Article | Most Words FunTalk Wei Xia Editor | Wang Fangjie
"There are more refunds than any other reason," said a merchant selling burning paper helplessly.
The merchant runs an online shop that specializes in sacrificial products. The comprehensive experience of its online shop is five stars. The regular customers who have spent many times with signs give praise of "excellent quality", "good quality at low price", etc. Even so, the merchant has been troubled by the problem of "refund only".
It is not only the shopkeeper who sells sacrificial articles who is tortured by "refund only". In a business mutual aid group, hundreds of businesses share their experience of "being refunded" every day. Hu Hai (not his real name) is the leader of this mutual aid group, and also the "hero" of these businesses.
Because these businesses are struggling to cope with the impact of the "refund only" policy. In the face of "refund only", they seem very passive, and sometimes they dare not even argue with buyers more, otherwise they will face the double punishment of "prohibition" and "fine".
As the e-commerce industry has entered a saturation state, each e-commerce platform has increased its competition, and the most important dimension is to improve the user experience. Therefore, focusing on after-sales service, the service level of the head e-commerce has been generally upgraded from "no reason to return and exchange within seven days" to "refund only".
Although at present, in most scenarios, the "refund only" policy is not an after-sales service that buyers can choose independently, but requires the platform to screen the quality of goods, express services and merchant services, and then as a kind of bottom line commitment to user experience, after all, as a third party, it is difficult for the platform to really participate in business flow and logistics, The evaluation criteria are often just the description of the buyer, the screenshots of the relevant communication between the buyer and the seller, or the photos of the goods.
From the content of the above business mutual aid group, many businesses believe that because of the popularity of the "refund only" policy, there have been "wool parties" in the market that use the policy to make money, and even "there have been refund only training courses." One business said.
In the face of "refund only" buyers scattered across the country, merchants often have no choice, but there are always some "genuine" merchants who have to recover goods/payment even if they cross thousands of kilometers.
01. "Can't swallow this breath"
On June 13, Hu Hai launched a live broadcast, the content of which was that he went to Shuyang County, Jiangsu Province to find a "high-quality customer".
The "high-quality customer" in Huhaikou is not a customer with good reputation or strong consumption ability, but a special title used by merchants to satirize those "refund only" buyers. Hu Hai often cooperates with merchants in the place where "high-quality customers" are located to ask for goods/payment, so he is praised by merchants as "the hero of e-commerce merchants" and "the fighter against only refunds".
In order to crack down on the "Wool Party", Hu Hai has also set up a website called "Business Mutual Aid Association". Through this website, the merchants of the mutual aid club can quickly obtain each other's contact information. When encountering the situation of "refund only", the merchants can contact the members of the mutual aid club where the buyer is located to help call or ask for goods/payment at home.
"The business mutual aid association is free, and now it can be covered in all regions except Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, etc." Hu Hai mentioned in a live broadcast.
In this live broadcast, accompanied by local merchants in Shuyang, Hu Hai came to find a "high-quality customer", a relevant person of an engineering company in Shuyang (WeChat note), whose "refund only" amount was up to 3167 yuan. During the peak period, the number of people in Hu Hai's live broadcast room reached nearly 2000.
Some of these people in Hu Hai's live broadcast room are businessmen who "share the same hatred", and some may be local users who have been "bought". When Hu Hai handles the "refund only" issue on the doorstep, he usually opens the live broadcast, and also spends some money to push the video five kilometers around. Perhaps due to the "pressure of acquaintances", the "refund only" buyer of Shuyang also called Hu Hai to ask him to close the live broadcast.
The live broadcast was indeed suspended, but Hu Hai explained that it was required by the local authorities, "Let's negotiate in good faith first, if not, they will come to help us solve the problem."
Perhaps the influence of the live broadcast was relatively large, or perhaps due to door-to-door pressure, the "refund only" buyer finally transferred the payment to Hu Hai through WeChat. Hu Hai said, "I don't want to ask him for the fare. It's a great deterrent."
The merchants of the Mutual Aid Association are very supportive of Hu Hai's practice, and think that Hu Hai's live broadcast/video with people to find "high-quality users" can play the role of "setting an example to others", which makes those "wool parties" have scruples.
There are many merchants like Hu Hai who come to find "high-quality customers". The amount they collect is only a few tens of dollars, even a few dollars. The main reason for collecting money across thousands of kilometers is that they can't swallow the breath.
A businessman in Yiwu recorded the whole process of his recovery of 9.9 yuan of short sleeves. The "high-quality customer" in his words is located in Weihai, Shandong, 1500 kilometers away from him. The merchant found the buyer's school according to the delivery address, and got the buyer's contact information through the school's express station.
After meeting with the buyer, the merchant asked why the buyer gave the reason for the refund of "the goods did not match the description". The buyer replied "not cotton", but the merchant explained that the word "cotton" never appeared in the title of the goods. After multi-party coordination, the two parties signed a Letter of Understanding, and the merchant finally put forward two demands: one is to return all the payment for goods, and the other is to require the buyer to bear part of the travel expenses.
Faced with the travel expenses of thousands of yuan, the buyer turned back after the merchant returned. She said that she was a student and could not afford this expense, and even made some extreme remarks. For the buyer's reversal, some netizens commented: "Refund only is a test of humanity, but humanity is often the most untested."
02. "I sent out several wreaths"
In the face of "refund only", considering the cost problem, not all merchants will choose door-to-door to ask for the goods/payment, but choose other ways to "vent".
In the mutual aid group, merchants often publish the information of "refund only" buyers, even the "pickup monitoring video" recorded by the express site. Some irritated merchants will also publish this information on the network. The emotion aroused by "refund only" makes them have no time to consider whether this method is suspected to be illegal.
"In online stores, people always talk on their knees, and call their eighth generation ancestors." A businessman in Jiangsu calls dozens of people every day to "greet" refund only buyers. "I often call them in the middle of the night. If it is a male buyer, let our female customer service call her husband in the middle of the night, but remember not to use the phone registered by the merchant."
Phone or SMS bombing is a common "weapon" for merchants. Merchants of the mutual aid group will also share the background of the bombing software. As long as you fill in the bombing phone number, you can choose to use "SMS bombing", "phone bombing" and other methods to send messages or make calls continuously. You can also set "timed bombing" and "bombing duration" in the background.
"I have sent out several wreaths. I feel very comfortable whether to sign or not," said a businessman in Jiangsu. Another business in Heilongjiang directly showed the "ghost coin" order he sent to the buyer. When asked what to do if the buyer complains? The responses of the two merchants were very consistent: they said they sent the wrong address. Is there any problem?
The reason why merchants are so angry is that most of the reasons for "refund only" are outrageous, and even more outrageous is that they have successfully refunded.
"The man who collects wool is speechless. He uses other people's comment pictures to my home for 'refund only'." An Anhui merchant recently received a demand for 'refund only'. The buyer gave the reason that "there are insects on the bamboo shoots", and the merchant found that the pictures provided by the buyer are the evaluation pictures published by others in June 2023.
On June 13, a clothing business in Shandong received an application for "return and refund". The screenshot of the order sent by the business shows that the buyer signed for the dress three months ago, and now only applies for a refund with the reason of "the material does not match the description". The merchant said, "I have worn it for so long that it is old and ugly. I proposed to apply for a 5 yuan discount for him, but he did not accept it. Later, the platform took the initiative to intervene and prompted the buyer to only refund. During this period, I was temporarily banned."
"My profit is only about 15%, and a refund alone is equivalent to 10 jobs for nothing." A business selling "ordinary imitation" bags in Hebei has been forced to close the store by "refund only". The after-sales detail figure he gave shows that the buyer's reason for refund only is "like it, but some lines have fallen out". The merchant said angrily, "A 35 yuan bag can't have the quality of tens of thousands of yuan. The store I just opened in April is going to close. Later, I will also be a 'quality customer' to recover the losses."
One Shandong merchant doing virtual products had no choice but to refund. "I am in the RBT business, and the reason for refund is even more strange. Virtual products were sent out for free, and promotion fees were thrown away for free." Another merchant also agreed with this. "The virtual automatic delivery is not good, and if returned, it will be lost, and the basic appeal will not be passed."
The "fire" of refund only sometimes burns to "couriers". Many buyers will apply for "refund only" by "not receiving goods" and other reasons. Businesses can only verify the receipt information through couriers or express stations, or even directly complain to couriers. "Considering that the courier is also very innocent, our business is only refunded, which is not related to the courier, and people have to be deducted money." A Guangdong business is somewhat "heartless" about this practice.
These businesses have always wondered why buyers are unwilling to send back goods when there is freight insurance. They repeatedly discussed a topic in the group - "If the quality is bad, you should return the goods."
03. "Warning letters are popular now?"
Before taking these extreme measures, these businesses also tried other "moderate" treatment methods, but with little effect.
"Last month, there was a 30 yuan only refund. I successfully complained to the platform, but only 14 yuan was returned," said a Guangdong merchant. Another Anhui merchant also showed a picture of his successful appeal in the group, and 28 yuan was returned from the 34 yuan payment appeal.
Because the payment for goods returned from complaints is often "discounted", many businesses give up the path of complaints. They believe that "the money returned from complaints is not as expensive as labor costs", but more businesses can not even go through the path of complaints.
"One of my stores has a 70% pass rate of appeal, but the other stores have no 20% pass rate of appeal." A businessman couldn't figure out why the gap between his stores is so large. In the mutual aid group, many businesses have mentioned their experience of failure to appeal. For them, "the appeal passing rate reaches 50%" is an extravagant hope.
A Shandong merchant once asked the courier for help, hoping that the courier could contact the buyer to get the goods back, but the buyer complained to the platform with the reason of "the merchant let the courier harass me", and the platform finally fined the merchant 200 yuan. Another Guangdong merchant was also fined, and he was banned for five days. Another experienced merchant said, "In theory, you will be fined."
Because of this, the group leader Hu Hai also gave a suggestion: "When encountering 'refund only', don't communicate with 'quality users', and don't theorize". Some merchants tried to explain the "consequences" of "refund only" to buyers during transactions, and tried to warn and deter the "wool party", but it still had no effect, and even was repulsed by buyers.
A merchant attached a note to the commodity detail page, express bag or sent goods stating the "consequences" of only refunding. For example, without the merchant's consent, the merchant directly sued for "refunding only" without any further notice. The amount of compensation for the expenses incurred in the litigation is about 2000 yuan, which shall be fully borne by the purchaser, and the terms shall be agreed upon upon purchase.
A buyer who bought chicken feet online opened the express package and saw this kind of "only refund notice" note. She said angrily, "Previously, when buying things, they were greeting cards, or when they received a card that was returned unsatisfied or contacted customer service, warning letters are popular now?"
Some businesses have tried to avoid the "wool party" by making products with high customer price, but she found that even expensive things will be "only refunded". In desperation, merchants counted Shandong, Liaoning and other provinces with the highest probability of "refund only" by exchanging information, and set these provinces as "non delivery areas".
Some businesses also suggested that members of the mutual aid association could ask professional lawyers to help them file a lawsuit, but the lawyers who only dealt with refunds in the market were mixed up, and they didn't reach an agreement on this finally.
On social media, there are many lawyers who only deal with refunds, and many successful cases of recovery of payment after prosecution. However, in fact, it is not so simple for merchants to win a lawsuit. Even if they win a lawsuit, only the payment for goods can be recovered, and it is difficult to recover other costs related to litigation.
After trying various ways to deal with "refund only", merchants found that the most effective way was to "return" and quit. In the mutual aid group, many businesses set up stalls after returning from their stores, and they often exclaim that "the end of e-commerce is a stall".
