Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province – A pregnant woman, Mrs. Liu, who was seven months pregnant, canceled a delivery order and was questioned by a courier five minutes later at her door, “Why did you make a complaint and make me get fined?” Despite Mrs. Liu’s explanation that she did not complain, the courier became uncontrollable. Mrs. Liu was frightened and was diagnosed with “threatened miscarriage.”
According to the report on Zhejiang TV’s “1818 Gold Eyes” on October 17th, on October 9th, Mrs. Liu sent a paper invoice through the “Cainiao Guoguo” platform, and the order was transferred to “Yuantong Express,” a business partner. She quickly received a phone call from a Yuantong Express courier informing her that the invoice couldn’t be delivered and asked Mrs. Liu to “cancel the order.”
Subsequently, Mrs. Liu contacted the “Cainiao Guoguo” customer service to cancel the order. Unexpectedly, five minutes later, the courier arrived at her door questioning, “Why did you complain that I had a bad attitude?” Mrs. Liu explained that she only canceled the order and did not complain about the attitude.
However, the courier emotionally accused her of lodging complaints twice, resulting in a fine of 400 yuan for himself. He tearfully said he could only earn 200 yuan a day. Due to the courier’s emotional outburst and refusal to listen to explanations, Mrs. Liu, scared, had to call the police, and after that, the courier left.
After the media intervened, some details of the incident were revealed. According to the call record Mrs. Liu provided between her and Cainiao customer service, the cancellation of the order was not registered as “service attitude issue.”
However, the customer service supervisor of the Renhe Branch of Yuantong Express in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, explained that even if “Cainiao Guoguo” did not register the attitude problem, once it transferred to their system, it would still be classified as a complaint.
When asked if there would be punishment for consultation, the customer service supervisor stated, “Yes, all express delivery services are more or less like this.”
Yuantong Express had a previous incident where a female courier in Guangrao, Shandong, was fined 2,000 yuan due to a customer complaint. She later knelt down at the customer’s house begging for forgiveness, sparking public outrage. Subsequently, Yuantong waived the punishment for that courier.
Legal experts like Zhou Yuan from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pointed out that the lack of human review and explanation mechanisms in the algorithms of delivery platforms results in transferring all risks and management costs to the frontline workers, leading to disadvantages.
Regarding the incident, Mrs. Liu in Hangzhou expressed that the on-site courier lost control emotionally, saying, “I was really frightened, my body felt uncomfortable at that time, and my stomach felt tight.” She got a medical diagnosis of “threatened miscarriage” after seeking medical help.
Mrs. Liu questioned the big companies for simply shifting all contradictions to customers and delivery personnel based on performance standards. She mentioned that she wants to complain about Yuantong for their inaction and passing false information to the courier, which might have provoked him to do unimaginable extreme actions.