Hong Kong’s Consumer Council urges e-commerce platforms to make it easier for online shoppers to return goods, obtain refunds
- The call comes after its staff made 54 purchases during a trial
- Out of the 47 times they applied to return goods or obtain refunds, only 23 requests were successfully pursued
Online shopping in Hong Kong might not be as convenient as it seemed when it came to making claims on returning goods, the consumer watchdog said on Tuesday, after achieving less than 50 per cent success rate in its purchase trials.
But it said that out of the 47 times its staff applied for goods to be returned or to obtain a refund, only 23 requests were successfully pursued, while the services offered by the platforms varied a lot.
The council criticised e-commerce platform Big Big Shop, owned by the city’s biggest television broadcaster Television Broadcasts (TVB), for being non-transparent about applications for goods return.
It said there was no explanation or links for such a procedure in the user’s account, while consumers could only refer to the page of “frequently asked questions” to find some details.
“Many pages showing products sold in Big Big Shop do not list out any information on returning goods, changing goods or claiming refund, only a minority of product pages listed out the emails of product suppliers for contact,” it said in the monthly CHOICE Magazine.