I often receive short messages from Tmall.com's online retailers these days, which say "grasp the last chance to click for more cross-border purchases at the current price until April 8 when a new tax system on cross-border e-commerce sales will become effective".

The new taxation policy, announced by the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs and the State Administration of Taxation last week, led to a heated debate in my office. Some of my colleagues said they hadn't made any cross-border purchases because many online retailers were neither honest nor offered good post-sales services.

Many customers have shared their poor experiences on the Internet on how they were cheated by cross-border retailers.