Right now is a good time to eat crabs. The five-flowered hairy crabs have become the darlings of the market. All kinds of crab coupons and crab cards are also flying all over the sky, but the marketing routines of the merchants have caused consumers to complain.
1 Crab card flying all over the sky model price is unclear
The reporter used "crabs, coupons, cards" as keywords, and searched on several major e-commerce platforms. There are all kinds of crab coupons and crab cards, and the cards are generally marked with 1888, 2688, 2688, 3588 and other words.
At first glance, everyone would think that this is the price of a crab card. No wonder some people say that they can’t afford it.
But if you observe carefully, you will find that there is often a type of "Xing" next to these bold numbers. This is where the mystery lies.
It turns out that these four-digit numbers at every turn represent the coupon model, not the actual price.
The reporter tested several different types of crab cards. They contained four pairs of male and female crabs, a total of 8 crabs. These crab cards with the words "2688" and "3588" can often be bought for one or two hundred yuan. , Some merchants even send coupons, after discount, some crab cards even cost tens of yuan.
People in the hairy crab business all year round said that this approach is for the good of the market.
Industry insider Mr. Li: Most people buy gift cards without picking up the goods by themselves, but as gifts.
Maybe the customer has a kind of psychological comfort and looks better when they are given away.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society: Our “consumer law” clearly stipulates that this kind of information that has a major interest relationship with consumers must be in a prominent way or in a prominent position. To remind consumers to pay attention.
It doesn't matter whether 188, 138 or 888, the key is what crabs to provide, how big and how many.
I thought I bought it for 1880 yuan, but it was actually suspected of misleading consumers.
2 Crab card merchants have routines to pick up the goods and it is difficult to deliver the crabs.
Selling at high altitudes and selling at low prices attract consumers. Once an order is placed, the second routine of the crab coupon merchants comes—they often fail to pick up the goods.
During the investigation, the reporter encountered what is "a card in hand, a crab is hard to find".
The reporter spent 138 yuan to buy a 1888-type crab card at the top-ranked store on an e-commerce platform.
On the third day after the order was placed, the reporter received a crab card from the merchant express, indicating three ways to pick up the goods: telephone appointment, website appointment and WeChat pickup.
The reporters began to try one by one. They called for three consecutive days to make an appointment for a manual line. The waiting time each time exceeded 3 minutes, but no one answered the call.
During this period, the reporter tried to make an appointment on the website and pick up the goods on WeChat, and the results showed that "the appointment has been filled in the last 52 days."
The reporter had no choice but to return to the e-commerce platform to contact the seller to reflect the difficulty of delivery.
The customer service said that he could add a plug to the reporter and wait for about 20 days to pick up the goods at the end of October. Finally, congratulations to the reporter for choosing his product correctly.
When the reporter asked "Is it possible that other stores will deliver goods indefinitely", the customer service said that some of them are simply indefinite delivery.
Delivery is so difficult, is it because the production of hairy crabs is not enough and the supply is less than demand?
Zhou Gang, a researcher at the Jiangsu Freshwater Fisheries Research Institute, said that despite the impact of flood conditions and other objective factors this year, the total output can still meet market consumer demand.
That being the case, why is it so difficult to ship?
Insider Mr. Li: In fact, it is to reduce costs.
Under normal circumstances, before October 1st, the quality is not so good, it is tender, and it is easier to die during express delivery. Because the seller's price is fixed, the cost will be higher if it is sent in the early stage, so the later the crab is cheaper .
In addition to difficult appointments and delayed delivery, if someone finally picks up the goods successfully, there is a third trick-"I feel less on paper."
The reporter found in the buyer's "review" on multiple e-commerce platforms that the most reported problem is that the hairy crabs are short of catastrophe.
Consumers complained that the rope used to tie the crab was thicker than the chopsticks and was soaked in water.
A crab marked 4 taels has 1 tael rope.
According to industry insiders, this is also the most direct and easiest place to operate in the crab card.
3 Potential consumption risks of prepaid crab card deposit
In fact, as early as more than ten years ago, hairy crab farmers in Yangcheng Lake started using crab coupons and crab cards. It was first used for the convenience of consumers. They can call to redeem them at any time when they want to eat or give them away. There is an estimate to reduce the problem of non-delivery or detention of goods.
However, some merchants gradually led them to go astray and became a means of making money, which caused consumption risks.
According to experts, Crab Card Coupon is a typical prepaid consumption.
In recent years, according to the complaints received by the China Consumers Association, there are many prepaid complaints and difficult to resolve, and the crab coupons and crab cards are more risky than ordinary prepaid consumption.
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society: For example, hairdressing, fitness, or at least a shop, consumption is also sticky.
However, there is no access mechanism for crab coupons. Most of them are sold online. Consumers do not know how big the business entity is. After two or three months, it may take a year to pick up the goods and wait for the next cycle. At that time, there are big variables in the business process of businesses.
By delaying the delivery period and controlling the proportion of delivery, merchants can form capital deposits.
It is reported that about 20% of cardholders will not pick up the goods each year without active intervention by merchants, which virtually provides merchants with opportunities to deposit funds.
Liu Junhai, Professor of Law School of Renmin University of China: As a result, the issuer of the crab card can have the opportunity to maintain control of the deposited funds. After the huge amount of funds is deposited, if the business runs off or falls into bankruptcy due to poor management, consumers The loss is even greater.