Shanghai's consumers may have complained less last year, but they complained a lot more about shopping online, the city's industry and commerce authority reported Wednesday.
Online shopping complaints jumped by more than 50 percent from 2011, according to the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce.
The administration received more than 111,000 complaints last year, down 6 percent from 2011, but complaints about shopping online accounted for about 15 percent of the total, up significantly from the previous year.
About 37 percent of the complaints griped about websites that exaggerated the function of an item and failed to keep their promises to customers. About 31 percent dealt with late deliveries and unsatisfactory after-sale service. And 28 percent said the products they bought suffered from quality problems.
In one case, the popular group purchasing site, dianping.com, exaggerated the discount it offered its users on sets of contact lenses by inflating the original retail price.
The administration also discovered that the website had no evidence to back up its claim that the lenses were specifically designed for the eyes of people from East Asia.
The website ended up selling more than 122,000 yuan ($19,633) worth of the lenses. The administration has decided to punish the website, but did not disclose the amount of the fine.
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