Exorbitant toilet unclogging fee, once as high as 19,000 yuan.

[4] Compiled from: Red Star News
 
Recently, Shanghai police dismantled a fraud ring that “used drain cleaning as a pretext to sell high-priced drain cleaning agents for exorbitant profits,” arresting 37 suspects and involving more than 6 million RMB. Under the ring’s “operations,” consumers often had to pay 3,000 to 5,000 yuan for drain cleaning services, with the highest single bill reaching 19,000 yuan.

 
 

Case review
One late night in August of this year, Mr. Cao, a resident of Shanghai, found his toilet clogged. Eager to resolve the issue quickly, he opened 58.com.

 

Among the various listings, one company named “Shentong” stood out with prominent labels such as “24-hour service,” “free inspection,” and “70 yuan per visit,” which perfectly matched Mr. Cao’s needs. He promptly placed an order for the company’s on-site pipe unclogging service. An hour later, a repairman arrived at his home to conduct the “free inspection” and quickly presented two solutions: either breaking open the floor tiles late at night to inspect the pipes, or using a professional drain cleaner priced at 485 yuan per bottle.

To avoid disturbing the neighbors and to restore the toilet as quickly as possible, Mr. Cao chose the second option. The repairman quickly took out drain cleaner from his bag and poured five bottles into the pipe opening. Feeling that the cost of using it at such a rate was too high, Mr. Cao was about to stop the repairman from further action when the repairman immediately stated, “No unclogging, no charge.” He then poured in five more bottles of drain cleaner and used a machine to clear the drain. The pipe was unclogged in just 10 minutes, at a total cost of 4,850 yuan.

Similar to Mr. Cao, Ms. Wang, a resident of Shanghai, also encountered an exorbitant drain-clearing fee. “He (the repairman) asked me to boil some hot water, saying it would be needed for the unclogging later.” Ms. Wang recalled that shortly after she boiled the water in the kitchen and returned to the bathroom, she saw “bottles of drain cleaner scattered all over the floor, at least a dozen of them.”

Previously, the repairman had shown her the detergent used, which was priced at four to five hundred yuan on Taobao”s “official store.” Ms. Wang had no choice but to accept the loss; this toilet unclogging cost her over 5,000 yuan. However, it was not until the police cracked the case and contacted Ms. Wang that she realized she had been scammed.
 
 
The [1] The People's Republic of China Criminal Law
Article 266 [Fraud Crime]
Whoever defrauds public or private property, if the amount is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, or public surveillance, and shall also, or shall only, be fined; if the amount is huge or there are other serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than ten years, and shall also be fined; if the amount is especially huge or there are other especially serious circumstances, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years or life imprisonment, and shall also be fined or have property confiscated. Where this Law otherwise provides, such provisions shall prevail.
 
 
[1] The author's perspective
Many people have likely had similar experiences of being cheated in household services like pipe unclogging. In fact, these scammers' methods are not sophisticated. They first use low-price promotions on online platforms to attract customers. When performing on-site repairs, they exploit information asymmetry, deliberately send consumers away, use large amounts of unclogging agents, and finally present customers with exorbitant bills. The entire process is packaged with smooth talk to seem reasonable, without any coercion, making it easy for consumers to fall for the scam.
 
Yet we cannot help but wonder: this type of fraud was only able to operate by leveraging a platform like 58.com. Once or twice might be understandable, but with hundreds of sales, why are there so few negative reviews? Why do these fraudulent links still exist? At this point, we must address the platform’s regulatory obligations. Although merchants may use technical means such as deleting negative reviews to maintain high ratings, there have been consumers who have complained to the platform. When these consumers who submitted negative reviews and complaints appeared, the platform should have taken them seriously, rather than keeping such a disreputable merchant on the platform and allowing it to deceive more consumers. It can be said that in this matter, the platform’s inaction has actually provided fertile ground for the “growth” of fraud gangs. Because the platform failed to fulfill its responsibilities, it not only encouraged this illegal behavior that harms society and the public, but also caused 58.com’s reputation to plummet once again. From what was once an all-purpose platform to today’s mixed bag of good and bad, what 58.com needs to do is not marketing whitewashing, but to calm down and examine itself, and truly serve the people.