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According to statistics, from January to November 2020, a total of 64 decoration companies across the country declared bankruptcy, and many decoration companies were exposed as "running away". Since autumn, the number of decoration owners has increased sharply, and the resulting consumer disputes have also continued to increase. Decoration rights protection incidents have occurred frequently in various places.
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Halfway through the renovation, “putting down the burden”
More than 200 owners find it difficult to defend their rights
Recently, a large-scale decoration rights protection incident occurred in Hunnan District, Shenyang, involving more than 200 owners. The decoration company involved was Shangchen Huating Decoration Company located in Hunnan District, Shenyang. Ms. Wang, a citizen, reported that she spent more than 300,000 yuan on decoration at Shangchen Huating Decoration Company. However, halfway through the decoration, there was a shortage of materials. After the decoration stopped for a period of time, there were no workers. The decoration project has now been completed. Complete suspension. Citizen Xiaoguo also had the same experience. He signed a decoration contract with Shangchen Huating in May this year. On June 1, workers officially entered the site to start work. However, they were halfway through the installation, but work stopped in August. The contract was all-inclusive. , I also paid the money, but only the water, electricity, tiles and oil were done, and many finishing tasks were not completed. There were also cracks in the walls made by the oiler, and the cabinets had no countertops...
In order to resume the decoration project as soon as possible, both of them came to Shangchen Huating Decoration Company, only to find that the business area of the building had stopped operating and the office was full of owners defending their rights. Liu, the current person in charge of Shangchen Huating Decoration Company, said that in July 2020, when he took over the company, he was told that the debt was only 2 million yuan. After actually taking over the company, he discovered that the company's actual debt was as high as more than 11 million yuan.
Due to a lack of funds, Shangchen Huating Decoration Company now has no funds to purchase decoration materials, nor does it have money to pay workers, nor can it fulfill its promise to complete the decoration project. It is understood that Shangchen Huating Decoration Company has long been included in the list of dishonest enterprises by the court.
At present, this rights protection incident involves more than 200 injured property owners. Some of them have not completed the finishing work, and some have paid tens of thousands of yuan in deposits and the construction has been suspended indefinitely before it even started. It is understood that the rights protection owner has complained to the market supervision department about this matter, but the market supervision department's reply is: because the company has changed its legal person, the current legal person cannot bear the previous debts, so the operation is unsustainable.
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3,792 complaints received in the third quarter
Decoration complaints are rampant across the country
Recently, many provinces and cities have successively released statistical analysis reports on consumer complaints in the third quarter. Many places have stated that house decoration has become the "hardest hit area" for consumer complaints. For example, the Fujian Provincial Consumer Council received housing renovation reports in the third quarter of 2020. There were 391 complaints about building materials, and 100 complaints about house decoration and property services were received; a building materials plaza in Haikou City was sued 101 times in the third quarter. The "Analysis of Complaints Accepted by the National Consumers Association in the Third Quarter of 2020" released by the China Consumers Association shows that In the third quarter of 2020, the National Consumers Association received housing There were 3,792 complaints about decoration and property services, while 8,513 complaints were received in the first half of the year. These data show that complaints about home renovations are rampant across the country.
The entire service chain in the home decoration industry is long, involves many links, and the consumption amount is high, so the probability of problems is correspondingly higher. Therefore, House decoration has always been It is a hot and difficult point for consumer complaints. Based on the analysis of consumer complaint cases across the country, House decoration complaints mainly focus on three major aspects.
First, price. Many decoration companies play "word games" and induce consumers with marketing tricks such as "free decoration" and "refund of decoration money in n years"; they use cheap prices, worry-free and effort-saving products"All-inclusive" contracts are signed, but the actual "all-inclusive" is far from consumers' expectations, and even corners are cut to reduce costs; consumers are asked to increase costs through clever names during the decoration process; the advantage of information asymmetry is used for "technical processing" , doing tricks in the budget and final accounts...
The second is quality. Because house decoration involves multiple links and a variety of home decoration materials, the quality of decoration has always been a headache for consumers. Compared with other products, consumers do not have a deep understanding of home decoration products. Product information mainly comes from salespersons’ introductions. When purchasing, they often tend to prefer products that are discounted and promoted by merchants, which ultimately leads to constant “mistakes”. According to statistics on complaints received by the National Consumers Association in the third quarter of 2020,houses and building materials products received 7,506 complaints, ranking sixth among product complaints. Common quality problems in decoration include construction problems such as water leakage, wall cracking, and latex paint peeling off, as well as problems with the materials themselves such as wooden floors, ceramic tiles, and paints.
The third is after-sales service. After-sales complaints about decoration mainly include after-sales delays, after-sales pushback, refusal of warranty, bad attitude, and opaque maintenance costs. After-sales service has always been a common problem in the home improvement industry. As far as the current situation is concerned, it is still very difficult to solve this problem.
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Consumer Council interviews decoration companies with issues
It will take time for the standard to be implemented
Decoration complaints are increasing day by day and difficult to mediate. Relevant departments such as the Market Supervision Bureau also attach great importance to this.
On November 10, in response to the increasing number of consumer complaints in the interior decoration industry, in order to regulate the market order, the Changde City Consumer Committee joined relevant departments of the Changde City Market Supervision Administration, the Wuling District Consumer Committee, the District Market Supervision Office, and the Fourth The two law firms collectively interviewed the heads of the Changde Interior Decoration Association and seven decoration companies. The interview clearly pointed out that eight problems currently existing in the home decoration industry, including contract breach, consumer information leakage, and decoration quality, are suspected ofViolations of the Consumer Law, Consumer Protection Regulations, Product Quality Law, Contract Law and other relevant laws and regulations require the interior decoration association and decoration companies to rectify the reported problems within a time limit. If the rectification is not in place, consumers Decoration companies with strong complaints and high illegal rates will be severely investigated and punished.
At present, the home decoration industry has been facing the problem of constant consumer complaints. This is related to the lack of restraint on the behavior of a small number of decoration companies and harming the interests of consumers. The lack of constraints on the business behavior of decoration companies is mainly due to the lack of industry standards in the home decoration market. It is understood that the existing mandatory standards in my country's decoration industry include "Quality Acceptance Standards for Building Decoration and Decoration" and "Construction Specifications for Residential Decoration and Decoration Projects". However, national mandatory standards are only the basic "weights and measures" of an industry and cannot cover all aspects of an industry. The home decoration industry lacks industry standards, and the resulting problems such as uneven decoration quality and poor reputation among users will also hinder the development of the industry in the long term.
The lack of unified standards and supervision has always been a pain point that constrains many industries. Industry experts believe that the home decoration industry urgently needs a more detailed, comprehensive and feasible local industry standard to restrain it.
Author: Sitao
