Influencer Jade Tuncdoruk apologises for racially insensitive post after honeymoon refund saga

Aussie influencer Jade Tuncdoruk has had a shocker of a week.

First, she copped flak after she “demanded” a small business give her a refund on a deposit for her honeymoon stay.

Now, in the resurfaced post from 2017, Jade complained to Uber Eats about their “annoying non-English speaking delivery drivers”.

“I order off you guys all the time and I’m starting to find it really annoying that you have so many non English speaking delivery people who can’t follow basic delivery instructions,” Jade wrote. “I got a notification today saying my food was arriving and it took the person a further 20 mins to get to my door because he didn’t read my delivery instructions properly and when I called him to explain he didn’t understand a word I was saying.”

“Your GPS is consistently sending drivers to the wrong address which I’ve explained in my instructions which most people read and have no problem with but when foreigners are delivering it takes twice as long for me to receive my then cold food. Sort it out,” she wrote.

The under-fire influencer was forced to apologise on Friday for her “hurtful comments”.

“I’m sorry to anyone I’ve hurt with my comments. I hold myself accountable for my actions,” she wrote. “It doesn’t excuse anything but know that I have grown immensely in the past several years. I always do my best to be someone others can look up to and I know I’ve let people down and for that I’m truly sorry.”

It comes after Jade, who boasts almost half a million Instagram followers, took to Instagram this week to explain she put down a $2000 deposit for a holiday with her fiance Lachie Brycki, but the couple couldn’t attend.

In the now deleted post, Jade told her followers the couple requested a refund from Weekenda, “but they said the best they could do was put it back up online to be booked by someone else”.

“Six weeks out of the booking and we’ve asked again for a refund which they’ve denied,” Jade’s post read.

“They’ve had months to refund us for a booking we don’t need.”

The influencer went on to say “they’re taking our money just because they can”.

She described it as “incredibly poor form and so disappointing”, adding that businesses were “taking advantage of people in the middle of a pandemic”.

After she included a link to the small business’s Instagram page, some of her followers lashed out at the company, with Jade then sharing another post announcing that Weekenda had agreed to refund her deposit.

Now, Weekenda has addressed the social media storm with a post of its own.

The company’s owners said they “have really struggled through 2021 and not paid ourselves at all between July 1 and December 1”.

They explained the business had “weathered the Covid lockdowns” and “are determined to come out of this stronger than ever”.

They will be gifting the “Weekenda” Jade would have booked at Meerea Park Estate to one of their followers.

“If it’s good enough for Jade, think how awesome this prize will be for you and 7 besties,” the business posted to Instagram.

“In all seriousness, we take our guests enjoyment – whether they’re an influencer or not – really seriously.

“All guests are provided with fair Terms and Conditions prior to confirming bookings and it’s a shame in this instance Jade felt it was more important to try to bypass the rules all of our other guests (and she) had agreed to, by using her social influence to put pressure on us.

“We believe in the power of influencers, but using a following for personal gain at the loss and detriment to another small business, just isn’t cool.”

“They’ve agreed to refund us for our stay! Thank you guys for your help,” Jade said alongside a love heart emoji.

However, the 26-year-old’s actions have since been slammed after her post was re-shared by Instagram influencer watchdog account Celeb Spellcheck, which criticised her for ignoring the terms and conditions of her booking.

“Congratulations on not reading the terms and conditions,” one comment read.

“We’re almost two years into the pandemic, 99 per cent of us have had travel plans f***ed by Covid. It sounds like it was her call to cancel, not due to lockdowns or government restrictions out of her control.

“If a small business was willing to list the accommodation and refund me if it got booked, I’d say THANK YOU!”