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More than a year has passed since the order was placed, but Mr. Zang has never received the long-desired statue. What made him even more anxious was that after urging again and again, the pre-sale Taobao merchants simply lost contact, and they didn't say that the goods were not received, and they couldn't even recover the deposit.
According to Mr. Zang, he asked the platform for help as soon as possible, and the customer service first reassured him to wait for the delivery, and it was not until a number of consumers complained that the platform punished the merchant. However, the customer's deposit, the customer service said that "the merchant has no deposit, and the money cannot be guaranteed". Mr. Zang was a little puzzled, why was the prepaid money automatically transferred to the merchant when the consumer did not receive the goods?
Merchant Virtual Fulfillment?
In January 2023, Mr. Zang took a fancy to a statue limited to 300 in the world at the "Ai Wen Mold" store on the Taobao platform. According to the introduction, the statue belongs to the pre-sale of the product, customers need to pay a deposit of 2,000 yuan when placing an order, and after the completion of the production cycle, the store will make up the balance of 2,888 yuan before delivery.
Introduce the details of the model play.
Mr. Zang is no stranger to this kind of sales. In recent years, the scale of the trendy toy market has grown rapidly, and the "second dimension" out of the circle has also brought products such as figures into the field of vision of many consumers, but due to factors such as long construction period and unstable sales, the sales of related products are generally pre-sold. Mr. Zang, who is familiar with the routine, placed an order on January 22 after simply checking the store's number of fans, praise rate, "2-year good store" and other information.
The process of waiting for the receipt of the goods was not as smooth as expected. In the second half of 2023, many people in Mr. Zang's WeChat group complained that the store did not deliver the goods as scheduled. Out of concern, he contacted the store's customer service four times in July, September, November 2023 and January 2024 to confirm the delivery time, and the store's customer service first replied simply "not shipped yet", and then ignored it. In desperation, he turned to the platform's customer service for help, asking for assistance in returning the goods and returning the deposit, "In January this year, Taobao customer service reported that the transaction had been completed, and I failed to raise an objection within seven days, so they couldn't do anything." ”
Mr. Zang continued to ask about the delivery time, but no one replied later.
It turned out that as early as January 31, 2023, the status of the transaction was changed to "shipped", and on February 10, it was changed to "sold", and Mr. Zang did receive a card from "Ai Wenmo Play" that "confirmed the receipt of the deposit". However, at that time, he believed that the delivery and transaction in the pre-sale transaction was the delivery and transaction of a virtual product (i.e., the right to purchase), rather than the product itself. However, the actual situation is that with the change of transaction status, the platform defaults to the completion of the transaction, and the "deposit" he paid is also transferred to the merchant by the platform.
In order to confirm that the transaction was still continuing, Mr. Zang deliberately dug up the previous communication records with the merchant on the Taobao platform and appealed again. This time, the customer service in charge of handling the transaction admitted that the transaction was indeed in progress and there were many related complaints, but the customer service could not directly cancel the transaction and refund the deposit. On the one hand, Mr. Zang did not raise any objection when the transaction was completed, and the relevant payment was no longer in the platform account, and on the other hand, because the store was still in arrears with Taobao's deposit, it had not been made up, "the merchant account has been penalized, and the money cannot be guaranteed", and finally gave a plan of "compensation of 500 yuan".
The customer service said that the relevant money could not be refunded.
Obviously, there is still a big gap between Mr. Zang's actual loss and the compensation of 500 yuan, and he is not satisfied with this. He believes that the platform should establish a corresponding guarantee mechanism for such pre-sold goods, rather than waiting for the merchant to "run away" and push it off on the grounds of "no margin".
Lack of protection of "fake pre-sales"
In fact, Taobao has long been familiar with the management of "pre-sold goods", especially during large-scale shopping festivals, and it has long been known to everyone to pay a deposit and make up the final payment. The platform also has a corresponding "pre-sale agreement", which clearly states that "after the completion of the deposit payment to the completion of the final payment is the deposit guarantee period, during the guarantee period, if the seller fails to pay the balance on time due to the seller's reasons, the seller shall return the deposit and compensate the buyer for the price of the same amount as the deposit, and Taobao investigation finds that there is a transaction risk, in order to protect the rights and interests of the buyer, if the platform closes the transaction order, the seller shall return the deposit, and the relevant compensation matters shall be handled by the buyer and the seller themselves." So, what exactly is the insecurity that Mr. Zang is talking about?
On April 7th, the reporter searched for this "Ai Wen Mo Play" store on the Taobao platform, the store rating has been closed, and all the products have been taken off the shelves, and only the link to the "Freight Supplement Auction" product has been retained. However, according to Taobao's "Pre-sale Agreement", this type of product does not display the pre-sale price and the amount of the deposit contained therein on the details interface, and the transaction payment is not split into two parts: "immediate deposit payment" and "final payment after pre-sale", which does not belong to the "pre-sale goods" defined by the platform, that is, Mr. Zang's transaction does not apply to the agreement.
The store has been restricted from selling.
It is marked with the words "full pre-sale".
Partial terms of the Pre-Sales Agreement.
In other words, the "pre-sale goods" purchased by Mr. Zang are actually no different from ordinary goods, and the balance payment is not reflected on Taobao, but is paid through a third-party platform. For this kind of product, the platform also has a small print reminder on the product details interface: "If the product you purchased is a full-payment pre-ordered product, please click the 'Confirm Receipt' button carefully before receiving the goods to avoid capital risks." ”
The so-called risk may refer to the situation encountered by Mr. Zang. The reporter noticed that the store did not handle the registration of market entities, and there was no contact information for the store information interface, in this case, consumers can only hope for the platform, so what is the state of this store? How should consumers recover their losses? A few days ago, the reporter contacted Taobao official to inquire about related matters, but has not received a reply as of press time.
Such pre-sales need to be strengthened supervision
Nowadays, the pre-sale model is being widely used in various scenarios, but the consumption risks behind it cannot be ignored.
On March 10, Mr. Sun bought a sweeping robot marked with the words "pre-sale" on the Xianyu platform and paid the full amount of 4,200 yuan. At that time, the customer service claimed that it would take 10-15 days to ship, that is, it would be delivered to your home around the 25th. However, 4 hours after placing an order, the pop-up window reminded that the goods had been shipped, and he hurriedly contacted customer service to inquire about the situation, and the customer service informed that the relevant information was the order number, and only after filling in the order number could the purchase be submitted to the manufacturer, "The logistics information will be displayed later, please be patient." ”
Around the 20th, Mr. Sun opened the App again and found that the goods had already been received, but the logistics information column was empty. At this time, he contacted the merchant again, and no one replied, "Isn't this a lie?" Mr. Sun turned to the platform for help, and the platform's customer service also said that the money had been transferred to the merchant on the grounds that it could not be recovered, and could only be closed.
"Pre-sale items" purchased on Xianyu.
In this regard, Liu Zeruo, a lawyer at Shanghai Pushi Wanlian Law Firm, believes that from the facts, the consumer only paid a deposit to the merchant, and clearly agreed to conclude a separate sales contract within a certain period of time in the future and then the consumer will pay the consideration for the goods Article 587 stipulates that if it is determined that the performance of the debt is not in accordance with the agreement between the two parties, resulting in the inability to achieve the purpose of the contract, the merchant shall be requested to return the deposit double. If the consumer has paid the deposit and the equivalent amount, or has met other conditions for the establishment of the contractual relationship in accordance with the law, the merchant may be required to bear the corresponding liability for breach of contract by refunding the equivalent price or continuing to perform the delivery obligation in accordance with Article 577 of the Civil Code.
In view of the current situation where consumers are no longer able to get in touch with merchants, platforms should take their own responsibility. Pursuant to article 27 of the E-Commerce Law, e-commerce platform operators shall require operators applying to enter the platform to sell goods or provide services to submit true information such as their identity, address, contact information, and administrative licenses, conduct verification and registration, establish registration files, and periodically verify and update them. In the event of a dispute, if the online trading platform provider cannot provide the real name, address and effective contact information of the seller or service provider, the consumer may also claim compensation from the online trading platform provider.
As for Mr. Sun's claim of "fraud", Liu Zeruo said, "If the merchant does not inform the false information or deliberately conceals it, and only fails to fulfill the main obligation to deliver the goods, it is generally not considered to constitute fraud, at least the effective judicial precedents in Shanghai do not support false delivery, empty packages, etc., and only support the refund of the payment." She suggested that for this kind of sales model, the platform should further strengthen supervision, implement the main responsibility, strictly verify and review the relevant qualifications of the entities in the platform, build an access mechanism, strengthen the management of the operators in the platform, and also consider establishing a special pre-sale fund supervision channel, so as to create a good shopping environment. ”
(The original title was "Before the pre-sale goods arrived, the money was automatically transferred to the merchant? Taobao buyers suffer from "money and goods")
Source: Shangguan News