Untransparent prices, high fees and lack of standards persist in household electricity maintenance services, placing consumers in a situation of “high-cost maintenance”. In recent days, several consumers have indicated that the material, installation and maintenance costs actually incurred when purchasing household electricity or seeking maintenance services are far higher than anticipated。
A survey of journalists in beijing commercial newspapers found that the “non-standard” properties of household electricity maintenance and information asymmetries had led to a wide gap between consumer expectations and actual charges, and that the reference prices provided by the platform were difficult to actually land. In industry, price wars have reduced maintenance profits, and marketing strategies, such as free installation, have shifted cost pressures to the after-sales, with problems of uneven quality of services and retroactive liability. According to the master, the withdrawal of some of the maintenance platforms could reach 57 per cent。
The “one-size-fits-all” modes of delivery, such as the installation and maintenance of electricity in the home, have always given rise to persistent problems such as the “situation price” for services, such as “situational repairs”. It was suggested that enterprises should establish transparent pricing and accountability mechanisms, introduce a process of “test first, then offer, confirm, re-maintenance”, strengthen feedback on complaints and payback standards, link fee compliance to the teacher's single weight and dismantle the problem from multiple points。
Non-standard service prices are not transparent
Consumer lily (alias) indicated to beijing business press that she had purchased a gas heater for $1898. 9 from an electric power company's official flag shop. However, she was surprised by the costs listed when the master came to install them. “technology costs a total of $366, including pipes, life belts, pipe, etc., and a total of $170 for perforation, which together cost $536.” according to lily, despite the fact that she was reminded that she would charge a certain amount for materials, the cost was higher than lily expected。
It is not a small number of consumers who are astonished to receive after-sale bills. Another consumer, meng jr. (alias), stated that after the refrigerator malfunction, he had placed maintenance on a third-party repair platform at a cost of $98. After a door check, the master claimed that the refrigerator circuit board had been damaged and that the maintenance fee was set at $900. "this maintenance is so expensive that we can get a new refrigerator." little mentan。
Unlike standardized services such as taxis and take-outs, home electrical maintenance is naturally characterized by “non-standard” properties, resulting in non-transparent prices for home electrical maintenance. According to multiple consumer feedback, consumer complaints about the high cost of installation and maintenance of household electricity are partly due to the fact that the cost of information to be provided by the platform or brand prior to sale differs significantly from the actual cost of the final settlement, and consumption expectations show a large gap. Consumers also have difficulty in identifying the size of the failure, and when the maintenance masters say professional terms, consumers do not quickly link the parts to market prices, and household power outages can seriously affect lives, with compromise solutions resulting in most outcomes。
On the other hand, because of the variety of indoor environments in which electricity is installed and maintained, many masters are “free” in pricing, which leads many consumers to question whether the master is speaking out in the lion. In order to regulate services, consumers are given a certain amount of consumption judgement before they are placed on the list, and the platform has tried to give standardized price tables for the maintenance of different household appliances。
These third-party platforms, which provide a blending service for consumers and maintenance masters, do not have the authority to decide even when prices are set. Additional costs may arise from different brands, different installed environments and even from material encountered when the wall is pierced, which also makes it difficult to fully implement the platform's uniform pricing. This gives great “discretion” to teachers who come to the house to repair their electric appliances. Since most consumers are not proficient, masters often exaggerate the costs of the original scores of dollars on the grounds that they are “environmentally complex” “needing specialized support”. Pricing and interpretation are still in the hands of maintenance masters。
For example, if consumers were to repair a 100-l cold refrigerator, the cost of maintenance would be between $98 and $509, involving power and circuit failure, lighting component failure, etc. According to the platform's published price schedule, the led lighting for the 100l frozen refrigeration was valued at $138/platform. In response to a query by a beijing businessman about the price of the maintenance on the grounds that he was repairing the led lights, the master of the platform stated that the price table set by the platform could only serve as a reference and that the specific pricing would be based on the actual situation at the door。
In response, the above-mentioned platform service also indicated that the platform's prices were a reference and that the master would need to come to the door and present a price table based on actual failure. This means that, in reality, uncertainty about the use of auxiliary materials due to differences in size and complexity of the installation environment makes it difficult for a third-party platform to offer a “sip price” like an electrician。
The platform is up to 57%
In other words, in a way similar to a non-standard, offline service scenario such as moving home, the installation and maintenance of electrical appliances also needs to be delivered online to consumers, with greater autonomy in pricing, technical services, but thus more operational space。
A senior brand-holder in electrical maintenance, zhang zhang (alias), informed beijing business correspondents that current market-based organizations for home electricity maintenance include brand-owned repair teams, third-party service providers, and socially dispersed maintenance platforms. Among these, the brands provide delivery services based on the density of urban orders and work with third-party service providers. Head third-party service providers usually contract multiple brands to consolidate resources and increase profit margins。
“board-owned maintenance teams organize training and training materials for new products are disseminated more quickly. At the same time, cooperating third-party service providers are subject to the services test of the branding party, which includes, inter alia, evaluation, complaints, etc.” in contrast, according to the motto, third-party maintenance platforms are subject to relatively small brand constraints。
In addition to the uneven service regulations, beijing business journal journalists have learned that, as a result of many of the repair platforms on the market, the income space of teachers has been reduced and, to some extent, high private prices have been raised。
One of the masters (alias) who worked on xiao meng's low-order maintenance platform and who is now free to take orders indicated that this year he had a maintenance order for the platform, with 43 per cent of the base share, which means 57 per cent of the platform's domestic servants。
Master wang further stated that some of the service lines of the platform were priced at fixed prices and that the cost included only one service. However, if users add new services to existing orders on an ad hoc basis, such as a smoker's surface cleaning into a scavenging machine, when the master comes to the door and sees the situation differently from the system's offer, it will essentially add money。
In order to maximize the benefits or not go for free, and under pressure from the platform's high-employer, some of the teachers would have to raise the offer. Exaggeration of the failure, minor illness repair, etc., became a desperate act for some maintenance staff。
“the market price for a simple headlight installation is around $100, and only $50 is certainly reluctant to do it. But because of the platform, the master will certainly report more than $100 because the money is too little.” it is also the reason why many of the masters prefer to make maintenance orders. “many users say that the master is black, and more money is actually made from the platform. Without a platform, however, it is difficult for masters to get orders, and this is difficult to change”。
The information provided by master wang also indicates that the “performance” (i. E., floating retention incentive) rate of the masters on the above platform is 10 per cent, consisting of four categories of indicators, namely 3. 5 per cent, 2. 5 per cent, 1 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, of success rate, entry rate, unit price and user experience. According to master wang, in the past, it was important to have a single price for customers, which was high. Usually, the higher the unit price, the more orders the master will receive thereafter。
"water" in the price-fixing of consumer options for poor information
Although household electricity is a standardized product, installation and maintenance is a non-standard service, and when delivered to families, the environment varies widely, and the contents of the walls within the consumer house, the location of the booths, the size of the room, etc. At the same time, the technical skills, communication skills, responsibility and tools of first-line teachers have a strong influence on consumer experiences。
Lily was deeply touched. New water heaters had to be replaced at home, and since it was not the renovation of the new house, she had experienced problems with uncharted pipes, which had resulted in an additional cost of punching. In addition to the replacement of valves, etc., by gas, she again incurred $440. In other words, together with the $536 previously spent on water heaters, lily spent $976 on this process。
It is a matter of concern that some household brands, when installed and maintained, require consumers to purchase spare parts that are the same brand as the host, on the basis of quality assurance periods. Consumers are also concerned that once spare parts from unofficial sources have been selected, and subsequent problems arise, responsibility for the sale can easily be imposed on themselves, thus often subjecting themselves to the master's arrangements, making it difficult to choose the auxiliary material and claiming warranty rights. "the master told me that if i bought the support, the follow-on water heater would not be counted as a commodity quality guarantee if there was a problem." lily said。
Zhang zhang told journalists in beijing that electrical aids were also a source of income for the maintenance of the platform. “the branded service points usually reserve some spare parts and price them uniformly. In the absence of channels for cooperation with the brand, spare parts may be derived from the dismantling of old machines or from the purchase of electrical platforms, where there is greater profit margin.” the motto indicates。
Ultimately, “one-size-fits-all” delivery models such as the installation and maintenance of electrical appliances, whether consumer complaints about the cost of supporting materials or masters' installation and maintenance, are the result of a lack of professional knowledge among consumers about the internal construction and installation of electrical appliances, such as the difficulty of perforating them and the direction of pipelines, which makes it difficult to judge the validity of a teacher's judgement and offer in the context of information asymmetries and the lack of bargaining power of consumers, which makes it easier to dispute services with teachers。
Price-depressed maintenance profit
From the point of view of the maintenance masters, a number of electricians are in a situation of “twining”: on the one hand, home-market prices were so hot that installation and settlement fees were sorely pressed that there was little room for profit; on the other hand, product technology was so rapid that many years of “handicraft” could not keep pace with changes, and the traditional path to food by technology was so narrow. More crucially, the cost pressure for free installation has shifted to the after-sales team, which has forced the master to “dash” the brand in the course of the service and appears to have a say in the language, while being passive。
According to zhang, the current experience of services in the household electricity maintenance industry is mixed, mainly because of the fact that the brand of household electricity is becoming more and more “rolls” at a price, which can also affect the company's investment in post-sales services, leading to a situation in which maintenance costs are being paid less and services are increasingly demanding. “in previous years, the industry had fallen apart.”
On the other hand, the design of household electricity products is being upgraded in an iterative manner. “the difficulty of repairing and selling is decreasing, the channels for the purchase of spare parts are becoming more and more abundant, and it has become difficult for masters to feed themselves by `technologies'.”。
The master lu, alias, who worked in the maintenance industry, also expressed his approval. According to him, current prices for electricity sales and logistics were “rolls”, resulting in matching the labour costs and the cost of the product itself, even exceeding the cost of the product. The free installation services offered by businesses are in fact “shells out of sheep”, and some businesses are unable to cover the installation costs and may have minimaled the price of their products。
“the business needs to have a group of installation teams, unless the order is large enough to cover the cost, which is so small that it cannot afford to pay.” master lu said。
In response, senior science and technology industrial analyst and founder general ding suggested that enterprises should focus on transparent standardized construction and accountability mechanisms. For example, the process of “test first, then quote later, confirmed, remaintenance” was introduced and evidence of failure was retained, including by video. At the same time, a public “red and black list” of services has been established to link compliance with fees to the single weight assigned to the teacher。
“it is of the utmost importance that enterprises set down clear channels of feedback and compensation criteria for the quality of post-sales services to truly reassure consumers.” major general din said。
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