On the evening of August 24, in response to the recent refund issue that users have been concerned about, the official Weibo account of Meituan Customer Service issued a statement stating that a special customer service team has been urgently established to conduct special collection, inquiry, and traceability of orders reported through various social media and other channels. At present, the problem of lagging refund information has been fixed and will help users trace every worried order.
The following is the full text of the response:
Recently, some netizens posted on social media that refunds for some orders showed "under review" and other information, causing some netizens to "trace the order."
Due to the large volume of short-term customer service inquiries, we urgently set up a special customer service team over the weekend, but there were still queues for inquiries. At the same time, we conduct special collection, inquiry, and tracing of orders received through various social media and other channels, and strive to clarify all user questions.
During this period, many netizens also spontaneously sorted out their refund orders and the whereabouts of funds in the comment area, and found that the funds had actually been received long ago. They called on everyone to be "rational" and thanked many users for their trust!
After investigation, the "refund not received" problem reported on the Internet can be mainly divided into two categories of questions to answer:
1. The refund information is incompletely updated, and I don’t know whether the money has been refunded or where it has been refunded.
2. The refund information shows "Failed", what is the reason, and how to return it later.
After verification:
The first type of problem is mainly that the information display related to the refund process on the platform is not updated in a timely manner, leading to user misunderstanding. At present, the product technical team has optimized the information display. Users who have refunded orders after 2017 can independently check the destination of their accounts, and the refund results will be displayed after the user refreshes. Users can check the refund status of historical orders before 2017 through customer service.
The second type of problem involves a small number of orders. It is due to abnormalities in payment channels such as bank cards or third-party payment tools for some users, and they are unable to receive refunds in the original way. The system will refund the money to the user's Meituan balance. However, if the user's Meituan account has been canceled or is abnormal, the platform cannot automatically refund the money, and Meituan will contact the user to receive it. The refund method for this type of order is also a common solution strategy for online trading platforms.
The following are the specific situations and explanations of the two types of problems:
1. The refund information is not updated in a timely manner and is incomplete. There are no phenomena such as "no refund without inquiry" and "deletion of orders".
First, if the user receives a "refund successful" notification, the funds must have been returned to the user's account. However, after inquiry, there are three situations that may cause users to not receive this information, resulting in misunderstandings, namely:
Type 1: The refund has been received, but "under review" and "processing" are displayed.
This problem mainly stems from the fact that the order information is not updated in time. After the refund is received, the order page does not automatically display the "Refund Successful" reminder. We have fixed this issue today. After refreshing the order details page, users will receive an update notification of "Acceptance".
This is not the “refund as soon as a query is made” complained about on social media, but after the product is repaired, the normal refund results are updated for users. Users can check the bill from the original payment channel to confirm the actual arrival time of the refund.
Second type: The refund has been received, but the refund amount is displayed as "0".
This problem is also caused by an error in system information update. Users can query relevant bill records through the original payment channel.
There is also a small number of users who choose old versions of gift cards, stored-value cards, etc. for payment. With the iterative upgrade of functions, the old version of gift cards cannot be displayed normally on the order page. After verification, the money was returned to the user's original payment account at that time.
The third type is that the refund is shown as successful, but the original payment channel cannot be found.
One situation is that if there is a problem with the user's original payment channel, such as account abnormality, cancellation, etc., we will directly refund the user's Meituan account balance, and the record can be viewed through the Meituan balance.
Another situation is that the user inquired about the wrong payment channel. For example, after our customer service helped a large number of incoming users inquire, it was discovered that the user had misremembered the bank card at that time.
In addition, when completing a transaction through third-party payment, there may also be problems such as the third party not notifying you of information. If you are worried, you can check it through the original payment channel such as bank card.
2. A very small number of orders show "refund failed", mainly due to problems with the original payment channel. Meituan has provided a cover-up plan.
Some users reported "refund failure". After verification, it was found that a very small number of orders had similar problems.
The reason is that there is a problem with the user's payment channel such as bank card or third-party payment tool, and the refund cannot be received in the original way. The system will return all the money to the user's "wallet balance" according to the refund process.
However, in extreme cases, if the user's "wallet balance" status is abnormal, its functions are limited, or the relevant account is canceled, and the system automatically refunds the money, it cannot be directly refunded to the "wallet balance". For such orders, users can refund to a new designated bank card, or contact customer service for assistance. Meituan is also continuing to remind relevant users to receive refunds through text messages and other methods.
Take the following media reports as an example:
The interviewee's order was refunded eight months later because the return to the original payment channel failed. However, at the same time, the user canceled the Meituan payment account and could not refund the account balance. Meituan could only notify the user for manual processing.
To sum up, from the order data we sorted out, every refund data can be traced, and users can query the whereabouts of refund funds.
We are sorry that the incomplete and untimely display of product function information has led to misunderstandings.
Buy whatever you want and return with confidence, this is Meituan’s long-standing promise to everyone.
In March 2011, Meituan took the lead in the group buying industry by launching an "expired refund" policy. Since then, "no automatic refund" has become an important reason for many users to choose Meituan.
After acquiring Mobike, Meituan immediately opened a deposit refund channel for Mobike users. At present, there are still some users who have not applied for deposit refunds. We would like to remind relevant users that they can refund their deposits through the Meituan App.
From group buying to shared bicycles, we have always insisted on providing hassle-free and worry-free refunds for all users. We will further improve our products and functions to make users’ consumption experience more secure and secure. If you have other order questions, please feel free to contact us at any time.