Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    FREE consultations regarding consumer rights were offered to residents in every district across the city yesterday — World Consumer Rights Day.

    In Luohu District, lawyers and merchants were invited to an outdoor event in Kingglory Plaza to answer questions for residents. “Online scams and risks of online shopping are highlighted in this year’s event,” said Chen Yan, a staff member of the Luohu District Consumer Council, which organized the event.

    According to Chen, the number of consumer complaints about online scams has been climbing in recent years, but it’s challenging for the council to tackle the problem, because new types of online scams keep popping up. He said that what the council could do is to give advice to consumers based on existing cases and assist victims in redeeming their losses.

    Long Guimei, a financial manager with Postal Savings Bank of China, said that the bank had been adopting various measures to protect clients from telecom and online scams. “If a client wants to transfer money to another person at our bank counters, we double check with them and persuade them not to transfer money to strangers,” she said.

    The council also invited representatives from 58.com and Rainbow Department Store to answer questions from residents regarding the after-sales problems of online shopping.

    Zhang Yu, deputy head of Rainbow Department Store’s e-commerce department, said that the company had set up customer service teams for their online customers since the company launched its shopping website and app. According to her, many online shoppers are concerned about product quality, after-sales services and delivery problems.

    Yang Yixian, a lawyer with Guangdong Guoxin Law Firm in Shenzhen, said that many residents who sought her consultation during the event yesterday had been bothered by troubles getting a refund after shopping online.

    According to Yang, consumers should keep the receipts or screenshots when they buy things online in case they need to return the products.

    She said that if a product is counterfeit or has other quality problems, the consumer should ask the merchant to pay for the express fee to return the product, and they could report the case to the shopping website or consumer council if their request is rejected.