The old refrigerator was taken away, but the new one hasn't arrived. Fresh frozen food at home has spoiled.

“I originally wanted to replace the refrigerator at my mother’s house with a new one, but I never expected to be badly let down and messed with by the seller!” Recently, Ms. Wu, a local resident, told “Xinmin Bang Nong Mang” that she bought a Xiaomi refrigerator from the official Xiaomi flagship store on an e-commerce platform, but ended up facing a chain of “no-shows”: first, the pickup of her old refrigerator recycling was delayed; then the new refrigerator was “temporarily out of stock,” and it still hadn’t been delivered. As a result, the elderly woman found herself for a time with no refrigerator to use, causing a large amount of fresh food at home to spoil and severely affecting daily life.

According to Ms. Wu, the Siemens refrigerator in her mother’s home had been in use for too many years, and its cooling performance was far worse than before. Coinciding with the national policy of subsidies for trading in old appliances, she planned to complete an upgrade and replacement of the refrigerator for her mother before the Spring Festival. On February 6, she placed an order on the Xiaomi official flagship store of an e-commerce platform for a Xiaomi 430L cross-door refrigerator and paid 1638 yuan in the end after the subsidy. “According to the relevant process, the platform will first send someone to pick up the old refrigerator, and then deliver the new product.” But after waiting for a few days, no one contacted her proactively. When Ms. Wu asked the platform’s customer service, the other side cited “tight staffing close to the Spring Festival” and proposed postponing the pickup until after the Spring Festival.

On February 21, the platform finally sent someone to come and take away the old refrigerator. However, Ms. Wu’s mother waited at home for 2 days, but still didn’t receive the new refrigerator. When she contacted the seller, she was told that the product was “temporarily out of stock,” and it might only be shipped after 5–10 days. “If there’s no stock, why make me place the order? Why intentionally conceal it during the half-month waiting period?” Ms. Wu said angrily that the seller’s actions undoubtedly put consumers “on the grill.” Even more troublesome was that since the old refrigerator had already been collected and handled, a large amount of frozen fresh food in her mother’s home ended up spoiling due to lack of storage, and the household’s normal order was thrown into confusion for a time. “What I find most incomprehensible is: the seller clearly knows there’s no stock, so why do they still have people come and go to pick up the old refrigerator? Isn’t this deliberately making things difficult for us?” To avoid affecting her mother’s normal life, Ms. Wu had no choice but to place a new order for a refrigerator on another platform again, just to solve the urgent need. After that, she officially submitted refund and reasonable compensation requests to Xiaomi and the platform. But at first, she only received a dismissive proposal of a 60-yuan voucher from the seller, and the two sides couldn’t reach an agreement.

The reporter contacted the customer service hotline of the platform involved at the first opportunity to verify. After investigation, the staff confirmed that the seller really was unable to fulfill the order due to inventory issues. The platform expressed sincere apologies for the trouble it caused consumers and stated that there were lapses in the communication process earlier. After the reporter’s continued follow-up and coordination, yesterday afternoon, the platform delivered to Ms. Wu a new solution that was more sincere and offered more commitment. Ms. Wu ultimately confirmed that the platform had reached an agreement with her, and she was satisfied with the handling result. “Thank you very much for ‘Xinmin Bang Nong Mang’ stepping in. Both the platform and the seller once again sincerely apologized to me,” Ms. Wu said in her feedback to the program. “I hope they can learn a lesson. In the future, if there’s a stock shortage, they must inform consumers immediately and operate with integrity.”

By this reporter Fang Hao

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