CCTV News:New progress has been made in safeguarding the rights of Mercedes-Benz owners in Xi ‘an. In view of the financial service fees reflected by the owners, the Taxation Bureau of Xi ‘an High-tech Industrial Development Zone in State Taxation Administration of The People’s Republic of China went to the 4S shop of Lizhixing in Xi ‘an to conduct relevant investigation and evidence collection. On the 16th, the tax authorities responded that the financial service fee paid by Ms. Wang, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, was actually paid to a third-party company, which was actually a "guarantee" fee.
In addition, Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales & Service Company issued a statement, apologizing again, and said that it would immediately suspend the sales operation of the authorized store. If the investigation results show that the dealer has illegal and non-compliant behaviors, its authorization will be terminated.
On the evening of 16th, Ms. Wang, the owner of Mercedes-Benz who defended her rights, and Xi ‘an Lizhixing Automobile Co., Ltd. reached a settlement agreement on car replacement and compensation (including an apology from Mercedes-Benz, replacement of a new car, refund of financial service fees, interior decoration upgrade, etc.), and the quality problems related to the vehicles involved have also entered the appraisal procedure.
With the in-depth media coverage and public attention, the rights protection of female Mercedes-Benz owners in Xi ‘an, Shaanxi Province is progressing in the direction that people expect. But at the same time, we should also see that there are many manifestations of irregular operation in 4S stores, and various pits for buying cars are not uncommon. In the past, the media also exposed the violations of 4S stores many times, and Ms. Wang’s experience is not a case. When consumption has become the main driving force of economic growth, how to make consumers more assured of consumption? In the end, the reconciliation between the two sides came to an end, but we are more concerned about how to avoid similar incidents from happening to others.
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4S stores frequently infringe on consumers’ rights and interests.
Once upon a time, the model of authorized franchise store (4S shop) was synonymous with excellent quality and excellent service. Brand car manufacturers review the qualifications of sellers and allow franchises, so that the products sold by 4S stores are free from counterfeiting and the after-sales service is more professional. However, in reality, 4S stores often lack the right to speak on the price of suppliers and manufacturers, so they can only find profit space for consumers, such as vehicle decoration, raising the price of cars, detaining vehicle certificates, etc., which makes consumers miserable. More importantly, due to the consideration of market share, there is often only one single brand 4S store in a certain area, and it is not possible to sell across regions among specialty stores. Lack of effective competition has led to frequent violations of consumers’ rights and interests, such as opaque fees and exorbitant prices.
In this case, consumers often become "self-seeking" when buying a car. Consumers are naturally happy when they meet qualified products. When it comes to a "problem car" with defective quality, consumers will spend a lot of time and struggle to open the "rights protection mode". At the same time, for the various charges and the so-called "one-stop service" and "car purchase package", consumers often look at the flowers in the fog and become sacrificial lambs.
Promote the listing of car purchases and services into reality.
From this point of view, the essence behind the phenomenon of cheating customers in 4S stores is the car sales model itself. Is there no way to solve this problem? In this regard, on the one hand, it depends on the strength of the regulatory authorities. I wonder if you still remember the various packages of mobile tariffs? Previously, there were many problems in this field, and there were many traps behind many package terms. However, after years of continuous efforts by the government, the results of transparency and standardization of package settings are obvious to all. This year’s government work report also clearly requires that the package settings be standardized so that the fee reduction is real and clear to consumers. Facts have also proved that the standardization of package setting is not a bad thing for enterprises, on the contrary, it also promotes the standardized development of operators.
If the field of mobile tariffs can be transparent, there is no reason why the field of automobile consumption cannot be done. All expenses are clearly marked, so that services can be listed and consumption can be listed, and they can be directly supervised online. The regulatory authorities also supervise the implementation at any time. If there are violations, heavy penalties will be imposed, which will inevitably help consumers to understand their car purchases clearly.
On the other hand, from the market point of view, some 4S stores can bully customers partly because a brand’s 4S stores are exclusive in a certain geographical area, so 4S stores have the bargaining power. With the development of internet plus’s automobile business, some brand automobile manufacturers have begun to implement the direct mode, such as Tesla, a typical electric vehicle manufacturer, which orders directly through the website, then delivers and picks up the car, and clearly marks the price. This model has been adopted by some emerging automobile manufacturers and may challenge the traditional 4S shop sales model in the future. If 4S stores don’t change and don’t improve the quality and level of service, it will inevitably push consumers to direct stores of manufacturers. If you harm consumers, you will be abandoned by consumers.
This incident can’t end with the solution of the case.
Generally speaking, the case of consumer rights protection is relatively easy to solve, and this incident has come to an end with reconciliation between the two sides. However, what consumers expect is that this incident can’t end with the solution of a case, and the whole industry must be promoted to carry out substantive changes through this incident. The difficulty is indeed not small, but in today’s context of promoting consumption and promoting high-quality development, this is an inevitable way to go. Consumption has become the first driving force for China’s economic growth, but from the current situation, there is still room for further development of the potential of consumption to promote economic growth. In China, not only in the field of automobile consumption, but also in other areas of consumption, there are problems of deceiving and slaughtering customers. Cleaning up these problems, so that consumers can spend with confidence, is itself cleaning up the roadblocks of high-quality economic growth in China. At the same time, making consumption transparent is also promoting fairness and indirectly improving consumers’ purchasing power. No matter from historical experience or international experience, consumers’ rights and interests are well protected, and even consumers are a little picky within the scope of law, which is conducive to promoting enterprises to improve product quality and service level.
Defending rights by "making trouble" is not a phenomenon that a society ruled by law should have, nor is it a phenomenon that a consumer economy should have. From this perspective, Xi ‘an Mercedes-Benz women car owners’ rights protection event should be an opportunity to really push China’s consumer market to a more legal and fair track, which is our original intention of paying attention to this event today.
Wen Yi, a special contributor to CCTV commentary, wrote for Mi.
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