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"I sent out a sufficient amount of smoked bacon, but when I returned it, I found bacon skin and stones." On July 23, Mr. Zeng, who runs an online food store in Changsha, was angry and helpless after receiving another return order for mismatched goods. "Not only did I lose money, but the higher the return rate, the lower my store's ranking will be, and my weight will also be affected and become lower."

After the "618" e-commerce promotion ended this year, "return rate" often appeared in a prominent position on Weibo's hot search list. Some merchants engaged in women's clothing live broadcasts admitted that the brand return rate has reached 80%. "Freight insurance" and "7-day no-reason return" were originally mechanisms for e-commerce sellers to promote transactions and improve consumer experience. Now, they have become a weapon for a few consumers to obtain improper benefits and to "fleece merchants" in online shopping.

【status quo】

Received a large number of "weird" orders, 12-year-old online store had no choice but to close

Ms. Mai has run an online store on Taobao for 12 years, with a store rating of two crowns. "I have to close the store. I can't stand it anymore." She said helplessly when she was interviewed by a reporter from Sanxiang Metropolis Daily on July 24.

In early July, Ms. Mai’s online store received a large number of “weird” orders: 5 bottles of large-capacity sunscreen were ordered at a time; several handmade customized pearl necklaces were ordered, with the same recipient name but different addresses. The delivery addresses were all at Cainiao Station, and the contact numbers were all virtual numbers... Ms. Mai realized that there might be something wrong with the order and tried to contact the buyer and left a message on the platform, but received no reply for several days.

"At first, there were small deductions of 19 yuan and 32 yuan. Later, I received nine consecutive deduction notices of 100 yuan. After checking, I found out that they were deposits deducted for overdue delivery and out-of-stock penalties. The platform has compensated the buyers."

"Maybe the customer wants to give a gift." With this guess in mind, Ms. Mai still shipped the goods according to the order information.

A dramatic scene took place in the early morning three days later. All the above-mentioned necklace orders applied for refunds on the grounds of "wrong order/overordered/no longer wanted", and the platform approved the refund application.

"I checked the logistics and the goods have been delivered to the delivery address, but there is still no reply to the message and I can't contact the person. I had to contact the logistics to recover the package to reduce the loss, but the deposit for overdue delivery was still deducted." Ms. Mai said angrily that according to common sense, consumers can return the goods if they are not satisfied with them. "Returning and refunding is the normal process. If there is a quality problem with the goods, we merchants will also bear the shipping cost for customers to return the goods and refund."

Since the sunscreen sold was in large bottles, one bottle was enough for a whole summer, and she had been trying to contact the seller without success, Ms. Mai believed that she had reason to suspect that the seller had placed the order maliciously, so she did not ship the product decisively. The seller was not able to ship the product within 48 hours of the promised delivery time, and was fined for "delayed delivery" and paid 5% of the actual transaction amount to the buyer. If the product was not shipped within 72 hours after the delay, it would be fined for "out of stock" and required to pay 30% of the actual transaction amount (up to a maximum of RMB 100).

Ms. Mai calculated that more than a dozen orders for necklaces and sunscreen were penalized with different amounts of money taken from the deposit due to "delayed delivery" or "out of stock", with a total loss of more than 1,000 yuan.

What made Ms. Mai even more frustrated was that she wanted to reject the buyer's request for a refund without return through an appeal, but the platform stipulated that sellers need to submit a letter of certification with the official seal of the courier company to appeal the order, and the latest deadline for submission is 24 hours. Ms. Mai asked Cainiao Station and received the reply that it was impossible to issue a similar certificate with an official seal. "There is no way to appeal, and the certificate cannot be issued. Apart from being forced to refund, I have no other choice." After calculating the business situation of the online store and calmly considering it, Ms. Mai finally decided to close the store.

The returned shoes are badly worn and cannot be resold

During the interview, many sellers expressed that they were deeply affected by rules such as "freight insurance" and "no-reason return".

A store owner who sells women's shoes posted on a social platform that the soles of the shoes returned by buyers under the "7-day no-reason return policy" were severely worn and could not be resold. The seller appealed and rejected the return, so the buyer asked the platform customer service to intervene. The customer service gave the buyer advice to find out if there were any flaws or problems with the shoes. "The buyer only needs to say that the size of the shoes is not accurate, and we can determine that there is a problem with our quality and immediately refund the return. The shoes returned were severely worn and could not be resold, so I had to suffer the loss myself."

Ms. Mai also mentioned in an interview that her friend’s online store was a jewelry purchasing agency. A customer wore a ring for a month and said it was too small and wanted to return it. The friend negotiated with the customer and said that the ring could be resized for free within three sizes, but the customer refused and then asked for a refund on the grounds that “I don’t like it.” “I wore the jewelry for a month and applied for a return and refund. The buyer’s application was approved very quickly. What was the point of approval?” Ms. Mai and her friend were also puzzled.

Online shopping products are returned after use, and the high return rate makes online stores suffer

Competition in online shopping is fierce. During major promotional events such as "618" and "Double 11", "freight insurance" is set as the entry threshold for merchants. In other words, merchants must purchase freight insurance on their own before they can participate in promotions, which in turn increases the operating pressure on merchants. Fang Jianhua, founder of Inman Women's Wear, publicly called on relevant departments to intervene and crack down on "mandatory freight insurance."

He did some calculations and found that a return order in the clothing industry would cost about 15 yuan without generating any benefits, which is equal to the merchant's advertising expenses, packaging materials, and courier fees. If the annual sales are 10 million, the average customer price is 200 yuan, and the return rate is conservatively 40%, the loss cost is as high as more than 300,000 yuan.

"The negative impact of mandatory freight insurance has seriously suppressed the business confidence of businesses." Fang Jianhua believes that a large number of returns are not only not conducive to consumer experience and the effective use of social resources, but also cause a large amount of packaging materials to be wasted, disrupt production plans, and generate ineffective cost expenditures. At the same time, it instills a bad impression of the brand's products in the user's subconscious. "At the same time, the mandatory implementation of freight insurance has caused merchants to increase in ineffective investment and occupied resources for product research and development."

Many merchants interviewed said that "freight insurance" has increased the return rate of goods in disguise, and the return rate will affect the search weight of the goods. Ms. Zhang, who sells tableware on an e-commerce platform, posted: "Sorry, I can't play, I'm going to cancel the freight insurance." Her store once received dozens of return orders in one day, which seriously affected its normal business.

Many buyers with high return rates admit that because of the shipping insurance, they don't have to consider the demand when shopping. They can buy if they like and return if they don't like. In fact, they just pass the fees to the seller. No one will lose money in business. In the end, the wool is still on the sheep. Honest buyers share the wool that the "wool party" has taken away.

"When I didn't buy shipping insurance, there were almost no returns. When I bought it, the return rate soared." Ms. Zhang said, but sellers had no choice but to compromise during platform promotions, "because the platform is required to include shipping insurance when participating in the event. If you don't sign up for the event, you will lose a lot of traffic, and the platform will also assess your participation."

【observe】

The reporter searched for "薅羊毛" (薅羊毛) on multiple social softwares, and all the displayed contents were "薅货费保险薅", "返只薅羊毛 tutorial, come quickly", "薅件薅教程 for getting something for free at home"... Most of the content shared was about how to use the online shopping platform mechanism to gain profits.

Take the example of "taking advantage of freight insurance". Buyers buy goods with freight insurance and then return them. They choose to send them back at a cheap courier for 5 yuan. The freight insurance has a subsidy of 10-15 yuan. Buyers can earn 5-10 yuan difference in one order. According to the Legal Daily, some people rent warehouses to store goods just to take advantage of the freight insurance, and their income is very considerable.

Another popular topic is refund without return. On multiple platforms, some people sell related tutorials, teaching netizens how to trigger the platform customer service to intervene, so as to achieve a refund without return. Some people also use "unpopular" methods, specifically looking for stores with low transaction volume, taking advantage of the loopholes of merchants not taking care of the store in time, and then complaining to the merchants for delayed delivery or out of stock after purchasing the goods, and using the platform rules to claim compensation.

In June this year, the Lishui Public Security Bureau in Zhejiang reported a fraud case that took advantage of a compensation loophole. A customer placed an order for goods to be shipped to Heilongjiang. After inquiring, he immediately applied for a refund and filed a compensation complaint with the platform on the grounds that the seller could not ship. After review, the platform deducted 30% of the sales of the order from the store (up to 500 yuan) to compensate the buyer. Within an hour thereafter, the store received more than 170 orders to Heilongjiang, and each order filed a compensation complaint on the grounds that it could not be shipped. As of the time when the online store owner, Mr. Chen, reported the case, his store had to compensate for more than 200 orders in total, with a total amount of more than 100,000 yuan.

After receiving the report, the police in Longquan, Lishui uncovered a criminal gang that took advantage of the compensation loopholes of online shopping platforms to defraud compensation. By the time they were arrested, the gang had committed more than 100 crimes, and five suspects were taken into criminal compulsory measures for suspected fraud.

Platforms should restrict bad shopping behaviors

"If the legitimate rights and interests of consumers are overconsumed, who will pay for dishonesty?" In the view of Ms. Liu in Changsha, most consumers shop online to buy the goods they like, and various rights protections have played a role in reassuring consumers. "In the past, '薅羊毛' was used when goods were discounted or on sale, but now it has a derogatory meaning. When the number of '羊毛党' increases, it will ultimately harm the interests of ordinary consumers." Ms. Liu said that the platform should restrict bad shopping behaviors and let the rules better protect honest consumers.

In this regard, the police reminded that it is effective for consumers to obtain discounts or compensation through legal means in the platform rules and various promotional activities launched by merchants. However, if consumers "take advantage" and defraud compensation through illegal means, it not only violates fairness and justice and disrupts normal transactions, but is also a criminal act and will face legal punishment.

【View】

The amount of "薅羊毛" is large and is suspected of fraud

"The newly added regulation of the return policy in the Regulations for the Implementation of the Consumer Rights Protection Law is to follow the principle of honesty and trustworthiness. Its purpose is to regulate the chaotic trading phenomenon of maliciously exploiting platform loopholes, and to clarify that the principle of honesty and trustworthiness is the fundamental principle of legislation for the right to return goods without reason." Chen Canqi, associate professor and master's tutor at the Faculty of Law of Xiangtan University, introduced that the "right to return goods" of consumers in the Internet shopping environment is a basic consumer right established in 2013 by the current "Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China", which plays an important role in protecting consumer rights. However, in recent years, competition among e-commerce platforms has become increasingly fierce, gradually evolving from "incremental competition" to "stock competition", and successively issued refund-without-return rules. However, in transaction practice, there have been cases where buyers maliciously trigger the conditions for refund-without-return to maliciously protect their rights, or use the platform's refund rules to extract the difference in shipping costs.

Chen Canqi believes that consumers take advantage of loopholes in platform regulations to "get the free stuff" without complying with relevant mechanism regulations. Such behavior violates the original intention of the Consumer Protection Law. The platform can consider imposing penalties such as credit downgrades on consumers who maliciously "exploit loopholes."

"When consumers place orders through e-commerce platforms, they establish a sales contract relationship with the merchants. If consumers apply for a refund without authorization and refuse to return the goods, they violate the principle of good faith and constitute a breach of contract, and they should bear the liability for breach of contract, such as refunding the purchase price and compensating for reasonable economic losses. If consumers take advantage of platform loopholes and defraud merchants of a large amount of property by fabricating facts or concealing the truth for the purpose of illegal possession, they may bear corresponding criminal liability for committing the crime of fraud." said Chen Canqi.

Everyone pays the price for the dishonesty of a few

Regarding the dishonest behavior of a few buyers who exploited platform loopholes, Liu Kai, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen (Changsha) Law Firm, believes that "everyone pays the price for the dishonest behavior of a few."

Merchants bear additional freight compensation due to the abuse of freight insurance, resulting in increased costs and reduced profits. At the same time, frequent returns will affect inventory management and sales plans, increasing operational burdens. Insurance companies face financial risks due to increased compensation for abused freight insurance. Such improper claims will force insurance companies to increase the cost of freight insurance or reduce the amount of freight insurance provided, affecting the rights and interests of normal consumers.

"Due to the improper behavior of some consumers, platforms and merchants may adjust their return policies and raise the return threshold, thereby affecting the legitimate rights and interests of other consumers. At the same time, the increase in freight insurance costs will be passed on to all consumers, increasing shopping costs. Ultimately, all participants will have to pay for dishonesty, including merchants, platforms, insurance companies and ordinary consumers. The cost of dishonest behavior will be passed on to the overall market, making everyone pay the price for a few dishonest behaviors." said Liu Kai.

"Excessive consumption of rights and interests such as '薅羊毛' will squeeze the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. For example, it will cause the platform to tighten its return and exchange policy, which will affect the consumer experience and lead to a crisis of trust between the platform and consumers, and between merchants and consumers." Chen Canqi believes that the "薅羊毛" behavior also undermines the fair and orderly market competition environment, interferes with the normal business activities of merchants, and causes them to lose trading opportunities. Tolerating such behavior may lead to the "薅羊毛" behavior being exploited by some merchants and becoming a means of unfair competition, disrupting market order.

Protecting consumer rights requires collaboration from multiple parties

Chen Canqi pointed out that in the face of "薅羊毛" behavior, merchants should enhance their awareness of prevention, collect and retain evidence of rights protection, and actively safeguard their legitimate rights and interests through negotiation, platform complaints, etc. Platforms need to further optimize their own operations and management, actively listen to the opinions of consumers, merchants and other parties to improve relevant rules, accurately and efficiently identify "薅羊毛" behavior, increase the intensity of punishment, and punish by lowering credit ratings, banning accounts, etc. Consumers should uphold the principle of honesty and trustworthiness, reasonably exercise their rights, establish a correct consumption and interest concept, and not abuse their rights to seek improper benefits.

Liu Kai believes that first of all, we must intensify the crackdown on improper behavior, strengthen legislation and law enforcement, and ensure that illegal behavior is subject to due sanctions. Platforms should continuously optimize their own rules, prevent loopholes, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee recommends that platforms should assume governance responsibilities. On the one hand, they can allow merchants to confirm in advance whether to enable the "refund only" mode when listing products or during after-sales processing; on the other hand, they can establish a merchant complaint handling mechanism to fully absorb the opinions of merchants and consumers and balance the interests of both parties.

Omnimedia reporter Huang Yaping Guo Can

Correspondents: Teng Fengying, Li Aodan, Duan Ziyi, He Xiang, Li Yishuang, Wang Xuejing, Dong Yangrui

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