"it's a small matter, but it's particularly annoying." mr. Zhang of tianjin city accidentally discovered a leak in the use of the faucet of his washing machine. After several screenings, he selected a maintenance facility that claimed to own a sub-linee physical maintenance shop to perform a review, and the maintenance staff came to the door and said, “small problems can be solved with a water tap and maintenance costs of $200”
Mr. Zhang tried to save some money and bought himself a washing machine tap downstairs. It was no trouble to install it." i didn't expect the maintenance man to ignore me and come up and pull out the wrench, wrench the faucet, and then say he's in the house, even if he doesn't fix it, he'll pay $50." mr. Zhang said to the journalist for the daily rule of law newspaper that he had to pay money because of his strong attitude and knowledge of his home address。
"i thought about the maintenance shop and the theory, but i found out that the address on the internet was not a real address; and i was called by the maintenance officer, and i was scolded。
Journalists understand that mr. Zhang's experience is not an example. Home electricity maintenance, which is supposed to be a simple matter, is now often a “challenge” in consumer life. In the course of some household electrical maintenance, problems such as “several repairs to small diseases” and “severe repairs to small diseases” are frequent, placing consumers in a difficult position of “failure to repair, new and painful”。
It's always hard to cure a small problem
On 8 january this year, mr. Zhejiang province suddenly blacked out his television set, and on the same day he looked online for a shop capable of going to the house and repairing it. But until now, his tv screen is still in a malfunction。
“televisions have passed the brand maintenance quality guarantee, so they have found other platforms.” mr. Yang told the journalists that the maintenance staff had come to the door and said that the backlight of the television screen was broken and had to be brought back for repair, at a cost of 500 per person. Once repaired, mr. Yang was given a “package” stating that the television would be available for another seven or eight years and that a three-month maintenance warranty period had been promised. But three months later, the tv was black again。
“it was the same problem, which was not completely resolved last time, and i gave feedback to the guest on the platform, who said that because of the maintenance quality assurance period, it would only be possible for people to come to the door again. But what if it doesn't work? To back up, even if it could be repaired, the cost of the two repairs would be estimated at $1,000, so it would be better to buy a new tv with more money.” mr. Yang said。
Mr. Lee of cebu city, anhui province, was similarly trapped in a “map” where electricity was repaired, a microwave oven, which had not been repaired several times。
In march 2025, mr. Lee purchased a second-hand microwave oven from an online shop for a similar three-month maintenance period. In late june 2025, shortly after the quality assurance period, the microwaves became unheated. Mr. Lee went to the store to make a statement and the shop owner said to mr. Lee that an additional $50 would allow mr. Lee to be replaced with a microwave, which mr. Lee agreed to。
It was not expected that the return of the microwave had taken only about four months and that there had been another problem of unheating. Mr. Lee went to a maintenance shop with the microwave and the maintenance staff indicated that the microwave had been damaged by spare parts, which could be resolved if replaced. As a result, mr. Lee spent 30 hours repairing the microwave in this shop. Once again, the microwave is unheated after some time. This time, mr. Lee changed a maintenance shop and fixed it for a few days, and the microwave made a “old problem”. In the end, mr. Lee gave up maintenance and bought a new microwave。
“as if the time had been right, the time after the repair was broken. It took a circle of false money, and it didn't end up being fixed, and it was better to buy a new one, and the next time this little electricity broke down, it took money, effort and time。
It's expensive and it's "re-emerging."
The problems encountered by ms. Meng of the city of sha, governor of hunan, were even more “bad”. On the same day at the end of june last year, ms. Meng discovered that the refrigeration function in her refrigerator was broken, that it was 9 p. M. And that it was in the summer, that there was food such as meat in the fridge, that ms. Meng, who was worried about the deterioration of the food, contacted a maintenance platform overnight, and that the maintenance staff came to the door and indicated that “the master plate was broken”, and that an offer of $900, together with night maintenance and testing fees, had resulted in a total payment of $960。
"i thought i'd fix it as soon as i could. I'll pay for it." ms. Meng recalled that the maintenance staff had promised to fix it and had committed themselves to a 90-day maintenance quality assurance period. However, it was not expected that the refrigerator would again be unrefrigerated at more than 7 a. M. The next morning. Ms. Meng then contacted the maintenance platform, which was the same maintenance staff last night who gave the reason for the failure of the “compressor” who said to ms. Meng that if the platform process was not followed, $500 would be fixed, without any mention of the maintenance warranty period。
Ms. Meng did not feel well and contacted the refrigerator's branded guest service, which, after a brief account, gave a very different response from the maintenance staff, stating that the control board might have been in trouble。
Ms. Meng was outraged by the fact that, by searching, she had found that only $150 was needed for a brand-new master plate, that is to say, the cost of removing the parts was more than $800, but the refrigerator had still not been repaired. “it took so much money to fix it, the maintenance warranty period mentioned by the maintenance staff was not fulfilled and the food in the fridge was broken.” ms. Meng said that she had eventually repaired the refrigerator through the branding channel and had made parallel complaints about the maintenance platform, which had been reimbursed in full。
On 20 april, journalists searched a consumer service platform using the key word “maintenance” of “home electricity” and found more than 6,700 complaints。
“the repairs to the gas stoves and the repairs to the gas stoves have damaged the gas-smokes machine, the repair platform has only withdrawn its maintenance costs and no one has borne the costs.” “the switch is broken, the maintenance staff first fixes the offer, replaces a simple switch button, and charges a service fee of more than 200”, “the refrigerators at home through the official after-sale platform, which is also the master of a third-party power repair platform, spends more than 1,000 masters on the main board, and the refrigerator is again malfunctioning for the same reason, and i learned later that the main plate of the refrigerator was only 200 times more expensive than the platform”
Platform roll out related services
Journalists noted that some businesses and platforms had also introduced services in such cases。
On 22 august 2025, the united states repurchased several brands of electric power and introduced “replacement” services in the immediate retail trade. The service has now covered nearly 10,000 retail stores that were purchased by the united states of america. The national consumer has access to “replacement” services in case of quality problems when buying small household electricity at the relevant brand-owned store or when buying small household electricity from the relevant brand. When a consumer applies for the service, the vendor will provide feedback for processing within 24 hours. In order to meet the requirements of the application, the consumer may return the goods without bearing the freight, and the merchant will send the new goods within seven days。
According to the united states of america, the joint branding of the platform has a 30-minute buy-and-take experience, plus a "up to 365 days to change " , that can effectively leverage brand sales. In the case of the american brand, since the third quarter of 2025, the sale of american small household electricity has increased eight-fold over the last quarter, following the “no fix” on-line purchase of the american dollar。
On 19 december 2025, the kyoto service announced the introduction of a “separation” model for home electricity maintenance. To achieve transparency in fees, “three first” service commitments were introduced: assessment before maintenance, based on the type of household appliances, specifications, type of failure, clear understanding by the user of the rates for labour, spare parts, etc., and transparency in the cost of spare parts for the original plant; first offer before request for maintenance, with the service quotation detailing the maintenance project, the cost list and the user's consent before the engineer can carry out the maintenance work; first receipt and then payment, and then the user's acceptance after maintenance is completed. The platform also provides tools such as a user meter, an electronic service report, and a combination of 90 quality assurance。
It is understood that the service has covered air conditioners, washing machines, water heaters, televisions, refrigerators, cigarette stoves and six main household appliances, with free online consultation, which is expected to solve 30 to 40 per cent of the problem。
In an interview with professor soo, faculty of law of the university of foreign economics and trade, the consumer was reminded that it would be in the consumer interest for the merchants to introduce “no change” as a whole, but it would be useful to note whether the services were implemented at a discount, such as the return of old appliances, electrical equipment that was still in trouble, or the refusal to replace or extend the delivery time under various pretexts。
