Home appliance maintenance ushered in the peak season, and "cottage" maintenance harms consumers
"Cotton maintenance" is full of chaos, where is the "regular army" of home appliances?
Our reporter Liu Bing
reading tips
The peak season for home appliance maintenance is coming, and many consumers have encountered "cottage maintenance", not only the home appliances are not repaired, but also suffer economic losses.
Experts said that with the improvement of the quality of home appliances, the after-sales maintenance business of regular home appliances has decreased, and the "regular army" of home appliance maintenance has shrunk, resulting in a large number of markets being seized by "cottage maintenance".
Entering the hot summer season, household appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and water heaters are running at high loads, and many household appliances in households need to be repaired.
With the increase in maintenance demand, the problem of "cottage maintenance" has become increasingly prominent.
Some "cottage maintenance" services do not solve the problem for consumption, but also cause consumers to suffer economic losses, and some may even bury potential safety hazards for the use of home appliances.
"Cottage maintenance" is chaotic, where is the "regular army" for home appliance maintenance?
Recently, the reporter found that due to various factors, the "regular army" of home appliance maintenance is shrinking, and the scale is limited and the quality is uneven, resulting in "cottage maintenance" grabbing a large amount of market share.
There are many problems with "copycat maintenance"
Recently, Xiao Jin, who lives in Changping District, Beijing, ran into trouble when he repaired his air conditioner.
Since the air conditioning and cooling effect of the home was not satisfactory, he found maintenance personnel through the online platform to add fluoride.
Among the 4 air conditioners with fluoride, the cooling effect of two air conditioners has been improved, but the other two air conditioners have no effect after fluoridation.
"The repairman at the time said that it would be fine in half an hour. But the air conditioner still wouldn't cool until at night, and it still wouldn't work the next day. I contacted the repair shop, but they said they didn't have time to look at it, so I waited. "Xiao Jin paid a total of 650 yuan for the maintenance fee. He asked the maintenance staff for maintenance certificates and bills, but the maintenance staff did not provide them, nor did they have a clear price list.
In retrospect, Xiao Jin Dunsheng was suspicious, "I'm afraid that he has encountered cottage maintenance."
Expensive replacement of accessories and consumables is a common method for "cottage maintenance" to kill customers.
Because home appliance maintenance involves professional knowledge and consumers do not understand technology, "cottage maintenance" often depends on people and asks for prices.
Many cottage repair shops will deliberately exaggerate the seriousness of the problem of home appliance failure, over-repair, and then profit from it.
"Cottage maintenance" not only causes consumers to suffer economic damage, but may even bury potential safety hazards for the use of home appliances.
The person in charge of the official after-sales maintenance point of Haier Electric Appliances in Haidian District, Beijing told reporters that when it comes to the maintenance and replacement of some core accessories, "shanzhai maintenance" often uses small workshop accessories of unknown origin in order to save costs. It may also cause more serious problems with electrical appliances, and even threaten the personal safety of consumers.
Home appliance maintenance "regular army" shrinks
Through the formal maintenance of the official after-sales maintenance point, there are generally more standardized charging standards, and the maintenance responsibility and quality can be traced to the source.
However, why many consumers do not choose regular maintenance, but choose "cottage maintenance"?
First of all, it is the general mentality of many consumers that it is convenient to save trouble.
"I don't know whether the maintenance is regular or not. But if an air conditioner is broken, it will not happen once in a few years. After the three-guarantee period, just look up a phone number on the Internet or find a maintenance point near the community and repair it." Jin told reporters.
In terms of "convenience", some formal after-sales maintenance is far inferior to "cottage maintenance".
The reporter learned that some home appliance brands have only 1~2 regular after-sales maintenance points in a municipal district, and even only a few in the whole city. The manpower is also very limited, and there are problems such as no one can be dispatched and long queues to wait for maintenance. more prominent.
In contrast, the number of "cottage maintenance" is large and widely distributed, and its advertising and business contracting are also sparing no effort.
In addition, there are more and more cases of "cottage maintenance" counterfeiting formal after-sales maintenance services.
"As rents increase and operating costs increase, the number of regular home appliance repair shops is gradually decreasing. Regular repairs have shrunk, so a lot of market share has been given up to 'copycat repairs'." Guo Chibing, vice chairman of the presidium of the China Household Appliances Service and Repair Association, told reporters , With the improvement of the quality of home appliances, the after-sales maintenance of regular home appliances during the three-guarantee period has been greatly reduced, accounting for only a small part of the profits of the home appliance industry.
Coupled with changes in consumer attitudes, home appliance products are now popular with "replacement and repair" and other factors, formal home appliance repair is shrinking.
Regular maintenance to be revitalized
In order to standardize the home appliance repair market, the "Administrative Measures for Home Appliance Repair Service Industry", which has been implemented since 2012, clearly stipulates that home appliance repair operators should hang their business licenses at prominent positions in the business premises, indicating the service items and home appliance accessories. Deadline and Complaint Number.
However, in recent years, the "landscape" of "copycat maintenance" has continued to expand, and regular maintenance needs to be revitalized.
According to industry insiders, although the maintenance points announced by many brands on the official website clearly mark an electrical appliance company, in fact, the scale and strength of these after-sales points are uneven.
To this end, experts suggest that manufacturers should strengthen supervision at designated maintenance points, strengthen their strength, and innovate after-sales service methods, such as the establishment of directly-operated "quick repair and quick compensation points".
At the same time, commercial management departments at all levels should strengthen the supervision of relevant markets, and rectify the "copycat maintenance" that harms consumers' rights and interests.
In response to the chaos of "cottage maintenance" criticized by consumers, recently, many localities and industry associations have issued new regulations, putting forward new requirements for home appliance maintenance.
For example, the Shanghai Electronic Product Maintenance Service Industry Association encourages industry enterprises to exchange service personnel and general spare parts to ensure that the service response time is kept within 48 hours during the hot summer.
It is also required that maintenance personnel holding a unified door-to-door service certificate must provide door-to-door service with a certificate; all service companies must express the charging standards and shall not arbitrarily increase the fees; all manufacturers' service hotlines must take effective measures to ensure service response.
China Household Appliances Service and Repair Association reminds consumers to keep their eyes open and be alert to "copycat repairs".
For on-site service maintenance personnel, they need to show the price list of accessories in advance and inform them of the items that need to be charged.
If the maintenance personnel do not inform in advance, consumers should take the initiative to inquire about the relevant charging items.