In the context of counterfeit, imitation, and low-quality goods still rampant on e-commerce platforms, ensuring the rights of buyers is a major concern for most popular e-commerce sites in Vietnam.
For example, Shopee’s policy allows buyers to request a return within three days after receiving the product. The return process is also very simple, as buyers only need evidence clearly indicating that the received product is faulty/incorrect/broken or not as described.
If both parties have reached an agreement and the seller has no complaints, the buyer’s request will be automatically accepted by Shopee within two days. Conversely, if the seller complains about the buyer’s return/refund request, they must provide evidence to Shopee to prove the buyer’s claim is invalid. Shopee will review the evidence provided by both parties and contact the buyer within the next 3 – 5 working days to determine a resolution.
Notably, although this policy is particularly beneficial for those who frequently shop online, many bad actors have recently exploited loopholes in the return process to profit personally, leaving many sellers on Shopee in a difficult position.
Using Sophisticated Tricks to Get Free Goods or Take Over Products
In a private Facebook group, P.A.H, a seasoned ‘scammer’ on e-commerce platforms, asserted that tricking both sellers and Shopee is not overly sophisticated, but rather quite simple.
Typically, the items often targeted by bad actors are electronics such as phones, computer components, or high-value fashion items. Most scammers are well-versed in the formula: after receiving the product, they immediately file a complaint with Shopee citing that the item does not work, is defective, or does not match the description.
Since they cannot provide evidence, most sellers will lose the dispute when it arises. Once Shopee accepts the return request, the bad actors only need to go to shipping companies to return the items, along with providing tracking numbers to Shopee to prove they have sent the items back to the seller.
According to P.A.H, some ‘well-meaning’ buyers often use this trick to… enjoy free products for weeks before returning them to the shop. On the other hand, there are those who have ‘conspired’ to swap and seize products.
In reality, many shop owners have found themselves in a “bitter laughing” situation, when they sent out expensive products but received… a package filled with bricks, scraps of paper, or a carefully packed cup of water.
Unable to provide video evidence of the product testing process or packaging along with the tracking number, shop owners had to endure a double loss: not only could they not sell the goods, but they also suffered damages from the swapped items, all while having to refund the scammers.
Knowing They’ve Been Scammed but Still Grin and Bear It
It is noteworthy that despite the increasing number of cases involving these scams, many sellers, when speaking with reporters, still assert that installing a camera system to record the packaging process is not feasible for various reasons.
For shops with a large number of orders reaching thousands weekly, like in the case of Mr. Nguyễn Hoàng T (Đà Nẵng), filming close-up videos of each package before shipping is something that is nearly impossible to implement. Mr. T admitted that the cost of installing cameras is not too expensive but the issues related to data storage and the excessive time required to film are what make him hesitate.
“Normally, with about 1000 orders sent to customers, there will be a percentage of a few orders that are returned damaged, or even swapped. However, the monthly volume of orders from my shop is too large, and it is impossible to film that many videos due to the limited number of staff, while productivity would also be affected somewhat. So I have to accept the losses and not file complaints with Shopee, considering it a risk cost,” Mr. T shared.
Data storage issues and excessive time for filming have led many high-volume shop owners on Shopee to refuse to install cameras (illustrative image)
Additionally, there are still cases where video evidence has been recorded, but Shopee did not resolve the matter satisfactorily, inadvertently causing many shop owners to be disinterested in installing cameras.
Mr. Đỗ Đức Tùng (Bắc Giang), owner of a mobile phone shop on Shopee, is one such case. Opening a returned package revealed an iPhone 7 worth 4.2 million VND sent back with the reason that the device would not turn on, Mr. Tùng was taken aback when inside the box was only a ‘brick’ phone worth nearly 200,000 VND.
Having heard about such cases many times before, he submitted evidence to Shopee to file a complaint. However, Shopee’s representative refused to handle the case due to the unclear video of the tracking number. As a result, Mr. Tùng had to refund over 4 million VND to the customer while feeling frustrated knowing he was scammed but could not do anything about it!