Is the usage period of the credit points set reasonable?
Reporters investigate consumption points
Motivation for investigation
Recently, some readers have inquired: my mobile phone bill credits have expired, is the use period of the credits set reasonable?
It is understood that the reader has more than 10,000 points expired. Before the expiration, the telecom operator sent a text message to notify him. After inquiring at the time, he felt that there was no suitable gift to exchange, and then he forgot about it. Recently, he found that the points have expired.
In order to attract customers and increase consumers' stickiness to their products, in recent years, many companies and merchants have launched a point system, that is, spending a certain amount of money will give away corresponding points and reward them with corresponding points. After accumulating a certain amount of points, they can be exchanged for gifts and deducted part of the consumption amount. Wait.
Many people usually use points for eating, drinking, and having fun.
So, in addition to setting the use period of points, what other issues are involved in points?
How can consumers solve these problems?
To this end, the reporter conducted an investigation and interview.
□ Zhang Shoukun, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our reporter Zhou Bin
"You have XX points that will expire at the end of this month, please hurry up and redeem..."
Not long ago, Yin Hang, who lives in Changshu City, Jiangsu Province, received a reminder to redeem call credits from a telecom operator.
So, he opened the "Points Mall" in the app and exchanged the points for two bags of laundry detergent and tens of yuan for phone bills.
But there are still a small amount of points, and there is no suitable product to redeem.
After consulting customer service, I was told that it will expire if it is not used up and cannot be accumulated to the next cycle.
"These points are what I usually consume, and they belong to me. Why does the merchant have to set the expiration date, and he said that it expires when it expires?" Yin Hang expressed his incomprehension.
A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently learned in an interview that in addition to doubts about "whether the use period of the points is reasonable", many consumers have expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of reminders before some points expire, "expired", and difficulty in redemption.
Points are widely used in business
Merchant may set expiry date
At present, many merchants use the membership system to attract consumers, and consumption means giving away and rewarding points.
From the use of phone bills to credit card consumption, from online shopping to travel tickets, the points system has involved all aspects of people's economic life.
The two children of Li Ting (pseudonym) in Chuzhou City, Anhui Province have been drinking milk powder of a certain brand since childhood. Every time she buys milk powder and other products, the online store will give her a point.
In June of this year, when she logged on to the mall to exchange her points for gifts, she found that more than 10,000 points had expired.
"I didn't know it had expired before. I usually push a bunch of text messages, but the points expired quietly." Li Ting told reporters that after she reported to the customer service, she learned that the points can only expire if they expired, and there is no way to remedy them. "There is no reminder from the merchant before the expiration date, and the points are originally obtained by me spending money on the goods, why let the merchant set the deadline?"
During the interview, many consumers raised similar questions: What exactly are points?
Can the merchant set the expiry date?
According to Shi Jiayou, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China and executive director of the Civil and Commercial Legal Science Research Center, and Ren Chao, a professor at the School of Economic Law at East China University of Political Science and Law, points have property attributes and belong to consumers.
Shi Jiayou said that the point system is a promotion method for merchants, which is a unilateral gift for merchants. If transaction conditions are set, it may constitute a contract, and points are exchanged for merchants’ commitments, which are binding on them, in accordance with the general principles of the Civil Code and Contract Law. , the business should fulfill its promise.
"The legal attributes of points are not clearly defined by law, but are agreed upon by the point issuer and the user's autonomy. 'Points can be exchanged for goods' is a promise made by merchants to consumers, which makes points within the corresponding range. Certain value attributes belong to the virtual property of consumers to a certain extent." Ren Chao said.
Regarding the question of whether merchants can set a period of use, the interviewed experts all believe that the period is reasonable and legal.
Sun Jianrong, a senior partner at Beijing Deheng (Suzhou) Law Firm, said that the common promotion of "points for consumption" is a gift in legal nature. When consumers meet the consumption conditions set by the merchants, the merchants will transfer their property rights and interests. The gift is given to consumers in the form of points, and the consumer accepts it, and the two parties reach a gift contract.
"Merchants can set an expiration date for point redemption. According to Article 160 of the Civil Code, merchants can give points with a termination period. When the period expires, the gift will be invalid." Sun Jianrong analyzed, but in the setting of the validity period , merchants should fully consider ensuring that consumers can use the points normally and avoid infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Huang Takiyi, a teacher of the Law School of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics and a doctor of law, believes that the point-expiration system set by the merchant can be regarded as a standard contract, and the content in it is a standard clause. According to the voluntary principle of Article 5 of the Civil Code and the relevant provisions of Article 465, this This form of contract is valid, and the merchant can specify the content of the expired points and how to deal with the expired points.
Set a fair use period
In case of force majeure, it should be extended
During the interview, the reporter learned that there are many cases where the points expire.
Many consumers have pointed out that it is not because they do not want to use it, but because of reasons such as “the merchant has no expiration reminder”, “the set period of use is too short”, and “the impact of the epidemic”. In this case, it is unreasonable for the points to expire without compensation.
Li Rui from Guangdong told reporters that in June this year, when he opened an online mall, he found that his 30,000-plus points had suddenly dropped by more than 10,000 points. After calling customer service, he found out that the 10,000-plus points had expired.
"The merchant has never clearly informed me that the points will expire before. I can only see the total number of points on the mall interface. There is no information on the validity or expiration of the points, and there is no phone or SMS reminder."
"These more than 10,000 points are worth more than 100 yuan. I reported this situation to the customer service, but the customer service thought it was my problem and did not pay attention to the expiration date of the points in time." Li Rui said angrily, reminding and informing is the business's obligation, why? Let consumers bear the loss?
"The validity period of the points constitutes the content of the gift contract and belongs to the format text. Therefore, the merchant should give a prominent reminder and explanation to the consumer when giving it for the first time, and obtain the consent of the consumer. If it is not informed in advance or arbitrarily changed later, it is to inform the consumer. rights violations." Sun Jianrong said.
Huang Takiichi said that according to the Civil Code, including the period of use of points, if the terms are related to the interests of consumers, consumers should be informed or reminded in a prominent way to ensure that consumers are fully informed when consuming.
If the merchant fails to fulfill the obligation of prompting and informing, so that the consumer fails to notice the above-mentioned clauses, the consumer can claim that the above-mentioned clauses are invalid and are not legally binding on the consumer.
Recently, Ms. Lin from Shanghai is also engaged in a tug-of-war with merchants over the expiry of points.
She used to frequent a doll shop of a certain brand, and every time she made a purchase, a point was added to her membership card.
Due to the epidemic in Shanghai some time ago, and the merchants stipulated that the validity period of the points is only 3 months, a large number of their points have expired.
Ms. Lin repeatedly reported to the customer service and appealed many times, but she still could not get the points extension or compensation.
In this regard, Shi Jiayou said that according to business practices, merchants have the right to set a period of use for points, but they should set a reasonable period, such as airline mileage points. Most consumers do not fly frequently, and it may take two or three years to redeem mileage. the minimum requirement, then the period of use of the points must be set at least 2 years.
"From the perspective of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, merchants should give a reminder one month before the expiry of points. In case of force majeure such as the epidemic, the period of use of points should be extended." Shi Jiayou said that there is no technical obstacle for merchants to do so. It is due to fulfill its social responsibilities in accordance with the law.
In addition, in reality, there are also cases where points are "expired" and "reduced" due to non-consumer personal reasons such as merchant system upgrades, system errors, and unclear rules.
On March 13 this year, Ms. Zhao from Hexi District, Tianjin bought herself a birthday present from an online shopping mall, costing a total of 430 yuan.
According to the points rules of the online mall, the consumption on the birthday will get double points, that is, 860 points.
But a few days later, when Ms. Zhao went to pick up the goods offline, she only received 430 points.
The customer service said that the day of pickup is not the birthday, and the points cannot be doubled.
Such an explanation made Ms. Zhao incomprehensible.
Many consumers from Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu and other places complained when interviewed by reporters that sometimes the reason why they choose a certain brand for similar products is because of their points and points exchange. If it is said to be overdue, it will expire, and if it is said to be reduced, it will be reduced, and its own rights and interests have suffered a lot. This kind of dishonest behavior of merchants should be condemned.
Points redemption hidden routines
Collect evidence to protect rights according to law
In addition to the expiration date, it is not easy to exchange points for desired products.
Ms. Liu from Fengtai District, Beijing exchanged her points for a 20-yuan gift certificate in an online mall and found that the gift certificate was not supported in her area.
On the exchange page, there is no indication of which regions can be used, and there is no warning that "once exchanged, it cannot be refunded".
"The redeemed gift certificates can neither be placed nor returned, which is equivalent to wasting a lot of points in vain, which is obviously a dumb loss for consumers." Ms. Liu said.
Zhang Yao, from Chuzhou, Anhui, is not worried about not having points, but not being able to use them.
He has used a credit card for many years and has a lot of redeemable points, but the items he wants to redeem are always out of stock.
There are also some commodities that merchants have set up to redeem, and they are often sold out in an instant.
Zhang Yao told reporters that he had reported this issue to the customer service many times, and the other party always said that the products will be updated from time to time.
There are also many consumers who complained to reporters that there are fewer and fewer cases of simply exchanging points for commodities, and there are more and more forms of "points + cash" exchanging commodities.
Doubt the points actually offset part of the amount?
According to public reports, in March this year, Ms. Yang, a consumer in Xinyang City, Henan Province, reported that she purchased a 1kg bottle of laundry detergent through the Points Mall, and the page showed that she needed to pay 683 points + 24.17 yuan in cash.
In the online self-operated store of the laundry detergent, it only costs 23.8 yuan to buy the same product, and the price after using the points is even more expensive than the normal purchase price.
Regarding the various problems in the points system, Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, analyzed that this is because the points rules of some merchants are not open and transparent enough, the rules are not clear enough, and the disputes are all up to the merchants. Caused by the calculation.
In addition, it is also related to the fact that some point acquisition and exchange processes are too complicated, and some merchants even deliberately set additional conditions, causing some consumers to simply give up their rights and interests.
How to further standardize the points system?
Ren Chao believes that merchants should make reasonable judgments for expired points according to different situations.
After the merchant informs the consumer and the consumer knows or should know the expiry and clearing rules, if the consumer misses the point activity only for his own reasons, the merchant may not delay or compensate; however, if it is due to the merchant or objective factors, it cannot be If the consumer's own factors cause the points to expire and cannot be used, the merchant shall provide points extension and compensation services.
Chen Yinjiang suggested that merchants should be fair and reasonable when formulating points rules, taking into account the interests of both parties, and not set the exchange threshold too high, especially not to set some unfair and unreasonable format clauses that limit exchange, which damages the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
In addition to informing consumers of the points rules in advance and reminding them before the expiration date, merchants should also open up after-sales service channels to facilitate consumers to negotiate and solve problems in a timely manner.
"Consumers should also improve their awareness of self-protection, and do not blindly make impulse purchases for points. Before using consumption points, they should carefully read the points rules formulated by merchants. If there is a problem of damage to rights, they should collect relevant evidence in time and protect their rights in accordance with the law. ." Chen Yinjiang said.
In Ren Chao's view, because merchants or e-commerce platforms have a stronger trading status than consumers, in fact, consumers do not have much room for bargaining with the points system, and they either accept or choose to leave, and it can even be said that some consumers accept Consent is also a form of "passive" consent.
Therefore, reporting to the platform customer service about the points issue may have little effect.
If consumers feel that their rights and interests have been damaged, it is recommended to report to consumer rights protection organizations and protect their rights in accordance with the law.
"If there is a problem with the products that consumers exchange with points, the Consumer Rights Protection Law, the Product Quality Law and the relevant three-guarantee regulations can also be applied. Consumers can claim their rights and interests as they normally purchase goods or services. That is to say, If there are quality problems in the products redeemed by points, the merchants can also be required to fulfill the policy of guaranteed repair, replacement and refund according to law." Chen Yinjiang said.