Three-bag policy or will introduce weaker consumers is expected to improve

The China Quality Association and the National Users Commission recently released the “Analysis Report on Complaints of China's Automotive Products and Services in the First Half of 2012” showing that due to the lower sales in the auto market, the use of new refurbished cars as new vehicles, energy saving subsidies are not in place, and accessories are shoddy. The problem of fraudulent sales of high-grade automobiles has only increased significantly in the first half of the year. Inconsistent behavior is common; auto users are more sensitive and cautious in the after-sales market, and users’ needs for rights protection are even stronger.

According to the report, the number of joint venture brand complaints accounted for 58%, independent brands accounted for 38%, and imported brands accounted for 4%. Eighty percent of the vehicles complained were within the auto warranty period. The proportion of engine complaints is close to 30%, ranking first. Some experts believe that some auto manufacturers exaggerate false propaganda, and when they encounter problems, they do not communicate with customers in good faith, adopt measures that suppress rather than solve, and delay the introduction of auto “Three Guarantees” regulations. Some auto sales and maintenance companies have legal awareness. Not strong, self-discipline management awareness is not high, the attitude of OEMs to solve problems for consumers is also not active enough, which has become the main reason for increasing consumer complaints year after year.

General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine: The "Three Guarantees" Policy will be issued at the right time

A few days ago, at the symposium on "Standards for Automobile Safety Services", the "Car Safety Service Standard" drafted and formulated by China Consumer Relations Association has entered a phase of revision and improvement. According to relevant reports, relevant responsible persons of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine revealed that the automobile "Three Guarantees" policy will be issued at the right time. At this point, the brewing of the "Three Guarantees" for eight years has once again become the focus of attention.

As early as the beginning of this year, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced the "Three Guarantees" of automobiles ("Responsibility Regulations for the Repair, Replacement, and Return of Household Automobile Products") (second draft for comment). All these reports revealed that the "Three Guarantees" vehicle is gradually moving from the ideal to the reality.

As the only province in the country that has the “Three Guarantees” policy for automobiles, Zhejiang Province has since 2001 included automobiles in the “Three Guarantees” product list. For the “Three Guarantees” policy, the attitude of car dealers in Zhejiang Province seems to be very tangled. First, they are reluctant to offend consumers, and second, they must stand on the same front as car manufacturers. This contradiction makes distributors have a hope for fear of the “Three Guarantees” policy.

“It is a good thing to really introduce policies. As long as the powers and responsibilities are clear, we can solve the problems according to the specific three-package rules. This will reduce many disputes with consumers.” Zhu Hengfei, the after-sales manager of Zhejiang Chentong, admitted that today The Zhejiang version of the car three bags, for many issues there is no clear standard, resulting in consumers in the face of problems, still need to solve the problem. Dealers are caught between consumers and manufacturers and the situation is very embarrassing. Once the automobile “three guarantees” policy is clarified, it can effectively reduce the occurrence of contradictions and follow the regulations to deal with the problems. Automobile manufacturers, distributors and consumers will reduce the number of disputes.

It is worth mentioning that after a steady increase in six consecutive years, consumers' satisfaction with the after-sales service of dealers has dropped slightly this year. A well-known market research agency. D. Power recently released the “China Customer Satisfaction Index Study (CSI) in 2012”, with Japanese brands sweeping the top three, followed by Guangzhou Automobile Honda, Dongfeng Honda and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota, while only three luxury brands scored above average.

Industry experts also stated that the decline in satisfaction scores may be due to the inability of the automotive industry to keep up with the explosive growth in Chinese car sales in recent years. In the past four years, nearly 40 million passenger cars have been added to the Chinese market.

Consumers worry that the cost of rights protection is too high

Compared with car manufacturers and distributors, consumers are even more enthusiastic about the "three bags" of automobiles. For the quality problems of cars, most consumers think that they should be resolved directly by car dealers. Consumers with a little “resilience” will choose to complain to the consumer associations. Consumers are generally not optimistic about whether they can be resolved in the end. The main reason for this is the lack of clear regulations to protect the rights of car consumers.

In fact, in the process of car consumption, consumers are always a vulnerable group. Without the protection of the “Three Guarantees” policy, when they encounter problems, they can only pass through the media and pass through consumer associations. However, after quarreling down, they finally have to sit down and negotiate with dealers. As one vehicle owner Ms. Wei said: “Consumer's point of view is different from that of dealers. Consumers have bought a car and there is something wrong with him. This problem is 100% faulty for him. But from the dealer’s point of view, he sells. There are hundreds of cars out of which hundreds of thousands or even one thousandth of you are wrong with your car. So the two sides can never stand in the same position to negotiate. This time there is a The regulations that are feasible are especially important."

Because there is a lack of relevant "three guarantees" regulations to back up, there are many consumers like Mr. Chen. The car was bought by the dealer, and if the problem was discovered by the dealer or the manufacturer, the consumer obviously did not have the right to speak and was in a weak position. So they either did nothing or got a little compensation. However, the results of these rights protection are often not convinced. In the process of dealing with distributors and manufacturers, consumers need to make arguments based on reasonable grounds, rather than complaints.

The Yangcheng Evening News also stated in response to this that, compared with a few years ago, the current methods of defending the rights of domestic owners are relatively rational and seldom take radical approaches. Most of them require auto manufacturers to be brave enough to take responsibility and take the initiative to solve problems. Statistics show that 93.93% of consumers think that the content of their complaints is very urgent and must be resolved; and the recalled consumers account for 40.36% of the total complaints. However, the high cost of rights protection is an important reason why the problem cannot be solved.