7-Eleven MY apologises for chicken sandwich gaffe labelled 'scamwich' by netizens

7-Eleven Malaysia has apologised for the improper amount of chicken slices in its sandwich, following a viral TikTok video. According to the TikTok video seen by A+M, the customer had purchased a sandwich with the label "double chicken". However, the actual sandwich featured half-folded ham slices covered with a small serving of sauce. There was also barely any lettuce either. The video had 185.6k likes and 1,706 comments at the time of writing.

Its spokesperson explained to A+M that there was an oversight by its commissary partner and that the issue has been resolved immediately. Moving forward, it will put in place stricter and more robust SOPs in terms of quality checks before the products are delivered. "Our customers' satisfaction is our priority hence we take full responsibility for the incident that happened and continue to strive to serve our customers better," the spokesperson added. 7-Eleven also apologised to the TikTok user on her video.

Netizens on TikTok were unimpressed. One TikTok user called it a "scam" while another said this was "false advertisement". Another also called it the "scamwich". 7-Eleven is an established brand that has also amassed some form of trust and loyalty among consumers. It currently has more than 2,400 stores in Malaysia. However, this trust and loyalty can be impacted if negative reviews are not handled quickly. Also, brands are often held accountable on social media these days and with the proliferation of digital media, such complaints often get amplified faster.

Edelman's Trust Barometer Report in 2020 found that trust is the second most important factor in the decision to buy a new brand (53%) or become a loyal customer (49%).

At the same time, online reviews are also crucial when it comes to making purchases. A study by Lazada and Milieu Insight done earlier this year in Southeast Asia found that 50% of the 6,000 online shoppers surveyed leave reviews on the product post-purchase. Also, slightly more than a third (32%) said that reviews are one of the top three reasons why they prefer to buy online.

7-Eleven Malaysia is not the only brand to have been called out for such an issue. in February, NTUC FairPrice caused a stir online for repeatedly mislabelling products. A video back then showed a shopper measuring the weight of a slab of salmon sold at a FairPrice Xtra outlet at Ang Mo Kio Hub. Although it was labelled as 0.296kg, the salmon's weight only came up to 0.176kg. Netizens called out the brand for its repeated mishaps in labelling, with some calling for consumers to boycott FairPrice. The spokesperson explained that the mislabelling incident was likely caused by human error and also apologised for the public concern this might have caused.

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