Recently, the Beijing Morning News reported that a decoration company on the Internet home improvement platform ran away, and the owners had no results in discussing the Internet home improvement platform, which aroused heated discussions in the industry. How much responsibility is the third-party platform for home improvement? Should "advance payment" be made? As far as the Beijing market is concerned, large home furnishing stores in Beijing, such as Easyhome, Red Star Macalline, Chengwaicheng, Jimei, etc. have launched this service in the early years. Become a business commitment to earn credibility. Whether it is online or offline, the launch of the advance payment service provides an extra layer of protection for consumers' rights and interests, but in the actual use process, what are the conditions and restrictions for consumers to obtain advance payment?

　　The Ministry of Commerce expressly regulates the advance compensation system

　　It is understood that the advance payment service has clear requirements in various service specifications formulated by the state and local governments. In the "New Consumer Law", the advance payment system for third-party online trading platforms is specially stipulated.

　　The "Household Industry Business Service Specification" promulgated by the Ministry of Commerce was officially implemented on September 1, 2013. It systematically regulates the problems existing in the industry to protect the interests of consumers and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry. "Applicable to household production, sales, service-oriented business services and related management activities. The "Standard" requires that home furnishing stores should implement the advance compensation system, and should promptly return or compensate customers when the products are defective or defective. After the sellers leave the store, they must still provide customers with corresponding after-sales and maintenance services. In 2016, In March, the Beijing furniture industry will also clearly write the first payment and clearly marked prices into the industry service standards.

　　There are conditions for the advance payment of the home store

　　The advance payment service provides an extra layer of protection for consumers' rights and interests, but the Beijing Morning Post found out that this service is subject to certain conditions. Take the home store as an example, the premise is to participate in the unified cash register of the store, and have the relevant store's shopping contract and valid payment vouchers and invoices. If the consumer does not participate in the unified cash register, but trades privately with the merchant, the first payment service may be difficult to enjoy. In fact, whether it is an online platform or an offline platform, getting the cooperation and understanding of consumers in the after-sales service may be a problem that platform companies should consider at the moment.

　　In recent years, judging from the complaints of consumers, "difficulty in complaints and compensation" is a common problem encountered by consumers in protecting their rights, and "difficulty in making compensation" is the crux of the difficulty of consumer rights protection. The introduction of the "compensation in advance" system can be said to be the right medicine. It not only reduces the cost of consumer complaints, but also allows operators to change from bystanders to participants and cooperators of supervision work. It can be said that the system of "compensation in advance" has effectively solved the drawbacks of consumers' "complaints have a door and cannot be resolved", and ensured that consumer disputes caused by quality or liability reasons can be resolved in a timely manner, so that consumers' legitimate rights and interests can be obtained quickly and effectively. Protect. During the interview, some mainstream stores in Beijing, such as Red Star Macalline, reminded consumers: In order to protect their legitimate rights and interests, it is recommended to participate in the unified cashier of the shopping mall, and ask for a shopping contract, valid payment vouchers and invoices.

　　There are still loopholes in the implementation of advance compensation

　　"Pre-payment" generally means that there is a quality or service problem in the goods sold by the merchant, and the consumer issues a formal sales contract and payment voucher, and proposes "pre-payment" to the shopping mall. The mall provides return, exchange, maintenance and other services in accordance with relevant regulations. However, a reporter from the Beijing Morning Post found in the actual investigation that most stores promise that consumers can "pay in advance" when they find the store, but some companies have not specifically announced the detailed explanation of "pay in advance" to the public, such as "pay in advance" The process, payment method, time limit and amount are not detailed. In practice, due to the lack of clarity of these details, there is a difference in the understanding between consumers and stores. On the one hand, individual stores have not paid the compensation, and the interests of consumers have been violated; on the other hand, some consumers have adopted After the corresponding return and maintenance measures are taken, unreasonable compensation claims are still made to the store. According to industry insiders, the root cause of these unnecessary disputes is the imbalance between the store's "attitude" and "system".

　　The third-party online trading platform has a legal basis for compensation

　　The "New Consumer Law" proposes a first-hand compensation system for third-party online trading platforms - if there is a problem with the goods when shopping online, consumers can directly negotiate with the online trading platform, and the online trading platform needs to pay in advance. Some home furnishing online trading platforms are also actively formulating corresponding regulations, such as signing a compensation service agreement and paying a quality deposit before the merchants settle in, so that the platform can protect the rights and interests of consumers when the merchants fail to fulfill their commitments.

　　At the same time, consumers need to pay attention that the new consumer law has added the conditions for online trading platform providers to assume the responsibility of paying consumers in advance, that is, if they cannot provide the real name, address and valid contact information of the seller or service provider, only assume the responsibility for advance payment. After they pay the compensation, they can also claim compensation from the seller or service provider.