Chapter 179: Refund One, Compensate Ten, Fine 8.38 Million! (Request Monthly Votes)

At dawn the next day, Chen Yansen got up feeling refreshed and invigorated.

Clothes were scattered all over the floor, along with cosplay outfits of Wolverine, Black Widow, the Hulk, and Spider-Man—the Black Widow suit split open from the belly all the way to the neck.

Chen Yansen walked barefoot to the door, lay down on the sofa, and gazed at the morning light outside the window, gradually turning fiery red and scorching, illuminating the gray-white sky.

"Didn't read any books today?"

Song Yuncheng walked over slowly, wrapped in a towel.

"Didn't you flip through books all night last night?" Chen Yansen took Song Yuncheng's hand, gently stroking it in his palm, and smirked in reply.

Song Yuncheng froze for a moment, then understood, her face flushing bright red.

Under Chen Yansen's influence, she had gradually learned more and more about these strange bits of knowledge, moving from initial confusion to growing familiarity.

"The calluses are gone—now it's so smooth," Chen Yansen said softly, squeezing Song Yuncheng's hand.

"Thanks to Master's teaching, I've gained the ability to earn money; otherwise, with just my part-time jobs in the cafeteria and library, I couldn't even afford my brother's medicine."

Song Yuncheng spoke with sincere, earnest eyes.

Aside from being emotionally callous, Chen Yansen had always treated her well, personally mentoring her into becoming a Senior Client Director.

And she held onto that position thanks to outstanding performance—even in business development, she was among the top performers.

"I don't like being called 'Master.'"

Chen Yansen frowned; the title always reminded him of Ye Qiuping.

"But what if I like it?" Song Yuncheng asked with a smile.

Chen Yansen said nothing, responding with action—he scooped up Song Yuncheng and carried her toward the bathroom.

Meanwhile.

Suning, Vancl, Dangdang, Letao, and Newegg all showed interest in joining Pinbei.

Although opening flagship stores on Pinbei meant diverting traffic to a competitor, they could also piggyback on Pinbei's traffic—and even poach some users.

As e-commerce platform sales climbed steadily, both offline traditional enterprises and existing online platforms were actively seeking external traffic entry points.

Previously there was FoxTaobao; now there was also Pinbei.

But only Vancl and Suning actually took action!

At this time, Suning E-commerce had just transitioned from a 3C and home appliance retailer to a comprehensive e-commerce platform, yet digital and home appliance categories still accounted for the highest share of its revenue.

Upon learning of JD's sales performance on Pinbei, they immediately had their marketing department reach out to Pinbei's business team to discuss store onboarding.

When Chen Yansen returned to the tech park, the Senior Client Acquisition Department handed him three approval contracts at once—for Suning, Red Child, and Mai Bao Bao.

Clearly, they all just wanted to fleece the system!

Chen Yansen didn't mind—he approved them all; in Pinbei's early stage, he welcomed any vertical e-commerce site without hesitation.

Even if they only added their products to the pool with a single search entry, it still expanded revenue channels.

Extra exposure required payment.

After handling these matters, Chen Yansen calmly called Chen Nian back; after hearing Chen Nian's request, he readily agreed.

He hadn't refused Mai Bao Bao—of course he wouldn't refuse Vancl.

Moreover, he knew clearly that Vancl was under heavy inventory pressure, giving Pinbei the upper hand in pricing negotiations.

In addition to platform onboarding, numerous brands—including Konka, Supor, Gree, HP, Zara, and Han Du Yi She—had submitted onboarding applications, mostly A-grade brands totaling over six hundred.

Just the deposit alone had brought in over a hundred million yuan.

While Chen Yansen was reviewing platform data, the second-floor customer service department was in chaos.

"Bo, the visitor access volume is too high—we're completely overwhelmed! It's all complaints!"

Zhu Xiaopeng hurried up to Meng Xibo, anxious.

"How many complaint tickets total?" Meng Xibo struggled to keep his composure.

"So far, 278—but most of the incoming visitors are complaining about Xiangwei Fang's crispy chili preserved vegetable, citing expired products, faded barcodes, or moldy goods."

Zhu Xiaopeng summarized briefly.

"Let's go find Lao Fei!"

When Meng Xibo heard the complaint count had reached over two hundred, his scalp prickled—he immediately decided.

Fei Qiwén was the head of customer service and the workplace mentor Chen Yansen had assigned to them.

Although Meng Xibo was sharp and had been through a year of FoxTaobao project training, he was still too inexperienced in crisis management and dealing with market supervision associations.

Chen Yansen wasn't confident leaving the customer service department to just the two of them, so he had recruited a customer service director from Taobao.

They didn't dare delay—they rushed toward Fei Qiwén's office.

"Lao Fei, trouble—there's a product issue from Double Twelve. Preliminary judgment: the merchant substituted inferior goods, but the method was too crude and got caught by users."

Meng Xibo explained while gesturing for Zhu Xiaopeng to show the user-submitted photos and video evidence.

"Freeze the merchant's funds immediately, have customer service calm the complaining users—first try the 'refund one, compensate three' policy; if the user's complaint is strong, go straight to 'refund one, compensate ten.'"

Fei Qiwén glanced quickly and made the call.

In fact, the company had already prepared a contingency plan for such cases—but it required his decision as head of customer service.

"Alright, we'll go back and handle it right away."

Meng Xibo nodded, received authorization, and immediately had customer service contact the buyers who complained that morning, applying the refund-and-compensation policy to soothe them.

Then, the problematic product link was sent to the relevant acquisition and category teams, and the link was quickly taken down.

Almost simultaneously, the owner of Xiangwei Fang in Sichuan received an in-platform notification.

The product was taken down, funds frozen, and the original 100, 00 yuan deposit now stood at just over 70, 00 yuan.

Clearly, Pinbei had directly deducted compensation from the deposit and transferred it into the buyer's account to handle the complaints.

"What the hell? Why can't I even withdraw funds?!"

Zhang Minxiao, seeing this, panicked and called his operations staff to process the withdrawal.

"Boss, the platform has frozen your funds—probably won't be released until all complaints are resolved."

The operations staff shrugged helplessly.

He had warned the boss earlier when he planned to use alcohol to alter the production dates and re-print the labels on last year's old stock.

But the boss ignored him, taking a gamble by mixing old and new stock—warehouse workers, paid poorly, didn't care about their work.

The ink wasn't cleaned properly—it was only natural buyers noticed.

"Fucking hell, what a garbage platform! I'm calling the police!" Zhang Minxiao paced in rage, cursing nonstop.

The 100, 00 yuan deposit was quickly reduced by over 30, 00 yuan.

"Boss, let me try contacting platform customer service," the operations staff said, seeing his boss's bloodshot eyes, shrinking back and finding something to do.

Zhang Minxiao nodded, saying nothing.

As for calling the police—he didn't dare. If the product were fine, he wouldn't fear it—but he had indeed sold over six thousand bottles of last year's old stock mixed into orders.

He shouted loudly, but inside he was terrified.

"Hello, I'm the operations staff for Xiangwei Fang. Why can't we withdraw our funds?"

The operations staff asked knowingly.

"Hello, I've checked—your store currently has 1, 59 after-sales orders, triggering the platform's alert system. You must resolve all after-sales tickets before unlocking withdrawal."

The customer service rep on the other end explained slowly.

"Fix it for me!" Zhang Minxiao glared and pointed at the operations staff.

"Uh, boss—the platform's soothing policy is 'refund one, compensate three.' Should we do the same?"

The operations staff cursed the merchant inwardly but outwardly wore a worried expression, as if genuinely concerned for his boss.

The boss was a dog, but for the sake of his livelihood, he had to endure it.

"Refund one, compensate three? No way! Tell your store's customer service to offer each buyer a 10-yuan compensation—do it before they contact the platform! Get rid of these bastards!"

Zhang Minxiao immediately shook his head.

Refund one, compensate three? That would kill him—he knew the Food Safety Law had provisions, but he didn't want to pay.

The operations staff smiled helplessly; dealing with a boss like this was equally hopeless.

When he relayed this to customer service, the reps sneered and simply gave up—they replied to every complaint, no matter how angry, with: "Leave a good review, get a 10-yuan red packet."

Eventually, users whose demands weren't met bypassed the merchant's customer service and contacted the platform directly.

They immediately sensed the service gap—while merchant staff were furious, customers on the platform were met with "refund one, compensate three," and if they showed even slight dissatisfaction, customer service immediately offered tenfold compensation.

This wasn't shopping—it was investing!

The original price of three jars of crispy chili preserved vegetable was 23. yuan; refund one, compensate three meant a profit of 72 yuan; refund one, compensate ten meant 239 yuan.

If the operations staff hadn't taken down the link, Xiangwei Fang's sales might have surged another 100, 00 units.

The users were delighted—but Zhang Minxiao was nearly broken.

After "refund one, compensate ten" trended on hot search, users who bought defective products immediately posted evidence demanding tenfold compensation.

Pinbei's customer service was equally swift—they didn't pay with their own money, so they processed refunds and payouts without hesitation.

Before noon, Xiangwei Fang's 100, 00-yuan deposit was completely drained, and deductions began from the merchant's sales proceeds.

Upon hearing this news, other merchants on Pinbei immediately gathered their warehouse staff for meetings, warning them: from now on, ship carefully.

They finally understood one truth: making money on Pinbei was fast—but losing it was faster.

Pinbei's practice of freezing funds and deducting deposits seemed harsh, but it reassured honest sellers that on a platform protecting buyers, as long as they sold goods properly, profit was guaranteed.

Meanwhile, dishonest merchants banded together, tagging Chen Yansen on Weibo to curse him, insulting his ancestors to the eighteenth generation.

Uninformed netizens initially thought Pinbei was being too tyrannical, arbitrarily freezing merchant funds.

But after seeing in the comments the photos of altered production dates and videos of moldy food posted by buyers who received tenfold compensation, they immediately felt Chen Yansen's penalty was too lenient.

They turned around and started cursing the dishonest merchants!

"Next time you buy something, just use Pinbei! The platform has your back!"

"Pinbei really stands up for you! I heard the merchant was threatening to call the police, but nothing happened for hours—finally, it was Pinbei's legal team that called them!"

"This boss got exactly what he deserved! He wanted to call the police? The platform fulfilled his wish in a heartbeat."

Netizens joked and commented in the comment section.

Not long after, someone posted the Taobao store link for Xiangweifang; a flood of netizens rushed to Taobao and mocked the merchant's customer service: "Any stock left? I only eat expired preserved mustard greens!"

"Bring me two bottles of 1982 vintage crispy chili preserved mustard greens—I'll pair them with Lafite!"

"Terrible merchant—go bankrupt already!"

Some netizens even kept placing and canceling orders, pushing the store's return rate up dozens of times.

Seeing this, Xiangweifang's operations team had no choice but to take down all their products.

The next day, the local market supervision association and Police Inspector's office intervened in the investigation and quickly issued a notice: Xiangweifang would be punished for passing off inferior goods as quality ones.

They also contacted Pinbei's customer service lead to synchronize the handling progress, since the incident had already trended nationwide.

Three days later, Xiangweifang paid a total of 538, 00 yuan in compensation to buyers and became the first merchant ever terminated by Pinbei.

Additionally, Xiangweifang had to pay Pinbei 100, 00 yuan in technical service fees and 200, 00 yuan in economic damages.

Pinbei gained instant fame in the e-commerce industry thanks to this negative incident.

Many users, drawn by the buzz, downloaded the Pinbei app, eager to try the shopping experience of a "financially oriented e-commerce platform."

Although Pinbei's punishment of Xiangweifang scared off some dishonest merchants, many others only saw that Xiangweifang had sold over one million yuan in sales within half a month of joining.

If you can make money, what's the point of fearing fines?

Besides, Pinbei doesn't punish merchants without cause. Take Xiangweifang's act of passing off inferior goods—any platform would penalize it severely; Pinbei just did it more ruthlessly.

After learning the outcome, Chen Yan sent instructions to HR to hire several more security personnel.

(End of Chapter)