On December 25, 2025, students from a vocational school in Yunnan’s Gaoxin Campus purchased performance costumes from an online store in Heze City, Shandong, but sought to return the items once the performance had concluded. However, upon return, the clothing was not only damaged but also had a foul odor, significantly affecting resale value and resulting in direct losses of about 1000 yuan (RMB) for the store owner.
According to a report by Qilu Evening News, on December 24, Mr. An, the owner of the online store in Heze City, stated that students from the vocational school in Yunnan’s Gaoxin Campus had purchased performance costumes from his store. Several individuals had placed orders under their personal names around December 12, with the shipping address listed as the Gaoxin Campus of a vocational school in Yunnan, totaling orders for over ten items. The students continuously urged for the deliveries after placing the orders, and the clothing was signed for around December 16.
Mr. An was surprised to start receiving return requests for this batch of clothing around December 18. To date, he has received about ten returns. He found that nearly every returned item had issues. “The clothing has obvious loose threads, and some still have a lingering foul odor,” Mr. An lamented. On December 19, he verified through the official public account of the school involved that the dance performance attire seen in a New Year’s Eve party video matched the style and details of the performance costumes in his store, confirming they were indeed from his store.
Since the students had placed orders through an e-commerce platform, with contact information provided being virtual numbers, Mr. An was unable to directly reach the school or the students involved. Only one student has proactively apologized to him through the platform and returned the corresponding payment. The unit price of these performance costumes is about 130 yuan each, resulting in an economic loss of approximately 1000 yuan for Mr. An due to this incident.
On December 24, office staff at the Gaoxin Campus of the school in question confirmed that the performers involved in the dance were all students of the school’s dance academy, while deeming the practice of wearing and then returning damaged items as unreasonable.
The incident sparked heated discussions among netizens, with many expressing sympathy for the business facing such “freeloading” situations.
One netizen, “Auntie with Half Moon Expression,” questioned, “Are there no more stores where you can rent performance costumes? When I was in school, there were plenty of such stores around. Nowadays, I often see incidents of buying performance costumes online and then returning them. I’ve seen several cases this year alone.”