Quality contract after-sales service and other issues are the hardest hit areas for car and parts complaints


Expert analysis: Where is the difficulty of protecting the rights of automobile consumption?

　　● When car owners sign the agreement, they don’t pay enough attention to the terms of the agreement; problems are discovered during driving, and they lack the awareness of evidence preservation, which will give car dealers the opportunity to shirk responsibility

　　● Consumers’ awareness of rights protection is increasing day by day, but the system’s legal awareness is still relatively weak and lack of prior risk prejudgment awareness

　　● Automobile manufacturers should cherish brand image, strengthen management of automobile sales companies, effectively improve product quality, treat consumers with integrity, and avoid bullying, deceiving, misleading, and illegal charging

　　□ Our reporter Han Dandong

　　□ Chen Yiqi, an intern of our newspaper

　　In 2020, the number of complaints about automobiles and parts reached 34,897, an increase of 1.64% year-on-year, ranking second in specific product complaints, second only to the number of food complaints.

　　This set of data comes from the "Analysis of Complaints Accepted by the National Consumers Association in 2020" issued by the China Consumers Association on February 3 this year.

This report shows that when it comes to automobiles and parts, the most concentrated problems involve quality, contracts, and after-sales service.

　　With the continuous growth of the new energy vehicle market, coupled with Tesla's recent frequent concerns about quality issues, complaints about new and old energy vehicles have gradually become a new type of consumer dispute, and the issue of auto consumption rights has re-entered the public's view.

Information asymmetry is difficult to prove

Victim owners have to take responsibility

　　Brake failures, engine, transmission and other failures during car driving are high-frequency causes of consumer complaints.

　　This year's "March 15" party exposed the rusty inside story of Ford's gearbox.

The maintenance staff said: "There is a hole in the rain plate. If it is not blocked, water will drip from here, and it will drip on the place where the gearbox and the engine are docked."

　　In response to this design flaw, the Ford manufacturer had a solution as early as March 2020, but only issued an internal notice, did not proactively notify the owner, and even shirk the responsibility several times to allow the owner to repair it at his own expense.

　　The Ford WingBoot used by Mr. Wang suddenly had difficulty in starting, and the body was severely frustrated during driving.

The maintenance staff of the 4S shop claimed that the warranty period had expired and asked him to bear the maintenance cost of more than 16,000 yuan.

　　Coincidentally.

Mr. Chen has driven the Ford Wingbeat for 6 years. During one driving, the gearbox made abnormal noise and lost power.

As the 4S shop insisted that the failure was not a quality problem, Mr. Chen had to repair the gearbox at his own expense of RMB 7,200.

Unexpectedly, the failure reappeared after a year.

　　Why is the owner of the car often the responsible party after a car breaks down?

　　Jiang Jing, a lawyer at Shanghai Hengyanda Law Firm, analyzed: “When the car owner signs the agreement, he does not pay enough attention to the terms of the agreement; problems are discovered during driving and lack of awareness of evidence preservation. These will give car dealers the opportunity to shirk responsibility.”

　　Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management of Communication University of China, believes that another main reason is information asymmetry. Consumers have no ability to grasp the technical information related to automobiles. It is difficult to prove that the defects are faults of the automobile itself.

　　Zheng Ning reminded that my country has specialized third-party automobile inspection, appraisal, evaluation and certification agencies, such as the Beijing Zhongji Vehicle Judicial Appraisal Center. Consumers can use these independent appraisal agencies to conduct judicial appraisal on automobile product quality problems and traffic accidents.

　　Zheng Ning said that if consumers can sign a car purchase agreement with a full understanding of the content of the agreement at the beginning, they will avoid a lot of trouble.

After all, the car purchase agreement is not only a written proof of a transaction between the consumer and the dealer, but also an important evidence for the consumer's subsequent rights protection.

However, in the actual purchase and sale of vehicles, since the agreement is generally a format version provided by the dealer, most consumers often do not carefully study the terms of the agreement.

　　"Many customers usually confirm the vehicle information, such as the car brand, identification number, engine number, and other essential elements and price of the car itself, and then sign hastily. For issues such as quality and warranty, it is more to listen to the seller. The staff verbally stated that it is easy to ignore the agreement on such clauses in the agreement." Jiang Jing said.

　　Zheng Ning stated that Article 496 of the Civil Code stipulates that the standard clauses are clauses that are drawn up in advance by the parties for repeated use and have not been negotiated with the other party when the contract is concluded.

"Consumers should carefully read the terms of the contract when signing a contract, and require the provider to explain important terms (such as those marked with special fonts and symbols), understand and understand the meaning of the contract terms as much as possible, and then decide whether to conclude a contract ."

Extreme rights protection frequently staged

Reflect that the rights protection channel is not smooth

　　In 2019, Xi'an Mercedes-Benz car owners' rights protection incident caused a lot of noise on the Internet, and the video of car owners sitting on the engine hood crying publicly was widely disseminated.

Although netizens had mixed reviews, the person concerned said that this was due to repeated negotiations with the 4S shop within half a month to no avail. In the end, they were forced to make a choice to protect their personal rights.

　　In the past two years, this extreme way of safeguarding rights has continued to be staged everywhere.

　　Zheng Ning believes that this reflects the problem of unsmooth channels for consumer rights protection.

"If the reasonable demands of car owners can be satisfied through legal and legitimate means, then they should not take such extreme measures to defend their rights. However, consumer rights protection should also be legal, if it is done by destroying property, disrupting public order, etc. Rights protection may violate the provisions of the Public Security Administration Penalty Law and be subject to corresponding administrative penalties."

　　In Jiang Jing's view, extreme rights protection has to some extent exposed the current difficulties in protecting rights for automobile consumption.

　　It is reported that Infiniti gearbox failures frequently occur. Among the 500-member car-friend group, more than 200 vehicles have various problems.

In order to avoid further expansion of the public opinion crisis, Infiniti contacted car owners who are active in rights protection through 4S stores and negotiated solutions separately, such as increasing the warranty period and signing a confidentiality agreement between the two parties.

　　According to the agreement, the 4S shop will repair or replace the remanufactured gearbox instead of replacing a brand new gearbox; Party B (the owner) can no longer use any means (including media, self-media, forums, auto shows, etc.) Negative publicity or dissemination; after the agreement takes effect, the disputes between the two parties on the agreement are deemed to have been fully resolved.

Party B (the owner of the vehicle) voluntarily waives the loss or damage directly or indirectly caused by this incident.

　　However, not every car owner can "enjoy" such an agreement.

It is understood that the extended warranty period signed by Infiniti and the car owner depends on the strength of the car owner's rights protection, ranging from two to 20 years.

A car owner also summed up this, "If it makes trouble, it will be longer, if it makes trouble, it will be shorter. If it doesn't make trouble, the insurance will not be extended."

　　In this regard, Zheng Ning said: “Different treatment of the same situation is not conducive to the systematic solution of the problem. The role of market supervision departments, consumer associations, courts and other parties should be brought into play. Protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers."

　　Jiang Jing also does not recommend that consumers accept this negotiation method.

"Although it seems to make up for personal losses in a short period of time, it does help the abuser and will allow the vicious circle to continue indefinitely."

　　The China Consumers Association once put forward suggestions that auto manufacturers should cherish brand image, strengthen management of auto sales companies, effectively improve product quality, treat consumers with integrity, and prevent bullying, deception, misleading, and illegal charges.

Strengthen the risk prediction beforehand

Study the car purchase agreement carefully

　　Regarding the status quo of rights protection, Jiang Jing analyzed that consumers' current awareness of rights protection is increasing day by day, but the systematic legal awareness is still relatively weak and lacks prior risk prejudgment awareness.

When signing an agreement, most consumers often don’t study the contract terms carefully. They make a big deal and make a deal quickly. When problems are discovered and many feedbacks to the dealers but can’t be resolved, they think of using legal weapons to look at the contract. , But discovered the exemption clause that had already been signed with the merchant.

In desperation, they either swallowed their anger or resorted to extreme methods to defend their rights.

　　"Therefore, it is very important to study the contents of the car purchase agreement carefully before signing. In addition to the essential elements of the car itself, we must also pay attention to the details of the agreement, such as the delivery method, place, and time; secondly, the responsibility for breach of contract must be clarified and agreed to resolve Method, jurisdiction by agreement; after-sales service clauses should also be reviewed to clarify the various obligations that dealers should bear.” Jiang Jing said, if it is found that dealers have excluded their main obligations and aggravated the buyer’s obligations, they should be put forward in time. After the dealer staff communicates, the consensus reached by both parties can be fixed in the form of a supplementary agreement.

　　Jiang Jing pointed out that, under normal circumstances, in order to reduce the cost of rights protection, consumers will first negotiate with dealers to resolve problems when they discover problems. If communication is not smooth, consumers can complain to the car manufacturer or ask for help from the consumer association.

In the case of serious infringement of the individual's legal rights and nowhere to make a complaint, consumers can apply for arbitration or file a lawsuit in court.

However, consumers can follow the "Consumer Rights Protection Law of the People's Republic of China", "Product Quality Law of the People's Republic of China", "Regulations on the Recall of Defective Automobile Products", "Regulations on Responsibilities for Repair, Replacement, and Return of Household Automobile Products", and "Administrative Measures on Automobile Sales". "And other laws and regulations protect personal rights and interests, but the current legal system still has some shortcomings, and the legislative department needs to continue to improve to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

　　In Jiang Jing’s view, the Consumers’ Association is a social organization established in accordance with the law to supervise goods and services and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. It is responsible for a large amount of consumer rights protection work. However, the Consumers’ Association has weak legal effect and organization in handling complaints. The shortage of personnel and insufficient infrastructure often put various tasks in a difficult situation.

In addition, market operators use the asymmetry of information to make it difficult for consumers to know the right to know. In addition, the serious monopoly of the auto industry has led to a prominent problem of consumers being infringed.

　　Therefore, Jiang Jing reminded consumers: "Be careful to keep the deposit, deposit receipt, car purchase, maintenance and other vouchers, and the car's "three guarantees" certificate. During the car purchase process, it is necessary to make oral promises to the merchants about refunding the car purchase deposit, insurance, deposit, etc. Take extra care and record if necessary."

　　Jiang Jing believes that legal and orderly safeguarding of rights not only requires consumers to make a difference, but also requires the concerted efforts of relevant departments.

First, the legislature should further improve the product quality law, automobile "three guarantees" and other regulations to strengthen consumer protection; second, the regulatory authorities should regulate automobile sales and accompanying services, increase the scope and intensity of supervision and spot checks, and promptly investigate and deal with consumer damage The outstanding behavior of consumers’ rights and interests has continuously improved the effectiveness of administrative law enforcement. Thirdly, as the first responsible person in safeguarding consumers’ rights and interests, operators should face up to the reasonable demands of consumers, earnestly fulfill their legal obligations and responsibilities, and properly resolve consumer disputes.

　　“If a defect is found within 6 months of delivering the product, the operator still bears the burden of proof. The delay in evasiveness will not only be severely punished by the law, but will also lose the trust of consumers.” Jiang Jing said, “In addition, the automobile industry organization should also strengthen the industry. Self-discipline and internal restraint, pay attention to and listen to consumers’ opinions, improve relevant rules in a timely manner, strengthen service supervision, data monitoring, and risk management, eliminate improper restrictions on consumer rights, and promote the establishment of industry credit restraint mechanisms, which will seriously infringe consumer rights and interests Of operators are included in the'blacklist' to achieve effective industry governance."