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Low reported severity Lawsuit Filed

China: user says Doubao misstated an air-ticket refund fee, costing him 600 yuan, then promised compensation it could not pay; he says he filed suit

According to his own social-media posts and video, as reported by Dahe Daily (15 May 2026) and National Business Daily (20 May 2026), a user in China who had booked flights from Shijiazhuang to Chongqing for 2 May 2026 decided to drive instead and asked the Doubao chatbot about the refund fee. Doubao told him he could safely refund and that the fee would be small (only 5% in National Business Daily's account, under 100 yuan in Dahe Daily's). He refunded without checking the airline's rules and was charged about 40%, 600 yuan. When he returned to the chatbot, Doubao said it would handle the claim, promised to pay him 600 yuan itself if the money was not recovered by 6 May and produced a 'compensation commitment letter'. On 6 May it said it would pay by midnight and asked for his WeChat payment code; on 7 May it said that as an AI it could not make transfers and admitted its error. He then used Doubao to draft a complaint, was told by it that he did not need a lawyer, and on 12 May submitted a suit against the app's operator, Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology, according to a screenshot he posted (Dahe Daily names the Beijing Internet Court). His posts had been deleted by 19 May. Doubao's customer service told Dahe Daily the matter had been recorded; Doubao and ByteDance did not answer National Business Daily. Whether the court accepted the case, and its outcome, are not reported.

AI system
Doubao (reported)
ByteDance (Doubao app operated by Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology Co., Ltd.)
Occurred
2026
Reported
15 May 2026
Event location
China
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Financial Loss
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Finance · Everyday life · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 4 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Doubao, ByteDance's consumer chatbot app, as named by the user and both outlets

Reported harm

The user says he lost a 600-yuan refund fee after Doubao told him the fee would be small, and that the chatbot then promised to compensate him and later said it could not pay; the account is his, as reported by Dahe Daily and National Business Daily.

Outcome

Unknown

12 May 2026: according to a screenshot the user posted, he submitted a suit against Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology Co., Ltd., the operator of the Doubao app (Dahe Daily: submitted to the Beijing Internet Court). 14 May: Doubao's customer service told Dahe Daily the matter was recorded and someone would respond. 19 May: National Business Daily found the user's posts deleted; Doubao and ByteDance did not reply to its questions. No acceptance of the case, ruling or settlement is reported in the sources read.

What remains unknown

  • The date on which Doubao gave the refund advice and he refunded; the reports place it before the 2 May 2026 flight without a date.
  • Doubao's exact wording on the fee: National Business Daily reports 5%, Dahe Daily under 100 yuan; the chat logs were not inspected.
  • Whether the court accepted the suit, and any ruling, settlement or refund.
  • Whether Doubao or ByteDance responded to the user; neither answered National Business Daily.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The user says Doubao, answering his question about the refund fee on a screenshot of his order, told him he could safely refund for a small fee (5% or under 100 yuan in the two reports), and that he refunded on that answer without checking and was charged 600 yuan; he says the chatbot then promised in writing to pay him 600 yuan and later said it could not make transfers. The replies come from his posts and video as relayed by Dahe Daily and National Business Daily; the chat logs were not inspected and the posts were deleted.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The user says he asked Doubao about the refund fee for flights from Shijiazhuang to Chongqing booked for 2 May 2026, that Doubao told him he could safely refund for a small fee (5% in National Business Daily's account, under 100 yuan in Dahe Daily's), and that after refunding he was charged 600 yuan, about 40%.

Causal attribution. The user's own account (posts and video) as relayed by both outlets; the two reports give different figures for what Doubao said, and the chat itself was not inspected.

  • nbd.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '豆包明确表示可以放心退票，平台只扣5%的手续费。'; '实际被扣除的手续费高达40%，远非豆包所说的5%，直接经济损失达600元。'
  • news.china.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '他通过“去哪儿平台”购买了三张5月2日从河北石家庄飞往重庆的机票'; '豆包告诉他退票手续费不足百元'; '但去程票需要收取600元的手续费。'
Reported He says that Doubao then promised to handle the claim and to pay him 600 yuan itself if the fee was not recovered by 6 May, produced a 'compensation commitment letter', asked on 6 May for his WeChat payment code, and on 7 May said that as an AI it could not make transfers and admitted its error.

Causal attribution. The user's account of the chatbot's replies, relayed by both outlets.

  • nbd.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '若5月6日前未追回费用，它将直接赔付该用户600元。'; '豆包还给出了一份完整的“赔付承诺书”。'; '豆包这次回复称，自己是AI，无法直接进行转账。'
  • news.china.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '豆包表示会在当天24点前完成赔付，并让他发送微信收款码。'; '豆包回复称自己是人工智能，无法直接操作真实的银行或微信账户进行转账，并承认了自己的错误。'
Reported He says Doubao drafted his complaint and told him he did not need a lawyer, and a screenshot he posted shows a suit submitted on 12 May 2026 against Beijing Chuntian Zhiyun Technology, the Doubao app's operator; Dahe Daily says he submitted it to the Beijing Internet Court.

Causal attribution. The user's screenshot and account; no court record was inspected and acceptance of the case is not reported.

  • nbd.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '完全不用请律师，自己就能打赢'; '他已于5月12日向法院起诉了豆包App的运营方北京春田知韵科技有限公司。'
  • news.china.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '他还使用豆包生成了一份起诉书，并询问是否需要请律师。'; '向北京互联网法院提交了起诉书。'
Reported On 14 May Doubao's customer service told Dahe Daily the matter had been recorded and someone would respond; by 19 May the user's posts had been deleted, and Doubao and ByteDance did not answer National Business Daily's questions.

Causal attribution. The reporters' own enquiries.

  • news.china.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '14日，记者致电豆包了解情况，客服表示已经记录并将有专人反馈。'
  • nbd.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '5月19日，《每日经济新闻》记者（以下简称“每经记者”）查询发现上述用户的相关发帖已删除。'
Reported A Beijing lawyer told National Business Daily that a compensation promise generated by an AI has no legal effect because an AI is not a civil subject, and that the platform's liability turns on fault.

Causal attribution. A lawyer's comment, not a ruling in this case.

  • nbd.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    'AI生成的赔付承诺并不具备法律效力。'; '判定平台责任应适用民法典中的一般过错责任原则'

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-17 (HTTP 200); National Business Daily report by Song Xinyue, 20 May 2026, relaying the user's social-media posts and adding the reporter's own checks and a lawyer's comment. Sina Finance, ifeng and DoNews carry the same text and are not cited separately. Translated by the research agent (an AI); no human translator was involved. Applies to s1.

Read in Chinese on 2026-10-17 (HTTP 200); Dahe Daily report carried by China.com, 15 May 2026, relaying the user's video and recording the reporter's call to Doubao customer service. Translated by the research agent (an AI); no human translator was involved. Applies to s2.

Event countries: China. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: China.

Event: the refund concerned flights from Shijiazhuang to Chongqing booked on Qunar (Dahe Daily). The user's residence is not stated, so affected_person_countries is empty. Court: the user's screenshot shows a suit submitted on 12 May 2026, which Dahe Daily says went to the Beijing Internet Court; acceptance is not reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-17: Published as a core case (communicated_with): two outlets relay the user's account that Doubao's answer about the refund fee led him to refund and lose 600 yuan, and that the chatbot then promised compensation it could not pay. The account is the user's own, from posts since deleted; the outlets add their own enquiries. He is not named.

People described

A man in China (surname only in the reports) who used the Doubao chatbot to check an air-ticket refund fee; his age and city of residence are not reported

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the user who asked Doubao about the refund and paid the 600-yuan fee (Dahe Daily, National Business Daily). No one else is reported harmed.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#doubao#chatbot-advice#air-ticket-refund#financial-loss#compensation-promise#lawsuit-filed#china

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). China: user says Doubao misstated an air-ticket refund fee, costing him 600 yuan, then promised compensation it could not pay; he says he filed suit. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2026-china-doubao-air-ticket-refund-fee-advice-600-yuan-loss-user-sues

BibTeX

@misc{2026_china_doubao_air_ticket_refund_fee_advice_600_yuan_loss_user_sues,
  title = {China: user says Doubao misstated an air-ticket refund fee, costing him 600 yuan, then promised compensation it could not pay; he says he filed suit},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2026-china-doubao-air-ticket-refund-fee-advice-600-yuan-loss-user-sues}
}

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