Shopee delays handling "ghost" vendors?
Shopee delays handling "ghost" vendors?
Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shopee has been slow in protecting customers from “ghost” vendors which have been cheating out huge amounts of money from them.
Taking advantage of e-commerce platforms putting a stop to allowing customers to check goods before paying for them from March 2019, many vendors have been offering goods at a bargain price on the platforms but deliver bricks or plastic bottles to customers. According to forums for e-commerce buyers, the number of “ghost” vendors has been increasing and platforms like Lazada or Shopee have yet to handle them thoroughly.
S.N. – an administrator of a group of users interested in SmartHome devices – most recently posted an article about a “ghost” vendor named phukiengiasi.cf on Shopee. Accordingly, the vendor offered a smart speaker for VND255,000 ($11), equaling one-third of its original price, VND789,000 ($34). The good was advertised as “authenticated good” and targeted people loving reasonably priced goods.
After collecting orders, phukiengiasi.cf set the order's status as "unconfirmed" on Shopee, but the goods were shipped. According to the article, buyers mostly received bricks or a bundle of papers instead of their order, and were unable to get a refund from the vendor because the orders had been cancelled prior to shipping.
Notably, since the fraud came to light several days ago, the vendor has been working as usual, despite hundreds of complaints sent to Shopee. It was not until the afternoon of September 4 that the vendor was officially blocked after the case made headlines.
This means that reports of fraud to e-commerce platforms are not enough to force action against offending vendors, leaving hundreds of customers at risk of being cheated.
In response to VIR about how the platform will handle these violations, a representative of Shopee promised feedback as soon as possible.
