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Worthless watchdogs shamed on Consumer Day
By Ni Tao |
March 20, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MARCH 15 passes with much fanfare in China. This is the day when Chinese consumers stand united in lodging complaints against businesses they accuse of harming their interests. This is the day they supposedly become "king for a day."
The climax of the day comes when a CCTV program issues a list of irresponsible corporate citizens of the past year. Appearance in the list brings shame and probably legal action.
This year, two IT giants, Apple and Netease, a major web portal, made the list for violating Chinese consumers' rights. Apple is named because of its undesirable post-sale services, while Netease is taken to task for giving its technicians free rein to spy on users of its free e-mail system.
It never surprises me to see Apple in the list. The company is famously ungrateful to Chinese consumers who prop up its sagging global sales. Its alleged double standards ought to have been investigated long ago.
Loose enforcement of existing laws is partly to blame for recurrent quality problems. For instance, major food safety scandals are literally invariably exposed by whistle blowers, not quality watchdogs, who fail utterly in their job.
A Guangzhou resident presented a black silk banner to officers of the city's industrial and commercial bureau on March 15 when they were taking citizens' complaints in public. A red banner is a token of gratitude, while black signals irony.
The banner bore the acrimonious words "hog the toilet without passing stool," Chinese slang meaning holding a position but not doing much work. The officers hid their faces in shame and didn't accept the banner.
While some applaud this daring show of civic spirit, insulting watchdogs for their failure won't automatically result in better protection of customers' rights.
Oversight of businesses, especially big names like Apple and Netease, is too lax, and laws too lenient to give them incentive to treat their patrons better.
Some repeat offenders can afford to snub customers because they pay a ridiculously small fine for their slight. To enable Chinese customers to really feel like a king around the year, rather than on a single day, laws with more teeth - that bite - have to come in, and quickly.
The climax of the day comes when a CCTV program issues a list of irresponsible corporate citizens of the past year. Appearance in the list brings shame and probably legal action.
This year, two IT giants, Apple and Netease, a major web portal, made the list for violating Chinese consumers' rights. Apple is named because of its undesirable post-sale services, while Netease is taken to task for giving its technicians free rein to spy on users of its free e-mail system.
It never surprises me to see Apple in the list. The company is famously ungrateful to Chinese consumers who prop up its sagging global sales. Its alleged double standards ought to have been investigated long ago.
Loose enforcement of existing laws is partly to blame for recurrent quality problems. For instance, major food safety scandals are literally invariably exposed by whistle blowers, not quality watchdogs, who fail utterly in their job.
A Guangzhou resident presented a black silk banner to officers of the city's industrial and commercial bureau on March 15 when they were taking citizens' complaints in public. A red banner is a token of gratitude, while black signals irony.
The banner bore the acrimonious words "hog the toilet without passing stool," Chinese slang meaning holding a position but not doing much work. The officers hid their faces in shame and didn't accept the banner.
While some applaud this daring show of civic spirit, insulting watchdogs for their failure won't automatically result in better protection of customers' rights.
Oversight of businesses, especially big names like Apple and Netease, is too lax, and laws too lenient to give them incentive to treat their patrons better.
Some repeat offenders can afford to snub customers because they pay a ridiculously small fine for their slight. To enable Chinese customers to really feel like a king around the year, rather than on a single day, laws with more teeth - that bite - have to come in, and quickly.
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