Low-cost bare metal high-priced installation after-sales shady into the unspoken rules of home appliance companies

For a water heater bought at 900 yuan, the extra accessory fee charged during installation was as high as 400 yuan. Yesterday, a consumer told reporters that although it was told that it would charge a small amount of material during the installation process, in actual installation, the price of accessories reached almost half of the price of bare metal. If you purchase accessories yourself, although the price is lower, it is not covered by the warranty. In this regard, AO. Wang Fang, media manager of Smith's marketing department, said in an interview with reporters yesterday that it is inconvenient to evaluate this matter at this time. "It is necessary to understand the entire purchase process and the specific circumstances of the charges before making a judgment."

When the reporter visited the store, he found that the major brands of water heaters are competing for the lowest price to grab the market, but they are all bare metal prices. According to insiders familiar with home appliance sales, such a thing is not uncommon. Water heaters priced at only seven or eight hundred yuan have been charged for almost the same amount of materials and installation fees after door-to-door installation. Selling bare metal at a low price and charging material fees at a high price have become the hidden rules of the water heater industry, AO. Smith, Electrolux, Haier, Shuaikang and other companies are mostly such operations.

In addition to water heaters, gas stoves, air conditioners and other products that require after-sales installation, companies will list the total after-sales costs. Home appliances are "affordable and unaffordable" and "affordable and unrepairable" abound.

Industry expert Liang Zhenpeng believes that the root cause of this phenomenon is still fierce market competition. In a market where prices are king, the price advantage of commodities is the biggest bargaining chip for the share, and major companies have to attract consumers through price wars. However, in recent years, raw materials and labor costs have soared, and companies have to make up for their profits in the after-sales field.

Liang Zhenpeng said that there are already a lot of various industry standards and national standards related to the functions, performance and indicators of home appliances, but there is no unified industry standard for installation materials and labor service costs in the after-sales link of home appliances, which has led to Some home appliance manufacturers or installation companies charge consumers high fees in the “after-sales installation” link in accordance with their so-called “enterprise standards”.