A surge in online shopping amid the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a sharp rise in consumer complaints, with two-thirds of them coming from users of e-commerce platform Shopee, the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Committee said.
Last year, 6,362 complaints were filed against six major e-commerce platforms — a year-on-year increase of 2,119 cases, or 49.9 percent, the committee said.
Of those cases, 4,069 were from Shopee users, it said, adding that 1,500 of them were related to mispriced egg tarts.
The shopping platform with the second-greatest number of complaints was Momo with 1,065 cases — 16 more than in 2020 — while PChome users filed the third-greatest number of complaints with 465 cases — 93 more than in 2020, the committee said.
Complaints of Ruten users grew to 366 cases, 15 more than in 2020, it said.
Only Yahoo Shopping saw a decline in complaints, with 45 fewer cases than in 2020, the committee said.
ETMall had 164 complaints — the same as in 2020, it said.
The greatest cause of complaints was mispriced items, which accounted for 23.6 percent of total complaints, the committee said, adding that most of those filing complaints said they were not satisfied with how the respective platform and sellers handled the discrepancy.
The second-greatest cause of complaints was product defects, most involving electronics, with consumers saying they were not able to use the products as intended, it said.
Twenty percent of complaints involved returns, with buyers saying they were dissatisfied with the return fees charged by sellers, or saying that the funds were not returned to them within the promised time, it said.
The committee said that 6.6 percent of complaints involved shipping delays, largely due to the sharp increase in online shopping activity after the start of the pandemic, which put more pressure on logistics operators.
Although the increase in online shopping activity caused by the pandemic contributed to the increase in complaints, there was still considerable room for improvement in the management and service quality of the platforms, it said.
The committee said it had asked platforms to implement conflict prevention mechanisms such as real-name registration for sellers, delayed payment systems and other measures to protect the rights and interests of consumers.
However, people should understand the risks of shopping online, it said, urging them to investigate the reputations of individual sellers and platforms to better protect themselves.
The committee said that except for under “reasonable exceptions” stipulated by the Consumer Protection Act (消費者保護法), consumers can return products to sellers within seven days of receipt at no cost or burden to themselves.
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