China Consumer Association Spring Festival Consumption Warning: Pay attention to guard against the ultra-low price trap of illegal businesses

According to the website of the China Consumer Association, on January 20, the China Consumer Association issued a Spring Festival consumption warning, low price does not equal affordable, consumers should rationally look at the discount promotion behavior of merchants, polish their eyes, distinguish the so-called "low price" is "real benefit" or "set routine", especially pay attention to prevent illegal businesses of ultra-low price traps, shrewd consumption, enjoy benefits.

As the Spring Festival of 2022 draws closer, many consumers are ready to buy New Year goods, replace new furniture or brew up visits to low-risk tourist attractions. Shopping malls, supermarkets, travel agencies, e-commerce platforms and other operators have also launched a variety of preferential activities, among which the most intuitive and common way of activity is to reduce prices and promote promotions. However, low prices do not equal affordability, and some unscrupulous operators may take the opportunity of low prices to sell counterfeit and shoddy products, and even deceive consumers to "add blockage" to consumers' Spring Festival life. In this regard, the China Consumer Association has sorted out several "low-price routines" that consumers have reflected in recent years, hoping that consumers will strengthen prevention and prevent "recruitment":

First, the low-price "problem" food safety risk is high and the nutritional value is low

The China Consumer Association has carried out rural bazaar market survey experience activities for 3 consecutive years from 2018 to 2020, and found that the food sold is mixed with some "cottage" food and "three noes" food, because most of these "problem" foods use unknown raw materials, the production process is not standardized, and food safety is difficult to guarantee. However, due to the low price, if consumers only pay attention to the price, it is easy to "get caught". Recently, there are also media publicly exposed the source of raw materials for low-cost dumplings and low-priced meatballs and the "way of survival", through visiting a number of frozen wholesale markets, large supermarkets, and going deep into the front line of food production, it was found that individual quick-frozen food companies added chicken meat to the pork dumplings sold, and added chicken neck mud and chicken rack mud to meatball products, and did not indicate on the packaging. Experts said that the use of chicken neck mud, chicken rack mud and other bone mud instead of the original meat, the essence is adulterated and shoddy, will reduce the nutritional quality and sensory quality of the product.

China Consumer Association tips: As the saying goes, "the people take food as the sky, food takes safety as the first", consumers choose New Year food, while considering the price, we must pay more attention to safety and quality. First of all, it is necessary to check whether the merchant has the business qualifications such as the "Food Business License" and the "Business License", and check whether the business scope specified in the "Food Business License" matches, and it is recommended to buy food from the regular business with a complete license. Secondly, pay attention to the label information of food, especially the trademark, name, production date, shelf life, product implementation standards, food production license number, ingredient list and nutrition composition list, etc., understand the basic situation of the product, prevent "copycat" food, "three no" food and expired food, and reduce food safety risks.

Second, the community group buys "wool", and is careful to buy fake and inferior products

Community group buying is a group purchase activity for consumer goods carried out by relying on e-commerce platforms, communities and other tools. Consumers can buy cheaper goods in the form of a group. It is understood that since the end of 2020, with the entry of many well-known e-commerce platforms into the community group buying business, the community group purchase has developed rapidly, with "far below the average market price", successfully attracting a large number of community consumers to "follow the group". At present, community group buying can be described as all-encompassing, from fruits and vegetables to daily necessities, from catering services to transportation. However, behind the "glossy" of community group buying, there are also many problems, such as poor product quality, false promotions, low-price dumping, and non-refund of the return deposit, among which the problem of low price and low quality is the most prominent.

China Consumer Association tips: Consumers in the community group purchase, first, carefully identify, check the qualifications of the business, understand the reputation of the business and after-sales service, try to choose a group purchase business with good reputation, service standards, and after-sales guarantee, and carefully choose weChat group buying groups organized by micro-businesses, social platforms and individual organizations. Second, we must carefully check the supply channels and supplier qualifications, and check the quality of the products in time when receiving the goods, such as whether the meat and poultry products have been inspected and quarantined, whether the agricultural and sideline products have been tested, whether they meet the national food safety standards, and whether there is a product certificate. Third, we must consume rationally according to our own needs, do not blindly hoard commodities for use within a limited period of time, resist the temptation of low prices, and avoid excessive hoarding caused by waste. Fourth, it is necessary to retain information such as invoices, electronic orders, payment pages, and chat records with the "group leader" of the group purchase platform, product publicity and service commitments, and actively protect their rights when their legitimate rights and interests are infringed.

Third, ultra-low-price promotions hide "cat greasy", so that profits are false, and profits are true

Some low-price promotions with obviously unreasonable prices are more "catty", which seem to benefit consumers, but in fact, they "put long-term fishing for big fish", using "free", "0 yuan purchase", "second kill", "how much to charge and how much to send" as bait, inducing consumers to "take the bait". Some are particularly inferior quality unqualified products or shrink in service quality; some are products are given away for free, but additional fees need to be paid to use the product; some are loans or installment payments without the knowledge of consumers; some are inducing consumers to recharge a large amount of advance payment; some are to obtain consumers' personal information, and then push various advertisements or sell profits; some are hidden Trojan horses, once consumers click on the link or scan the code, they will face greater property security risks.

China Consumer Association tips: Consumers should be vigilant against the ultra-low price or even free promotion behavior of merchants, carefully distinguish the authenticity of promotions, and especially understand whether other conditions are attached. For those involving installments, it is necessary to fully understand the relevant rules and measure their ability to repay. Second, rational recharge, for "how much to send" and "high amount of cashback" and other forms of inducing consumers to recharge, it is necessary to combine the credibility of the business, the consumer's own economic ability and consumer demand and other comprehensive considerations, it is recommended not to recharge a large amount at one time. Third, we must protect the safety of personal information and personal property, do not fill in personal information such as mobile phone numbers and addresses; do not click on unknown links at will, and do not scan two-dimensional codes at will.

Fourth, stay away from the "unreasonable low-price tour", beware of "travel tour" becomes "buy buy buy"

In recent years, problems such as forced shopping, product quality disputes, and insults to consumers caused by "unreasonable low-price tourism" have occurred from time to time, seriously damaging the rights and interests of consumers, damaging the image of tourist attractions, and affecting the healthy development of the tourism industry. "Unreasonable low-cost tours" are often packaged in gimmicks such as "group purchase price", "zero tour fee", "free tour", "tourism subsidy", etc., but in fact, there are hidden "traps" that harm the interests of tourists, such as great discounts in the itinerary route, transportation, catering and accommodation, etc., and arrange various shopping links during the trip, or exclude the most exciting and paid attractions from the low-cost tour fee when signing the contract. These behaviors seriously affect the travel experience of consumers and are prone to consumer disputes.

China Consumer Association tips: Consumers should abandon the psychology of coveting cheapness when choosing tourism products, can not be simply price-oriented, pay more attention to the reputation of travel agencies and the quality of tourism products, while considering their own physical condition and affordability and other factors, and sign a travel contract with the travel agency, read the terms of the contract in detail, understand the travel itinerary arrangement and the liability of both parties for breach of contract. If you find that the contract of the travel agency is unreasonable, you must negotiate with the travel agency in advance to solve it, and you must not blindly sign the contract.

The China Consumer Association said that it is the common responsibility of the whole society to jointly promote the fairness of consumption and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and a good consumption environment also needs to be jointly maintained by the whole society. The China Consumer Association will strengthen supervision and standardization of problematic operators in accordance with the law, promote industry self-discipline, curb industry chaos, and escort Spring Festival consumption; urge relevant operators to abandon all kinds of bad marketing methods, pay attention to quality improvement and credit construction, and truly provide consumers with high-quality and inexpensive products and services.

Source: CCTV