The air conditioner of 2000 yuan does not cool, and the maintenance price is 1000 yuan [Reporter investigates the chaos of home appliance maintenance]
● Appliance maintenance has always been one of the hotspots of consumer complaints. The complaints include "indiscriminate charges", "difficulty in guaranteeing maintenance quality", "difficulty in making appointments during peak seasons", "exaggerating faults", and "inducing maintenance".
Expensive replacement of parts and consumables is a common method for copycat repairs, and some copycat repair shops deliberately exaggerate the failure of home appliances and over-repair
● The professional norms and integrity management of the home appliance repair industry are not satisfactory, mainly due to information asymmetry.
For consumers, there are many "blind areas of knowledge" involved in home appliance repair. Many cottage repair shops "see people and cook", no sick leave, minor illness overhaul, and profit from it
● The Internet appliance repair platform fulfills its obligation to review in advance, and strengthens the review of indicators such as maintenance qualifications and maintenance levels. At the same time, the cost of spare parts and the duration of on-site maintenance costs are clearly marked to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
□ Our reporter Wen Lijuan
□ Zhou Yubu, an intern of this newspaper
Some time ago, the heat in Changsha, Hunan was unbearable, but Zhao Xiaolai's house "drained the house and rained overnight" - the air conditioner could not cool down.
Later, Zhao Xiaolai made an appointment for a maintenance person on an Internet platform. After a simple inspection, the other party told her that there was a problem with the circuit board, and it would cost 1,000 yuan to repair it.
This price surprised Zhao Xiaolai, because "the same model and high configuration of air conditioners on the market are about 2,000 yuan."
After some bargaining, the maintenance staff insisted on asking the price of 800 yuan, but after seeing her hesitating, it dropped to 600 yuan.
In the end, the two sides reached the deal for 550 yuan.
This experience made Zhao Xiaolai feel that there was "too much moisture" in home appliance maintenance, and even once suspected that he had encountered cottage maintenance.
In fact, many consumers have experienced such distress.
A reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently reviewed the complaint data of the China Consumers Association over the years and found that home appliance maintenance has always been one of the hot spots of consumer complaints. "Induced Maintenance", etc.
A number of interviewed industry insiders analyzed that for consumers, there are many "blind areas of knowledge" involved in home appliance repair. Many cottage repair shops "see people and cook", no sick leave, minor illness overhaul, and profit from it. It is recommended that the Internet home appliance repair platform fulfill its obligation of prior review, increase the review of indicators such as maintenance qualifications and maintenance levels, and at the same time clearly mark the cost of spare parts and the duration of on-site maintenance costs to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
No Sick Leave Repair Minor Sickness Major Repair
Home appliance maintenance chaos occurs frequently
The experience of Luo Rong, a resident of Qingdao, Shandong, is exactly the same as that of Zhao Xiaolai.
Not long ago, Luo Rong's washing machine leaked water.
She called the brand's after-sales phone and learned that the washing machine had passed the warranty period, and the maintenance personnel arranged by the official could not come to the door until the next day.
Due to anxious use, Luo Rong chose a maintenance company with a high rating on a housekeeping app to place an order.
Soon, maintenance personnel came to the door with a detector and a wrench.
The other party first opened the cover on the washing machine and used the tester to check the power-on status and gave a quotation: technical maintenance service fee of 200 yuan, warranty fee of 50 yuan, accessories fee of 126 yuan, inspection fee of 30 yuan, and door-to-door fee of 60 yuan, a total of 466 Yuan.
Luo Rong thought this price was unacceptable. After some discussion, the other party agreed not to use accessories, and the accessories fee could be deducted.
After bargaining again, the other party agreed to deduct the testing fee and the warranty fee, but it will not be responsible for any problems in the later period, and the final maintenance cost is 165 yuan.
During the official repair, the other party only twisted the drain pipe with a wrench and told Luo Rong that it was "repaired".
The next day, when Luo Rong used the washing machine again, she found that the water could not be pumped. She called the maintenance staff and was told that because she did not pay the warranty fee, she needed to place a new order to purchase the maintenance service, and there might be a problem with the inlet water pump and needed to be replaced, "100 Yuan accessories fee, 60 yuan service fee, this time a total of 160 yuan."
In this regard, Luo Rong felt helpless and called the brand after-sales again.
After the other party came to the door to check, it was found that the partition connecting the drum and the washing machine fell off and caused water leakage. It can be reinstalled, and a debugging fee of 60 yuan is required.
"The actual situation is not as serious as the maintenance person on the app said." Luo Rong said.
The reporter's investigation found that high-priced replacement of accessories and consumables is a common method for copycat repairs to slaughter customers, and some copycat repair shops deliberately exaggerate the failure of home appliances, over-repair, and profit from it.
In addition, various reagents are added at will to increase maintenance costs; low prices attract consumers and create consumption traps; it is difficult to make appointments in peak seasons, and maintenance quality is difficult to guarantee.
Beijing resident Zhang Cheng told reporters that once, his air conditioner needed to be added with refrigerant, and the maintenance cost was 100 yuan, but the maintenance staff brushed the external machine with a shoe brush a few times, and then an additional cleaning fee of 50 yuan was charged.
"I have refused to clean, he still has to operate, and he did not follow the cleaning operation process."
The reporter searched a third-party complaint platform with the keyword "air conditioner maintenance" and found that there were more than 4,300 complaints, including "disorderly quotations, no invoicing", "arbitrary fees, inducing offline payments" and "multiple repairs still unable to work". problem-solving" etc.
The "regular army" is shrinking
Cottage Maintenance Brutal Expansion
"The situation of slaughtering customers in home appliance repairs has always existed." Yang Kang from Shaoyang, Hunan is a "people in the circle" of the home appliance repair industry, and he has a good understanding of this industry.
According to Yang Kang, the wages of maintenance workers are low, and the maintenance fees and service fees that are too cheap cannot meet their living needs, and part of the maintenance fees have to be handed over to the company. Get more money for more money.”
In addition, home appliance maintenance is highly professional, and it is difficult for ordinary consumers to see the clues, which also gives maintenance personnel and companies a lot of room for manipulation.
"The fluoridation of air conditioners is a common tactic for arbitrary charges. There are very few air conditioners that really need fluoridation. Most of the reasons for not cooling are caused by blockage of the air conditioner pipes. In addition, brushing the external machine with a small brush has also become an excuse for cleaning charges." Yang Kang Say.
He reminded that most of the chaos of home appliance maintenance in the market is caused by cottage maintenance or outsourced third-party companies. The official brand after-sales maintenance generally has relatively standardized charging standards, and the quality and responsibility of maintenance can also be traced to the source.
But as rents increase and operating costs increase, the "regular army" of home appliance repairs is shrinking.
"Some home appliance brands may only have one or two regular after-sales maintenance points in a municipal area, with limited manpower, lack of dispatch, and long waiting time for consumers. However, there are a large number and wide distribution of cottage maintenance, mostly on Internet platforms. It is widely publicized on the Internet, covering a large area, and some cottages repair and fake regular after-sales service to undertake business." Yang Kang said.
The reporter randomly interviewed more than 10 consumers in Beijing, Changsha and other places and found that many people do not take the time to find out whether the repair shop they have reserved is legitimate before placing an order for repair. Find a repair shop near the community.
In Chaoyang District, Beijing, the reporter recently visited a number of roadside maintenance shops and learned that the maintenance personnel in these shops generally have undergone 7 days to 3 months of training to solve some common home appliance problems.
If they encounter thorny problems when they come to repair, they usually choose to avoid the heavy ones and recommend consumers to use higher-priced accessories or consumables, claiming that "the performance will naturally become better after replacing the good accessories".
"This type of maintenance personnel has become an integral part of the maintenance industry. Since there is no special organization and personnel to manage it, there will naturally be malicious competition and chaos in order to survive." Zhang Yanbin, an analyst in the home appliance industry, said.
In his view, the professional norms and integrity of the home appliance maintenance industry are not satisfactory, and the main reason why some maintenance service providers deliberately mislead and deceive consumers is information asymmetry.
"The failure of general household appliances is not a big problem, it may be just a small fault somewhere, but ordinary consumers do not understand the working principle of household appliances, so they must go to maintenance personnel with professional equipment and professional knowledge to answer questions and carry out repair."
"Integrity maintenance personnel will tell the truth, prescribe the right medicine, and solve the problem as soon as possible. If it is a dishonest maintenance personnel, it is inevitable to deceive customers on the basis of consumer ignorance, and even no sick leave, minor illness overhaul." Zhang Yanbin said, in addition, generally There are relatively few home appliance repair problems within the manufacturer's warranty period. All kinds of home appliance repair problems basically appear outside the three-guarantee period. When the manufacturer no longer warrants and needs to charge for repair, the problem comes.
Platforms should strengthen auditing
Services must be clearly priced
In order to regulate the home appliance repair market, the "Administrative Measures for the 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.
A number of industry insiders pointed out that although the maintenance points announced by many brands on the official website clearly marked an electrical company, in fact, the scale and strength of these after-sales points are uneven.
And nowadays most of them are online repairs. Generally, the information of repairers will be listed on the search results of some Internet platforms. Some of these information are real, some are fake, and even "Li Gui" pretends to be a regular unit, and there is no maintenance at all. Qualified "black merchants".
The reporter noticed that in response to the chaos of cottage maintenance that consumers criticized, many localities and industry associations have recently issued new regulations and put 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 sweltering summer, and requires that maintenance personnel holding a unified door-to-door service certificate must come to the door with a certificate , Bright certificate service; all service companies must express the charging standards, and must not increase the fees arbitrarily; all manufacturers' service hotlines must take effective measures to ensure service response.
According to Liu Buchen, an analyst in the home appliance industry, the management of home appliance maintenance chaos should keep pace with the times. In view of the current situation of increasing online maintenance, the Internet home appliance maintenance platform must fulfill its pre-audit obligations, such as whether the maintenance manufacturer is qualified and whether the maintenance level is up to standard. .
If this causes losses to consumers, the platform should be liable for damages.
For some home appliance maintenance personnel relying only on experience and lack of professional knowledge, especially the phenomenon that maintenance prices are sky-high and lack standards, Zhang Yanbin suggested that manufacturers should strengthen supervision and strength at designated maintenance points, and innovate after-sales service methods, such as the establishment of direct-operated "" Quick repair, quick compensation” and so on.
In addition, merchants should clearly mark the price of spare parts and various service fees and service hours for on-site maintenance, and publicize them online.
When consumers check, they can clearly know how long the door-to-door service corresponds to how much and how much it costs to replace which parts.
"The maintenance process of maintenance personnel should be tracked and recorded throughout the process. Maintenance personnel go to the consumer's home to carry out maintenance, whether the parts are replaced or not, whether the problem has been solved, and whether they have done anything in the maintenance process? For these problems, ordinary consumers It is difficult to detect it, and generally only professionals can see it. It is also stipulated that maintenance personnel are not allowed to charge separately, and it is better that the platform and the maintenance organization charge uniformly, and some reward and punishment mechanisms can be established for this.” Zhang Yanbin said.
From the perspective of supervision, Liu Buchen called on government departments, as the main body of market supervision, to conduct more surprise inspections for the home appliance repair service industry that has long been a cure for the symptoms but not the root cause. It can gradually improve the industry standards and increase the entry threshold of the maintenance industry; it can also use the forces of all parties to achieve common governance and mutual supervision. Customer satisfaction service.
"Consumers still have to keep their eyes open in daily life and shop around. It is best to choose a large appliance repair platform with offline brick-and-mortar stores, good reputation and strict supervision measures, so as to prevent problems before they occur." Liu Buchen said.
Comics/Li Xiaojun