Apologies for word-of-mouth, forced refund after exceeding 900000 orders, "1 yuan flash sale" 298 yuan parent-child amusement package ticket | parent-child | word-of-mouth

A parent-child amusement package ticket from the well-known children's playground MELAND CLUB was sold for 298 yuan in a 1 yuan flash sale in the Taobao "Word of mouth Life" live broadcast room, and was gradually refunded that night. This move sparked heated discussions among netizens, and at one point led to "Li Jiaqi's Meland ticket" becoming a hot search topic.

"Li Jiaqi Austin" WeChat official account predicted the second kill activity of "MELAND CLUB parent-child play package"

In response to this, the flagship store of "Word of Mouth Life" service has twice issued apology statements, stating that there was an operational error in the flash sale link test conducted before the official sale, and will arrange a refund for consumers who have already purchased the test products.

Ge Zhihao, a lawyer at Beijing Guantao Zhongmao Law Firm, stated that the "wool harvesting" incident essentially reflects a problem of consumer integrity. Under the premise that the expression of intention is not true, the sales contract may become in an "unfounded" state. "Based on this, it is reasonable for the merchant to refund the consumer."

Welfare flash sale breaks through 900000 orders in a short period of time

July 20 was the Mother and Child Day in the "Li Jiaqi Austin" studio on Taobao. At 1:51 p.m. that day, the "Li Jiaqi Austin" WeChat official account pushed the live broadcast preview of the evening, and the "MELAND CLUB parent-child play package" was ranked among them, including the special price ticket for working days, 0.1 yuan/set; Single ticket, 188 yuan/set; Four tickets, 666 yuan/set. The live broadcast will start at 17pm on the same day.

The live broadcast preview also reminds that the specific products and promotional information may change. Please refer to the actual broadcast in the live room for accuracy.

Around 3pm, the "Word of mouth Life" live broadcast room on Taobao suddenly displayed MELAND CLUB weekday tickets, priced at only 1 yuan. This kind of discount has attracted a lot of attention from moms, and its sales volume has reached 900000 units in a short period of time.

At around 4:30 pm, the Taobao "Word of mouth Life" live broadcast room suddenly took down the above-mentioned tickets. The transaction snapshot sent by netizens shows that the order name is preceded by the words "Li Jiaqi Live Room".

On the evening of July 20th, a netizen received a refund

However, that night, consumers who placed orders through the Taobao "Word of Mouth Life" live broadcast room received automatic refunds of 1 yuan from "Word of Mouth Information Technology Co., Ltd.". This move has sparked dissatisfaction among netizens about the mandatory refund operation of MELAND CLUB, and "Li Jiaqi's MELAND ticket" has also been on the hot search for a while.

Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room explained the flash sale activity of the day

At the same time, Li Jiaqi also explained in the live broadcast room that "MELAND's parent-child play package could not be broadcast tonight because of the link problem, and after the store has solved the problem, it will be broadcast on the official account for some time". At the same time, it also reminds the audience of the live broadcast that "please purchase the pre announced products in the 'Li Jiaqi' live broadcast room during the live broadcast period to ensure everyone's rights.".

Apologize for two flash sales, refunds, and word-of-mouth lifestyle promotions

Subsequently, the flagship store of "Word of mouth Life" service posted an apology letter on the store's homepage, claiming that it had originally planned to set up 100 MELAND CLUB amusement benefits in the live broadcast room on the evening of July 20th, and sold 298 yuan worth of weekday tickets for 0.1 yuan. Because the flash sale link needs to be tested in advance before the official sale of live streaming, a test product was arranged around 3pm on the 20th and two rounds of testing were conducted.

"In the second round of testing, we made an operational error." The apology letter stated that a refund will be arranged for consumers who have already purchased the test product.

MELAND's statement released on the early morning of July 21st regarding flash sale refunds

At 0:13 on July 21, MELAND released a statement through the official WeChat official account, saying that in the afternoon of July 20, MELAND stores and customer service hotline received a consultation on "Word of mouth 1 yuan weekday ticket orders". The situation was very sudden, "like everyone, I don't know what happened".

While expressing apologies, MELAND stated that customers who place an order for a "1-yuan word-of-mouth weekday ticket order" can purchase any ticket product from MELAND CLUB nationwide stores on weekdays from July 21st to December 31st with a non screenshot word-of-mouth refund voucher, which can be used to offset 100 yuan without any threshold.

At the same time, the flagship store of "Word of mouth Life" service also apologized again on the 21st for the above-mentioned incident and stated that a coffee voucher will be included in the ordering account.

"We declare that this operational error and order refund processing are all word-of-mouth platforms and have nothing to do with MELAND," the apology statement concluded.

"Harvesting wool" needs to be viewed rationally

Regarding whether merchants with operational errors can apply for refunds, Ge Zhihao, a lawyer at Beijing Guantao Zhongmao Law Firm, told Pengpai News that the "wool harvesting" incident essentially reflects a problem of consumer integrity. This integrity includes both the integrity of the merchant and the integrity of the consumer.

Ge Zhihao said that from the process of the incident, the behavior between consumers and merchants has the characteristics of a network service contract, but whether this contract is established remains to be examined. According to the provisions of the Civil Code, the establishment of a contract usually requires two stages: offer and acceptance, but regardless of which stage, the true intention of the parties must be expressed. Therefore, in this case, the key lies in whether the merchant's true intention to sell goods that are significantly lower than the market price on the online platform without quantity restrictions is the true expression of the merchant's intention.

"Assuming that according to the original promotion plan of the merchant, the product will only be released in a limited amount of 100 copies through the live broadcast, then the sale of the product within this quantity range should be deemed to be true and effective, but when the sales volume reaches more than 900000, the two It can be seen that a large proportion of this sales behavior is not the true intention of the merchant." Ge Zhihao said that under the premise that the meaning is not true, the contract between the two parties may become "untenable". Based on this, it is reasonable for merchants to refund consumers.

Ge Zhihao reminds that with the increasing occurrence of "wool harvesting" incidents, consumers should have a rational attitude towards such abnormal consumption. For products that are significantly lower than the market price, consumers need to make more judgments from the perspective of fair trade to avoid the embarrassment of being caught in a bamboo basket.