Our reporter Ren Zhenyu
On February 15, the China Consumers Association announced the analysis of the complaints accepted by the National Consumers Association in 2022.
Among them, consumer disputes related to the epidemic and complaints about operators shutting down and running away have increased significantly; new and old problems in the fields of large-value commodities and online services are intertwined, which plagues consumers.
Infringement issues such as many new crown insurance routines and smart TV doll-style charges were named by the China Consumers Association.
It is understood that last year, consumer associations at all levels across the country accepted a total of 1,151,912 consumer complaints, and resolved 915,752 of them, with a resolution rate of 79.5%, recovering economic losses of 1.37767 billion yuan for consumers.
Among them, there were 18,032 complaints about double compensation due to operators’ fraudulent behavior, and the double compensation amount was 4.53 million yuan. A total of 1.49 million consumer visits and consultations were received.
According to the nature of complaints, after-sales service issues accounted for 33.73% of all complaints, contract issues accounted for 26.56%, quality issues accounted for 19.81%, price issues accounted for 4.54%, false publicity issues accounted for 3.87%, safety issues accounted for 2.78%, and counterfeit issues accounted for 1.30%. , human dignity issues accounted for 0.90%, measurement issues accounted for 0.69%, and other issues accounted for 5.82%.
Compared with 2021, the proportion of complaints about after-sales service issues has increased significantly, the proportion of complaints about contracts and false publicity has decreased, and the rate of change in other types of complaints has been small.
According to the complaint data of major categories of commodities in 2022, household electronic appliances, daily necessities, food, clothing, shoes and hats, and vehicles rank among the top five in terms of complaints.
Compared with 2021, the proportion of daily commodity complaints increased by 1.99%.
According to the complaint data of major service categories in 2022, life and social services, Internet services, education and training services, cultural entertainment and sports services, and telecommunications services rank among the top five in the number of service complaints.
Compared with 2021, the proportion of complaints for telecommunications services increased by 1.13%, and the proportion of complaints for education and training services decreased by 1.71%.
[Hot spot 1] Complaints related to the epidemic surge
Complaints about anti-epidemic products have increased.
During the period of repeated epidemics, the supply of relevant anti-epidemic supplies and antipyretics and other medical supplies was in short supply. Some unscrupulous merchants took the opportunity to raise prices, hoard them or sell them in bundles, disrupting the normal market order.
Some businesses promote ordinary masks as medical surgical masks, or add antibacterial agents to masks, claiming that they can "kill" viruses, and induce consumers to buy them.
There are many new crown insurance routines.
After the outbreak, many domestic insurance companies launched new crown isolation and infection-related insurance, and sold them on online platforms, becoming "Internet celebrity" products in the field of online insurance.
However, many consumers reported that with the surge in the number of infections, they encountered various "high thresholds" when settling claims.
Disputes over epidemic-related services occur frequently.
Due to the strong transmission ability of the new coronavirus variant, the "rapid over-peak" and large-scale personnel infection have affected the normal operation of some industries, especially the offline gathering and contact service industries have fallen into a "stagnation" state in the short term, and related consumer disputes Hence the massive increase.
[Hot Spot 2] Consumers in "Shutdown" disputes are greatly damaged
Suspension of online games triggers virtual property disputes.
Online game operators generally carry out a large number of marketing and publicity activities when launching new games, but they often "anticlimate" when old games are out of service, irresponsible for consumers' rights and interests, and related issues urgently need to be regulated by legislation.
Businesses shut down and consumers' rights are damaged.
In 2022, due to factors such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic and changes in the international situation, consumer demand will drop significantly, and some industries will be shut down more, and consumer rights will be damaged as a result.
Some chain stores suffered serious losses and lack of supply, and restricted the scope of use of prepaid cards issued without authorization; No delivery or refund, withholding consumers' prepaid funds; some also frequently change their registered addresses and operate in different places to evade supervision.
Some offline stores such as gymnasiums, movie theaters, and education and training institutions closed down due to poor management or deliberately embezzled money to run away, and consumers’ prepaid funds were “in vain.”
[Hot Spot 3] Disputes over "Household Travel" Commodities Are Difficult to Solve
"Chronic disease is hard to get rid of" in real estate.
Although the problems in the field of commercial housing consumption have been rectified for many years, they are still "hard to get rid of."
Some developers forcibly hand over the houses in order to evade the responsibility for breach of contract when the delivery date as stipulated in the contract arrives, and the real estate has not been fully completed and the conditions for delivery are not met.
Developers sell underground storage or parking spaces in bundles; or threaten not to hand over the keys if there is no compromise, forcing owners to accept their designated intermediary agencies to handle house property certificates or pay deed taxes on behalf of them, and collect intermediary fees from them.
Some well-furnished housing supporting home appliances have passed or soon passed the "three guarantees" period, and the developers refused to bear the "three guarantees" responsibility.
When the house was handed over, the measured house area was larger than the contracted area, and the developer asked consumers to pay the difference, causing disputes.
Home appliances vary in quality.
Food processors, air purifiers, sweeping robots, projectors and other popular emerging home appliances are emerging one after another, and it is difficult for consumers to protect their rights after disputes arise.
Some "net celebrity" small household appliances attract young consumers with their attractive looks, new ideas, and low prices, but they are criticized by consumers for their low product quality, false power ratings, and lack of "3C" certification.
The businessman promises free door-to-door installation, but after the installer comes to the door, he sells various expensive auxiliary materials by deceptive means or charges previously unspecified fees.
There are many "tricks" in car consumption.
When some automobile sales companies sell vehicles, they sell the repaired defective cars in the name of new cars. After being discovered by consumers, the operators claim that they comply with the "Guidelines for Pre-sale Inspection Services for New Passenger Cars (Trial)" and the maintenance amount is low. Refusal to take responsibility for the reason that there is no need to inform consumers.
In the standard terms, the vehicle delivery time is vaguely handled, and the car is not delivered after the consumer purchase payment is collected.
Online car sales unilaterally set format clauses specifying that disputes should be brought to the court or arbitration institution where the operator is located or apply for arbitration, restricting consumers' right to choose dispute resolution institutions independently, and increasing the cost of consumers' rights protection in other places.
The second-hand car intermediary deliberately conceals the real mileage, maintenance records, accident records and other information of the vehicle, or fails to fulfill the verification obligation, and the rights and interests of consumers are damaged.
Car quality problems occur frequently, involving frequent failures of major components such as engines and gearboxes of some traditional fuel vehicle brands, shrinking cruising range of new energy vehicles, and failure of intelligent assisted driving systems.
[Hot Spot 4] Online Services Infringe Various Rights
The old and new problems of online shopping are intertwined.
When some e-commerce platforms carried out promotions during the double 11 period, they promised the lowest price during the event but offered lower prices before the end of the event, and consumers' applications for price protection were rejected.
Some unscrupulous merchants take advantage of loopholes such as the weak supervision of small programs, operate through the sales model without third-party fund custody or induce private letter transactions, and lose contact after sales when disputes arise.
Some unscrupulous operators use their personal social accounts to make their own official store avatars to induce consumers to trade with them. Some elderly consumers find that they have been cheated after paying the fee.
Some e-commerce online shopping platforms launched platform special stores to the outside world, and after disputes occurred, they evaded their own responsibilities on the grounds that the platform special stores were small platforms embedded in the e-commerce online shopping platform, and the problem stores were merchants on the small platform.
The after-sales channels of the domestic platform "Global Shopping" business are not smooth, and the platform refuses to coordinate after-sales services on the grounds that the overseas registration of "Global Shopping" operators does not apply to Chinese laws, and consumers are caught in a dilemma of rights protection.
Concentration of online training service complaints.
During the epidemic, many offline training services turned to online.
Complaints in related fields mainly include: the refund promise is difficult to fulfill.
Some training institutions advertised "no refunds" in public examinations and postgraduate entrance examination courses, and signed relevant agreements with consumers, but they did not fulfill their refund promises in the future, causing a large number of complaints from consumers; the number of training course teachers has "shrunk".
Some training institutions claim that the trainers are famous teachers from famous schools, but they actually teach part-time college students or play lecture videos of famous teachers; they induce students to apply for "training loans".
Some training institutions induce students to borrow money beyond their own ability to purchase high-priced training courses by fabricating false cases such as obtaining high-paying positions after graduation.
Online membership service chaos occurs repeatedly.
The main problems in the field of online membership services are as follows: First, the "matryoshka-style" charges on the smart TV platform have caused consumer dissatisfaction.
Since the resources of each module in the smart TV system are independent of each other, consumers cannot watch all the video content even though they recharge continuously.
Second, the member service experience of the video platform is not good.
The video platform restricts the mobile screen projection function of original member users. If the restriction is lifted, more expensive value-added membership services need to be purchased.
Consumers are paying more and more for less experience.
The third is that there is chaos in the membership service of the dating platform.
Some marriage and love platforms charge high service fees, but the actual services do not meet the agreed standards. Some do not strictly check member information, and even provide "marriage trust" to deceive consumers with fictitious friends and marriage needs.
Fourth, the online membership service automatically renews by default.
Some online membership service platforms first induce consumers to use it for free, and then automatically renew without fully informing or effectively reminding consumers after the expiration.