Text/Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Zeng Fanying
New Chinese tea drinks are becoming more and more popular among young people.
According to iiMedia Consulting's "Investigation and Analysis Report on the Development Status and Consumption Trend of China's New Tea Drink Industry in the First Half of 2022", the market size of China's new tea drink market will be 279.59 billion yuan in 2021, and it is expected that the new tea drink market will reach 374.93 billion yuan in 2025 .
In order to win long-term customer sources, various brands launched various tea coupons for promotional activities in the competition, in order to increase the conversion of user traffic and cultivate consumption habits.
However, during the investigation, the reporter found that some tea coupons had information discrepancies in the process of receiving and canceling after verification, which brought a lot of confusion to consumers and affected the consumption experience.
Consumption case
"Full range of drinks"?
Shrunk!
"I was so happy that I bought a coupon for a 'full series of drinks', but I was 'stabbed' in the end." Ms. Xie, a citizen, used points to receive HEYTEA on an e-commerce platform in January this year." The cash coupons of 58 yuan minus 8 yuan have encountered the embarrassment of inconsistency between the collection page and the cashing page in terms of the store and the scope of product use.
Ms. Xie showed the reporter the collection page.
The "Benefit Details" on the collection page introduces "8 yuan off for a full range of drinks over 58" and "event cities are universal across the country".
Ms. Xie said that in January, she was attracted by these two rights and interests, so she exchanged her points for coupons.
Unexpectedly, after binding to the HEYTEA GO applet, the rights and interests of the "redemption page" of the coupon have changed.
The reporter saw that the scope of availability has changed to "...designated store use", and the applicable products have become "some products are available, the specific time when the order is placed shall prevail."
"So, what's going on here?" Ms. Xie was confused.
Ms. Xie is not an isolated case. Reporters have found similar cases on major social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin.
Some bloggers complained that they won the "free order" coupon of Guming, but found that the rules had been changed.
The blogger uploaded two coupons respectively, one is the coupon before the change, the applicable store is "except for the ancient Ming Zengcheng Donghui City, other stores are available", the other is the coupon whose rules have been changed, and it says "except the ancient Outside of Mingzeng City and Donghui City, ancient tea stores in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan are all available."
On a complaint platform, the reporter saw that some consumers also complained about "modifying the scope of use by themselves".
Some consumers said that in February this year, they got a free tea coupon in the mini program, and saw that it could be used in their city that day, but found that the coupon could not be used in March.
The brand customer service replied that the compensation was refused on the grounds that the event was limited to the city.
"It's clearly agreed to write off more than one ticket at a time?"
"Hey Tea's ten-cup coupons were clearly sold as multiple coupons at a time, but they were changed when they were actually used. They can only be used one by one." Mr. Tong, a citizen, complained in a post on a social networking site.
The reporter contacted the citizen, who said that the incident happened in November last year. He had contacted the customer service to communicate, hoping to find a solution, but it has not been resolved so far.
Mr. Tong shared the coupon page purchased at that time, and the reporter saw that it said "the electronic coupon of this package only supports one-time full use".
He wanted to use it at one time, and it would be more cost-effective to send it together, but he didn't expect to be told that "the coupon is a single-cup coupon and needs to be written off separately."
brand response
Operation follow-up will be more precise
For this reason, the reporter interviewed HEYTEA. Ms. Li, the person in charge, did not explain why the rights and interests information on the collection page and the verification page were different. She replied that "the follow-up operation will be more accurate. '58-8 'This coupon, except for the seasonal new products that have been off the shelves, does not affect any other products on sale." Ms. Li added that the city range of the collection page is set by the platform and has nothing to do with them.
Ms. Xie, a citizen, told the reporter that as an information receiver, she does not understand the cooperation agreement between the platform and the merchant, and can only choose her own rights and interests from the information displayed on the page, and the merchant has the responsibility to clearly check the information.
The relevant person in charge of Guming said that he would like to sincerely apologize for the uncomfortable experience of consumers.
"This activity was originally an offline coupon collection activity in Guangdong. Later, the QR code of the activity was shared online, causing users outside Guangdong to also participate in this activity. After our company found out, it adjusted the scope of the activity accordingly. At present, our Relevant departments of the company have sorted out the users who received coupons before the event adjustment, and will reissue a consumption coupon corresponding to an unlimited range (valid in stores nationwide) until the account number of participating users before the event rules are revised, please rest assured."
lawyer analysis
The scope of application is greatly reduced and may involve consumer fraud
Merchants set thresholds for the use of various coupons, thereby increasing the difficulty for consumers to enjoy discounts.
According to Zheng Zhili, chief lawyer of Guangdong Jinweifang Law Firm, this is a violation of consumers' right to know and right to fair trade.
"Coupons are a kind of voucher that replaces cash consumption. Merchants achieve promotional effects and consumers can save money. However, after purchasing coupons, consumers often find that the usage area and scope of the coupons are inconsistent with the promotion. Or it is inconsistent with the content understood by normal people, and the purpose of consumers to buy coupons has not been realized.” According to Article 8 of the Consumer Protection Law, “Consumers have the right to know the real situation of the goods they purchase and use or the services they receive. ".
She said that when merchants sell coupons, they should clearly state in which cities the coupons can be used.
Modifying the scope of use is a unilateral change to the contract
Regarding the problem of changes in the scope of use of consumer vouchers encountered by many consumers, Li Fei, a lawyer at Guangdong Lingnan Law Firm, pointed out that the scope of use of consumer vouchers is often an important factor affecting consumers' purchases.
When a consumer purchases a voucher, it is equivalent to signing a sales contract with the merchant, and the agreement on the scope of use of the voucher is an important part of the contract, and the merchant's direct modification of the scope of use is essentially a unilateral change of the content of the contract by the merchant.
The scope of application is greatly narrowed. This situation may involve the issue of consumer fraud. Whether the operator has intentionally concealed the real situation or intentionally disclosed false information, causing consumers to be deceived and misled is the key to determining whether the operator has fraudulent behavior.
Lawyer Li Fei said that if it is identified as consumer fraud, the operator can be required to compensate consumers for losses according to Article 55 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law.
If it is not enough to deduce that the operator has intentionally maliciously and falsely advertised subjectively, and it should be a defect of webpage propaganda, then according to Article 25 of the Consumer Protection Law, the operator should provide consumers with a cancellation (return) Ways and means of coupon redemption.
Industry Observation
Unauthorized changes to promotional terms or affect brand image
Lin Yue, an analyst in the catering industry, told reporters that the earliest starting point of tea brands was to stimulate consumption and increase user stickiness through coupons, including encouraging users to form dependence on and attention to their own platforms and small programs.
"However, with the intensification of competition and high operating costs, some tea brands have changed their ways to 'play' this game, and they also want to gamble that consumers will not carefully calculate and study various rules, because they usually pay attention It states that 'the final right of interpretation belongs to the brand side'."
He further analyzed that the "originator" of this marketing model is mainly brands such as McDonald's and KFC, and various discounts and gameplays have emerged in an endless stream over the years.
"They are relatively honest, and most of them are free coupons, which can be used immediately. But in terms of some tea brands, we will find that sometimes we buy 'future coupons', which cannot be used in the short term. This is actually a kind of pit'." Lin Yue believes that buying consumer vouchers is essentially similar to a small deposit, which may be insignificant to consumers, but it is a considerable income for brands.
"Changing promotional terms without authorization will harm the brand as a whole. Consumers will only be deceived once, and it will lose points for the brand image."
Li Fei suggested that new Chinese-style tea brands should use information technology means to add reminder information links to ensure that users are notified of comprehensive and accurate information on the products to be redeemed before redemption, so as to avoid misunderstandings and ambiguities among consumers and protect consumers' comparisons. , The right to identify and select goods and services.