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Jimu News commentator Wu Shuangjian

Recently, an employee of a kitchen appliance online store on a certain platform posted that due to a mistake in setting the preferential conditions, more than 4,000 orders were placed by consumers at low prices overnight, with a total value of tens of millions of yuan, and the online store had to close down, which attracted the sympathy and attention of many netizens. (According to a report by Upstream News on August 9)

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According to reports, Mr. Liang, the owner of the online shop, said that due to employee negligence, the activity price was set repeatedly, which was equivalent to giving away 2,000 yuan worth of goods for free. After the setting was completed, the customer service and operations staff went off work, and no one noticed the mistake. In just five or six hours, thousands of low-priced orders were successfully traded, with a transaction amount of about 12 million yuan, and the actual value of the goods was about 200 million yuan.

For a small private store, such a huge loss was obviously unbearable, so it eventually chose to close the store. The actual loss of the online store was the deposit left on the platform.

Some netizens believe that if the merchant makes a setting error, he or she must bear the corresponding responsibility and should compensate the consumer. Other netizens believe that if the merchant makes a setting error, the platform should have a certain protection mechanism to protect the merchant's interests.

In any case, it is obviously not normal for an online store to close due to a setting error.

It is understood that many buyers can hardly be called consumers, they just come here to get the free stuff. Their addresses and phone numbers are randomly filled in, not to buy goods or expect the merchants to ship, but to get compensation. Many people think that such behavior is taking advantage of others.

A small amount of liquidated damages may not be much for each person, but if it is concentrated on an online store, it may be an unbearable burden. On the one hand, we call on consumers to think in their shoes and cancel their orders on their own to give merchants some confidence and hope. On the other hand, the platform should recognize the mistakes of merchants and protect their legitimate rights and interests.

Mr. Liang believes that for such mistakes, the platform could have helped him cancel the order after verifying the situation, but the platform did not do so. Instead, it allowed the consumer to complain and demand compensation.

From the platform's perspective, compensating consumers for their complaints is in compliance with regulations. However, is it necessary to verify the reasons for such widespread complaints and claims? After all, even from a legal perspective, if a merchant sets a price incorrectly, it may be suspected of a major misunderstanding, and the contract can be revoked.

The relationship between the platform and the merchants is a win-win cooperation, and the management level of the platform is also the business environment. The platform will be good only if the merchants are good. Even if the merchants take legal measures to protect their rights, facing thousands of buyers, the time and cost are enough to discourage people. What's more, when the platform has already compensated many buyers, it is even more difficult for merchants to protect their rights through legal means.

An online store involves the livelihoods of several families. The loss caused by the closure of the store is insignificant to the platform and is not felt at all by some consumers. However, for them, the fruits of their labor for several years may be wiped out overnight. Some netizens sympathize with them because they have not done anything bad to infringe on the rights of consumers and do not need to bear such serious consequences.

Therefore, the platform should also listen to the voices of online stores and give them a chance to stand up again. According to reports, the platform said that for such cases, the platform has a special control department to verify and will review and handle each order dispute impartially.

So, in the future, when encountering large-scale incidents, we should fully communicate with the merchants before paying compensation, and at the same time protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, give the merchants a place to speak, so as not to let their "sky fall." Of course, if the merchant deliberately sets a low price to attract traffic and then regrets it, that is another matter.

(Source: Jimu News)

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