The fraud gang, who claims to need to change the motherboard and was slaughtered for 3200 yuan, has 20 stores and 15 online stores,
how deep is it to repair mobile phones?
"Minor illness overhaul" is the most difficult to prevent
Recently, the Shanghai police successfully smashed a criminal gang that used online customer service to solicit customers at low prices and fraudulently defrauded mobile phone repair fees in offline stores. They arrested dozens of criminal suspects across the country, involving more than 30 million yuan.
The reporter found that cell phone repair is an area where consumer complaints are more concentrated.
Industry insiders told reporters from Beijing Youth Daily that the mobile phone repair industry is very watery, and ordinary consumers are easily "pitted". Therefore, repairs should find a regular and professional shop, and at the same time try to be as discerning as possible, with small drops and slight water ingress. It will not cause multiple cell phone problems, just "prescribe the right medicine".
Case study
Okay 200 yuan mobile phone repair fee
It became 3200 yuan in a blink of an eye
According to Xinhua Daily Telegraph, at the beginning of this year, Mr. Ni, who lives in Shanghai, accidentally broke several cracks on the screen of his mobile phone.
Although it does not affect the use, it is too unsightly, so he searched the Internet for a brand repairer of the mobile phone. "Customer service" inquired in detail about the mobile phone model, purchase time and malfunction issues and said that repairs can be made for only 200 yuan. However, there will be risks when the screen is disassembled, and the repair price can be finally confirmed at that time.
After receiving the appointment code, Mr. Ni went to the physical store in an office building designated by "Customer Service" at the agreed time.
Unexpectedly, a few minutes after the store engineer took the phone into the operation room for "disassembly and overhaul", he informed Mr. Ni that not only the external screen of the phone was broken, but also the internal screen was damaged. Mr. Ni had to agree to replace the so-called "original screen". After paying 3200 yuan, the phone was "fixed" and turned on normally.
In March, the phone broke down again, this time Mr. Ni went directly to the official repair point of the brand's phone.
After being informed by the staff that there were no signs of repair or replacement on the internal screen of the mobile phone, Mr. Ni realized that the previous repairs might have been deceived, so he reported to the Ning Branch of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.
police
Low prices to attract customers
Refusal to repair will also replace the original parts and resell
After receiving the report, the Shanghai Changning Police, after data analysis and comprehensive research and judgment, locked a company named "Quantum Shuttle Media Co., Ltd." in Fujian. This "media company" operates 20 mobile phone repairs in 6 cities across the country. Physical stores or franchise stores, and 15 online stores have been set up on major e-commerce platforms at the same time.
After in-depth investigation, the police discovered that this was a new type of fraud gang that defrauded high maintenance costs.
In mid-September, the police collected the Internet simultaneously in Guangdong, Hunan, Shandong, Anhui and other places, and successfully arrested Wu and others, the main criminal suspect of the gang.
Wu Mou truthfully explained the criminal methods and the process of committing crimes, which were mainly divided into two parts: "online customer service" and "offline maintenance".
"Online customer service" arranges dedicated personnel to perform maintenance operations on various search websites to ensure that consumers see them first when searching for keywords, and mislead consumers that they have searched for official brand maintenance points.
After the customer calls or contacts online, the customer service will provide a quotation below the market price based on a set of pre-designed words to attract customers to the physical store for repair; if there is no physical store in the city, the online store will be recommended to guide the customer to mail The phone is repaired.
"Offline repairs" are carried out by physical mobile phone repair shops recruited by the gang in various places, usually equipped with 1 store manager and 3 engineers.
After the customer arrives in the store, the engineer will first try to get the customer to approve the "risk agreement", and then use the inspection and maintenance as an excuse to take the mobile phone to the maintenance room inside to operate, so that it is out of the customer's sight.
After that, fabricated and exaggerated phone malfunctions and created false appearances such as black screens and inability to turn on, eventually forcing customers to agree to pay high maintenance costs.
In fact, the so-called "original parts" are counterfeit or second-hand parts, and some have not even been replaced at all.
And if the customer refuses to repair, the engineer will secretly remove the original parts of the mobile phone and replace them, reselling the original parts to make a profit.
survey
High risk of mobile phone repair and many complaints
A reporter from the Beiqing Daily found in the investigation that many netizens have had similar experiences. Due to the information asymmetry, netizens felt "too many traps" when repairing their mobile phones.
A consumer said that after his external screen was cracked, he sent it to an after-sales outlet for repair. It cost 1279 yuan. After the repair, the fingerprint unlocking and SIM card could not be used normally.
"I heard that the repairer broke the internal components of the mobile phone during the screen change process, and more things need to be replaced! Just bought the car with me, the windshield was broken and replaced the glass, you repaired the engine Broken, now I need to change the engine, can I agree?!"
Another consumer said that the mobile phone he bought was sent for repair, and a certain part was replaced, which cost 150 yuan, and the price was not high.
But after returning to use it for a period of time, I found that this part still had problems from time to time.
When I went to another shop, the other party said that the so-called official accessory to be replaced was a miscellaneous brand accessory with a maximum value of 50 yuan. In addition, the original battery in the phone was also dropped.
Earlier, an investigation by the consumer protection department showed that 10 of the 18 mobile phone repair shops that were visited unannounced had the problem of "minor illness overhaul, and no disease found," which seriously violated consumer rights.
Weapon
Generally, you don’t need to change the motherboard if you fall lightly
Consumers should choose regular stores
Dr. Wu, the co-founder of Geek Repair, told the Beijing Youth Daily that there are currently about three ways to repair mobile phones. One is the official authorized repair shops of brand manufacturers. They have high credibility, but they are expensive and have relatively small coverage. There are no offline shops in many cities or regions; the second is the common offline individual repair shops, which are basically unrestricted, and the prices, quality of parts, and service processes are not transparent and there is no guarantee. This is the most likely to cause complaints. The third is the Internet maintenance platform, the price is cheaper than the official, the service is more formal and transparent than the small shop.
He believes that the mobile phone repair industry has many pain points: the official after-sales price is expensive, and repairs need to be inconvenient to the store; third-party repairs are not transparent due to the opacity of prices, accessories, and service processes, and even some service providers have a lot of fraudulent behaviors, causing users to feel very bad. .
"To put it bluntly, this is the use of information asymmetry to bully consumers who don’t understand and ask for excessive prices." According to Yang Qun, a mobile phone industry analyst, many mobile phone after-sales service outlets seem to be repairing mobile phones in accordance with the country’s "three guarantees" regulations. The service is clearly marked, but in the actual service process, consumers’ ignorance of mobile phone technology is often used to "make a fuss" and make minor problems a major problem, thereby earning high maintenance profits.
"This approach is very concealed, it is more difficult to monitor than false price reporting, and it is more harmful to consumers."
So, what should consumers pay attention to when repairing their mobile phones?
Master Xing, who has many years of experience in repairing mobile phones, revealed to a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily that there are many situations in which the device can be disassembled. What kind of tricky.
But if the consumer's mobile phone is completely inoperable, including touch failure, not turning on, etc., then it is easy to give maintenance personnel some room for operation.
"For example, if you can’t boot up, then he will first replace you with a broken screen and a bad camera, and detect the problem. Then after the motherboard is repaired and turned on, he will first report to you that there is a problem with the motherboard because it is installed. The screen is not bright, so it is determined that it is the problem of your motherboard. After the repair, if you find that your screen still cannot light up, then he may say that there is still a problem with your screen and camera. In this case, consumers will be Brought into layers of traps."
Master Xing said: "If the touch is not working, most of it is the problem of the screen. The motherboard screen may be burnt, but this is rarely encountered in normal use. Some consumers can originally boot normally. But after repairing, it can't be turned on. This situation is possible in the case of a heavy fall causing a false welding. Under normal circumstances, it is unlikely."
This group of articles / our reporter Wen Jing
Coordinator/Yu Meiying