** China Visit Network
Author Yihang Studio
Returning home for reunion during the Chinese New Year is the most simple expectation of every Chinese. But the Spring Festival tickets are so difficult to grab every year, although the alarm clock was booked early and started on time, the tickets to go home were still not for a second.
In the face of such a shortage of train tickets, some third-party platforms claim to have a way. As long as you buy different ** ticket-grabbing acceleration packages such as "low-speed" and "high-speed", you can get tickets first. So, can you beat the Spring Festival by relying on the "acceleration package"?
Can't grab a ticket, accelerate the package to make up?
According to the data of the 2024 comprehensive transportation Spring Festival transportation work class, on the first day of the Spring Festival transportation (January 26), the cross-regional flow of people in the whole society was 18,93520,000 person-times, an increase of 9 from the previous month5%, an increase of 197%。
The pressure on the railways is even greater, which means that it is harder for us to get train tickets. On social platforms, many netizens who didn't grab tickets complained: "I've been waiting for almost a week, and I haven't even been able to grab a standing ticket." "When I arrived, it showed that it was not on sale, and after refreshing, it showed that there were no tickets, and train tickets were more difficult to grab than concert tickets. ”
The Spring Festival is getting closer and closer, and many consumers who can't grab tickets or are worried about not being able to grab tickets are pinning their hopes on ticket-grabbing software. After all, in the understanding of many people, mobile phones are always faster than manual ticket grabbing. And some of these ticket-grabbing services need to be helped by friends, but more often they need to spend money to buy acceleration packages.
Dual-channel" and "fast ticket grabbing privilege" look very professional, and you can add them with one click on the purchase interface, and you can even increase the price to grab the window. After payment, there is an acceleration package service, ranging from "low speed" to "light speed", it is said that the more "acceleration packages", the faster the speed of ticket grabbing. Even a certain platform has launched an all-round ticket grabbing, claiming that orders enjoy accelerated rights and interests, and a special person can grab tickets 24 hours a day.
The author tried it out with a certain platform, and bought a train ticket with a ticket ** of 93 yuan, and all its additional acceleration payment items reached 62 yuan, which exceeded two-thirds of the value of the ticket. According to ** reports, there are also people who bought a 150 yuan acceleration package in order to grab tickets. In order to go home, everyone really fought hard.
However, buying an acceleration package does not guarantee that you will be able to grab a ticket, and the most feared thing is that the bamboo basket will be empty. In the purchase interface, there is a prompt that the acceleration package has not grabbed the ticket and successfully refunded in full. Since the acceleration package also has the possibility of not grabbing tickets, what is the priority in **? In fact, there is no "right of first refusal" for third-party ticket-grabbing services.
Flicker, flicker, flicker
A few years after the appearance of the ticket-grabbing artifact, the official responded to the "acceleration package" service.
On last year's National Day, China Railway Group responded to the "acceleration package" controversy, saying that Railway 12306 had never authorized any third-party platform to sell train tickets, let alone give the third-party platform the so-called "priority right to buy tickets". In other words, the so-called acceleration package is not an official service, and the official does not charge relevant fees, and it is completely carried out by a third party.
So the question is, since there is no "right of first refusal", why has no one stopped the accelerator package service? Why does someone keep paying for it?
On the one hand, the reason why the third-party platform ticket grabbing service is thriving is because of its market demand and commercial interests. The waitlist of the third-party platform for ticket grabbing service does meet the needs of some people, and it does provide them with ticket grabbing services.
On the other hand, the "acceleration package" service can be regarded as a ticket-grabbing commission service between consumers and third-party platforms, and its existence itself is not illegal. However, this kind of service is completely customized by the third-party platform itself, and the platform's statement on the success rate of ticket grabbing is generally vague and lacks quantitative basis. From "low speed to high speed", this vague product introduction does not provide a clear benchmark for the calculation of the success rate, as well as the actual verified service performance data, which is suspected of infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
In addition, according to the official response, the "acceleration package" or "ticket-grabbing software" of third-party platforms cannot guarantee the security of users' personal information, and some third-party platforms will collect and retain user information in the process of helping passengers purchase tickets, which may cause the risk of personal information being leaked.
In other words, the acceleration package is essentially a marketing strategy that exploits consumer anxiety, and its existence is not officially recognized, but due to information asymmetry or other factors, there have always been consumers who are willing to pay for it. Industry insiders said that to solve this problem, it is not only necessary for consumers to enhance their awareness of rational consumption, but also inseparable from the effective regulation of policies and regulations and the joint promotion of industry self-discipline.