Author | Hiu Source | Internet Brand Officer
Last month, I wrote an article titled "The "Giant Baby" Visits Sam's, and the Face of the Middle Class Has Been Lost", and the response was intense, and there were thousands of comments in the background alone.
However, some people's focus seems to be on the wrong track. What we want to discuss is the safety and health implications of the act of sitting in a shopping cart, regardless of gender, age or age. I hope that the supermarket will launch a shopping cart that can also be used by adults.
Today, let's not talk about Sam's Mart shopping cart, let's talk about the services of this high-end membership store that prides itself on providing consumers with "trustworthy quality" and "worry-free shopping experience".
Unlike ordinary supermarkets that do not set thresholds, consumers need to spend 260 yuan (680 yuan per year for Premier Membership) to apply for a Sam's Club card.
Before the door has taken a step, you have to pay 260 oceans first, which directly pulls the consumer's expectations to the ceiling.
The higher the expectation, the higher the demand, which is the "trap" that Sam has set for himself.
To be able to withstand the huge number of paid members, it is necessary to resist the high-intensity after-sales pressure brought by them.
Recently, CCTV reported another news that consumers complained about Sam's after-sales service to no avail.
Here's the thing, in April this year, Ms. Lin in Guangzhou spent 65 yuan on the Sam's Club app to buy a plum blossom meat, and chose to deliver it to Express Express.
Source: Sam's Club Mini Program
After receiving the goods, she found that the plum blossom meat was black and fat, so she applied for a refund online on the App.
Ms. Lin's original words: "I don't say that the meat is fat, but the meat is black, and the pork chops are all broken bones, and they will be broken as soon as you take them, and they will definitely not be fresh." ”
However, Sam's handled the result that "the application review was not approved", on the grounds that "the fresh products are not quality problems and cannot be returned or exchanged".
Subsequently, she called the official Sam's Club after-sales number, and the staff replied that she could apply for a refund online.
Ms. Lin, who chose to submit an after-sales application again, did not expect to receive another "return application failed" text message, and the reason on it was still punctuation.
Source: CCTV (photo provided by the interviewee)
For a store that advertises high-end, this is too child's play.
Sam later asked Ms. Lin to bring the plum blossom meat to Sam's Club Panyu store and asked the staff to identify whether it had deteriorated, while Ms. Lin thought that she had placed an order on the App and that the after-sales service should be completed online.
After more than 10 days of communication between the two sides, the plum blossom meat has already been "meat and meat", and Sam did not give a solution in the end, and the matter is not over......
"Internet Brand Officer" checked the product details page of Sam's Club App and found that the "Warm Reminder" stated that "fresh products will not be returned or exchanged if there is no quality problem".
Source: Sam's Club App
That's why Sam refused to refund Ms. Lin.
But how should the quality problems pointed out by Sam be determined?
In this case, Ms. Lin believed that the blackened flesh was a quality issue, and Sam apparently denied this claim.
In fact, whether it is on social platforms or in the comment area of Sam's official products, consumers have a lot of doubts about the blackening of the meat purchased at Sam's (mostly beef and pork).
On the surface, it looks bright red, but when you open the part that is covered underneath, it has the problem of blackening.
Source: Little Red Book
In this regard, the explanation given by Sam's official customer service is: the color of the beef in contact with oxygen in the product packaging is bright red, because the myoglobin in the beef will recover the bright red color when combined with the oxygen in the air, and the color of the beef at the bottom will appear very dull if it is less in contact with the air.
Consumers who have been educated have found a solution and found that leaving the beef outside can restore its bright red color.
The above is only for non-spoiled anoxic beef, if the meat itself does go bad, then say otherwise. The after-sales should be actively after-sales and safeguard their legitimate consumer rights and interests.
Source: Little Red Book
Looking at the Sam's Club App, a "Plum Blossom Meat Barbecue Slice 1.3kg" product priced at 64.7 yuan, there are 2000+ product reviews. Among them, there are also 2000+ positive reviews and 122 negative reviews (as of this article).
The reasons for the negative reviews given by consumers who buy this product are mostly focused on the problems of black meat, too much minced meat, too much fatty meat, peculiar smell, meat smell, and the date is not fresh.
Source: Sam's Club App
Anyone who writes the reason for the bad review, Sam's customer service will respond one by one.
For example, some consumers reported that the product had a "meaty smell".
Sam replied, "It may be a change in the storage process" and said, "If the product is abnormal or you have any questions, you can contact our online customer service and telephone customer service."
Source: Sam's Club App
The service attitude shown in the comment area can be called very sincere and patient.,But when it comes to contacting online customer service, the service drops more than a little bit.。。。
As the saying goes, the tree is big, and the name is high.
No matter how strong the strength of the supermarket is, it is difficult to ensure that there will be no mistakes and errors in the process of becoming bigger and stronger.
The key depends on the attitude and determination of the company to deal with the problem, so as not to evade, to respond positively, and to make the improvement that consumers can actually feel.
It can be seen that Sam, which claims to provide consumers with a "worry-free shopping experience", still has a lot of room for improvement.
In terms of the number of complaints based on the search term "Sam" on the consumer complaint platform Black Cat Complaints, Sam has a lot of problems.
The first two complaints are major issues involving people and food safety.
Source: Black Cat Complaint
Previously, Sam had been punished by the relevant market supervision authorities for false advertising, sales of problematic food, adulteration and adulteration of products, etc., with a cumulative number of double-digit penalties.
I said, Sam, you can have a snack.
At a time when traditional supermarkets are declining, two extremely popular Internet celebrity supermarkets have emerged on the Internet - Sam's and Fat Donglai.
Unlike Fat Donglai, who has never walked out of Henan, Sam has been making great progress in recent years. By the end of 2023, Sam's Club has completed the layout of 47 stores in 25 cities in China.
Source: Lianshang.com
However, in the face of the issue of purchasing agents, they looked at each other and smiled, because they "sympathized with each other".
Supermarkets that sell daily necessities have been turned into "5A-level scenic spots", and these purchasing agents are pervasive, and they really spare no effort in the action of "emptying the shelves".
The stores targeted by Daigou have seen their sales and performance go up, but at the same time, they have also successfully knocked down the consumption experience of other ordinary consumers.
It is not easy to clean up the purchasing agent, because it is difficult for enterprises to distinguish the purchasing agent from normal consumers, and at most take purchase restriction measures to restrict the crazy sweeping behavior of the purchasing agent.
In this regard, Sam's has said, "We will continue to improve, and make every effort to protect the needs of our members by increasing production capacity and efficiency, and taking measures such as limiting purchases." In addition, it is also recommended that members who have bulk purchase needs can contact them through Sam's stores or bulk purchase channels in Sam's App.
And the most important thing that cannot be ignored is the risk of infringing on the rights and interests of consumers hidden behind the crazy purchasing behavior, as well as the risk of eroding the reputation of merchants.
On the one hand, there is the concept of consumption downgrading, and on the other hand, Sam and Fat Donglai, who have been bought.
From another point of view, the reason why these daigou can have a fertile soil living environment also shows that these supermarkets with dazzling comprehensive performance, quality and service guarantee, and high cost performance have become the first choice for consumers to practice the new consumption rules.
In fact, looking back, there have been mixed reviews of what has been said about Sam over the years.
For example, it is also an after-sales problem, and some consumers said that the treatment they got was "second refund".
Let's say one thing, and we can't generalize from partiality.
As for which supermarket people prefer, I would say that the "proximity principle" is the constant truth.