Is the usage period of the charge points set reasonable? Reporters investigate consumption points Investigation motivation Recently, some readers called to inquire: their mobile phone call fee points have expired. Is the set service life of points reasonable? It is understood that the reader had more than 10000 points expired. Before the expiration, the telecom operator had a text message notice. After checking, he felt that there was no suitable gift to exchange. Then he forgot about it and recently found that the points had expired. In order to attract customers and increase the viscosity of consumers to products, in recent years, many enterprises and businesses have introduced the point system, that is, consume a certain amount of gifts, reward the corresponding points, and accumulate a certain amount of points to exchange gifts, deduct part of the consumption amount, etc. Many people usually eat, drink and play with points. So, in addition to the service life of the integral setting, what problems will the integral involve? How can consumers solve these problems? To this end, the reporter conducted an investigation and interview. "You have ×× Points will expire at the end of this month, please hurry up to exchange... " Not long ago, Yin hang, who lives in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, received a call fee point exchange reminder from a telecom operator. So he opened the "points mall" in the app and exchanged his points for two bags of laundry detergent and dozens of yuan of phone bills. But there are still a few points, and there is no suitable commodity to exchange. After consulting customer service, I was told that it would expire if it was not used up, and it could not be accumulated to the next cycle. "These points are all my usual consumption income, which originally belongs to me. Why does the merchant set the service life? He said that when it expires, it will expire?" Yin hang did not understand this. The reporter of "rule of law daily" learned in an interview recently that in addition to doubts about "whether the set service life of points is reasonable", many consumers expressed dissatisfaction with some points that were not reminded before expiration, "expired", and difficult to exchange. Points are widely used in business Merchants can set the service life At present, many businesses use the membership system to attract consumers. Consumption means giving away and rewarding points. From the use of telephone charges to card consumption, from online shopping to travel ticket purchase, the point system has been involved in all aspects of people's economic life. The two children of Li Ting's family in Chuzhou, Anhui Province (a pseudonym) have been drinking milk powder of a certain brand since childhood. Every time they buy milk powder and other goods, the online mall will give her a point. In June this year, when she logged into the mall to exchange points for gifts, she found that more than 10000 points had expired. "I didn't know there was an expiration before. Usually, a bunch of SMS messages are pushed, and the points expire silently." Li Ting told reporters that after reporting to the customer service, she learned that the points expired and could only expire, which could not be remedied. "The merchants didn't give any reminder before the expiration, and the points were originally obtained by spending money on goods. Why did the merchants set the deadline?"? In the interview, many consumers raised similar questions: what exactly is integral? Can merchants set the service life? According to Shi Jiayou, Professor of the Law School of Renmin University of China and executive director of the civil and commercial law science research center, and Ren Chao, Professor of the school of economic law of East China University of political science and law, points have property attributes and belong to consumers. Shi Jiayou said that the point system is a means of promotion for businesses. It is a unilateral gift for businesses. If transaction conditions are set, it may constitute a contract. Points are converted into commitments of businesses, which are binding on them. According to the general principles of the civil code and the contract law, businesses should fulfill their commitments. "The legal attribute of points is not clearly defined in the law, but is agreed by the point issuer and the user's autonomy of will. 'points can be exchanged for goods' is the commitment of merchants to consumers, which makes points have a certain value attribute within the corresponding range and belong to the virtual property of consumers to a certain extent." Ren Chao said. For the question of whether merchants can set the service life, the interviewed experts believe that the setting of the service life is reasonable and legal. Sunjianrong, a senior partner of Beijing Deheng (Suzhou) law firm, said that the common promotion measures of "giving points for consumption" are gifts in legal nature. When the consumer meets the pre-set consumption conditions of the merchant, the merchant gives his property rights and interests to the consumer in the form of points. The consumer accepts it, and the two parties reach a gift contract. "Merchants can set a period of validity for the exchange of points. According to Article 160 of the civil code, merchants can attach a termination period to the gift of points. When the period expires, the gift will become invalid." Sun Jianrong analyzed that, however, in setting the length of the validity period, businesses should give full consideration to ensuring that consumers can use the points normally to avoid infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Huang longyi, a teacher at the Law School of Guangdong University of Finance and economics and a doctor of law, believes that the point expiration system set by merchants can be regarded as a standard contract, the content of which is a standard clause. According to the voluntary principle of Article 5 and the relevant provisions of article 465 of the civil code, this standard contract is valid, and merchants can specify the content of the point expiration and how to deal with the expired points. Set reasonable use period In case of force majeure, it shall be extended The reporter learned in the interview that the points expired everywhere. Many consumers put forward that it is not because they don't want to use it, but because of the reasons such as "the merchant doesn't remind them of expiration", "the set service life is too short" and "the impact of the epidemic". In this case, it is unreasonable for the points to expire without compensation. Li Rui, from Guangdong, told reporters that when he opened an online mall in June this year, he found that his more than 30000 points were suddenly less than 10000. After calling customer service, he learned that the more than 10000 points had expired. "The merchant has never explicitly told me that the points will expire before. I can only see the total number of points in the mall interface, without any information about the validity or expiration of points, and no phone or SMS prompts." "More than 10000 points are worth more than 100 yuan. I reported this situation to customer service, but customer service thought it was my problem and didn't pay attention to the service life of points in time." Li Rui said angrily that reminding and informing was originally the obligation of businesses. Why should consumers bear this loss? "The term of validity of the points constitutes the content of the gift contract and belongs to the format text. Therefore, the merchant should prominently prompt and explain to the consumer at the first gift, and obtain the consent of the consumer. If it is not notified in advance or changed at will later, it is an infringement of the consumer's right to know." Sun Jianrong said. Huang longyi said that according to the civil code, if the terms, including the term of use of points, are related to the interests of consumers, they should be notified or reminded in a significant way to ensure that consumers are fully informed when consuming. If the Merchant fails to fulfill the obligation of prompt and disclosure, resulting in the consumer not paying attention to the above terms, the consumer can claim that the above terms are not tenable and not legally binding on the consumer. Recently, Ms. Lin in Shanghai is also fighting with businesses for the expiration of points. She used to patronize a doll store of a certain brand, and every time she spent, she had a point counted into her membership card. Due to the epidemic in Shanghai some time ago and the fact that the validity period of points stipulated by merchants is only 3 months, a large number of points have expired. Ms. Lin repeatedly reported to the customer service and complained many times, but she still failed to get the point extension or compensation. In this regard, Shi Jiayou said that according to business practices, businesses have the right to set the use period for points, but should set a reasonable period. For example, airline mileage points, most consumers will not fly frequently, and it may take twoorthree years to meet the minimum requirement for mileage exchange, so the use period of points should be set at least two years. "In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, businesses should give a prompt one month before the expiration of points. If there is an epidemic and other force majeure, the use period of points should be extended." Shi Jiayou said that there are no technical obstacles for businesses to do so, and it is also a natural meaning for them to fulfill their social responsibilities in accordance with the law. In addition, in reality, there are points that are "expired" or "reduced" due to non consumer personal reasons such as business system upgrades, system errors, unclear rules, etc. On March 13 this year, Ms. Zhao from Hexi District, Tianjin bought her birthday gift at an online mall, costing a total of 430 yuan. According to the online mall points rule, you can get double points for consumption on your birthday, that is, 860 points. But a few days later, Ms. Zhao received only 430 points when she went offline to pick up the goods. Customer service said that the day of picking up the goods was not a birthday, so it was impossible to double points. Such an explanation makes Ms. Zhao unable to understand. When interviewed by reporters, many consumers from Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu and other places roast said that sometimes the reason why they choose a brand for similar products is to take a fancy to its points and point exchange. They have worked hard to save points. Now the points expire when they say they expire, and decrease when they say they reduce. Their own rights and interests have suffered a lot of losses. This dishonest behavior of businesses should be condemned. Hidden routine of point exchange Collect evidence and safeguard rights according to law In addition to the service life, it is not easy to exchange points for ideal goods. After exchanging points for a 20 yuan gift certificate in an online mall in Fengtai District, Beijing, Ms. Liu found that her area did not support the use of the gift certificate. On the exchange page, there is no reminder of which regions can be used, and there is no warning of "once exchanged, it cannot be returned". "The gift certificates that have been redeemed cannot be placed or returned, which is equivalent to wasting a lot of points for nothing. It is obvious that consumers are dumbfounded." Ms. Liu said. Zhang Yao, from Chuzhou, Anhui Province, is worried not that he doesn't have points, but that he can't use them. He has used a credit card for many years and has a large number of convertible points, but the goods he wants to exchange have been out of stock. There are also some goods, businesses set up a rush to cash, often instantly robbed. Zhang Yao told reporters that he had reported this issue to customer service many times, and the other party invariably said that the products would be updated from time to time. Many consumers also complained to reporters that there are fewer and fewer cases of simply exchanging points for goods, and there are more and more forms of "points + cash" for goods. Doubt whether the points really offset part of the amount? According to public reports, in March this year, Ms. Yang, a consumer in Xinyang City, Henan Province, reported that she bought a 1kg bottle of laundry detergent through the points mall, and the page showed that she needed to pay 683 points +24.17 yuan in cash. In the online self-supporting store of the detergent, it only costs 23.8 yuan to buy the same product, and the price after using the points is even higher than the normal purchase price. Chen Yinjiang, Deputy Secretary General of the Consumer Protection Law Research Association of the China law society, analyzed the problems of the points system, saying that this was due to the fact that the points rules of some businesses were not open and transparent enough, the rules were not clear enough, and disputes were all caused by businesses' the final say. In addition, it is also related to the complexity of some points acquisition and exchange processes, and some businesses even deliberately set additional conditions, leading some consumers to simply give up their rights and interests. How to further standardize the integral system? Ren Chao believes that businesses should make reasonable judgments on expired points according to different situations. After the merchant informs and the consumer knows or should know the due zeroing rules, if the consumer misses the point activity for his own reason only, the merchant may not delay or compensate; However, if due to business reasons or objective factors, the points cannot be used due to factors not attributable to the consumer himself