A Lalamove van. A video clip on social media on November 21 shows that a Lalamove driver in Shanghai accusing employees from Porsche's partner team of withholding a 600-yuan ($82.92) payment and lodging a complaint that led to his account suspension, went viral among netizens. Porsche apologized for this payment dispute involving Lalamove driver later that evening. Photo: CFP

A video clip on social media on Thursday, showing a Lalamove driver in Shanghai accusing employees from Porsche's partner project team of withholding a 600-yuan ($82.92) payment and lodging a complaint that led to his account suspension at Lalamove.com, went viral among netizens.

Later that evening, Porsche issued a statement apologizing for the incident and the company's mishandling of the case.

The dispute involved Porsche's partner project team from Avantgarde Shanghai and a driver from Lalamove, a Hongkong-based on-demand delivery service provider. 

Porsche said in the announcement that the company promptly investigated the case and confirmed that the person involved in the dispute with the Lalamove driver is a full-time employee of its partner company.

Porsche made the announcement on social media platform Sina Weibo, which included Avantgarde Shanghai's statement regarding the case.

Avantgarde Shanghai confirmed the dispute between its employee and the worker from Lalamove had been resolved with the intervention of relevant authorities, and both parties reached a settlement on the same day, Porsche said on Saturday.

Porsche reaffirmed its respect for frontline workers and their contributions, stating that it maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward any form of disrespect. The incident was addressed with further clarification from Avantgarde Shanghai, its partner company.

Avantgarde Shanghai said that the disputed 600-yuan fee was an additional charge requested by the driver for transporting goods from the third floor to the ground floor. It also clarified that the alleged complaint to the platform was simply a request for Lalamove to mediate the dispute on the payment.

Following police mediation, the Avantgarde Shanghai employee and the Lalamove driver reached a settlement, agreeing to delete all videos and photos related to the incident and refraining from actions or statements that could harm each other's reputation, according to Avantgarde Shanghai.

As part of its response to the incident, Porsche stated that it will enhance conduct standards for partner employees in future collaborations and strengthen management oversight.

In addition, Lalamove clarified that it neither suspended the driver's account nor deducted behavior points. The driver's account remained fully functional throughout, with no occurrence of account suspension, Lalamove told the Global Times on Sunday. Lalamove confirmed that it had received a complaint from the customer regarding the disputed order fee.

They made this response in reference to a dispute video where the driver alleged that their account was suspended after they filed a complaint with the Lalamove platform.

Global Times