A Chinese man has gone viral on the Internet after he took a supermarket chain to court. It is the reason why he did this, that is remarkable and so relatable. The plaintiff, named as Xiao, was allegedly cheated out of 0.04 yuan ($0.08) because the clerk that was checking him out rounded down the change that Xian was owed.
According to Xiao, after he had shopped at a branch of Yonghui Superstores, he paid a total of 55 yuan for groceries that were worth 54.76 yuan. He received only 0.20 yuan back instead of the 0.24 yuan that he was owed. He says that he didn’t really need the 0.04 yuan; however he believes that this rounding off system of the supermarket is cheating and decided to take them to court for the sake of drawing attention to the practice in the hopes that it would be fixed.
Mr Xiao said, ‘I paid 55 yuan in cash, and they gave me 0.2 yuan in change, they illegally took 0.04 yuan. By filing the lawsuit, I only wanted them to return the 0.04 yuan that should be mine. I just wanted to say no to the business’s unlawful practice and unreasonable rules. By pursuing a lawsuit, this matter was recognized at the legal level, and hopefully, it attracts society’s attention.’
Xiao brought his receipt that showed that he had been given 0.2 yuan instead of 0.24 yuan. In light of this piece of evidence, the defense lawyer for Yonghui Superstores had no option other than admitting the mistakes of his client and apologize to the plaintiff and the general public. He said, ‘The method of giving change by rounding up or down does not fully respect the consumer’s rights and causes them inconvenience. In regard to this, we apologise again to Mr Xiao and the wider public.’
The judge at the Yanqiao District People’s Court in Xian, Shaanxi Province, ordered Yonghui Superstores to give Xiao the change that he owed along with another 50 yuan to cover his legal fees. It might appear to be insignificant in the face of the hassle that Xian had to go through, but he has actually achieved his goal; getting the news of the case going viral.
A Weibo user wrote, ‘This is not a waste of judicial resources. This is the correct way of using judicial resources. The courts will be supportive, be it 4 yuan or 4,000 yuan, they are all the same. This is not just about [the amount of] money.’ Another writes, ‘I think this gentleman was right to defend his rights. Many supermarkets practice this.’