Zhihu members of the phenomenon of indiscriminate deduction complaints
Zhihu members of the phenomenon of indiscriminate deduction complaints, on the eve of 315, a number of netizens complained of Zhihu Salt Select members there are indiscriminate deduction "black hole". In the black cat complaint platform, the complaints about Zhihu members amounted to 1200, Zhihu members indiscriminate deduction phenomenon complaints.
Recently, a number of netizens complained that Zhihu App's Salt Selection membership has indiscriminate deduction, automatic renewal behavior, through the complaint platform, found that there are a large number of complaints about such issues, there are media statistics, alone from the beginning of 2022 to date there are more than a hundred cases, was deducted from the membership of the monthly fee from a few months to dozens of months ranging.
Some netizens said that Zhihu Salt Choice members automatically renewed their membership without notifying me and without my permission, and deducted 14 consecutive months of membership, none of which did their duty to notify the deduction, leading to the fact that they are only now aware of this, with the most recent deduction dated March 14, 2022.
There are also netizens who said, in the case that they have turned off the auto-renewal, Zhihu is still auto-renewal deduction, without any reminder, directly from the balance of the deduction, until my balance of the balance of the treasure is not the amount of money deducted from my bank card, the bank card to come to the text message after I just know."
It is reported that previously there was a media exposure to the problem of Zhihu's indiscriminate deduction, but Zhihu denied the existence of the phenomenon of indiscriminate deduction.
Zhihu said, "There is a strict subscription process for users to subscribe to Zhihu's paid business, and at the same time, users are given the option of continuous subscription and non-continuous subscription. There is a standard notification process for user payment, and there is no situation where users are unaware of the chargebacks in advance."
But I recently found that such problems still exist, and there are still many users complaining about Zhihu, and the complaints are basically the same as before, such as opening a membership without the user's knowledge, and deducting money after the user turns off auto-renewal, and so on. There is even a situation where a user finds the customer service of Zhihu on the issue of refund, but the customer service is not caring.
According to media reports, the phenomenon of App indiscriminate deduction was once very common, during 315 in 2019, CCTV had a special report on this matter, and then through the Consumer Council and the media continuous exposure, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other relevant departments to introduce laws and regulations, the situation has greatly improved, and now, a number of cell phone App has been rectified to cancel the automatic renewal of the default ticking, and set the reminder function. It can be said that the `phenomenon' of apps deducting fees indiscriminately has been significantly improved.
But there are still complaints about this, and so many users have been charged for months or even years, and some media have commented that it's clear that they've been "unmoved" by the situation.
A lawyer suggested that consumers should report to the market supervision and management department to legally defend their rights against this kind of arbitrary deduction and auto-renewal of fees.
According to media reports, the phenomenon of arbitrary deductions for Salt Select members of the Zhihu App has not been alleviated, and complaints continue to be lodged.
Finance World Weekly found that on the Black Cat complaint platform, complaints about Zhihu membership amounted to 1,200, most of which complained about Zhihu's indiscriminate membership deduction and auto-renewal, and were deducted more than the monthly membership fee ranging from a few months to dozens of months.315 Consumer Rights Day half a month after the day, there are still a number of related complaints.
It is worth noting that on the eve of 315, many users complained that there is a "black hole" of arbitrary deduction of fees for Zhihu Salt Selection membership. In this regard, Zhihu responded that "there is a standard notification process for user payment, and there is no situation where the user is unaware of the premise of the deduction."
This is the first time that a user has been asked to pay a fee for a membership.
Open the Zhihu App Salt selection of members found that the first eye of the "continuous monthly, continuous yearly, continuous quarterly" of the three activities, are automatically renewed, the left slide to see the quarterly card, annual card and monthly cards.
"If you have a question, you have an answer", but there seems to be no answer to the frequent malicious deductions in Zhihu.
Recently, a number of netizens said in the complaint platform, their Zhihu account was inexplicably deducted; paid the membership fee, but the membership function can not be opened, and shows that the membership expired and so on.
Although previously Zhihu had said that there is a standard notification process for paid situations, and there is no case of users unknowingly incurring deductions, there are still many netizens who said there was no SMS notification.
In fact, the situation of inexplicable deductions has existed for a long time, and most of the complaints on the complaints platform about Zhihu were inexplicable deductions, and even previously named by CCTV as suspected of forced consumption.
Multiple inexplicable deductions
Recently, a netizen in the black cat complaint platform, said, Zhihu members automatically deducted, the software can not be canceled automatically deducted, in the case of I do not have the feelings of a **** in the Alipay deducted me 7 times, 19 yuan per month, the cumulative number of times deducted 133 yuan. At the same time, the user said in the paypal bill only found, but in the software interface does not cancel the automatic deduction of tips and interface, the software interface also shows the opening of the member's preferential policies, but there is no prompting the user is not a member of the membership, and how to cancel the membership.
In addition, the user also said, based on this problem to know the customer service feedback, but after prompting the exclusive customer service, after nearly an hour there is still no customer service reply to the user.
As a matter of fact, the problem encountered by this user is not an isolated case, only in the black cat complaint platform on the complaints of Zhihu, there are nearly 90% of the complaints for inexplicable deduction, open the black cat complaint Zhihu home page, can be said to look around, almost all inexplicable deduction.
Not long ago, the New Express also reported on the incident of inexplicable charges related to Zhihu, at that time, Zhihu responded to the newspaper that "in the product page (help center) to provide unsubscription guidelines, users need to pay through the third-party channels (Alipay, WeChat, Apple, etc.) for unsubscription operations", at the same time, insisted that "Membership business opens continuous subscription we will remind in a private letter 5 days before the renewal".
But in the view of many users is not the case, a part of the users said, and did not open the automatic renewal, and no advance notice, Zhihui from the Alipay deducted the cost of membership.
In this regard, according to New Express, Guangdong Jingguo Law Firm lawyer Fu Ailing said, "Supervision and management of network transactions," Article 18 of the provisions of the "to draw the attention of consumers in a significant way". If the platform only set up a reminder in the App, for users who did not download the App, it is clear that they have not fulfilled their legal obligation to "draw consumers' attention in a conspicuous manner". If Zhihu claimed that they had fulfilled their duty to notify, "this should be proved by Zhihu, not by the consumer."
"Only refund coins, not money" by CCTV named
In fact, Zhihu was not the only consumer complaints, as early as October last year, CCTV reported that a user in order to ask the Zhihu platform "answerer" to answer questions. "
In fact, this is not the only thing that consumers have complained about.
After that, the user contacted Zhihu customer service and said he needed a refund, but the customer said the refund was issued in the form of virtual "Zhihu coins", and it is worth mentioning that the "Zhihu coins" are not available for withdrawal, which means that purchasing "Zhihu coins" in Zhihu is not a good way to get a refund. "
They are not the only ones who have been able to get a refund for their purchases, but they are the only ones who have been able to get a refund.
At the time, Beijing Jingshi Law Firm lawyer Li Yuan said that the so-called "coins" of these online platforms are actually a kind of platform points, and can not be used for cash or circulation, and even more can not be equated with money. These "coins" can only be used within the platform, and some are even restricted from purchasing goods within the same platform. However, when consumers choose to apply for refunds, they are given a return of "coins" instead of a refund, under the pretext of the agreement.
In addition, the lawyer also said, the network platform recharge just let the consumer's money temporarily stored in the platform, consumers should enjoy the freedom of refund, the platform "coin not refund" suspected of forced consumption.
Subsequently, CCTV also reported on the matter, and after the CCTV report, Zhihu responded that "before the CCTV report, the small butler private letter to the user said that the refund will be arranged."
But hydrogen finance found that, after a long time, Zhihu still exists, "only refund coins do not refund the money" incident, December 25, a consumer in the black cat complaint platform said, "with RMB 698 yuan to buy Zhihu coin, buy courses, but asked to download another person app and use the TestFlight test, login registration error, customer service said it is another cell phone number, but change the phone number for a long time has not been used has been to use WeChat login.
Also can not change the phone number, originally the original intention is to try to find a way to class, but know can not be resolved. Therefore, the request for a refund, the results of the refund into the Zhihu coin, customer service let Apple customer service refund, their own repeated delays do not give cash back."
This is the case even going into 2022.
Low user payment rate
Even though there are a lot of inexplicable deductions, Zhihu's user payment rate has never been high, and it is known that the user payment rate of Zhihu in 2019 and 2020 will be 1.2% and 3.4%, respectively, even though in the second quarter of last year, Zhihu's average monthly paid members increased by 121.1% to 4.7 million yuan, but its user payment rate is not a large increase, only 1.6%, and the most important reason is the decline in the amount of per capita payment, the data show that at the end of the second quarter of 2019 to 2021, the amount of per capita payment of Zhihu was 12.77 yuan, 11.2 yuan and 10.99 yuan respectively.
That is to say, the user's willingness to spend more and more in Zhihu is getting lower and lower, which is inseparable from the commercialization of Zhihu. Previously, Zhihu became an "elite platform" by virtue of having many elites and high-quality answers, but in the process of transforming Zhihu into a commercialized company, many elites have left Zhihu, and the quality of Zhihu's Q&A has gradually become contrary to the level of the users, so it seems that "elite platform" has become a kind of flirtation. "The first time I've seen this, I've seen a lot of people who are not interested in it.
Analysts at Ai Media Consulting believe that the rapid development of the knowledge payment industry in recent years, the relevant regulatory measures of the government departments are still not synchronized, and its barbaric growth has led to a number of problems, including the homogenization of content, publicity, lack of authenticity and other issues are particularly prominent, and then the long-term attraction to the user is not enough to reduce the user's goodwill towards the platform of knowledge payment, which ultimately leads to the opposite effect of the pay-for-knowledge.
In addition, according to previous data from iiMedia Research, 51.9% of users believe that there are too many advertisements and invalid information pushed by the knowledge payment platform, and 49.5% of users believe that the platform is not highly professional and practical.
And this may also be the reason why the user pay rate of Zhihu is low.