Luckin Employee Complains About Customer Taking Advantage! Orders Not Delivered, Blames Delivery Driver?!

Recently Ms. Yang, a consumer from Hangzhou, told the media that her usual way of ordering had displeased a Luckin Coffee store, whose employees complained openly: "You can't just keep taking advantage of deals at the same store! Luckin has so many locations, can't you switch it up?"

According to interview footage, Ms. Yang identified herself as a top-tier Luckin Coffee member (Black Gold Deer) who typically drinks two cups of Luckin Coffee on weekdays. Black Gold Deer members receive a daily 51% discount coupon that can only be used for in-store pickup and not for delivery through the mini-program, but Ms. Yang did not want to collect her orders in person. Instead, she would place a second order through a food delivery platform at the same store, then note the self-pickup order number so staff could package both orders together for the delivery driver.

Ms. Yang said she had always followed this procedure. When ordering at Luckin Coffee locations in the main urban area last year, no store had indicated the approach was a problem. However, after starting work in Xiaoshan District this April and ordering from the same location several times this way, the staff at that particular store had become displeased.

In the interview footage, Ms. Yang had ordered a Thick Milk Latte on both platforms. The original price through Luckin's mini-program for self-pickup was 29 yuan, reduced to 14.79 yuan after the 51% discount coupon. On the delivery platform, the same product was originally priced at 32 yuan, discounted to 19.2 yuan through platform promotions. Ms. Yang then used a 5 yuan platform coupon she had purchased herself and paid an additional 1 yuan packaging fee, for a final payment of 15.2 yuan. She explained that she had previously ordered on both platforms and then asked staff to package them together for delivery.

Asked during the interview why she did not simply order two coffee drinks directly through the delivery platform, Ms. Yang suggested it might be "the consumer psychology of taking advantage of deals," feeling that after buying one for pickup and another for delivery, the delivery driver could easily bring both together. While she acknowledged this increased the delivery person's workload, she felt the burden fell on the driver rather than the store, and she was willing to accommodate any additional requests from the driver.

Ms. Yang reported, however, that after ordering from the same Xiaoshan District location 2-3 times, the store contacted her claiming that the delivery driver was unwilling to deliver these orders, saying they would speak with the driver this time but that she should not order this way again. When Ms. Yang received her coffees, they were packaged separately. When she contacted the delivery driver, he explained that it was not his refusal to deliver but rather that the store staff would not give him the packaged orders.

Customer Service Response and Store Reaction

Regarding the incident, Ms. Yang contacted Luckin's customer service to file a complaint. Luckin's customer service indicated that the company has no explicit policy prohibiting self-pickup and delivery orders from being packaged together, and it compensated Ms. Yang with a coffee voucher. Ms. Yang consequently suspected that the store had intentionally separated the two coffees to provoke the delivery driver's dissatisfaction.

To investigate further, Ms. Yang once again ordered using the same method and deliberately went to the store to observe. She happened to encounter a staff member contacting customer service and recorded the conversation on video. The employee mentioned that she had been ordering this way for over a week, that the practice increased their delivery pressure, and questioned whether Ms. Yang needed to order this way every day. The employee then asked customer service to cancel the self-pickup order and fulfill only the delivery order.

After ending the conversation with customer service, the employee loudly complained to other staff members in the store: "You can't just keep taking advantage of deals at the same store! Luckin has so many locations, can't you switch it up?"

Customer's Response and Public Reactions

After hearing both conversations, Ms. Yang became extremely angry and confused. She explained that she places the orders and the staff makes the coffee, and that regardless of how many cups she orders, the staff still has to prepare them. Even when she asks for self-pickup and delivery orders to be packaged together, making and packaging coffee falls within the staff's job responsibilities. Ms. Yang could not understand why this request would upset the store's employees, especially since she had not asked the staff to deliver the orders. She expressed a willingness to negotiate further with the delivery driver if he were unwilling to deliver orders placed through different channels but packaged together, and she was prepared to pay additional compensation if needed.

Despite witnessing these events firsthand, customer service ultimately did not cancel the self-pickup order, and Ms. Yang received both coffees. Regarding the attitude of the Luckin employees, however, Ms. Yang told reporters she wanted Luckin Coffee to address the issue publicly and demanded that Luckin make an announcement on delivery platforms stating that pickup and delivery orders cannot be packaged together.

When reporters later interviewed the manager of the store in question, the manager said interview requests should be directed to Luckin's public relations department, or that reporters could leave contact information for someone to reach out. As of the news publication deadline, Luckin had not contacted the media, and the two employees featured in Ms. Yang's video were not at work.

Public Opinions

In response to the incident, netizens shared a range of perspectives:

Image sources: 1818 Golden Eye video, Weibo screenshots

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