James Chan

Two days ago, I went on Taobao (www.taobao.com) and bought a Mini Displayport to VGA cable at a RMB35. I did not pay it the day I bought due to some problem with the payment, and the next day I went on again trying to make the payment, the translation status showed “Closed” by seller. I had never been notified about anything about closing my transaction.

I tried to send to send message to the seller but got no response at all, called the Taobao Service to ask what was going on with the transaction and why the seller had the right to cancel my order at any time, the customer service just explained that the seller has the rights to cancel the order anytime. When I ask them where I could find such regulations in Taobao, she could not find it. Ok, then she said I could go to the detail page of the transaction in the transaction list page and submit the Complaint by click the button, but unfortunately I was told I could not submit complaints with this transaction. So the customer service suggested me go to Help Center and follow the link to the Message page, and submit my complaints there together with screenshots.

Well, I did what I was told and today I received a reply from Taobao that my message was read and they had gone through the rules and regulations. It told me that the seller had the rights to cancel the order whether or not the payment was made and gave me a link. Ok then, I followed the link to the transaction procedure but I could not find any words saying the seller had such rights. BTW, they answered in the email why the complaints could not be submitted, which was because the rules defined buyer could only submit it after 3 days of transaction until 60 days. I felt so strange about it.

Anyway, today I called the customer service again and asked the same question, they guy was so unprofessional and so impatient with my questions. From what I guessed, Taobao customer service never talked to the buyer because what he answered and told me was bullshit, nothing could be referred to any written documentations. He was trying to find the rules and regulations for a long time and it wasted my time. Then he came back to me with the saying to transfer my call to their experts which was another time waste coz he told me after 10 minutes that the experts were not available now. I did not waste my time and money any more. Taobao do not care about buyers anymore from what I was treated.

Well, the finally got luck and found the rules which defined the complaints time. All right, this is what I need, but the ultimate problem still remains unsolved. I want my rights back as a buyer or a consumer.

I will keep following with this case until I get my rights back.

(continued, May 3)

Things have become a little complicated now.

I received the explanation from the seller who claimed that they made the price wrong due to carelessness and he answered in Taobao IM called Wangwang my questions regarding to why canceling the order and saying how I did not listen and insisted to complain. Well, I checked the chatting history over again but unfortunately I did not find any of what he said. Therefore I asked him to provide evidence of such explanation together with other questions I had.

However, in the email received today, the seller asked me “Do you lose anything in the canceled transaction? In a word, you just want to take a little advantage (money) of me and angry because you failed.” and he also said there was no need to answer the questions from people like me who had too much time. Gosh, I felt insulted. Anyway, I will not ask any questions to the seller now, what I need now is an satisfactory answer from Taobao.

(Continued, May 3)

I just received a reply from the seller, he replied so fast maybe because Taobao Customer Service called them. The funny thing is that their tong is pretty mild this time.

He apologized for the overreaction and their mistakes which wasted my time. He also said that it was not a good idea to waste both party’s time on handling the complaint, and wanted to make friends with me and give me VIP price all the products listed in his store, blah blah blah… What’s more funny is he provided his cell phone number in the email. I don’t know what it is about.

In my point of view, Taobao’s rules is incomplete as well, it does not define cases like this. On the other hand, the Taobao Customer Service is not as professional as I expected. They did not contact the seller after I requested many times, instead, they were trying answer orally to all my questions in order to close the case, when the were asked to present the written rules and regulations, they took a long time but with no answer. The claimed they had experts in presence but I never got a chance to be answered by the “Experts”. By the way, they don’t even know anything about OFFER and ACCEPTANCE. I doubted their expertise as a matter of fact.

Shall I continue pursue of the complaint or closing the case?