The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee found that the consumption survey of second-hand trading platforms: problems such as selling fakes frequently occur, there are many routines, and it is difficult to protect rights
Buy low-priced products on second-hand trading platforms, and be careful to step on the "pit"
Our reporter Huang Hongtao
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In recent years, second-hand trading has become more and more popular, but under the rapid development, there are also some chaos in the second-hand trading platform, such as the sale of fake goods, pirated online courses, and phishing fraud.
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee recommends that the relevant standards for second-hand trading platforms be issued as soon as possible, and further improve the contents including information release, user qualification review, return and exchange rules, and fund security, and strengthen the supervision of the industry and the restrictions on illegal behavior.
In recent years, with the acceleration of product updates and iterations, consumers have a large number of idle items in their hands, and online second-hand trading platforms have also emerged. Many consumers have expressed that they can buy low-priced products on them.
However, due to low thresholds and inadequate management, second-hand trading platforms frequently have problems such as buying and selling fake goods, pirated online courses, phishing fraud, and illegal sales of “stolen goods”, which have been criticized by consumers.
Jiangsu Consumer Rights Protection Committee (hereinafter referred to as Jiangsu Consumer Protection Committee) recently launched an online second-hand trading platform consumption survey, and officially released the survey report on January 14.
The survey mainly selected the second-hand trading platforms currently on the market that have a large number of users, frequent transactions, and more problems reported by consumers, including Xianyu, Zhuanzhuan, Xianzhuan, Paipai, 58.com, Find Liangji, and Huafener.
Investigations show that second-hand trading platforms are chaotic, service and supervision mechanisms need to be optimized, and consumers need to be careful to step on the "pit".
Fake and shoddy, contraband products frequently appear
An investigation by the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission found that the information on the products on the second-hand trading platform is diverse, and the information and products that are explicitly prohibited by the second-hand trading rules still appear frequently on the platform, and some platforms are even suspected of tacitly allowing the sale of counterfeit products.
The results of the questionnaire survey showed that 17.1% of consumers encountered the problem of "fake goods and piracy"; 10.2% of consumers encountered the problem of "issuing an identification report on counterfeiting."
Consumers reported that they bought fake and shoddy items including mobile phones, cosmetics, masks, clothes, shoes, etc.
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee experienced personnel who bought a certain brand lipstick with the words "high imitation" on a platform, and the seller clearly stated that it was not genuine.
After receiving the goods, the packaging is simple, the packaging box is damaged, the lipstick is notched, and the weight is light. The experience staff suspects that the product packaging is a used genuine packaging box. In a private chat with customer service, I asked whether it is a high imitation. The seller clearly answered that it was not true .
However, these titles and the clear sales information in the chats are not monitored or dealt with accordingly by the platform.
Although the second-hand trading platform clearly stipulates that it is prohibited to publish product information involving personal privacy, pornography, vulgarity, and infringement of other people's intellectual property rights.
However, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee still found pirated online courses, pirated audio and video, vulgar comics and other related information in the experience investigation.
Many routines make it difficult for consumers to defend their rights
In a survey conducted by the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission, more than 93% of consumers said they encountered various problems in second-hand transactions.
More than half of consumers encountered opaque information and discrepancies between the actual product and the photo, including the fact that the appearance of the product, the degree of damage, the brand, the mileage of the vehicle, and the function promotion were not in line with reality.
Nearly 30% of consumers report that it is difficult to return goods in second-hand transactions, and professional sellers flood the platform.
In the online solicitation, 72 interviewees talked about the return problem, mainly focusing on the three major problems of the buyer's refusal to return, the long return time, and the difficulty in negotiating the postage. The seller encountered the inconsistency between the returned product and the sale, and the buyer maliciously refused to receive the goods. .
Nearly half of the transactions were paid off the platform, and some users did not recover funds.
Some consumers reported that the seller disappeared after receiving the payment, the payment was blocked, the temporary payment was made, and the postage was increased.
Private transactions greatly increase the transaction risk of both buyers and sellers.
At the same time, the after-sales service of second-hand trading platforms is uneven, communication and complaint channels on some platforms are not smooth, and it is difficult for consumers to protect their rights.
For example, it is difficult to find manual customer service for Xianyu and 58 in the same city. You need to enter "manual" several times or wait for a certain period of time before it appears. The customer service queue for shopping on the Liangji platform is long, and the intelligent customer service cannot be connected before the sale. After-sales contact, after-sales personnel learned about the needs and went to pre-sales again and said that they would continue to wait, but in the end they could not be connected; the pollen platform consulted the customer service, and there was a situation where no one responded to several consultations for several hours.
Supervision and service mechanisms need to be optimized
According to a survey conducted by the Consumer Protection Commission of Jiangsu Province, the most highly voted suggestions for consumers include “strengthening the review and management of information released by articles”, “establishing a management mechanism for users’ mutual evaluation”, “providing after-sales tracking services and assisting in contact”, and “strengthening seller qualifications and individuals” Review of related information" etc.
Nearly half of consumers pay attention to the credit supervision of sellers, and support the use of an evaluation system to restrict the honest transaction behavior of buyers and sellers.
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee believes that in addition to strengthening supervision and management of second-hand trading platforms, it is also necessary to build a fair and honest trading environment.
Both buyers and sellers should conduct transactions in accordance with the principle of honesty and credibility. For sellers and sellers to exaggerate publicity, conceal key information, false transactions and other dishonest and illegal activities, they should be included in the integrity evaluation system, and records of violations should be included in personal integrity files.
Establish red and black lists on the platform, publicize and disqualify users who violate laws and regulations on the platform, and impose penalties on sellers who sell counterfeit and shoddy goods, and establish a sound penalty mechanism.
The Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee also suggested that on the basis of the "E-Commerce Law", relevant standards for second-hand trading platforms should be promulgated as soon as possible, and further improvements include information release, user qualification review, return and exchange rules, fund security, and consumer rights protection. Content, by clarifying relevant regulations, strengthening the supervision of the industry and restraining illegal acts, improving the level of industry management, and promoting the healthy development of the industry.
It is reported that the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee plans to conduct interviews with 12 second-hand trading platforms including Xianyu and Paipai involved in the investigation at the end of this month to discuss the information release mechanism, review and processing rules, after-sales service procedures and handling mechanisms. And actively promote the formulation of relevant group standards to further protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and better regulate the market order of online second-hand trading platforms.