Dang! Chinese website busted for selling returned and fake iPhones
Staff Reporter 2013-03-17 10:47
A Dangdang.com advertisement. (File photo/CFP)
A Chinese shopping website has been ordered to pay a customer 500,000 yuan (US$80,400) for reselling iPhones that were returned for defects, reports the Chinese-language Beijing News.
The website, Dangdang.com, sold 20 iPhones to a Beijing man surnamed Chen last August at 4,850 yuan (US$780) per phone. Chen suspected from the color of the packaging that the iPhones were not genuine and sent the products to Apple for verification.
Nineteen of the phones were later verified as returned defective iPhones, while the serial number of another could not be located in Apple's database, suggesting a fake.
Chen initially contacted Dangdang for compensation but his request was denied, though the company agreed to a refund if Chen could provide Apple's test reports as proof.
After acquiring the reports, Chen asked the company to make good on its promotional promise to compensate consumers "five-fold for one fake product," but Dangdang tried to deny responsibility by arguing that its website is only a sales platform and that compensation should come directly from Danxito, the Chinese company that supplied the phones.
In any case, Dangdang added, its promise to compensate consumers five-fold would only apply to the one fake product, not the 19 "refurbished" iPhones.
Chen eventually took Dangdang to court and was awarded 500,000 yuan (US$80,400) in compensation. Dangdang is appealing the decision.
