[Yibang Original] "It is impossible to compensate, and you have the ability to sue me." ”
When Huang Minxia, a girl from Jiangsu, bought a pomegranate tree with the wrong version on the e-commerce platform and "negotiated" with the merchant, she was left behind with such a sentence.
Before that, she had sent more than 20 messages to merchants on the e-commerce platform, all of which showed "no recall". In desperation, she tried a variety of docking methods such as the 12345 hotline, the complaint platform where the merchant is located, and the local forestry bureau to contact the merchant.
Although the other party admitted that she had placed an order in the store, she said, "I can't prove that the fake tree was bought in his online store; Secondly, he suspected that Huang Minxia was planting in the wrong way, so the saplings did not bloom. In addition, the merchant also does not accept the negotiation plan of fake one compensation three.
In the end, the merchant put down the opening sentence, hung up the phone, and blocked Huang Minxia.
Before the advent of the refund-only service, consumers could only choose to suffer a hidden loss or negotiate a return and refund in the face of problems such as wrong versions and fakes. But even if it is a return and refund, it is not an easy task, and it even needs to go through layers of prevarication and ridicule, and the final outcome may be "empty of money and goods".
In Huang Minxia's view, with the continuous expansion of the seller group of e-commerce, some merchants with worrying service capabilities have also been mixed in, which ultimately affects the user experience: "Now some merchants are really making money with a bad conscience. ”
In fact, consumer rights enforcement cases are the most often overlooked. Why are these consumers embarking on the path of activism? Is there a way to make the user experience better?
01
"Consumers who can't return a product for a refund"
"If you refuse to pay compensation, you will appeal directly." Li Xue, the helpless Guangxi Bao Ma, could only leave a message to the merchant after several fruitless negotiations with the merchant after buying a fake.
The reason is that she bought a baby bottle online on a certain platform, and after receiving the goods, she found that it was not genuine. "I deliberately scanned the barcode of the product, and the font size of the official website page that popped up was inconsistent, and it was fake at first glance. Later, I went to the brand's official website to check and found that this store was in the list of fake stores announced. Li Xue recalled.
So, she tried to communicate with the merchant for compensation, and even applied for the platform's customer service to intervene twice, but the reply she got was: the platform can only try to assist in refunds and returns, and relies more on customers to communicate with merchants. The question was thrown back to Li Xue.
Li Xue is the "old man" of the e-commerce industry. She has worked as a foreign trade salesman, an e-commerce buyer, and has also been engaged in the development and operation of cross-border e-commerce, but she also feels powerless when defending her rights.
In the end, after trying the 12315 consumer rights protection hotline and leaving a message to the seller "If you refuse to compensate, you will appeal directly", the merchant loosened its tone.
However, when negotiating compensation, the other party still tries to reduce the compensation amount by saying that "the official website verifies that the difference is due to the different versions of the bottle". At this time, more than half a month has passed since Li Xue placed an order online.
"I don't seem to have done anything else in half a month", Li Xue only remembers that for more than half a month, she has been circling between merchants, platform customer service and 12315, anxiously negotiating, collecting and uploading evidence.
Similar to Li Xue, the problem encountered by another mother, "Awen Liya" (blogger's account name), was that the brand DHA milk powder purchased online was thunderous due to quality problems, but she could not return it for a refund. "Although it is only a few hundred yuan, what makes me uncomfortable is that my rights and interests have been violated, and I have no way to complain."
According to her, there were many obstacles when applying for returns. For example, at the beginning of applying for a return, the merchant's customer service never took the initiative to contact him. After contacting the merchant, the other party has been emphasizing that "this series of milk powder is suitable for infants and young children".
However, "because it is a child's food, I still have to be cautious, so I have been insisting on returning it." The blogger said that in fact, the goods meet the principle of unconditional return within seven days, but the merchant relies on the identity of overseas brands, and it is difficult for domestic platforms to supervise. Even when the platform's customer service and 12315 both intervened, the merchant insisted on refusing to return the goods.
In addition to maternal and infant products, there are also bulk electrical products that are prone to disputes due to quality problems in online shopping. After the blogger "Niu Hulu Zheng Fu" found that the double-door refrigerator purchased for more than 2,500 yuan was damaged, he contacted the merchant as soon as possible and was told that he needed to contact the brand for after-sales identification.
Therefore, the day after receiving the refrigerator, the brand after-sales commissioner came to inspect it, determined that the refrigerator was a quality problem, supported replacement, and issued a relevant certificate seven days later.
But contrary to the above ideas: "I communicated with the merchant as soon as possible, and also sent a quality appraisal report to ask for a replacement, but the merchant refused, saying that he would return the goods if he was not satisfied." ”
She said: "Because the refrigerator at home really can't be used, and the big promotion is really discounted, I don't want to return it." What she couldn't figure out was: "Why is the merchant reluctant to exchange the goods even though it is within the seven-day no reason exchange period?" ”
In the subsequent negotiations, the merchant's attitude changed several times, vacillating between refusal and agreement to exchange. In the end, the merchant completely rejected the exchange plan. Even if the platform's customer service intervened, it still failed.
Although he took every step right in accordance with the rules of the platform, "Niu Hulu Zheng Fu" still could not protect his legitimate rights.
Unlike her, there are many consumers who encounter the problem of buying fake goods, but the merchants refuse to admit it. This is the case with the merchants Li Xue encountered.
A consumer said: "The seller bit back and said that it was a genuine product sent to me, and I returned it to him as a fake, and I asked him to provide the genuine authorization letter and the relevant import declaration form and my delivery and packing video, and then he ignored me." ”
What's more, even if the goods purchased by consumers have been identified as fake, they are still unable to protect their legitimate rights and interests.
"When you buy counterfeit brand clothes, the platform also identifies them as counterfeit, but there is no follow-up, refunds are not supported, and the return must ensure that it does not affect the seller's secondary sales, and you have to bear the return shipping costs." Some consumers say so.
In fact, the experience of these consumers is not only a difficult portrayal of the road to personal rights protection, but also a microcosm of the consumer rights protection problems that prevail in the current online shopping environment.
02
"The Neglected Silver-Haired Population"
Even though Li Xue has been in the e-commerce industry for nearly ten years and has rich industry experience, in the face of strong merchants, the road to protecting rights as a consumer is also full of twists and turns.
Not to mention, the middle-aged and elderly people who lack sufficient awareness of rights protection have no way to protect their rights after being deceived by the "three nos".
"But don't shop online!" Blogger "Ma Lilian Monroe" posted a video on social platforms, saying that her mother encountered the problem of "wrong version" when shopping online, and spent a huge amount of money to buy the "energy saving" power-saving artifact, which is actually just a simple circuit board.
After "Ma Lilian Monroe" said to her mother, "Aren't you fooled", her mother said: "What are you doing, people are high-tech, and you don't understand anything." ”
In the chat record between her mother and the merchant, she saw that the message from the customer service read, "Saving power in 15-20 days to achieve the highest power saving effect", and her mother was convinced of this, saying that "200 yuan can save 100 yuan." ”
The above-mentioned blogger understood the "intention" of the merchant at a glance: after 15 days, this power-saving artifact will be automatically signed, "even if you want to return it, you can't return it." ”
was fooled by unscrupulous merchants into buying the wrong version of the "three nos", as well as the 50-year-old father of the blogger "Su Dongpi". Because I was addicted to watching the live broadcast room with goods, I bought a bunch of "garbage" and went home.
"What kind of garbage is it, I won't look at it when I sell it on the stall, the unscrupulous merchants are really enough, a bunch of jewelry is plastic, and the smell is blowing on the face, are you sure that it will not be poisoned?" Su Dongpi posted angrily.
"I can't persuade it, four or five express deliveries a day, and all I buy are rags. When you talk about her, she says you don't understand, and all kinds of rebuttals. Many people poured bitter water in its comment section.
"It's been a crash for the past two days! My mom bought so many of these things! There are also a bunch of messy daily necessities, I don't know how to persuade them, and if I persuade them, they will quarrel! Lose your marbles. ”
There are countless cases like this. On social media, as long as you search for keywords such as "parents shopping online", "parents who do not listen to persuasion" and "being deceived by online shopping", there are many similar incidents.
Blogger "Afra" said that his mother spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy a few printed calligraphy and paintings, and just happened to meet him returning to his hometown, and sighed, "Fortunately, the express delivery I received today was all returned." ”
In the end, the above-mentioned blogger did not forget to exhort other users to "hurry up and see if their parents' mobile phones are any more random purchases, the money of the elderly is too easy to fool". Some people commented that their parents bought bracelets, "hundreds of thousands of them have been bought, and they have already bought 100,000 yuan."
As "Su Dongpi" appealed on social media: "I advise everyone to pay attention to the parents around you who can shop online, don't buy these things, be angry!" ”
When every blogger finds out that his parents have been deceived in online shopping, in addition to anger and other emotions, he also hopes that through exposure on major social media, more people will notice that maybe their parents are experiencing online shopping fraud.
After all, many times, their parents don't even realize that they are being "fooled" and "deceived", let alone defending their rights.
Some bloggers directly scolded the liars of a certain platform for being too hateful, looking at the Hetian jade jewelry that their parents bought in a live broadcast room, with an average price of 3,800 yuan, "I was trembling with anger, and my heart was dripping blood." ”
"Report, call the police, put pressure on the platform, and find a lawyer to see how you can sue." Some netizens made a move in their comment area and revealed helplessness: "That's all." And the blogger replied: "The police said it was not a scam. ”
For such a thing, the best outcome is a "return refund". But often by the time the child finds out, the time for platform service guarantee has already passed. In the end, the vast majority of people can only suffer by themselves, and in addition to being angry, they try to "do the ideological work of being parents" so that they do not fall for it again.
These real-life cases not only reveal the pitfalls and dilemmas faced by middle-aged and elderly people in online shopping, but also deeply reflect the weak links in the field of consumer rights protection, especially the lack of special protection and education for this group.
03
"Delivering the real message at a cost"
The consumer rights mentioned above are not unique. According to data released by the China Consumers Association on August 2, in the first half of this year, the National Consumers Association accepted more than 780,000 consumer complaints, a year-on-year increase of 27.21%. Infringement of consumption has also become more common.
Specifically, after-sales service and commodity quality problems ranked first and third respectively, accounting for 29.00% and 21.07% respectively. On professional complaint websites and social platforms, there are tens of thousands of consumers who "want to defend their rights".
"I bought a fake", "the quality of the product is not up to standard", "the goods are not the right version"...... These have been a pain point for consumers since the birth of online shopping.
In the buying and selling of goods, merchants and consumers are actually engaged in a game. Merchants and consumers seem to be equal, but the information on both sides is asymmetrical, and merchants often have more information about products. Therefore, consumers will always be in a relatively "weak" position when it comes to transactions.
"If the relevant information is asymmetrical at the time of the transaction, such as the buyer does not know the quality information of the product but the seller does, at this time, people may find that the selected product or transaction partner may not be what they want."
As economist Zhang Weiying said, due to the fear of being deceived, good things may not be sold at a good price, and adverse selection will occur. "The existence of adverse selection makes many potentially beneficial transactions impossible to realize, and in severe cases, it can lead to market collapse." Similar to "bad money drives out good money".
Because of this, in order to solve consumers' "worries" and allow the transaction of the entire platform to proceed smoothly, after-sales service rules such as "seven-day no reason to return", "free shipping on returns", and "refund only" have been introduced one after another.
Compared with the previous after-sales model, the biggest difference between refunds and refunds is actually to give consumers and merchants a direct means of playing.
The purpose of only refunds is to allow consumers to vote with their feet, and when they encounter problems such as "fakes" and "poor product quality", they no longer have to entangle with inferior merchants and protect their reasonable rights and interests.
In this way, only refunds are actually helping the entire industry to eliminate inferior merchants, safeguard the interests of high-quality merchants, and improve the efficiency of supply and demand.
In addition, the logistics and labor costs caused by the return and exchange of some goods will actually exceed the value of the returned goods themselves. Or, the returned goods themselves no longer have the value of recirculation, and for some merchants, there is no need to pay additional costs. From this point of view, refunds alone are also helping some merchants reduce costs.
"If the goods received are the same as the pictures of the merchants, I believe that no one will return them for a refund." Some consumers said, "Where there is evidence to prove that the goods are defective, only refunds are supported." ”
It is undeniable that with the help of the new "refund only" policy, there are indeed "wool parties" who take the opportunity to collect wool from merchants. Improving the corresponding governance and supervision mechanisms will also be a challenge for major e-commerce platforms.
Now, the "refund-only" service has become the standard configuration of domestic e-commerce platforms. In fact, as early as October 2017, Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce platform, officially wrote the "Returnless Refund Service" (Returnless Refund) into its after-sales policy.
Compared with the "7-day no reason to return" of domestic e-commerce platforms, the return time of most Amazon products is even as long as 30 days.
"People don't know much about one of our most exciting features. As we all know, we are committed to providing a world-class user experience at the lowest price. Its founder, Jeff · Bezos, said.
According to Zhang Weiying, in a competitive market, sellers also have a strong incentive to tell buyers the truth, just as good people want others to know that they are good people. For example, merchants take the initiative to provide consulting services for consumers, so that consumers can understand the performance of products through trial and other ways.
The reason for this is that eliminating information asymmetry can help close the deal and achieve a win-win situation.
However, in addition, in order to close a transaction, merchants can also provide information indirectly ("signaling"). That is, businesses with information advantages deliver their true information to consumers at an information disadvantage in a costly way.
Even brands that have accumulated decades or even centuries of reputation may need overwhelming marketing to convey product and brand information.
To a certain extent, small and medium-sized businesses provide services such as "free shipping on returns" and "refunds only", in fact, they indirectly show the quality of products in a simpler "marketing way" and win more transaction opportunities.
From "seven-day no reason to return" to "refund only", the evolution of these after-sales services is not only a simple adjustment of the rules of the e-commerce platform, but also reflects the dynamic changes in the relationship between merchants and consumers in the consumer market, as well as the profound impact of information asymmetry on transaction efficiency and fairness.
In the face of the growing demand for consumer rights protection, e-commerce platforms and merchants are gradually exploring more effective information symmetry mechanisms, in order to promote the healthy development of the market while safeguarding consumer rights and interests.
(Huang Minxia, Li Xue, etc. are pseudonyms in the article)
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