Spike In Complaints Over Online Grocery Shopping

The Consumer Council said on Tuesday that complaints about online grocery shopping have surged this year during the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of complaints about online supermarkets more than doubled from 452 to 952 in the first 11 months of the year.

Investigators from the watchdog identified a series of problems after shopping with five online supermarkets, namely HKTVmall, Wellcome, ParknShop, city'super and big big shop.

They found that the delivery service of big big shop, run by TVB, was the worst.

They placed five orders and bought 75 items from the company. The products were delivered on 17 different occasions, with the longest delivery time being 26 days after the order was placed.

Although the delivery of city'super goods was the fastest, the watchdog raised an alert over its food quality as investigators received defrosted meat, rotten grapes and bananas that were oozing liquid.

They also found that the temperature of some frozen and perishable foods such as milk and yogurt delivered by all of the five supermarkets was exceedingly high, posing risks to food safety.

The council urged consumers to carefully check products the moment they arrive and report any problems to the online stores as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the watchdog's chief executive, Gilly Wong, also said the problem of over-packaging was serious, with sellers putting only a few products in one big box, or wrapping the items with multiple layers of plastic.

In one photo released by the watchdog, HKTVmall wrapped a bunch of grapes with foam net and plastic before packaging it with a plastic box and a paper box.

Wong said sellers should strike a balance between minimising packaging and protecting the products.

"Although the customers want to enjoy the convenience of online shopping, they don't want to create that much waste," she said.

"What we meant by striking a good balance is... when you pack, you have to make sure the products are in good quality, on the other hand, the use of space and the materials for packing... if it is more biodegradable, that would be a much better balance."