Dianping.com criticized over refund policy

Shanghai's consumer advocate called the popular group purchasing website dianping.com "immoral" and "unfair" Tuesday for refusing to refund customers who let their group purchasing coupons expire.

The Shanghai Consumer Council made the statement during a meeting where council officials questioned the website's representatives about its refund practices.

The consumer advocacy group has received 182 consumer complaints about Dianping this year, nearly triple the number it got over the same period last year, said Tang Jiansheng, the council's vice secretary. About 40 percent of those complaints were cases in which the website refused to give refunds for customers' expired coupons, as required by law.

Tang said the cases the council knows about only represent the tip of the iceberg of consumer complaints about the website.

The website's representatives disputed the allegations at the meeting. Dianping closely follows the law regarding customer complaints, said Liu Haiquan, the website's legal representative. It only refuses to refund customers for customized products or services, or for products with a limited shelf life, such as food, which is allowed under the law.

However, the council brought up several cases in which Dianping refused to refund customers who were legally entitled to get their money back.

In one of the cases, Dianping refused to refund a customer who didn't use the 99-yuan ($16) coupon he bought for a discounted room at Motel 168, Tang said. She detailed similar cases that involved coupons for hot springs and movie theaters.

Liu acknowledged that it is against the law to refuse to issue refunds in cases like these. He said he didn't know what Dianping did with the money it made from expired coupons.

According to the standard contract that Dianping signs with its clients - the stores and service providers - the website ends up with the money from unused coupons, Tang said.

Although Dianping initially transfers the money it collects from coupon sales to its clients, it gets back the money paid for unused coupons.

Liu said that Dianping will work with its customers to resolve the issue, but acknowledged that it didn't plan to go looking for aggrieved customers.

Dianping has resolved about 97 percent of the complaints that the consumer council received, said Wang Rui, the website's public relations director. She vowed that all of the outstanding complaints would be settled by the end of this month.