In 2006, ms. Chen of beijing spent 10,000 dollars on a 37-inch lcd television, and less than two years later the lcd screen went down. As the television has passed its one-year cut-off period, the manufacturer has asked ms. Chen to pay $10,000 for the change of screen and the current market price for the same-size product does not exceed $10,000. “the lcd screen is fully serviceable with current technology, but many manufacturers tend to replace after-sales services.” according to industry sources。
A sample survey of domestic flat-screen television was conducted in 50 towns across the country by the department of state's research and development centre's group on home power and the national research network's market research centre. As a result, with the rapid increase in the rate of flat-screen television complaints, it is expected that tablet maintenance standards will be available as soon as possible。
The flat-screen television complaints are rising rapidly
The proliferation of flat-screen television sales has been accompanied by a rapid rise in the number of complaints. Recently, the china electronic chamber of commerce and the china national electricity market joint research and study group published the first-quarter report of the survey on the situation of consumer demand in the cities of chinese palette television in the first quarter of 2008. The report states that in the first quarter of 2008, domestic market flat-screen television consumption demand reached 2. 1 million, an increase of 26 per cent over the same period in 2007; 1. 9 million lcd televisions, a 24 per cent increase over the same period; and 100,000 plasma televisions, a 98 per cent increase over the same period。
According to the survey conducted by the department of state's research and development centre, the rate of complaints from flat-screen television has tripled in the first two months of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007. The rate of complaints from imported brand-based paints has increased by about three times over the same period, and 65 per cent of respondents have been repeatedly blamed and pushed into the process of after-sales of tablet television。
According to the survey data, in the first two months of 2008, the complaints rate was about three times higher than in the same period last year. The above-mentioned complaints focused on three main issues, namely, the poor quality of tablet spare parts, the slow response of services and the particularly high cost of maintenance, with 87 per cent of respondents finding the level of foreign-owned tablet services poor and the quality of products becoming a concern for consumers, in addition to after-sale services。
The issue of short life expectancy and high maintenance costs has been present in the products of tablet television since its inception. The problems of poor maintenance services and high maintenance costs have become more common as the flat-screen television market continues to expand over the past two years. Lcd, plasma television is an entirely new technological new product compared to traditional colour electricity, with almost all circuits concentrated on a screen, which alone accounts for 60 to 70 per cent of the total machine cost, and the corresponding maintenance costs are high due to the high cost of materials used on tablet television。
According to the experts concerned, the parts of the television were almost universal in the age of the traditional crt television, and the market supply was not at all problematic. In the era of flat-screen television, individual producers are trying to develop their own research and development, which has led to the production of parts and components for different types of flat-screen television and to a clear lack of uniform regulation among brands。
The tablet maintenance standards are expected to be available within the year
At a recent conference on consumer rights protection, organized by the china national electronics maintenance association, the vice-president of the association, private guo, revealed that the technical guidelines for the installation and maintenance of televisions on a domestic flatboard, currently being developed by the national electronics maintenance association, in collaboration with prominent domestic and foreign producers, had been approved and were expected to be published in the course of the year。
Experts indicated that the installation and after-sale service of tablet television should be a very specialized service, that specialized design, construction must be carried out by specially trained professionals based on customer-specific circumstances and needs, and that a combination of location selection, ventilation and heat conditions, and electricity requirements would need to be considered. However, at present many companies providing flat-screen television transport, installation, commissioning and maintenance are not specialized。
It is known that there are fewer safeguards in national legislation and regulations on flat television. The chinese association of electronic video industries organized an implementation opinion on the after-sale service of tablet television, which was officially implemented on 1 december 2007 and became the first three packages of the after-sale industry in china. Its main components are: a single year for plasma television, two years for main components (show screen, screen driver, screen logic component); a one year for lcd, two years for main components (show screen, screen logic component, screen backlight component); and a seven-day period for plasma and lcd products when quality problems arise, and 15 days for replacement. However, the implementation opinion remains a self-regulatory standard for the industry and has not yet been elevated to a national standard and is not a normative legal document。
Post-sale service levels are key
Industry has indicated that, in addition to technological upgrading, the most critical way to achieve a new breakthrough in the tablet television industry is to improve completely the level of after-sales services. This is because the high rate of complaints and maintenance costs of tablet television discourage some potential buyers and expose the flatboard television industry to a crisis of confidence。
The experts also indicated that, while the market for tablet television in our country is now developing at a rapid pace, it will hurt the very foundations of the flatboard industry as a result of the disruptions in the market for services after tablet sales, in particular the contraction of water services by companies for their own self-interest, the lack of protection of consumers ' rights and interests. If this situation is not reversed as soon as possible, the bright future of the tablet market can only be beautiful soap bubbles。
