Bargain buyers feel cheated
By Zhao Wen and Xu Chi |
November 22, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AFTER the joy of finding a bargain during the recent Singles Day online shopping spree, many customers now say they feel cheated after being told the products had been oversold.
Customers were told about a shortage of stock yesterday, 10 days after they thought they had secured bargains at Tmall.com, Alibaba's business to consumer unit.
Famous stores on Tmall, such as Uniqlo, adidas and Jack Jones, had all oversold products on November 11, China's unofficial Singles Day, when Tmall held a discount fair.
Sellers say a bug in Tmall's system resulted in overselling and they would be issuing refunds. Many buyers, however, said they would not be satisfied with just a refund and wanted compensation.
Tmall said orders were confirmed after buyers completed their payments. After that, the system would automatically cut the number of sold products from the number on display on the stores' web pages. If the product was oversold, buyers would see an "oversold" label on the page and could then ask for a refund.
"Overselling happens when a lot of buyers complete their payments at the same time," a customer service employee told Shanghai Daily.
A customer surnamed Xu bought two pairs of shoes on the website and was told yesterday that they had been oversold. Xu said the seller asked her to apply for a refund and blamed Tmall for the problem.
You Minjian, a Shanghai lawyer, said: "To label the order with 'oversold' after payment is unreasonable. "A contract between the seller and buyer is legally formed after the buyer completes the payment process. In Tmall's case, the seller should deliver whatever products the buyer has bought, or the seller should certainly compensate the buyer for losses," You said. But You said it would be difficult for disappointed customers to get compensation because the amount of each order was too small and it would cost them too much to file a lawsuit.
Customers were told about a shortage of stock yesterday, 10 days after they thought they had secured bargains at Tmall.com, Alibaba's business to consumer unit.
Famous stores on Tmall, such as Uniqlo, adidas and Jack Jones, had all oversold products on November 11, China's unofficial Singles Day, when Tmall held a discount fair.
Sellers say a bug in Tmall's system resulted in overselling and they would be issuing refunds. Many buyers, however, said they would not be satisfied with just a refund and wanted compensation.
Tmall said orders were confirmed after buyers completed their payments. After that, the system would automatically cut the number of sold products from the number on display on the stores' web pages. If the product was oversold, buyers would see an "oversold" label on the page and could then ask for a refund.
"Overselling happens when a lot of buyers complete their payments at the same time," a customer service employee told Shanghai Daily.
A customer surnamed Xu bought two pairs of shoes on the website and was told yesterday that they had been oversold. Xu said the seller asked her to apply for a refund and blamed Tmall for the problem.
You Minjian, a Shanghai lawyer, said: "To label the order with 'oversold' after payment is unreasonable. "A contract between the seller and buyer is legally formed after the buyer completes the payment process. In Tmall's case, the seller should deliver whatever products the buyer has bought, or the seller should certainly compensate the buyer for losses," You said. But You said it would be difficult for disappointed customers to get compensation because the amount of each order was too small and it would cost them too much to file a lawsuit.
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