The Shanghai Consumer Council received 2,479 complaints regarding online shopping during the recent annual shopping spree period, with clothing, telecommunications products, and homewares topping the grievance list, the council said on Thursday.

The number of complaints between November 11 and 17 posed a drop of 5.4 percent from the same period last year, the council said.

Businesses and e-commerce platforms used various promotional activities and discounts to lure consumers, but complicated rules and hidden conditions led to many consumer rights' complaints, the council said.

Some consumers complained that they were promised gifts in exchange for making early bookings or pre-payments, but these were either not delivered or not honored, the council said.

The terms of many promotions were not transparent, according to the council.

Some businesses promised the "lowest" prices on November 11, but some shoppers complained that the prices on this day were actually higher than before, the council said.

Other shoppers griped about unpaid refunds, opaque discount rules, random order cancellations and product quality flaws, the council reported.

On the bright side, there was a decrease in complaints concerning delayed delivery, broken products and missing parcels from the same period last year, the council said.