As dust subsides, PichaEats co-founder recalls horror over fake 500-pax order
KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 — PichaEats was shocked when the social enterprise realised that a bumper 500-person catering order for a purported event at Universiti Malaya (UM) was fake, said co-founder Suzanne Ling.
Speaking to Malay Mail, Ling said the team had to scramble immediately on Thursday night upon getting confirmation that there was no such event as claimed in the now-debunked catering order that bore letterheads mimicking those of UM and the Higher Education Ministry.
“We were definitely shocked.
“Our first focus was to ensure that we’re able to pay all the Picha Chefs, as they’ve already purchased the ingredients and started preparing the food (cutting, marinating etc).
“We listed out what food must be sold immediately, what ingredients can be kept, and communicated the cancellation with all 15 Picha Chefs involved for this big order,” she said.
According to a police report PichaEats lodged, the purported 500-pax meal catering request was made via text messaging on Wednesday evening for an unnamed event slated to be held at UM on Friday.
The short turnaround time meant the discovery that the order was fake only came after the company was already fully committed to catering the “event”.
Faced with the task of rescuing the order, Ling said the priority was always to assure the Picha refugee chefs that the food would not go to waste and they would still be fairly compensated.
Subsequent to the sham order, PichaEats said a total of 15 Picha Chefs — mostly refugees form the Middle East — were badly affected as ingredients for 500 people have been purchased prior for the preparation of meals. — Picture via Instagram/ PichaEats
By Friday’s dawn, Ling said PichaEats’ sales and marketing team had started putting together a plan to ensure the chefs get paid for their efforts from a “flash sale” which subsequently went live at 9am.
The “flash sale” was both announced on PichaEats’ Facebook and Instagram page.
“We got an overwhelming response. We received 800 messages in two hours and managed to sell everything off at a reduced price.
“Throughout the day, we worked closely with 15 chefs to clear off 500 pax worth of food,” Ling said, adding that coordination was chaotic as the team had never experienced receiving 800 messages in a day before.
By 8.38pm, Ling said the final order was delivered.
Of the 500 portions, she also revealed that 120 were donated to a People’s Housing Project (PPR), with the cost entirely funded by donations.
When asked about whether it had been an oversight to not take a deposit prior to accepting the order, Ling said it was common for caterers to not require one for corporate or government events.
PichaEats is a social enterprise and catering company. ― Picture via Instagram/PichaEats
She said caterers would usually obtain a purchase order from the organiser that would typically include credit terms of between 30 and 90 days.
Ling conceded that PichaEats fell for the hoax order, but said the firm had taken it at face value as it had not previously faced any issues throughout their dealings with other corporate entities.
Going forward, Ling said PichaEats would strive to perform due diligence before accepting any unpaid orders, such as requesting for proof of event, official identifications from organisers and roping in other colleagues in the verification process.
“This was a hard lesson for us, and we feel so blessed to be surrounded by so much support,” she said.
In a statement issued after the incident, UM said it was considering legal action over the misuse of its trademark to place a fictitious 500-person catering order with social enterprise PichaEats.
The university said it is considering measures including lodging a police report and taking legal action.
Expressing sympathy for those affected by the incident, UM advised them to also lodge reports with the police.
