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Woman handed £50,000 restaurant bill after social media mishap

11 December 2023 By Louis Thomas

A Chinese woman ended up with a CN¥430,000 (£50,000) bill from a hot pot restaurant after posting a photo of her meal onto social media platform WeChat.

According to The South China Morning Post, the woman, surnamed Wang, accidentally posted a photo featuring the QR code that the restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan province asked customers to scan to place their orders.

Pranksters following Wang on WeChat took advantage of the unfortunate mistake and proceeded to order vast quantities of dishes to Wang’s table, including: 2,580 portions of squid, 9,900 portions of shrimp paste (priced at CN¥32/£3.50 each), and 1,850 portions of fresh duck blood. 57 portions of tripe, 225 of beef, and 20 bottles of Honghua Lang Baijiu (priced at CN¥658/£74 each)

Though it is not clear how many portions of duck blood it took for Wang to realise her mistake, when she did she took the post down, however the orders continued to come in. Also noting that something was fishy, other than the shrimp paste, the restaurant moved Wang to a different table and ignored the incoming orders to her old one.

Sparing Wang the colossal bill, the restaurant has also reportedly changed its ordering system as a result of the incident which took place late last month.

Those who went to a UK university in recent years will note the incident’s similarity to a game some students play with the Wetherspoons ordering app, asking their social media followers to buy them food and drink – what tended to happen was vast quantities of peas and milk would end up arriving, much to the annoyance of pub employees. However, just the other week one elderly couple and their grandson did receive drinks from playing this game, though quite a few more than they bargained for.