Can you use a high-end machine with a down payment of 1 yuan? There is a hidden trick behind the "rent-to-buy" mobile phone

CCTV Beijing, December 12 (Voice of China reporter Qian Cheng) According to the China Central Radio and Television Voice of China "News Vertical" report, in recent years, with the development of the sharing economy and the continuous emergence of business opportunities, the concept of sharing has been widely disseminated, and a large number of Internet leasing platforms have emerged. Among them, the mobile phone leasing business caters to the needs of many young people through the gimmick of "low monthly rent" through the model of "renting instead of purchasing". Some platforms say that consumers only need to pay for a cup of milk tea every month to have the latest or higher-end mobile phones.

Attracting consumers to rent in installments with "low monthly rent" actually hides interlocking routines. Some consumers have reported that the default lease term of most platforms is 1 year or more, and once it is overdue, they must pay a high buyout fee; There are also cases where consumers have encountered violent collections. What risks should the rental mobile phone market be wary of?

In November last year, Mr. Li (pseudonym) from Sichuan rented a blue mobile phone with 11 new memory of 99G on the rental applet, with a one-year lease period and 256 installments, with only 12 yuan for the first installment and 1.11 yuan per month for the next 445 months.

On November 11 this year, the lease expired, and according to the contract, Mr. Li could choose to return the mobile phone or buy it out for another 12,6000 yuan. Because the buyout fee was too high, Mr. Li finally chose to return the phone and send it back to the merchant. The express information shows that the merchant has signed for the receipt on November 11. However, after receiving the mobile phone, the merchant did not terminate the contract, but asked Mr. Li to pay a discount fee of nearly 14,1000 yuan, or directly buy out the mobile phone.

Mr. Li told reporters: "After the merchant signed, there was an interval of two weeks, and I was sent a machine inspection report, which said that there were some slight scratches and no sound from the speaker. ”

The inspection report provided by this merchant says that the mobile phone is eighty percent new, with slight scratches on the screen, slight aging and slight scratches on the frame, slight aging of the back cover, and silence on the speaker. Mr. Li did not approve of such acceptance results. "It's impossible for the speaker to have no sound, and if there is no sound, the phone can't be answered," he said. ”

Before sending the mobile phone, Mr. Li took a video to leave the bottom, and from the video, there were no obvious scratches on the mobile phone. The reporter also contacted the customer service staff who connected with Mr. Li many times, but the other party did not give a clear response as of press time.

In addition to the situation of asking for a discount fee when returning it at the expiration date, the problem of mobile phone supervision lock also makes many mobile phone rental users a headache. The so-called mobile phone supervision lock, in fact, is a kind of restriction on the user by the merchant, if the user has overdue rent or has not returned the mobile phone within the time limit, the mobile phone will be locked.

Mr. Zhang (pseudonym), who lives in Guiyang, told reporters that last month, his rented mobile phone expired, and considering his Xi habits and the storage of data in the mobile phone, he decided to buy out the mobile phone. However, after the buyout, the merchant did not lift the regulatory lock of the mobile phone, but let Mr. Zhang handle it himself.

Mr. Zhang said: "He told me that their platform has been lifted (mobile phone supervision lock), and the customer service also said the same, but my mobile phone still shows 'supervision'." He now tells me to factory reset my machine, and if it doesn't work, let me flash it. ”

Mr. Zhang said that the rental cost of the phone plus the buyout fee had exceeded the official selling price of the phone in the same period last year.

Mr. Zhang said: "I didn't think about it so much at the time, but in the process of repaying the loan later, I found that I felt cheated on how to spend so much money when I paid it off every month. ”

The reporter searched on the black cat complaint platform with "renting a mobile phone" as a keyword, and found that there were nearly 3,<> complaints, involving a lease renewal price increase, a buyout price much higher than the market price, and a mobile phone found to be a "refurbished machine" and "resource machine" during maintenance, violent collection, etc., and even some users reported that they had rented "stolen goods" and were confiscated by the police.

On the homepage of the leasing platform with many complaints, the reporter saw the hot rental hot mobile phone recommended by the platform, with a memory of 128G, a lease period of one year, and a total rent of 4243 yuan, paid monthly, and if you want to buy it out after expiration, you need to pay the balance of 3545 yuan. According to the lease contract, the rent plus the estimated buyout fee, the arrival price of the mobile phone after one year is 7788,5999 yuan. The current official price of the phone is <> yuan.

In addition, the reporter searched on the platform and found that the acceptance of mobile phones, pricing of discount fees, liquidated damages and other links are completely determined by the platform and merchants, and users have almost no effective channels for appeal.

Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, pointed out that businesses have the right to set their own rules for business activities, but they must be fair and reasonable, and must not harm consumers' right to fair trade. He suggested that the market supervision department should strengthen the supervision of the Internet consumer finance industry, especially in the mode of "renting and purchasing", young groups such as college students have risks such as excess spending, privacy leakage, and fraud, and should be supervised in a timely manner for violations of laws and regulations in the industry.

Chen Yinjiang said: "It is a leasing agency, and now there are so many consumer complaints on the Internet, its business model deserves the attention of the relevant departments, and it should be intervened in a timely manner, to find out whether this is a legal and reasonable business behavior, whether there is a hidden security risk, and whether there is a trap that infringes on the rights and interests of consumers." ”

(CNR)