The morning lady, who lived in guangzhou, had to change her water-purification core, and the master of the service had replaced her with three filter cores for 365 dollars; she also asked why the water-purification machine leaked, and the master said she would change the electric machine for a few days, $369 for the electric power and $70 for the door. A few days later, the master came to change the electric power, the machine was charged and the entrance fee was reduced slightly to $50。
In fact, with the elimination of high-end products, some of the most common branded water purification units range between a few dozen and one hundred dollars. There are a lot of consumers like miss morning who have been paying for electricity repairs. This year's “3/15”, chongqing woodpecker network technology ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “the woodpecker”), has again come to light at a cost of up to $659 for the plastic machine for the washing machine purchased by the maintenance master at $91; and about $20 for the repair of the gas stoves and firearms, up to $250。
“today's group meeting, i'm saying that the pecker is a warning.” on march 17th, the head of the after-sales service at an electronics firm, wu zhong, told the first financial journalist that the supervision process could be improved by using software tools to allow service masters to upload short videos, images of old parts and new items about the situation before and after the repair of household electricity on an instant basis。
According to wu, as people's standard of living improves and the number of appliances in their homes increases, china's market for after-sale electricity services is growing rapidly. In 2023, the domestic electricity-cleaning market alone was over tens of billions of yuan, increasing at an annual rate of about 10-15 per cent. In recent years, the e-services online platform has emerged as a spring, but it is not well. The future healthy development of the industry requires a normative and industrialization process。
In hunan, the villagers installed air conditioning at their homes. Xinhua information map
Platform oversight gaps
Li ming, the master of the water purification service, told the first financial reporter that in the last two years, the electric power company he served had strict controls over the charging of excessive fees, and that service personnel were blacklisted if they were to be charged. The enterprise requested that the rates for each component be specified and that the service personnel not be allowed to make random prices. Consumers may also call for advice or complaints if they object。
Li ming stated that if he were to maintain it, he would have taken photographs of the old parts and the new ones, and the company would show the price on the online platform of the serviceer, at which the consumer would pay an additional fee of $50. In contrast, woodpeckers charge higher fees, some as high as $100-150。
Why is it that wood-pecking birds' home electricity maintenance services, “lightly overhauled” and expensive, have been exposed a few years ago, and consumers have repeatedly “plugged”. According to wu, the competitive and mixed domestic electricity industry, some enterprises are unable to provide after-sales services and consumers are unable to find a manufacturer and find online service platforms。
Woodpeckers have grown rapidly over the years, with a nationwide network of after-sales services. U-lang has also seen ads for woodpeckers in small lifts in the capital city of east china. U-lang's electric power company also tried to work with woodpeckers, which was approached last year but was not negotiated. He believed that because of the high price of the woodpecker, it worked less with the business, mainly on orders from sporadic customers。
In wu's view, woodpeckers, in cooperation with large domestic power companies, are more constrained in terms of fees and regulations for services. Owing to the high number and lack of controls, service providers on the woodpecker platform are prone to indiscriminate charges。
“more than half of the company's current after-sale services are provided by contracted service providers, with the remainder working with online platforms.” wu jian said they asked the service masters to upload short videos about the situation before and after the house electricity repair, as well as pictures of old and new parts. Users can see the rates on the online system and the work orders are settled when the product is fixed and the user's signature is confirmed. In addition, they have a helpline to visit clients and strengthen supervision within 24 hours of completion of work orders。
“the phenomenon of excessive charges for services after the sale of electricity in the home is a pain that cannot be solved by all producers and businesses alone.” according to one regional power chain manager in the south, the main reason is that customers do not understand and that information is asymmetric. For example, service providers say that a component is broken, but it is not broken, but the customer does not understand it, so that service providers are easily “income-generating”。
Following the exposure, woodpeckers issued a clean-up commitment on 16 march, acknowledging that, in the pursuit of scale expansion, mismanagement had led to problems such as non-transparency in fees, misdirections of training, confusion in service processes, and exposure to “training-set charges” and “assembly-filled parts”, which seriously undermined user trust and exposed the platform's serious gaps in management mechanisms。
Conflict in the distribution of benefits
According to the information received, chongqing woodpecker network technology ltd. Was established in december 2014 with a registered capital of 2. 489 million yuan. The legal representative is the kingdom wai, whose industry is the maintenance of domestic appliances. In 2023, 900 employees worked and earned 1,011 million yuan in business, with shares of 27. 549 per cent and 21. 7454 per cent respectively. Woodpeckers applied for ipo in september 2024. Kimmy tianjin, and suzhou industrial park, which had invested in technology, withdrew in january 2024。
In pursuit of growth in performance and entry on the market, woodpeckers even require higher fees from maintenance staff. The maintenance staff would be criticized by the company's superiors for the low price offered, and the company would ask the maintenance staff to raise the fees as much as possible in the course of their service. The bulk of the money is to be split up. Under such a distribution mechanism, the maintenance master would not earn any money if he did not conceal the facts and charge fees, and even lose the job because of poor performance。
Li ming told me that wood peckers are online platforms, that maintenance service staff are required to take orders on the platforms, that they need to pay a deposit and that they need to be familiar with the maintenance of three or four appliances to do better. Some masters are registered on multiple after-sale service platforms, and orders are placed on any platform with high returns。
“it is difficult to earn money now that the standard of fees paid by domestic electric power enterprises for maintenance services is declining.” li ming, for example, could have raised 20 per cent of the revenue from a new core, and now only 10 per cent; the installation fee for a water purification unit, which was $70-80 more than 10 years ago, is now about $20-30. His social security is paid for by the maintenance service company in which he is located, and the household electricity enterprise is not responsible. Moreover, domestic electric companies require the order to be completed 24 hours after delivery, and there are restrictions on the cancellation rate of consumer orders。
At present, there are a large number of domestic enterprises offering after-sale services, either rapidly rising or falling. According to u. S. U., the woodpeckers have been growing faster in the last two years, in addition to u. S. S. U. Retailers such as jingdong and suning, service providers or service brands under the banners of domestic electric producers such as hair sunsung, viancada, rainbow express, winners and red carpets, as well as domestic dress and lantern service providers such as luban to his home and many craftsmen, are expanding after-sales services。
“on the one hand, there is increased competition in the domestic electricity market, and on the other hand, domestic electricity producers want to reduce efficiency gains, both by reducing inputs and by having a good reputation, while on the other hand, after the sale of household electricity, repairers want to earn more and earn more.” according to wu, this appears to be a contradiction, with his business requiring after-sale costs not to exceed 8 per cent of income, usually at 5 per cent, up to 3 per cent of quality。
Wu lian believes that domestic electric companies are searching for new solutions and are trying to make services competitive and to harness user resources. They encouraged maintenance staff to market other appliances to users and to obtain a premium from them in the course of their service; to provide incentives to teachers who received credit from users; and to charge maintenance staff a premium of quality based on the level of service。
How to cure the roots
Even so, it is difficult for the domestic electrical maintenance services industry to eliminate the phenomenon of indiscriminate charges. Wu has estimated that china has now reached approximately 70 per cent of the industrial level of electricity after-sales maintenance services, that the network of electricity maintenance services throughout the country has been substantially improved and that high-quality development needs to be advanced, and that there are significant gaps in the regulation of service platforms. At present, electrical enterprises are also required to build their own networks of services, otherwise the timeliness and satisfaction of after-sales services are difficult to improve。
The woodpeckers also provide a “pharmaceutical formula” for their own rehabilitation: full verification of complaints orders and corresponding cost adjustments or compensation; reform of purchase orders price transparency so as to eliminate “pricing after maintenance has been completed”; strengthening of maintenance engineer management so as to avoid misleading rhetoric; full transparency of service processes and introduction of “engineer credit points” systems; restructuring of engineers' income so as to eliminate “many-manufacturing” patterns; and social oversight。
Wu liang believes that it is difficult for a woodpecker to reverse his reputation, and that if it is not completely overhauled, the chinese unpro will be its predecessor. The market for after-sales maintenance in china is still a great opportunity, and the current wave of smart domestic electricity products also requires after-sales services to provide security in order to stimulate real demand, which requires further improvements in national and industry regulations。
According to chen mooteng, a digital life analyst of the economic and social research centre for e-commerce (cesee) of the think-tank network, the disruption of woodpeckers ' home maintenance platforms reveals deep contradictions in the home maintenance industry. The first is the lack of standardization and regulatory lags: household electrical maintenance provides operational space for the platform and the master because of the complexity of the technology, the wide variety of spare parts, and the lack of uniform service standards. In addition, the head platform has a monopoly on pricing power through traffic, which has become a model of crowding down teachers' profits, creating a vicious circle of “platform-smoking-master fraud-consumer victimization”。
Chen moo-teng stated that consumers often faced many problems and challenges in the current market for household maintenance, such as “sick-leave-free repairs” and “high maintenance prices” and “unknown fees”. These problems not only violate the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, but also seriously disrupt the market order and hinder the healthy development of the maintenance industry。
“the problem with woodpeckers' home maintenance platforms is only the tip of the iceberg.” chen teng suggested that, in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, the relevant sectors should continuously strengthen the regulation of the market; at the same time, the platform should strengthen its own management, improve the quality of its services and implement its social responsibilities effectively; and consumers needed to keep their eyes open and be vigilant。
In the view of the assistant professor, tanyu, shenyang university of industry, the incidence of wood-pecking birds has revealed systemic gaps in such platforms in terms of responsibilities, regulation, business behaviour, etc., which need to be addressed from the legislative, judicial and executive perspectives in order to protect consumers ' legitimate rights and interests to the greatest extent possible。
“a substantial compensation mechanism is required to address the excessive cost of services after the sale of household electricity. Without institutional and legal support, it is difficult to solve this problem once and for all by domestic electricity production and retail enterprises alone.” the head of the electricity chain in the above-mentioned area suggested that, if after-sale service providers made a false attempt to take more money from the customers, the firms and personnel concerned would have to be returned to the customers at 10 times the price established by the complaint, and if the state introduced the relevant regulations, the service providers and service providers would be deterred。
"oh lian and lee ming"
