Be clear on refunds, websites told
Print Edition
ONLINE retailer blemall.com and home appliance giant Gome have been ordered to rectify problems with their websites, after the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission determined they had failed to properly comply with China’s consumer rights protection law.
Under the legislation, which was enacted in March 2014, online shoppers are entitled to no-questions-asked refunds on most purchases — excluding perishables and selected other products such as made-to-order items — within seven days of purchase.
Blemall.com, which is owned by department store operator Bailian Group, was found guilty, however, of charging consumers a fee — equivalent to 10 percent of the item’s purchase price — for handling such transactions.
At a press conference yesterday, the commission ordered the company to immediately end the practice and to clearly state the no-quibble returns policy — which it ruled it had previously failed to do — on its website. It did not mention whether blemall.com would be required to repay the refund charges it had already levied on its customers.
The commission also ruled that Gome had failed to clearly state the guaranteed refund policy on its website and similarly ordered the company to rectify the problem.
Speaking at the same press conference, Zhou Ji, sales and procurement manager for e-business at Gome’s Shanghai branch, said that one of his superiors feared the impact the new legislation would have on the company’s business.
“My boss was concerned that sales would be affected if we told people that goods could be returned without question,” he said.
The commission also said yesterday that the number of complaints regarding online shopping has been rising steadily in recent years. In the first six months of this year it received 23,241, an 75 percent increase from the same period of 2014.
As well as the various problems with refunds, consumers were upset about misleading promotions and canceled orders, said Tang Jiansheng, the commission’s deputy secretary-general.
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