TV Shopping

An survey done by the Beijing Consumer Association find that all the respondents say TV shopping channels are not trustworthy. Most of them feel they have been cheated after they purchased items promoted on the show.

Let's follower our reporter Hang Rui to find out more:

The Beijing Consumer Association has received nearly 500 complaints about TV shopping in the first six months of the year. To investigate further, it asked 15 volunteers to order products after seeing them advertised on shopping channels and record their experiences.

Volunteer You Jie spent about 200 yuan on a pair of earrings which advertisers claimed were made of top-grade jade.

"The earrings look very coarse and totally different from what I saw on TV. The salesperson said I was not allowed to see the real product before I paid. And I am still waiting for the receipt which they promised to mail out two months ago."

About 70 percent of survey respondents say the actual products they received were not the ones that were advertised on the TV shopping programs. Gold jewelry and diamond watches are good examples.

Zhou Jun of the National Gemstone Testing Center says:

"The gold layer on the necklace is very thin and is worth no more than 10 yuan. The necklace is mostly made of bronze and nickel. And the so-called diamonds on the cell phone are glass."

TV shopping channels sometimes invite famous entertainers and phony customers and experts to promote their products 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Retired people and housewives who often spend a lot of time in front of the television are prone to fall into the trap. But after they buy advertised products and feel they have been cheated, they cannot return them to get their money back or receive after-sales services.

Lang Danke of the Consumer Association says:

"The address printed on this medicine's wrapper says it comes from a factory in Haidian district, but the salesperson told me they had moved to somewhere in Yanqing. And when we checked the later address, it did not exist at all."

According to the survey, 84 percent of the respondents say they can't locate the addresses of the manufacturers or the companies that produced the products they bought. About half of the participants say they believe the salespeople are unprofessional and unfamiliar with their products.

What's worse, prescription medicines and substandard anti-obesity products are also very common on TV shopping programs. The association says it will urge the government to make related regulations as soon as possible.