Written by Lai Hsien-ki
Editor/ Li Wenjie
排版/ Annalee
Since the end of last year, major e-commerce platforms have introduced the "refund only" rule, and there have been controversies related to it. Recently, courts in many places have made public cases caused by "refund only".
In the same month, the Huaishang District People's Court of Bengbu City announced the verdict of the case of "no return after refund of online instant noodles".
The platform introduced the "refund only" rule to improve the purchase and after-sales experience of consumers, and at the same time reduce the cost of return and exchange for some merchants, but this rule seems to have become a breeding ground for "malicious wool party". Especially when the "wool" derives from the industrial chain, not only the merchants suffer from it, but the platform also falls into a "dilemma".
For the sake of buyers, bitter merchants?
On April 8, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court released a typical case at the press conference on the management of the source of litigation: Mr. Chen, who runs an online store for women's clothing on an e-commerce platform, found that a consumer reported to customer service that one side of the dress lacked lace and there was a quality problem after purchasing a dress, and applied for a "refund only". At that time, the merchant was on break and did not deal with it. Only 3 hours later, the platform approved the consumer's application. Mr. Chen believes that it is unfair for the platform to directly intervene in the speedy refund without communicating with the merchant. Mr. Chen demanded that the platform compensate the platform for the loss of 20 yuan for the "refund only".
The Changning District People's Court upheld Mr. Chen's claim in the first instance, and the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court upheld the original judgment in the second instance.
On April 10, the Huaishang District People's Court of Bengbu City announced the verdict of a similar case: Previously, a buyer bought 30 packs of instant noodles for 9.19 yuan, and after receiving the goods, he applied for a refund after sales on the grounds of "instant noodles are broken". A food company sued the court, demanding that the buyer refund the payment and compensate for lost work and material costs totaling 539.77 yuan. In the end, the court ordered the buyer to pay 6 yuan for the goods.
It is worth mentioning that after accepting the above-mentioned cases, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court noticed that such cases often have a small subject matter and clear legal facts, but the number of cases accepted has surged in a short period of time, and there are a large number of similar cases to be handled in the future.
In fact, as early as March this year, it was rumored on the Internet that some Pinduoduo merchants had been dissatisfied with the "refund only", and quickly refunded after placing orders in "Pinduoduo's self-operated stores" and "brand stores", causing a "fried store turmoil". When Taobao and other e-commerce platforms followed up on this rule, some small and medium-sized individual merchants said that it attracted some malicious "refund-only" wool parties.
"Originally, I didn't take it too seriously, and I didn't think there should be anyone who would only refund money. Dai Lin, who runs a Taobao clothing store, told Zinc Scale, "In the past, if the buyer only refunded the goods, the seller still needed to agree, and then the logistics could be intercepted, but now it is a second refund, and if the after-sales service is not careful, the money is gone, and the clothes are gone." ”
Zinc scale found in major social media searches that many e-commerce merchants have complained about the "refund only" rule.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
Among them, a merchant mentioned, "As a ten-year-old store, this year's Taobao really opened my eyes, and the buyer just said that he felt that the product was a bit big, and he directly popped up the refund window...... It was forced to refund only three times in one morning, and the appeal was not established many times. Another merchant posted a note on Xiaohongshu, saying, "It's too annoying to only refund the money, and some of the leggings that are a little flawed have been sold at a loss, but today there are five only refunds, or one person shoots, isn't this a naked wool" "Consumers apply for only refunds, and they are not my store's things, single number, The product packaging is not right, I don't reply to the message and don't communicate with me, I don't know if it's really accidentally mistaken, or a set of pictures made by the customer himself, itself is also a low customer order, a single to earn 2 yuan, small businesses really don't make any money...... and so on.
It was even revealed on the Internet that some merchants had printed "Refund Only Instructions" to ship together, which read, "If you apply for a refund only without the consent of the merchant, you will sue directly, and no longer notify and remind." The cost of the lawsuit and the amount of compensation is about 2,000 yuan, which shall be borne by the purchaser, and the purchaser agrees to the terms and conditions. Regardless of the authenticity of this notice, it is at least enough to see the merchant's attitude towards "refund only".
"Wool" industry chain: from "zero yuan purchase" to "profit and compensation"
"I've lost 8k in 10 days, and I'm also disgusted by this refund. I set up a new store, and the new link gave back to consumers at a big price reduction, but when I cut the price, it was a group of wool pickers who came to prostitute my goods for nothing, and directly and frequently disturbed me to ask for money directly, and if I didn't give money, I would have a bad review or a direct refund......" On Xiaohongshu, an e-commerce merchant said, "When I packed and shipped on New Year's Day, I saw that more than 30 packages actually came from a community. ”
In fact, in major social media, there is no shortage of "PXX return non-refund tutorial" and "refund only strategy", etc., and they often not only "refund only", but also earn a "compensation".
Zinc scale found in major social media searches that most of these items are called "compensation projects", targeting major e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, JD.com and Taobao. These projects are mainly carried out through the community, after entering the group, according to the tutorial operation, after the order is placed, the delivery is delayed or there are loopholes in the goods, or the merchant sells fakes, so as to return the goods and contact customer service to earn compensation, the former compensation is generally 100 yuan per order, and the questioning of the sale of counterfeit goods may be "fake one to pay three". Ordinary people generally have two ways to "get on the bus", one is to pay a tutorial fee ranging from 38.8 yuan to 188 yuan, and the other is to "get on the bus" for free, but each single income needs to pay a commission to the group administrator, and the proportion ranges from 30% to 50%.
According to one of the tutorials on the specific dispute steps of "Jingdong Compensation Three", the tutorial details how to shoot a video when receiving the goods, how to communicate with Jingdong customer service, how to upload photos, etc., which emphasizes that "each number is recommended to play only once, because the first time it is stable, the second time 90% overturns." ”
Some "payout" tutorials
In another compensation group, its group announcement mentioned that "a single investment is about 2 or 3 (yuan), and the minimum compensation for a single order is 5 yuan, and there is a compensation of 100 (yuan) for 20 orders at a time, that is, there is a net profit of 100 yuan for only 40 investments, and small profits and big returns." At the same time, he also said, "Different from Dead Tao, the biggest advantage is that there are no violations and no bans."
Zinc scale noticed that the "dead tao" mentioned refers to stores that have not been taken care of for a long time or even forgotten, so they often cannot be shipped in time, so that professional wool parties can take advantage of loopholes to earn compensation. On major social platforms, there is even a "dead store collection", that is, the links that have not logged in to the store for a long time are automatically collected through scripts, and selling these links has also become a way to make profits. In addition to earning a commission by distributing links, there are also single links sold on second-hand e-commerce platforms such as Xianyu at a price of about 5 yuan.
However, some relevant departments have noticed this gray industry chain. According to Jiemian News, Shanghai has cracked a case of using loopholes to "gather wool" and cause huge losses to enterprises. At that time, the Shanghai Jiading Public Security received a report from an online e-commerce company that it had found that some of its users had suspicious transactions that took advantage of service loopholes to "pick up wool", resulting in a cumulative loss of 1 million yuan for the company.
After combing through the orders on the platform, the police found that about 43 accounts not only quickly applied for a refund after repeated orders, but also uploaded fake photos of quality problems, many photos did not indicate the problems of the purchased goods as required, and even some photos did not match the purchased goods at all, and they also applied for returns and received 100 yuan in compensation. In the end, the police locked down and arrested 20 suspects who were scattered in many provinces and cities to carry out the "wool picking" fraud.
Platform dilemma, from questioning Pinduoduo to becoming Pinduoduo?
Since merchants are complaining, and even difficult to stop the gray industry chain, why do major platforms still launch "refund only" rules?
Looking back at the process of the implementation of the "refund only" rule on major e-commerce platforms, it is not difficult to find that this is a way from questioning Pinduoduo to becoming Pinduoduo.
Pinduoduo has introduced a "refund only" rule since 2021, and although merchants have been complaining about it, Douyin announced the "refund only" rule in September 2023, Taobao and JD.com followed at the end of the year, and in January 2024, Kuaishou also joined the "refund only" team.
However, it is worth mentioning that according to the refund experience of many consumers, it is often easier to pop up the "refund only" option in Pinduoduo. "I have received a few times when the things I received were slightly flawed, and I contacted customer service just to communicate whether I could exchange the goods, but the platform automatically jumped out of the window for refunds only. Hong Ya is an old user of Pinduoduo, on the one hand, she feels that the experience is good, "because it does protect the rights and interests of consumers to a greater extent", but on the other hand, she is also worried that "will it be regarded as wool by merchants?"
Alibaba's performance
In fact, major e-commerce platforms and short video live broadcast platforms have successively introduced the "refund only" rule, which has somewhat exposed the anxiety of e-commerce giants.
You must know that as early as the end of 2021, the number of active buyers in Pinduo for many years reached 869 million, and Alibaba's 979 million Chinese market consumer data has been very tight, and although the buyer data is no longer public, when the market value of Pinduoduo exceeds that of Ali at the end of November 2023, it is difficult to say that Ali can still sit back and relax. Because of this, in addition to the launch of "refund only" in after-sales, major e-commerce platforms are also constantly "fighting low prices" in terms of price.
However, when merchants' dissatisfaction with the platform continues to accumulate, can the platform truly achieve healthy development?