund.” I asked him why he didn’t call me before he made it. What would’ve happened if I just drank it? I tried talking to customer service and they wouldn’t refund me either, only offered me a coupon. What the fuck. Is a couple bucks really worth it?”
OP attaches his conversation with customer service, who explains, “In order to ensure the proper texture of our products, when we create new drinks, we’ll repeatedly adjust the proportion of ingredients in order to bring our customers a better experience. This is very important to us. We’re also always collecting customer feed back in order to provide stimuli for further creation and improvements. When you make an order, you can choose between “no added sugar”, “half sugar” or “full sugar” based on your preferences. Thank you again for your suggestions, please keep following us~”
OP also shows the screenshot of her order she made, where she bought a coffee and selected the “iced” and “less, less sugar” option, and in the notes section, she wrote, “No sugar, five pieces of ice, don’t need no contact delivery, don’t need napkins.”
As well as a photo of the coffee she got:
The blogger also attaches a compilation of comments underneath this post, starting with a post from OP: “People saying I drank half of that coffee before taking a photo, please look closer. I’m just holding the cup at an angle so I can photo the label on it. Hold your drink at a tilt and see if it looks the same as my photo.”
“What you have isn’t diabetes. It’s blindness, or retardation.” [The commenter attaches a screenshot of the Luckin’ Coffee ordering page where the notes section specifically says, “Do not write flavour preferences here.”]
“He doesn’t need eyesight. He thinks buying a cup of coffee makes him God.”
“Sweetie, are you sure you just have diabetes? You sure you haven’t had some severe fever when you were a baby?”
“If you have diabetes, then don’t drink fancy coffee.”
OP response: “So people with diabetes isn’t allowed to have coffee?”
“If they could make a sugar free version, wouldn’t they have included that as an option? Some of this stuff includes ingredients that already has sugar in it. Like coconut lattes contain coconut juice which already has sugar. If you haven’t asked them if this coffee can be made sugar free or told them beforehand that you have diabetes, then all they did was make coffee according to company regulations and get yelled at by you for it. Salaryman’s lives are still human lives.”
OP response: “So my life isn’t a human life?”
“How did they discriminate against people with diabetes?”
OP response: “I told them I had diabetes and they said they can’t make it sugar free or offer me a refund.”
“Aside from diabetes, do you also have constantly drool?”
“This particular coffee doesn’t even have the “no added sugar” option. Do you think they just have an obligation to fulfil any demand you make in the notes?”
“This is probably the last straw to break this tutor’s back. Every month, I get bombarded with texts. Every time our students take a day off, as the teachers, we have to use our own off days to make a make-up appointment with that student. So every time this parent is late by 10 minutes or so, she’ll demand the teacher stay behind when they get off of work to teach her kid a bit more. If you let out a couple minutes early or stay a couple minutes too late, she’ll blow your phone up too.
Even if she sets up the appointment ahead of time, she’ll flake out on you still. This time too, she said she wanted tutoring, but could never decide on a time for me, so I had to get someone else to come in and substitute for my evening class because I didn’t know when she’d come over and I didn’t want her to raise a fuss…
And just as I predicted, she’s acting like this again, blowing up my phone with 24 messages…I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t affecting my mood.”
OP shows example texts from the parent, “After all, if I could decide on my time, I’d tell you first thing, right? Sigh.”
“See, if you had classes tonight, you could’ve just told me that you were busy. But not only did you not say anything to me, you actually got another teacher to come in and teach for you just so you can tutor Xixi. You really should’ve texted me or something. Sigh.”
“And also, if I knew you’d gotten another teacher to come in and substitute for you, I would’ve pushed off any work I had on hand to my other coworkers so I could hurry over with Xixi. Or I would’ve left you a message that we really couldn’t make it so you didn’t have to wait on us.”
“More importantly, you never said anything to me on wechat. If you don’t tell me anything on wechat, I can’t possibly know what’s going on, right? Sigh. I’m not all-knowing, right? Sigh, sigh, sigh.”
“Okay, okay, then let’s see each other 11AM tomorrow. Thank you, teacher. Sorry for all the trouble tonight.”
[I should note that every single one of these texts is followed by at least 30 emoticons. See this example picture.]
Comments say, “That kid must’ve broken a heavenly commandment in the last lifetime to end up with a parent like this.”
“It pisses me off seeing that many emoticons.”
“This person almost certainly has anxiety or some other mental illness.”
A video of how much the internet is making fun of Balenciaga’s water shoes:
Comments say, “This could save your life if you’re surviving in the wild.”
“Is it because their feet are sweaty? They need cooling fluid in there?”
“Taking a closer look, the socks didn’t get wet, so they have a separate layer just for the water? I guess this is shoes meant for the summer?”
“Taylor Swift’s sense of beauty has downgraded too. Her ex-boyfriends were so hot. They were all real catches. But her newest boyfriend looks so pervy and old. He looks like her dad when they’re walking together. And there’s two random pieces of hair next to his nose. It looks so gross.”
Comments say, “Supposedly, this is her 87th boyfriend.”
“You think she’d really screw up after going through that many men? This is a pro football player, and he’s a champion too. Can you imagine how powerful that body is?”
“He’s gotta have something going for him, right?”
Question: “Why is it that consumers in Western countries don’t seem to like Chinese tea?”
Answer: “This happened around the 2000’s. A relative of mine was doing homestay in America and needed surgery done. The surgeon was a German guy, supposedly really famous, a specialist or something. You know how hospitalisations and surgeries in China worked back in the day, so this relatives went with the Chinese standard and packed a 600 RMB red pocket, plus two cans of Chinese tea leaves. Just sorta middling tealeaves, about 2000 RMB a pound.
The relative told me this story once he came back to China, and I figured the doctor didn’t take it. Yilin Magazine said that westerners just do their jobs fairly and justly and never accept bribes, right? Especially not Germans, who’re known for being super stern and square. You heard of the grease traps in German sewers? They’ve been in use for over a century. That’s how strict the standards Germans place on themselves. There’s no way he took the red pocket, right?
And the relative was like, “Nah, it was all the same. Found an opportunity to meet with him in person and gave him the stuff, and the old guy immediately broke out in a grin. Not only did he take the red pocket, he even treasured the tea leaves and very carefully put them away. He said he was going to show it off to all his friends.””
Comments say, “Tips are just bribes for waiters, right? If you don’t give it, they’ll spit in your food.”
“If they don’t like Chinese tea, then what did the Qing Dynasty die for?”
“Although China is the biggest producer of tea, most of it is used to supply domestic demand, so we don’t export nearly as much tea as Sri Lanka and India.”
“If you can’t see, you’re blind. If you can’t hear, you’re deaf. If you can’t speak, you’re mute. What do you call it if you can’t smell?”
Comments say, “Beta.”
“You’re jammed. If you can’t smell, you’re jammed.”
And someone actually provides the ancient text that gives the Chinese word for people who can’t smell—痈 (yong).
“The kid who died while cycling reminds me of an accident that happened in the Beijing Badaling Zoo back in the day.
The story is basically that a family went to the zoo because this zoo’s signature was that the animals roamed free. Before you go in, you have to sign a waiver that you can’t get out of your car at any point. But the wife got out of the car to swap with her husband and ended up chased by a tiger. Her mom fought the tiger off to protect her, and in the end, the wife was severely injured and her mom died.
The wife sued the zoo for over a million in damages. Out of humanitarian concerns, the zoo was willing to pay her a couple hundred thousands, but she wouldn’t agree to it and took the case to court, who ruled that the zoo didn’t have to give her a dime.
Although these two cases are different, it’s still fundamentally both about causing a tragedy in your family because of your own mistakes. And in both cases, whether it’s just because they’re that type of people or out of self-protection, they refuse to face reality and refuse to admit that they caused the tragedy.
One lost her mother, one lost his son. Emotionally speaking, it sure is a tragedy, but this tragedy only happened because they ignored the rules and insisted on doing things their way, and never realised what their problem was.”
Comments say, “I remember the tiger got killed too, even though it did nothing wrong.”
“Yeah, it’s just making other people pay for your mistakes. The cycling dad wouldn’t have lost his son if he didn’t take his underage minor biking. That road had just held a cycling festival in May, with tons of bikes and motorcycles and even cars driving on the same road. If this was really an uncompleted road, isn’t that deliberately breaking the law? If they held a cycling festival there, does that mean the road was open for travel after all? Then the driver shouldn’t have had criminal charges pressed against him.”
“The dad is the person responsible here.”
A compilation of why young people used to be lively:
“My dad doesn’t believe that I actually work from morning to night. He was all like, “Doesn’t going to work just mean doing 2-3 hours of work and then sitting around?” He works in a nationally-funded company.”
“Back in the day, you could drink tea and knit in the office, and just leave if something come up at home, and someone will finish your work for you. And next time someone has something come up, you just help them back. Now it’s all involuted to hell and back.”
“It’s true. We’re a third line national company, started in 1985, and it’s really people’s home. We built it from nothing with our own hands, built our own dormitories, and it has its own kindergarten and primary school and hospital. Adults work in the factory and kids study in the factory.”
“Back in the day, people had light in their eyes. They don’t have a lot of money but they’re happy, and they’re not stressed.”
“In the 80’s, you really made money if you went to work in the south. Now, you could work yourself to death and not have any savings.”
“When my dad was young, the factory he worked at made its own popsicles to pass out to all the workers. It had a whole line of daycare, primary school, middle school, technical school, and go work in the factory. There’s a cafeteria, hospital, and bath house too. Everyone lived in the dorms, and all your neighbours were your coworkers. Even the doctors in the hospital and teachers in the schools were technically your coworkers. Although they didn’t have as many conveniences as we do, the environment was still the same, and factory workers made good money. Imagine how carefree that would be. Of course they’re lively.”
“It’s the same group of people who are lively. In the 80’s, when they were young, they’re lively. And now that they’re retired, they have tons of social security, so they’re still lively.”
“My mom used to just sit in her office and knit all day, or gather her coworkers in the boss’s office and just chat the day away. We used to live directly across the street from her work, so my parents don’t understand why I don’t want to do anything once I’d done squeezing on the subway to get home after work in Shenzhen.”
“And those people are retired now and getting 6k+ a month in social security. Don’t ask me how I know, my parents are one of them.”
“When I first started working, my mom refused to believe that companies made you work until 10PM at night. She insisted I was lying and going out on the town secretly.”
“8-hour work days, guaranteed job upon graduation, free house with work. If you give all of that to me, I can be lively too.”
“Back in the day, workers worked hard to built their nation. Now, we’re working to buy our bosses another Hummer. How could it be the same?”
“Everything else is just okay, I’m just jealous of people who can actually be unreachable once work hours are over.”
“Periods are called “regular holidays” [例假] because you actually got days off for them. T_T”
“My mom retired from a national company, and she’s constantly going on about how grateful she is towards her company and her boss. I don’t get it at all.”
“The main point is that you get a free house, and all work came with free room and board. All your monthly pay is just spending money. If one person got a factory job, they could provide for a whole family.”
“Because they don’t have daily meetings and weekly meetings and monthly meetings and seasonal meetings and semi-annual summaries and annual summaries.”
“How did this mother figure out her daughter was sick? She came into the hospital and told the doctor, “Doctor, my daughter has gotten ugly. She used to be the prettiest girl in her school, and now she’s not pretty anymore.”
The girl was actually quite pretty. But after we ran some tests, she really did have some problems.
(PS: If you feel like you’re getting uglier, you might actually be sick. Like if you’re getting too much thyroid hormones, your eyes might bug out. If you’re getting too much growth hormones, your face will get wider and your nose will get fatter. Too much aldosterone can cause a full face and a thick back. Kidney problems made your skin dark, and liver problems make your skin super yellow. But not all ugliness is caused by sickness. Just covering my ass here. Maybe I’ve just worked too much lately.)”
Comments say, “My daughter was like, “Or maybe she’s just had too much school.””
“So what department should I go to if I feel like I’m turning ugly? Endocrinology?”
“That’s nice. At least she cares about her daughter. She noticed these subtle differences right away.”
My dad, a professor in America, would get small gifts from his students, at least the Asian ones, and he definitely appreciated them. No red pockets -- that would be a step too far -- but we did get tins of pretty good tea.
Coolest gift was from a Nepalese who did his dissertation on something involving agriculture, and as a graduation gift, gave him a model of a yak, made with real yak fur.