Dirty Books Sold by Dangdang Online Bookstore
2007-03-19 09:38:15
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/485ea879010007ez#comment
I’ve been a longtime customer of Dangdang Online Bookstore, having purchased books worth several thousand yuan there. According to Dangdang’s existing records online, I have 20 orders in all on Dangdang, of which 19 have been completed, with total spending amounting to 3,225.6 yuan. But recently a very dirty book was delivered in an online book purchase (see below). Earlier, a book that had been soaked in water was also delivered! For Dangdang to treat customers like this is truly not decent. This book was mixed in with a batch of books I bought from Dangdang at the same time, and this particular delivery was received on my behalf by someone else, so I can’t blame the person who helped me receive it.
Today I sent a complaint letter to Dangdang’s complaint center through the online form, but the reply turned out to be that it could not be handled!
Below are some pages from the dirty book photographed with a digital camera:
Below is Dangdang’s response to my complaint:
Dear Dangdang customer:
Hello! Thank you for shopping at Dangdang. We are very sorry, please clarify your question so that we may look it up for you.
Customer Service Representative No. 122
Dangdang Customer Service Department
－－－－
Dear customer: Hello! Thank you for shopping at Dangdang.
We are very sorry, but since you did not provide the order number you wish to inquire about in your letter, we are unable to look it up for you. Please provide your order number, and we will be delighted to serve you.
Customer Service Representative No. 142 Dangdang Customer Service Department
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The following comments from netizens represent only their personal views and do not represent the views or position of Sina.com
2007-03-19 11:07:21
Indeed, dizzying. Big shops can’t bully customers..
[匿名] Anonymous
2007-03-19 11:21:41
Sigh, so that’s how it is.
But I think Dangdang is still pretty good. You just need to tell them the order number! Without an order number it won’t do. Forgive them; when one is busy, mistakes happen too!
[匿名] 蓝蓝
2007-03-19 11:43:51
I’ve bought books from Dangdang twice. The first time I became a customer there, they sent me an old book, one of whose pages had come loose. I called to complain and asked to exchange it, and later customer service replied by giving me a coupon to offset the purchase. I thought that was fine. The second time I used the coupon to buy books from Dangdang again, the books they sent were also so-so, feeling a bit like pirated copies in quality. Like the blogger, I feel deeply disappointed in Dangdang.
2007-03-19 12:11:56
Yes, even monkeys sometimes miss their grip and fall from the tree.
2007-03-19 12:14:36
It really shouldn’t be this way, but I believe the problem will be solved.
2007-03-19 12:50:47
I bought something once from that rotten place. The book being a bit old I could accept, but that CD was even burned by themselves; its workmanship wasn’t even as good as something I made myself…
2007-03-19 13:20:22
Dangdang has sent lots of book-promotion emails to my inbox; I just delete them outright.
[匿名] 古雴
2007-03-19 13:23:30
Is this book “A Guide to Philosophy of Science”?
That book is 30% off or 25% off at Wumei’s Yecao Bookstore. As for online bookstores, Joyo and VBlue are both cheaper than Dangdang. Joyo + VBlue can fully replace Dangdang, and in terms of number of books, especially the number of academic books, VBlue seems already to have surpassed Joyo, and Joyo has surpassed Dangdang. In terms of customer service, Dangdang long ago lost any advantage — several years ago, Dangdang repeatedly went back on its word and dragged its feet over the issue of loyalty points for old customers, and in the end simply wiped out the points in one stroke. At that time, according to the original terms, my points could probably have been exchanged for gift vouchers worth several hundred yuan! — Dangdang has now almost become good for nothing.
Speaking of buying books online, my experience has been extremely… terrifying… Especially back in high school, I happened to witness the period when Dangdang went from prosperity to decline. At that time Dangdang had a technical loophole, which I may have been among the first to discover, but I didn’t reveal it to anyone. Later, this loophole may have been discovered by some other malicious consumers (actually I myself was a little malicious once…), causing Dangdang huge losses, and afterward Dangdang never again ran coupon promotions. Of course, I think Dangdang’s decline was mainly caused by its wrong competitive strategy. The moment I saw Amazon entering back then, I knew Dangdang was in trouble — when an international company enters China, it absolutely will not help the market leader; it will certainly help the runner-up, and it will definitely enter at the moment when the runner-up is being squeezed by the leader to the point of almost not being able to hold out. Sure enough, when Amazon acquired Joyo, the situation was completely reversed, and no amount of price wars by Dangdang would help. As for new forces such as VBlue and China-pub, which opened up new ground by starting with university textbooks, that is another story…
2007-03-19 13:27:10
My friend has bought books from Dangdang before, and the quality was pretty good. It’s really infuriating to run into something like this, but that’s how it is when you buy things online: you can’t see the actual goods, so you often run into this or that kind of dispute. Just pay attention next time and that’ll be fine.
[匿名] 路人甲
2007-03-19 13:34:00
You were luckier than I was. I bought a razor, and the packaging was wrapped up properly, but when I opened it there were actually still some beard hairs inside that hadn’t been cleaned out. I don’t go to Dangdang anymore; going to Dangdang is basically the same as being taken in.
2007-03-19 14:50:39
Bertelsmann is okay, right? I’ve bought books there for several years, and basically there haven’t been any problems!
2007-03-19 16:01:56
Just call customer service directly; email contact is after all not decisive enough. It should be possible to exchange it.
Once I bought a book from Joyo and, when leafing through it, found damage to the inner pages; I later got it exchanged by phone.
Being unable to select a book’s condition on the spot is a major drawback of buying books online. Books with high discounts seem to have, more or less, some sort of condition issue, whether because of warehouse conditions or supply sources.
2007-03-19 16:30:00
Overall, Dangdang’s books are still pretty good; I often buy books from them. If there’s a problem, you can call directly to complain.
2007-03-19 16:41:13
Best to go buy books in a physical bookstore, then you can avoid situations like this.
[匿名] 网托
2007-03-19 17:00:37
Dangdang is okay, really okay
2007-03-19 17:50:54
Please see my blog post, “Chuangulao Talks About Zhao Benshan’s Tiny Trickery”
[匿名] ！！！
2007-03-19 18:03:41
I ran into this too: I bought two books and asked for a wrapping paper sheet. When it was delivered, there was no paper.
The books were covered in dust
[匿名] hongkong
2007-03-19 18:27:57
I usually go to joyo, not Dangdang
2007-03-19 19:12:47
Terrible
[匿名] n
2007-03-19 19:32:02
According to the instructions, first provide the order number and then talk about it.
[匿名] 古雴
2007-03-19 20:07:54
The other day I received a book from Joyo with a footprint on it…
Actually, buying books online is pretty good. It’s just that once you’re at Peking University, buying books from the surrounding bookstores is so convenient; generally speaking, buying books online is much more convenient, and after-sales service is actually not bad. Don’t set the bar too high. Dangdang and Joyo both offer “unconditional returns” within one week and “unconditional exchanges” within two weeks, and they also provide door-to-door return service. Even if there’s no quality problem, returning it is fine; these policies should count as pretty good.
At present, Joyo is superior to Dangdang in every respect, but one thing worth mentioning is Joyo’s traditional strengths (back during the price war, Dangdang had already driven Joyo to the point where it was left with only this one advantage): its book information and introductions are very detailed, and the buying guides and special-topic sections are attractive, etc. In this respect, it seems that recently, as the number of books has surged, there has been some slackening, whereas Dangdang has actually improved somewhat.
2007-03-19 21:27:24
It can be said that China’s market is too chaotic. A huge counterfeit-and-fakes-selling group is quietly living among consumers, and in the face of the temptation of money, merchants have come up with brand-new scams, and consumers have been cheated and deceived without realizing it.
Shanghai Siya Calligraphy and Painting Art Co., Ltd. has hundreds of sales points nationwide for the calligraphy, paintings, and pearls it sells, and sets up stalls in large shopping malls in the busiest areas of the most prosperous districts of each province and city. In prosperous districts there are large numbers of high-spending consumers. They mainly use the receipt customers get after paying for goods, and as long as the amount reaches 50 yuan or 80 yuan, they entice customers with lottery draws and similar methods. In order to make consumers even more convinced that winning in the draw is something only possible by being lucky, they generally have three people draw at the same time. Sales staff will judge, based on what each of you bought as shown on your receipts, which of you has the greater purchasing power, and from your current desire to buy and other circumstances, say which of you is the lucky winner in the draw. You will then have the chance to enjoy a discount on paintings or pearls at their sales counter, such as the chance to buy a calligraphy or painting that originally costs two or three thousand yuan for just two or three hundred yuan, which makes your heart move. And in order to make you doubt it even less, when three or four people go to draw, they generally only let one person “luckily” win, while the others look on enviously and are tempted. If the person who didn’t win then buys at full price, that would mean being seriously taken in and defrauded. In fact, whether you draw a winning ticket or not is entirely up to them. Because before you draw, you have no idea what counts as winning or what special discount treatment you will enjoy, and you only pay for framing and so on. In order to prevent you from having doubts, the backs of their paintings also carry Siya’s anti-counterfeiting mark, so that consumers no longer question whether there are quality problems, nor do they go find an expert in calligraphy and painting for appraisal, and they also do not pursue whether this painter is really the great master the sales staff claim, or whether it is his original work, etc. In fact, they have always been deceiving consumers. The sales staff have all received company training, speaking pleasant-sounding words while carrying out a whole string of scams, luring consumers into the trap they laid in advance and causing them to be cheated without realizing it. As for the pearls they sell, the sales staff make you believe their products are genuine, and in front of your eyes they will pry a “pearl” out of a tiny shell, then process and drill it into an ornament. In reality, the “pearls” they sell cost only a few yuan per jin. And the calligraphy and paintings they sell have a cost of less than forty or fifty yuan per piece. One can imagine how such products could possibly be genuine. Yet by taking advantage of the beautiful shell of large shopping malls, places consumers trust very much, they use a series of deceptive tactics to defraud the money of the broad masses of consumers and obtain excessive profits.
2007-03-19 21:28:56
They have sales points in major cities across the country. Everyone can go to the department stores and investigate whether this is really the case. For example: Beijing Xidan Shopping Mall, Beijing Urban and Rural Trade Center, Nanjing Central Shopping Mall, Nanjing Xinbai, Shanghai First Department Store, Xi’an Kaiyuan Mall, Xi’an Minsheng Dayang Department Store, Nanchang Department Store, Shenzhen Maoye Department Store, Shenzhen Sun Department Store, Wuhan Asia Trade Plaza, Chengdu Department Store, Shenyang Commercial City, … However, Chinese department store merchants have not blocked fake goods at the doors of the malls, whereas in foreign-owned malls in China, such as Carrefour, Ito-Yokado, Auchan, and so on, fake goods simply cannot get in at all. In many malls, their sales counters are set up on the fifth floor. Consumers across the country, as long as everyone pays attention when entering a mall to see whether the above-mentioned situation exists, must not go and be cheated. If you discover it, it is best to report it to the local industrial and commercial administration department and have the authorities investigate and shut them down. Those who have previously bought products from them should, please, take their products for appraisal, and according to the “Consumer Protection Law” request that Shanghai Siya Calligraphy and Painting Art Co., Ltd. provide reasonable compensation to recover your losses. Let counterfeiters and fake sellers no longer be so rampant. As long as everyone acts, pays attention to whether counterfeit-and-fake-selling profiteers exist around them, and if discovered tells everyone around them, tells everyone on the internet, and seeks help from the industrial and commercial departments, consumers’ associations, and all radio and television media, only when the whole society acts together can we truly achieve a situation where fake goods have nowhere to hide, and “no fake goods in a hundred cities and ten thousand stores.” This is the consumers’ wish.
2007-03-19 22:24:05
Brother: turn the photo upside down!
Check out long中龙’s blog “Highly Recommended Highlights,” with beautiful pictures and beautiful writing—an embarrassment of riches!
[匿名] 狗狗
2007-03-19 23:17:37
I feel that buying books on Dangdang is very good: cheap and convenient.
2007-03-20 00:28:30
At least you actually received the book. I bought a book from Dangdang two months ago and, because it could not be delivered, after the courier company sent it back there was no follow-up at all. They said they would refund my money, but there wasn’t even a shadow of it. I’ve complained several times too. At first they still answered me, but later they simply ignored me. So this is what is called good service, huh — Dangdang, I despise you all once again!!
2007-03-20 10:05:23
Dangdang even keeps buying pirated editions
[Anonymous] Suibian
2007-03-20 10:20:56
I’ve only ever bought books from Dangdang and Joyo. Compared with the two, I feel the latter is a bit better. At the very least, it doesn’t give the feeling of pirated goods, but the former is different, and its delivery time is two days later than the latter’s.
2007-03-20 10:23:44
I encountered something like this a while ago. The situation wasn’t very serious, and the exchange process took too long. Since I needed the book urgently, I didn’t bother to exchange it. But I still felt a bit uncomfortable.
2007-03-20 10:26:28
Another thing is that the listed price and the final purchase price are always different. When I call customer service, they just say it wasn’t updated in time.
Life Is for Tossing Things Around
2007-03-20 11:53:57
I still haven’t dared to SHOP online, and I’ve never even used point cards…
[Anonymous] Research Student Cohabitation Video
2007-03-20 12:50:31
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[Anonymous] Caomuhui
2007-03-20 13:02:15
Altogether I’ve shopped there three times. Except for the first time, when the books were delivered by appointment with me, the other two times there was no appointment in advance. When they arrived, nobody was home, so they were left with the doorman downstairs. In the very last instance, they even sent the wrong book. I asked for an exchange, but customer service told me that there was no exchange service in our area; either I could return it, but the 5 yuan delivery fee would not be refunded, or I could mail it back for an exchange. The postage would be charged to my online stored-value card. They wanted me to mail the book from Shanghai to Langfang. It felt much more troublesome than buying books in the first place. The delivery person just handed my book over to the doorman at random, without letting me inspect the goods. When something goes wrong, the customer is the one who has to run around and deal with it. The feeling was terrible. Everyone, remember this: when you buy things online, you must inspect them in person upon delivery!
2007-03-20 13:34:13
A few days ago I also bought a book on Dangdang, and no matter how I looked at it, it seemed second-hand. The cover was dirty and shabby, and when I received it I was really displeased. But I couldn’t exactly lose my temper at the courier, could I? After all, it had nothing to do with him. In the end I just swallowed it. I strongly despise Dangdang. They’re really bullying people. Everyone has to be careful with online shopping these days. It’s better to run the errand yourself and go to a bookstore to buy it. Otherwise you’ll really stew with anger inside.
[Anonymous] Guhu
2007-03-20 13:41:26
The home delivery services of Dangdang and Joyo are both outsourced to third-party courier companies—in Shanghai, where I live, and here at Peking University, the couriers from Dangdang and Joyo are the same group of people, and the courier companies for different districts may be different, so there can be differences in service, and things get rather troublesome when problems arise. But Dangdang in those years rarely had problems. I have never inspected goods on the spot when shopping online, and I’ve never had a problem—of course, in the past two years I’ve completely given up on Dangdang, because Bolan + Joyo can fully replace Dangdang, so I don’t really know just how badly Dangdang has declined in the last couple of years. The courier now in charge of Peking University for Bolan is quite familiar with me, a pretty good guy; just now when he delivered the books, he was still talking with me about modern scientism, the loss of human subjectivity, and so on. It seems the influence of anti-science cultural people is pretty strong~
[Anonymous] Li
2007-03-20 15:31:26
In the past the quality and service were still okay; now, after being acquired, they’ve declined…
[Anonymous] Xinzhaijiang
2007-03-20 16:14:27
This can’t all be credited to the anti-science cultural people. In fact, many scholars and literati are also promoting similar ideas, just from different angles. It’s just that the anti-science cultural people are peddling this stuff in the scientific communication circle, where the atmosphere of scientism is strongest, so it stands out more; at the same time, they may also be more consciously spreading related ideas, which is why they’re also being cursed at most fiercely by the scientism camp, that’s all.
Hu Jie can call them; it should be solvable, no need to get angry.
[Anonymous] Daomadan
2007-03-20 17:26:47
hao, give it a good publicity push
[Anonymous] Guhu
2007-03-20 18:21:48
Professor Jiang is right. I was just joking offhand; mainly I was talking about that courier, who was quite interesting~ In fact, anti-science cultural people are also greatly influenced by other scholars and literati; perhaps even more than anti-science cultural people influence other scholars and literati. In the current intellectual and cultural world, who influences whom is becoming harder and harder to tell apart.
[Anonymous] Yan’er Wuxin
2007-03-21 08:34:50
Last October I used my Dangdang Honor Customer Card to buy something. After I received it, it simply couldn’t be used at all. I returned it on the spot, and then there was no news whatsoever. I called many times to inquire, and they always said they would check and get back to me. Not until the end of the year, after the card had expired, was there still no result. What’s hateful is that there wasn’t even a phone call. This year, when I checked again, they told me the card had already expired and the refund process could no longer be handled. This is Dangdang!!
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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