Dianping users angry over missing refunds

The home page of lifestyle and group deal website dianping.com

Leading restaurant guide and lifestyle website dianping.com has come under fire following a surge in complaints about its group-buying deals, the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission said yesterday.

In the year through Sunday, the commission received 182 complaints about the site, an increase of 273 percent from the same period of last year, it said.

About 40 percent of the complaints were from people saying they had been refused refunds on expired coupons.

In one case, a woman said she was unable to get her money back on a coupon for a stay at budget hotel chain Motel 168, while another customer made a similar complaint after trying to claim a refund on a voucher for a trip to a hot spring.

In a separate incident, a Jiangsu police officer surnamed Chen said he paid 100 yuan (US$16.12) for four movie ticket vouchers from the website last October. After using two, he tried to get his money back on the others, but the company rejected his claim.

"Dianping didn't lose out, because I didn't use the coupons. So why can't I get my money back?" Chen said.

The commission said the contracts Dianping has with its partner companies mean that the website profits if the coupons go unused.

"This kind of practice is dishonest and unfair to consumers," said Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary-general of the commission.

Another common complaint received this year regarded Dianping's apparent failure to carry out proper checks on the restaurants included in its various deals.

A woman surnamed Sun said that in January she paid 28 yuan for two meals at a cafe in Beijing. But when she tried to visit the place, based on the address provided on the website, she couldn't find it.

Neither did anyone answer the telephone when she called the published number.

It was not until mid-March that Dianping admitted that the cafe had closed down.

The consumer rights commission said the company should not have sold coupons for the cafe as it did not even have a business license.

In its defense, Dianping said its policy was to include businesses that were in the process of applying for a license.

Also on the subject of food, many people complained about the discrepancies between the items promoted on the website and the products they actually received.