Last year (2021), due to the pandemic, the aggregate number of consumer complaints and mediation applications received by the special (Executive-Yuan-governed) municipal and city/county governments in Taiwan was 74,686. This is the second year in a row that the number of complaints went beyond 70,000, an increase of 1,857 cases compared to that of the previous year (2020). The top 5 types of complaints were "Online Games"; "Personal Fitness"; "Food"; "Clothing, Leather Goods, and Shoes"; and "Telecommunications."
According to statistics from the Executive Yuan’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP), the number of complaints under the "Online Games" category amounted to 5,967, which raised this category to number 1 from last year’s number 2 position. The number of complaints under the "Personal Fitness" was 5,125, which increased by nearly 30% due to the pandemic. What’s more, due to the changes in consumption patterns under the trend of the stay-at-home economy, the number of disputes in relevant industries has also increased significantly, including 4,377 cases under the "Food" category (online food delivery), 3,468 cases under "Clothing, Leather Goods, and Shoes" (online shopping), and 2,722 cases under "Telecommunications" (poor 4G signal).
The DCP has analyzed and listed the following cases of consumer complaints from the top 5 consumer disputes to remind consumers to protect their rights.
Case 1: Online game accounts were banned from games by game companies for no reason, and consumers asked to have the ban lifted or to be compensated.
A common dispute in the "Online Games" category is that the game company perceived a consumer has used an unauthorized third-party program in the game and therefore banned the consumer's account for violating its in-game policies. At the end of last year, a Korean online game permanently banned 120,000 of its game accounts, including accounts owned by consumers in Taiwan, for violating its in-game policies. Although the DCP has made a request to the Korea Consumer Agency for intervention through the Taiwan-Korea consumer protection cooperation mechanism, the game company stated that a game account will be banned if the game detected that the user has used any macro or unauthorized third-party program in violation of its terms of service, and therefore did not agree to lift the ban or refund any fees, and would not disclose the details of violations of these banned accounts.
The DCP emphasized that as the requirements of Taiwan’s Mandatory and Prohibitory Provisions of Standard Contracts for Online Game Connection Service cannot be enforced on foreign businesses and other countries may have different consumer protection laws with different levels of power held by their consumer protection authorities, consumers should carefully assess the risks of cross-border consumption and give priority to domestic-registered games for an extra layer of protection.
Case 2: A consumer wished to terminate the contract with his/her gym and request for refund as his/her personal trainer had resigned from the gym, but the request was denied.
Many gym-goers sign contracts with personal trainers of gyms because they don't know how to exercise or use gym equipment properly. Ms. Chen listened to the advice given by her sales representative and trainer and purchased 30 classes of personal training. Later, her trainer resigned from the gym and she was unable to get along with her new trainer, so Ms. Chen requested the gym to terminate her contract and refund the remaining fees, but her request was refused.
According to the DCP, the Mandatory and Prohibitory Provisions of Standard Contracts for Fitness Coaches has come into effect this year (2022) on January 1, where it is stated that when a consumer terminates his/her contract with a business due to an event that is not attributable to the consumer, for example, the designated trainer could not perform his/her services under the contract (e.g., termination of employment) or a change of the training location without the consent of the consumer, no transaction fee, default fee, or any other charges may be requested to the consumer by such a business.
Case 3: Meals were not received after ordering food online and no fees were refunded.
Due to the pandemic, many people are now working or attending school from home, and have changed their consumption habits. For this reason, many have started to order food delivery online through their mobile phones. Mr. Lin used an app to order a meal; however, he did not receive any message or phone call while waiting for his meal to arrive. After a short while, Mr. Lin suddenly received a notification from the customer service saying that because he failed to answer the delivery driver’s call when the driver arrived at the designated location, his order was canceled after the driver reported the situation to the customer service, and no fees would be refunded.
The DCP stated that relevant businesses have been required to bear the burden of proof in such cases, and they are to establish standard operating procedures for food delivery and relax their requirements for fee refunds. The current standard procedures for food delivery businesses state that when a delivery driver arrives at the designated location, a picture will be taken and sent to the customer service showing that the meal has been delivered, and the driver will then proceed to make a call to the customer for up to 3 times; if the customer fails to answer the calls, customer service will call the customer up to 3 times. In the event that the customer fails to answer all these calls, the system will cancel the order after a 10-minute wait, and the delivery driver may deal with the ordered meal at his/her own discretion.
Case 4: The received goods did not correspond with the description previously given by the seller; and the seller refused to refund in a forceful manner.
Many product advertisements use well-known brand names and discounted prices to attract consumers. Some consumers fall into such traps and buy products from social media platforms without much thought, only to discover after receiving the actual products that they are different from the description in the advertisement or of poor quality, and the sellers are nowhere to be found or do not reply to any messages. Mr. Huang bought some Japanese health food products from a social media site with cash on delivery. However, after picking up the package at a convenience store and opening it for inspection, he found that the products were actually from China, and had nothing to do with any Japanese company. Mr. Huang contacted the seller to report this problem, but the seller refused to make a refund and even intended to sue Mr. Huang for fraud.
The DCP has requested courier businesses to implement information disclosure of shippers, strengthen dispute resolution mechanisms with respect to payment on delivery, and filter out any shipper with poor reputation to avoid cooperating with unscrupulous dealers. The DCP also has worked with President Chain Store Corporation and Taiwan FamilyMart to provide consumer service hotlines and assign employees to receive inquiries from consumers and contact the respective shippers for further processing.
Case 5: Consumers experienced poor Internet connection and 4G network signal, and the telecommunications companies were unable to make improvements.
Under the level 3 epidemic alert, many people began to work or take care of their children for long hours at home. Due to the largely increased number of users or inadequate infrastructure, their Internet connection became slow or their mobile phones received no signal. Ms. Yang's mobile phone was unable to receive any signal during the new year holidays, even after installing a signal booster. The telecommunications company said that this issue was due to the external environment and the compensation requested by Ms. Yang would only be given to one single mobile phone number after the booster was removed; the consumer did not agree to this solution.
In order to protect consumers’ rights for communications services during the pandemic, the DCP asked the National Communications Commission to coordinate with the industry to maintain the quality of Internet connections, and also to temporarily withhold service suspensions if a user fails to pay the fees at the agreed time, until the epidemic alert level was lowered.
Last of all, the DCP would like to remind consumers:
1. Do not use any unauthorized third-party programs in online games. Be clearly aware of the details of the Mandatory and Prohibitory Provisions of Standard Contracts for Online Game Connection Service to protect your rights, and give priority to games that are published or acquired by registered companies in Taiwan.
2. When considering joining a gym or acquiring personal training services, consumers are advised to shop around and participate in free trials for comparison. Never sign a contract on impulse.
3. When using online meal delivery services, consumers should be aware of vendors' meal ordering process, payment methods, and contact details. Consumers must also keep their phone on after ordering to promptly receive notifications from meal delivery personnel.
4. When shopping online, consumers are advised to choose shopping websites that are either well-known in Taiwan or have a good reputation, check the reviews of sellers, and choose a third-party payment service to complete purchases as much as possible.
5. Before signing a contract with a telecom company, consumers are advised to check if their homes or businesses have good reception for mobile signal first.