(Yicai Global) June 14 -- Wang Wei, founder and chairman of Chinese courier SF Express, plans to assess and improve its customer review system after a delivery worker at the firm threatened to commit suicide as a result of negative feedback he received.

Wang will try to find a solution as soon as possible for the sake of all involved, he said at a company forum yesterday, adding that the company and he himself are responsible to the now former employee.

The courier in question, surnamed Yang, was delivering packages in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, when he discovered an error with a recipient's phone number. He then contacted the sender only to receive a barrage of abuse and negative feedback online.

Shenzhen-based SF then held talks with the courier and lowered his performance score, ultimately saying they would ship him off to work in another region. That prompted his resignation and a claim that he would "protect his pride with death" in his letter to the company.

Wang felt surprise and sorry at hearing the man's plight, he said, and investors showed faith in his words as shares in parent SF Holdings [SHE:002352] were 0.5 percent at CNY29.98 (USD4.33) as of 11.27 a.m. The benchmark Shenzhen Component Index was down by the same amount.

Couriers frequently face similar problems but have few channels to appeal, even in cases where the sender is up to no good, as companies bend over backwards to win consumers' hearts.

These firms need to guarantee their users' rights but also protect the basic interests of their employees by combating malicious complaints, Sun Kang, secretary-general of the China Express Association said previously. His organization is researching ways to blacklist those who leave such reviews, he added.

Editor: James Boynton