Recently, Sina home appliance channel received a complaint from a consumer, Ms. Zhu, who said that the Samsung refrigerator he bought at the Samsung home appliance self operated store on JD platform on December 31, 2021 was found to be uncooled after being powered on. Consumers asked the merchant to replace it, and the merchant refused to replace it on the grounds that the product did not pass the “Samsung” after-sales test. For this reason, the consumer contacted the Samsung manufacturer again and waited for the “Samsung” waiter a week later, but the waiter proposed that he could only issue a maintenance service order. The service order stated that there was a fault (the refrigeration room was not refrigerated). The consumer sent the credentials to JD after-sales platform, but was told that the “maintenance service order” was not a “test order”, and refused to replace the refrigerator again. In this regard, Ms. Zhu registered the complaint on Sina black cat complaint platform and contacted Sina home appliance division, hoping to expose it.

△ Samsung issued a maintenance service order clearly indicating that the refrigerator is not refrigerated

Ms. Zhu told Sina home appliance business department that the refrigerator was worth 8900 yuan. The merchant delivered it on January 18 this year. Because the home was still renovated at that time, it was not opened for use after arrival. It was officially unpacked for use on March 17, and the problem of non refrigeration was immediately found. Therefore, it was reported to Samsung after-sales service for repair. Because it was a new refrigerator, it requested replacement, which was rejected by Samsung. Subsequently, Ms. Zhu registered the complaint on Sina black cat complaint platform and contacted Sina home appliance business department to follow up the matter. During this period, Samsung after-sales made a phone call, recognized that the refrigeration room was not refrigerated, but did not admit that it was a product quality problem, “said that the refrigeration room could be repaired if it was not refrigerated” and “asked Samsung to issue a quality appraisal form”. Before that, it did not agree to replace the product.

△ screenshot of Ms. Zhu’s purchase of Samsung refrigerator

Ms. Zhu said that she originally bought the product for the big brand, excellent quality and promised “Three Guarantees” service of Samsung household appliances. However, when the product has a very obvious quality problem (no refrigeration), the merchant requires consumers to find Samsung testing institutions to spend high testing fees and issue identification reports to prove that this is a product quality problem, so as to provide replacement services, which is difficult for her to accept.

In this regard, Sina home appliance business department inquired relevant information and found that in the identification of electrical faults, there is a situation that it is unclear whether the installation quality is unqualified or the cause of product quality problems. Although platforms like jd.com have no reason to return goods for seven days, in fact, it is difficult to find problems within seven days due to the special cycle, production, transportation and installation cycle of home decoration related products such as home appliances and furniture.

Under such circumstances, on the one hand, similar to Ms. Zhu, the products were delivered in place on January 18, and the power was turned on on on March 17. After the power was turned on, it was immediately found that the refrigeration room was not refrigerated, which was a very obvious quality problem. Is there any need for additional quality appraisal report; On the other hand, for some products with transportation safety problems, is it reasonable for consumers to bear the transportation risks and high testing costs to protect the after-sales service problems of products not caused by consumers themselves?

In this regard, Sina home appliance business department found in searching relevant materials that Qiu Baochang, director of Beijing Huijia law firm, once pointed out that no matter whether the cause of the problem is product quality or installation quality, the seller of the product should first solve the problem and make corresponding compensation to consumers, and then distinguish the responsibility according to the contract signed with the brand. According to Article 148 of the contract law, “if the purpose of the contract cannot be achieved because the quality of the subject matter does not meet the quality requirements, the buyer may refuse to accept the subject matter or terminate the contract. If the buyer refuses to accept the subject matter or terminates the contract, the risk of damage and loss of the subject matter shall be borne by the seller”. According to Article 111 of the contract law: “If the quality does not meet the agreement, it shall be liable for breach of contract in accordance with the agreement of the parties. If the liability for breach of contract is not agreed or clearly agreed, and cannot be determined in accordance with Article 61 of this law, the aggrieved party may reasonably choose to require the other party to bear the liability for breach of contract such as repair, replacement, rework, return of goods, reduction of price or remuneration according to the nature of the subject matter and the size of the loss”, Article 23 of the law on the protection of the rights and interests of consumers stipulates: “if a business operator provides goods or services and undertakes the guaranteed repair, replacement, return or other responsibilities in accordance with the provisions of the state or the agreement with consumers, it shall perform in accordance with the provisions or agreements of the state, and shall not deliberately delay or unreasonably refuse.”

At the same time, according to the provisions of Article 40 of the law on the protection of consumers’ rights and interests, those who deliberately delay or unreasonably refuse to repair, redo, replace, return, make up the quantity of goods, refund the payment for goods and service fees or compensate for losses, shall bear civil liability in accordance with the provisions of the product quality law and other relevant laws and regulations.

Sina home appliance division believes that the brand side’s provision of “Three Guarantees” service is worthy of recognition, but since it has provided the service, it should support the effective policies that the service can implement, whether in terms of service guarantee or technical guarantee, and try to provide convenience for consumers in safeguarding their rights. In addition, for some problems that can be judged intuitively, such as TV display effect, refrigeration and heating, enterprises can completely not require consumers to show additional test reports. Otherwise, when the enterprise’s commitment becomes a dead letter due to difficult identification and other reasons, how can we talk about perfect after-sales service?

In fact, in recent years, the performance of Samsung home appliances in the Chinese market is indeed the same as its performance in consumer services today, which is regrettable. Some media even pointed out that it can only maintain its so-called “high-end brand” image by grasping some “brand belief” users and “design oriented” circle users. According to the data from ovicloud: as of February 28, 2022, Samsung has not been seen in the top 10 list of refrigerator offline market sales. If we say that the strong self-confidence of “self-centered” made Samsung rise steadily in the global consumer electronics market; Today, we still maintain such “self-centered” arrogance and arrogance. I’m afraid the ultimate result is to completely lose China’s home appliance consumer market.

Here, Sina