Rotten online service blasted

Sophie Hui

Missing items, late delivery, melting frozen food and rotting fruits - the Consumer Council has hit out at services of online supermarkets as many citizens turn to them while they stay home during the pandemic.

The watchdog has conducted the first survey on five online supermarkets to assess their quality of service after it received 952 complaints in the first 11 months this year, more than double the 452 in the same period last year.

The survey found a series of blunders involving household names.

The watchdog made five purchases from each local online supermarket - HKTVmall, Wellcome, ParknShop, City'super and Big Big Shop run by Television Broadcasts.

Each purchase contained 15 identical or similar products, including fresh, frozen, pre-packaged food and daily necessities.

Big Big Shop was rated the lowest with 1.5 points out of five, as items in the same order were split into several shipments, and some or all of the items in three purchases failed to be delivered.

Shipments were rarely on time. Nine shipments were delayed from 70 minutes to 26 days, while two arrived one to five days before the designated delivery date.

All purchases at HKTVmall and ParknShop were delivered within the designated time period but they failed on many occasions to alert consumers before delivery.

Both ParknShop and City'super claimed that they can provide same-day delivery, but only City'super was able to do that in the survey.

In 24 out of 25 purchases of frozen food, the items were not kept at low enough temperatures, sparking food safety concerns.

City'super fared worst in this area, with most of the frozen products delivered at temperatures higher than eight degrees Celsius. A tofu was kept at 18.6 degrees and a milk at 15.6 degrees. The watchdog also found thawed meat, rotten grapes and black and leaking bananas from City'super.

Broken eggs were found in two of the purchases at ParknShop, while molten sorbet, thawed meat and dumplings were found in orders at Big Big Shop. Dented canned food and ruptured tissue packaging were also found in HKTVmall and Wellcome deliveries.

"It is of exceptional importance to keep frozen and perishable food at a constant and appropriate temperature during delivery," said Lui Wing-cheong, vice-chairman of the council's research and testing committee. "Food that needs to be refrigerated must be delivered in refrigerated trucks and kept chilled to prevent bacterial growth or from perishing. Food safety must be closely heeded to safeguard the health of consumers."

The council's chief executive, Gilly Wong Fung-han, said that under the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance, food products need to be stored at below four degrees Celsius, or above 60 degrees Celsius during delivery. The truck should have a refrigerator to store frozen food.

Survey results were passed to the Centre for Food Safety for follow up.

Wong also reminded consumers that if there is any dispute or unsatisfactory delivery, they should take a picture or save all the records. In response, Big Big Shop apologized to customers for any inconvenience and it will learn from experience and make improvements.

Its operator TVB it said there has been a sudden surge in demand for online shopping amid the pandemic and Big Big Shop has seen a 500 percent growth in sales year-on-year.

"The merchants and the logistics provider are under immense pressure and challenge, resulting in delayed delivery and products not delivered in good condition," it said.

HKTVmall said in a statement that all its frozen and fresh food was stored in the truck at temperatures of minus 18 degrees Celsius and zero to four degrees Celsius. The food is not taken out of the truck until it reaches the customers' delivery address.