Is JD.com’s big data “expert”? Why can’t I buy promotional items?
On the occasion of “Double Eleven”, various shopping platforms are like an arena, offering subsidies or promotions known as “the cheapest in a year”. In the past half month, many people have fallen into a buying frenzy. However, Mr. Chen, who has been a Plus member for 7 years, feels very puzzled because he has been “killed” inexplicably.
On October 25, Mr. Chen, a Beijing citizen, wanted to buy products on sale at JD.com’s self-operated liquor store, butHe tried more than 10 times at different times for several days, but it always showed “Sales are hot, please pay attention to other activities or products.”“.During this period,If Mr. Chen uses his friend’s new account to purchase, he can easily enter the payment page.In desperation, he could only complain to JD customer service again and again. It was not until November 3 that his account returned to normal.
And this year on “618”,Similar situations have occurred when he purchased other categories of goods. Mr. Chen felt that he was “differently treated” and suspected that he was “killed” by JD.com’s big data.But when he explored the specific reasons why his account was restricted from shopping, JD.com never gave him a convincing response.
(Mr. Chen is an old user of JD.com for nearly 7 years and has purchased Plus membership)
In recent years, complaints about JD.com’s big data “killing familiarity” have become common on the Internet. Does JD.com “mark” users? Is there “differential treatment” between new and old users? Jinyun reporters launched an investigation…
complaint
If you are a Plus member, you cannot buy discounted self-operated products.
You can buy it easily without replenishing your membership account?
Around 2017, Mr. Chen registered as a JD.com member and purchased an upgrade to become a Plus member. On November 8 this year, if you click on Mr. Chen’s JD account avatar, you can see that that day is the 2607th day he became a JD member.
Mr. Chen said that everything he did when shopping was normal. The first time he discovered he was being treated differently was during June 18 this year.He wanted to buy a skipping rope from a JD.com self-operated store, but was unable to participate in the store’s activities and buy it at a discounted price. Then he opened another self-operated store and was also unable to participate in store activities. On July 8, he found JD customer service. After multiple complaints, his account returned to normal on July 14.Mr. Chen thought it might be an accident, but since it was resolved, he didn’t go into details.
(Mr. Chen encountered a “hot sales” pop-up window and was unable to purchase)
Around October 20, major shopping platforms have successively launched “Double Eleven” activities. On the evening of October 25, Mr. Chen wanted to buy a Maotai Prince wine from the “Kweichow Moutai Maotai Liquor Jingdong Self-operated Flagship Store”. There were 6 bottles in a box. The usual price was 1,500 to 600 yuan, and there was a discount on that day.
“I clicked in and wanted to buy, but I couldn’t jump to the payment page. The reminder that popped up was ‘Sales are hot, please pay attention to other activities or products’.I thought it was really hot at the time, so I thought I would watch it later. “Mr. Chen said,Around 5 a.m. the next morning, he got up and went to place an order, but the reminder still popped up.“I work in Internet technology myself, and my intuition tells me that my account may have been cooked, labeled, or treated differently.”
At 9 a.m. on October 26, Mr. Chen reported his experience to JD’s manual customer service. At around 4 p.m. the next day, he received a call reply, “JD customer service said the event was too popular and asked me to try it at different times. Will there still be so many people at 5am?“
(Mr. Chen’s friend’s new account can be purchased successfully)
To determine if it is really too hot to buy.Mr. Chen found a friend next to him who had just become a JD.com member in 2022 and had never paid to recharge a plus membership. I went to the same store with my friend’s account to place an order for the same Moutai Prince wine. I entered the payment page very smoothly without any pop-up windows.In the next few days, they all tried,Mr. Chen’s plus membership account is a hot reminder every time, and his friends’ regular accounts can successfully purchase every time.
During this period, Mr. Chen was in JD.com’s self-operated store,Anyone who has purchased pet supplies, vitamins, tissues, shoes, medicines, etc. can pay normally. However, for some self-operated liquor store products, including Moutai Prince Liquor, hot reminders will appear after he clicks to enter.However, he can place orders normally for alcohol from non-self-operated stores.
After complaining to JD’s manual customer service every day, on November 3, his account finally returned to normal.
Are you being questioned as a scalper because you have “too many delivery addresses”?
I bought 4 single bottles of liquor in the past year
“Jingdong’s manual customer service once responded to me by phone and said that there was no problem with their system, but there was no guarantee that I wouldn’t encounter it next time.“Mr. Chen said helplessly that customer service reminded him to keep his account safe, not to lend it to others, and to change the password regularly. “My account cannot be used to purchase promotional products, and it has not been stolen. Why does it seem to be mine?” What’s the problem that makes you unable to buy something?”
In the past two days,Mr. Chen got a new reply. The reason why his account was restricted from purchasing alcohol was because his account had different delivery addresses in more than a dozen different provinces and cities within half a year. JD.com’s system determined that he might be a “scalper.”If Mr. Chen’s account continues to have similar frequent shopping behaviors in different provinces, cities, and addresses, the system will still restrict its functions.
This answer made Mr. Chen laugh and cry even more.
(Mr. Chen’s Plus membership has been purchased until 2027)
Mr. Chen said that he is 43 years old, a native of Wuhan, and lives in Beijing. He is a middle-level employee of a Fortune 500 company.Monthly business trips are part of his work routine, and each trip lasts for more than half a month, or even a month. In order to make life easier in various places, he buys some food, supplies, medicines, etc. How could he become a scalper?
“I was originally a very loyal customer of JD.com. Out of trust in them, I usually only bought self-operated products. The nature of my work means that there are many addresses. This cannot be changed. My Plus membership has been renewed until May 2027. ,If it will be restricted in the future, what is the use of spending money to buy a membership?Mr. Chen said with a bitter smile.
November 8,Jinyun reporters randomly checked some orders from Mr. Chen’s JD account, including daily necessities, food, clothing, medicines, electrical appliances, mobile phones… The types of goods are not single. The delivery addresses of the orders do include many cities, some are community addresses, and more Most of them are hotel addresses.
The reporter searched his account for alcohol orders in 2023 and found only 4 orders.They bought a box of 6 bottles of liquor to Wuhan on June 22, bought 2 bottles of liquor to Huanggang on June 22, bought a box of 12 bottles of liquor to Wuhan on September 12, and bought a box of 12 bottles of liquor to Wuhan on October 18. A box of 6 bottles of liquor arrives in Tianjin. Mr. Chen explained, “I bought it for my parents in Wuhan, for my sister in Huanggang, and for my friends in Tianjin.”
(Part of the orders in Mr. Chen’s account)
On the personal space page,It can be seen that in the nearly seven years since he became a member of JD.com, Mr. Chen placed a total of 674 orders and spent a total of 160,500 yuan.
“Which scalper only spends 160,000 (yuan) in 7 years? Which scalper buys all kinds of products? Which scalper only buys 4 orders of wine in a year?” Mr. Chen said angrily, “I complained just to understand why my account I am restricted. How can I tell that I am a scalper? If there is an address restriction,If the system has such a judgment setting, why doesn’t JD.com announce it to all users in advance? How can they directly deprive users of their right to know and label users privately? “
(11th complaint to manual customer service)
Mr. Chen said that November 8 was the 11th time he complained to JD.com’s manual customer service, and he would continue to complain. “I don’t care about those promotional offers. I will definitely fight to the end this time.” Mr. Chen said, “My appeal is very simple. I hope JD.com can completely solve the problem with my account, give me a public apology, and promise not to do anything in the future.” ‘Killed’ and will not treat or label any user differently.”
investigation
Being treated differently by JD.com is not an isolated case
Complaints involving various types of complaints such as “killing mature people” and “not fulfilling the guaranteed price”
In 2018, “big data kills people” became an Internet buzzword. At this point, the problem of “exploitation” of Internet consumer big data has attracted much attention.
In September last year, the Beijing Consumers Association released an investigation report on the problem of “exploitation” of Internet consumption big data.The results show that nearly 80% of the respondents believe that there is a phenomenon of “killing mature people” by big data, and nearly 70% of the respondents said they have had the experience of being “killed” by big data.61.21% of the respondents believe that the “expertise” of big data is mainly reflected in the different discounts or benefits enjoyed by different users; 45.76% of the respondents believe that it is mainly reflected in the automatic increase in prices after multiple browsing; 36.92% of the respondents Respondents believe that it is mainly reflected in the different prices for different users at the same time; 26.69% of the respondents believe that it is mainly reflected in the provision of only goods or services that meet the characteristics of users.
On November 8, Jinyun reporters discovered on the Black Cat complaint platform that Mr. Chen was not a case of JD.com’s “differential treatment” of users.In complaints such as this, users’ demands will always mention “account recovery.” The reporter used “JD.com account recovery” as the keyword and searched for a total of 4,169 complaints on the Black Cat platform. It is currently during the Double Eleven event. Subsequently, the reporter searched for “JD Double Eleven” and found 12,412 complaints on the Black Cat platform, involving big data deletion, account anomalies, non-performance of guaranteed prices, and Plus members not being able to enjoy discounts. , orders being closed inexplicably and many other types of complaints.
(User complaint)
On October 27, a user complained: “I have been a plus member for many years and have spent nearly RMB 200,000 on JD.com. I want to place an order for Redmi A43 TV, a product with a tens of billions of subsidies from JD.com, but it keeps saying that sales are hot and I cannot place an order. I use the rarely used JD.com accounts of my family and colleagues. Success with one order.It’s too obvious to kill them before they are ready. What’s the use of spending money to open a plus membership? Are they all big grievances?”
On November 7, a user mentioned in his complaint,After signing up as a Plus member, he was so familiar with big data that he was unable to place orders for all tens of billions of subsidized products, especially the iPhone, which was directly blocked.Other accounts with the same IP and the same address are placing orders normally, but only my own account has always been in hot sales. “Request Jingdong to restore the normal purchasing rights of my account and cancel the big data killing. If I cannot restore my normal ordering rights, , requesting JD.com to cancel my plus account.”
(User complaint)
On November 2, a user complained that at 7 pm on October 31, JD.com held two self-operated Mobil One annual card maintenance activities.He and his colleague opened the purchase page using their respective accounts. He has a Plus membership and usually does a lot of shopping. His purchase price for this maintenance card is 999, while his colleague does not shop much online, and his purchase price is 769.And leave screenshot evidence. He consulted the customer service staff, but the other party pushed the blame and refused to admit it despite having screenshot evidence.
On November 5, a user complained that,On October 23, he purchased a Redmi mobile phone through JD.com. The purchase price at that time was 2,299 yuan. JD.com promised a 30-day price guarantee. On October 31, the price of the mobile phone was reduced to 2,199 yuan. He applied for and received a refund of the 100 yuan price difference. , but the product dropped to 2,099 yuan on November 5. He applied for price insurance again, but was rejected.The customer service told him that he was given a pair of headphones as a gift when he placed the order. The price of the headphones was 119 yuan, and the gift was also included in the price.
Differential treatment of “killing mature people” is a monopoly behavior
On November 10, 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Anti-Monopoly Guidelines on the Platform Economy (Draft for Comments)”, which states that “big data killing” can be recognized as a monopoly.
Before the release of the “Opinion Draft”, on November 6, the State Administration for Market Regulation also joined forces with the Central Cyberspace Administration and the State Administration of Taxation to conduct inspections on 27 companies including JD.com, Meituan, Alibaba, ByteDance, Didi, Kuaishou, Pinduoduo, and Tencent. Conduct interviews with major Internet platform companies.
It is pointed out in the above-mentioned “opinion draft” thatOperators in the platform economy with a dominant market position may abuse their dominant market position and treat counterparties with the same trading conditions without justifiable reasons, thereby eliminating or restricting market competition.
When analyzing whether it constitutes differential treatment, the following factors can be considered:Based on big data and algorithms, implement differentiated transaction prices or other transaction conditions based on the payment ability, consumption preferences, usage habits, etc. of the transaction counterparties; based on big data and algorithms, implement differentiated transaction prices or other transaction conditions for new and old transaction counterparties. Transaction conditions; implement differentiated standards, rules, and algorithms; implement differentiated payment terms and transaction methods.
Jingdong
Admit there is a problem with the system
No response yet as to whether it can be completely resolved
So, regarding JD.com, is there a big data “killing familiarity”, and Plus members cannot enjoy the discounts? Mr. Chen was unable to shop at discounts. On November 9, Jinyun reporters contacted JD.com’s manual customer service.
The customer service staff who answered the phone said that JD users’ information belongs to the company’s privacy.Jingdong does not have big data “killing familiarity” or “differential treatment” between new and old users. At the same time, the customer service admitted that there are problems with Jingdong’s system and Jingdong will optimize the system in the future.
But after optimizing the system, can it completely solve the problems that users encountered like Mr. Chen? The customer service staff said that a specialist will call back to answer the reporter’s questions within 24 hours.
As of press time, no response from JD personnel to the above issues has been received.
Supervision department
The procedures for handling complaints and reports are different
The company owned by Jingdong Mall is “Beijing Jingdong Sanbailu Shidu E-Commerce Co., Ltd.”, which was established in 2007 and is located in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone.
The Commerce and Finance Bureau of Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone assumes the relevant responsibilities of the district-level market supervision and management department. On November 9, a staff member of the Commerce and Finance Bureau told Jinyun reporters that consumers who encounter problems on JD.com and want to complain or report can call 010-12315 or 101-12345 to register. After registration, they can call the Commerce and Finance Bureau to complain. Call the report consultation phone to check the progress and results.
When asked whether complaints and reports against JD.com increased during the “Double Eleven” period, the staff expressed that it was not convenient to answer.
How will we deal with complaints and reports against JD.com?Another staff member of the bureau said that if a consumer makes a complaint, the Commerce and Finance Bureau will mediate between the two parties; if it is a report, the Commerce and Finance Bureau will review the evidence provided by the consumer. If it is preliminarily judged that JD.com has violated the law, it will The case will be transferred to the District Comprehensive Law Enforcement Bureau, which will then confirm whether to file a case and investigate and deal with JD.com.
Mr. Chen said that he had previously complained to JD.com to the above-mentioned Commerce and Finance Bureau, and he would make further reports.
lawyer
unreasonable differential treatment
Serious infringement of consumers’ legitimate rights and interests
Fu Jian, director of Henan Zejin Law Firm, believes that the essence of big data “killing familiarity” is that online shopping platforms combine users’ spending power, consumption habits, etc., obtain user information through data algorithms, and classify users, without the knowledge of consumers. Under the circumstances, unreasonable differential treatment will be implemented for new and old users.
According to the relevant provisions of my country’s Consumer Rights Protection Law, consumers enjoy the right to know, the right to fair trade, and the right to privacy.The platform uses big data to collect consumers’ personal information, and then speculates on consumers’ preferences, and even restricts consumers to choose what kind of goods and at what prices, reducing consumers’ consumption choices and other behaviors, which seriously infringes on consumers’ rights. Legitimate interests.
Regarding Mr. Chen being suspected of being a scalper by the platform, lawyer Fu Jian said that JD.com is obliged to provide detailed shopping rules.If there is conclusive evidence that Mr. Chen is not a scalper, and JD.com did not explain the shopping rules in advance, and the platform system treats Mr. Chen differently in private, then Mr. Chen has the right to ask JD.com to optimize the system instead of being asked by JD.com how to shop.
Lawyer Fu Jian suggested that consumers should deal with it rationally and use legal weapons to protect their rights and interests when encountering differential treatment and big data “killing”.First of all, you must keep good evidence, such as screenshots of different prices for the same product, phone recordings of negotiations with merchants, screenshots of chats, etc., to facilitate subsequent claims settlement; secondly, you can file complaints and reports to consumer associations or market supervision departments to request supervision of merchants; Finally, it can also be brought to the law. When personal information is abused, price discriminated, or treated differently, consumers can file a lawsuit in court to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
