Recently, many mainland Chinese netizens have reported that a live streaming anchor claimed that 69.9 yuan (Chinese yuan, hereinafter the same) could buy 8 boxes of blueberries. However, upon receiving their orders, they discovered that each box contained only a few blueberries. The owner of the online shop involved responded by blaming the encounter on a “professional team’s tactics.” This news has sparked widespread attention and quickly became a hot search topic.
On March 9th, a netizen from Liaoning Province posted a video showing the blueberries they received. In the video, it indeed showed 8 boxes of blueberries, but each box only contained a few blueberries, totaling only 46 blueberries in all 8 boxes.
Netizens from Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, and other places also shared similar experiences. A netizen from Shandong mentioned that they bought 8 boxes of 100 grams of blueberries for 69.9 yuan during a live stream, but each box only had 5 blueberries. Another netizen from Chengdu, Sichuan, also confirmed receiving a similar product in the comments.
This situation quickly sparked discussions on social media platforms, with netizens jokingly sharing their “buyer show,” humorously remarking, “Calculating it, it’s 1.5 yuan per berry, more expensive than cherries.”
According to a report by Extreme News, a blueberry-selling online shop was identified. The shop’s product link information stated that customers would receive an extra 4 boxes of blueberries for every 4 boxes purchased, totaling 8 boxes with each containing 100 grams, amounting to a total of 800 grams, all for 69.9 yuan. On the 10th, the shop owner expressed anger upon seeing the blueberries received by customers, claiming to be victims themselves.
The shop owner explained that they had recently started their online store, and a few days ago, a man contacted them online to help distribute blueberries, where they were responsible for shipping, delivery, and online promotion by streamers without the shop’s involvement. After customers placed orders with them, they only needed to pay the delivery fee according to a price of 40 yuan per order. On March 5th and 6th, the blueberries were sold, with around 500 sales records in their store. However, they soon realized issues with the blueberries customers received, contrary to what the anchor had claimed about the product. They promptly issued refunds to customers. Over the past few days, they have been busy processing refunds, and now most customers have received their refunds.
The shop owner also disclosed that according to their agreement, they had already paid over 20,000 yuan for the goods, which they have not received back. Not only did they not make any profit from this batch of goods, but they also incurred losses and fines.
As per the report, the man mentioned by the shop owner on March 10th stated that there are many commercial leaders on a short video platform, and the anchors, sources, etc., were all supposedly contacted by these commercial leaders. He claimed only to facilitate resource connections for the shop and did not know how the anchors promoted the products.
The man further stated that the information on the shop’s product link page stating “800 grams of blueberries for 69.9 yuan” was possibly edited by the commercial leader, and he had no direct contact with them.
The business responsible for shipping the goods mentioned that someone approached them to help sell blueberries, and they merely handled the collection of money and shipping. The specification for shipment was 8 boxes, with each box containing 20 grams, but they were unaware of how these blueberries were being sold online. The business did not reveal who approached them to sell blueberries online.
The commercial leader of this sales event did not answer their phone calls. The live streaming accounts involved in the sales also did not respond to media inquiries.
Some netizens have expressed that such actions not only harm consumers’ interests but also damage the fair competitive market environment. At the same time, this incident has exposed the lack of supervision in the live streaming e-commerce industry.