HKTVmall refutes allegations of delayed payments to merchants

Hong Kong Technology Venture Company's eCommerce platform HKTVmall has refuted allegations made by merchants that it has not made payments to them in the past month. These claims are widely circulated on HKTVmall's Facebook page.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, HKTVmall emphasised that the information is purely a rumour. “The financial status of the group is extremely robust,” it said in a statement.

This comes as HKTVmall's Facebook page has been flooded with a large number of comments claiming that the platform has not been making payments. These comments say that as of 20 February 2024, HKTVmall has not yet cleared the outstanding payment for goods that were delivered in January 2024.

A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE saw on HKTVmall’s Facebook page that the allegations by netizens who claimed to be merchants of the platform accused HKTVmall of engaging in various unethical practices, including not making timely payments to merchants while forcing them to continue fulfilling customers’ new orders, consistently altering contract terms and pressuring merchants into contract renewals.

Regarding the payment arrangement, HKTVmall said each merchant has a different frequency of payment collection, the contract stipulates that payments will be issued once per month together with a transaction report. 

“The last day of each month is the cutoff date, and the finance department generally sends the transaction report and payments to merchants via email within 10 to 15 working days after the cutoff date,” it said. 

Upon reviewing the records, HKTVmall said the payment arrangements have been implemented for some time and are not new arrangements. “Our merchant team will do their best to address any enquiries from merchants,” it added.

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Apart from numerous comments related to not making payments, there are also discussions taking place among merchants in various Facebook groups. Some netizens who claimed to be merchants of HKTVmall, allege that all merchant partnerships were automatically renewed without their knowledge, and even if they terminate their contract immediately, HKTVmall would still require them to pay the annual fee for the next year.

On HKTVmall’s Facebook page, some netizens also raised doubts about the authenticity of certain comment users. Some pointed out that the comments seem to be identical, and many of the profile pictures are suspected to be stolen from social media platforms such as Twitter and Weibo.

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