Yahoo to offer full auction refunds in Japan case

Yahoo Japan to refund money sent to a consumer electronics retailer that abruptly dissappeared

By Martyn Williams

January 2, 2007 12:00 PM ET

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IDG News Service - Yahoo Japan Corp. has decided to give users of its auction Web site refunds for all of the money they sent to a consumer electronics retailer that abruptly closed down and disappeared.

Tokyo-based Kaden-dot-com began selling low-priced consumer electronics goods such as flat-panel TVs and digital cameras on Dec. 1 through Yahoo Auctions, which is Japan's leading online auction service. But around the middle of the month Yahoo began receiving complaints from users that goods had been paid for but not delivered.

Yahoo contacted Kaden-dot-com, which promised to get the products delivered, but the following day Yahoo was unable to contact the company. All subsequent attempts to contact Kaden-dot-com failed and the company's account on the auction Web site was put on hold.

Yahoo contacted several hundred users who bought goods from the company and is still waiting for responses from them all to gauge the size of the problem. The company's basic policy is that it will refund 80% of the value of the auction in such cases, however this time it has decided to refund the money in full, it said.

The goods for sale were offered at low prices and therefore generated a lot of interest among online shoppers. For example, a 52-in. Sharp Aquos LCD TV was on sale for ¥340,500 ($2,866). The same set can be found for ¥375,599 to ¥598,200 on the Kakaku.com comparison-shopping site.

The company listed an address in a Tokyo building that houses the offices of many small companies. A visit to the building earlier this week found no evidence that Kaden-dot-com was still there.

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