With the continuous improvement of living standards, cars have gradually entered ordinary households, and consumer complaints about the automotive repair industry are also increasing. The Wuhu Consumer Association recently organized a consumer survey on the automotive repair industry. The results of the consumer survey show that the auto repair industry is plagued by chaos and frequent consumer infringements, making it urgent to strengthen supervision. This survey was conducted by the Wuhu Consumer Association in the form of a questionnaire distributed to consumers, mainly targeting car owners. The purpose of this survey is to comprehensively and truthfully understand the current situation of the automobile repair market in the city, as well as the specific situation of automobile repair costs, automobile parts quality, consumer rights protection channels, administrative law enforcement and supervision efforts, etc., providing reference for further strengthening and improving consumer rights protection work in the automobile repair field.
The phenomenon of consumer infringement is widespread
The survey results show that consumers mainly rely on car 4S stores and various car repair chain stores for car maintenance, but their ability to distinguish the quality of car parts is weak. The overall situation of the automobile repair market in Wuhu City is good, but more than 30% of consumers are still not very satisfied with the automobile repair market, with prominent phenomena such as "minor illnesses are treated by big doctors", parts only being replaced without repair, and cutting corners. When consumers' legitimate rights and interests are infringed upon during the process of repairing cars, half of them choose to negotiate with repair companies to resolve the issue, more than 20% of consumers choose to file complaints with auto parts associations or consumer associations, less than 10% of consumers will take up legal weapons to protect their rights, and nearly 20% of consumers consider themselves unlucky. The data shows that the vast majority of consumers have a strong awareness of safeguarding their rights and interests, making full use of various channels to protect their legitimate rights and interests. There are also a few consumers who choose to settle matters peacefully. All survey respondents expressed that relevant government departments should further strengthen administrative law enforcement and supervision of the automotive repair industry, indicating that consumers have an urgent need to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, and the daily supervision of the automotive repair industry still needs to be strengthened.
There are many issues with auto repair services
Concealing true information, deceiving and misleading consumers. Article 7 of the Consumer Rights Protection Law stipulates that consumers have the right to know the true situation of the goods or services they purchase or use. Consumers have the right to request operators to provide information on the price, origin, producer, purpose, performance, specifications, grade, main ingredients, production date, expiration date, inspection certificate, user manual, after-sales service, or service content, specifications, fees, standards, etc. of the goods when purchasing, using, or receiving services. According to Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the "Punishment Measures for Infringement of Consumer Rights and Interests" of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, operators engaged in the service industry shall not engage in the following behaviors: operators engaged in providing repair, processing, installation, decoration and other services to consumers who falsely report the use of labor materials, intentionally damage or replace parts or materials, use parts or materials that do not meet national quality standards or do not match the agreement, replace parts that do not need to be replaced, or cut corners or charge additional fees, which damages consumer rights and interests. In the investigation, some consumers reported that they had encountered situations such as "minor illnesses caused by big doctors" during car repairs, only replacing parts without repairing them, intentionally extending working hours, cutting corners, selling aftermarket parts as genuine parts, selling repaired parts as new parts, and listing some items that were not repaired. Operators intentionally concealed the true information of products or services, violated consumers' right to know, deceived consumers, misled consumer behavior, and violated the relevant provisions of the Consumer Rights Protection Law and the Punishment Measures for Infringing on Consumer Rights and Interests.
Asymmetric information and inflated maintenance service costs. Due to the lack of professional knowledge in car repair and maintenance among most consumers, information asymmetry has occurred. In addition, car brand 4S stores consider consumers to be out of warranty if they do not maintain their cars in store, resulting in nearly half of consumers still choosing to carry out daily car repair and maintenance at car brand 4S stores, which is also the reason for the high repair and maintenance costs at 4S stores. These behaviors violate the provisions of the Consumer Rights Protection Law and the Regulations on the Responsibility for Repair, Replacement, and Return of Household Automotive Products, infringe on consumers' right to choose, and increase their burden.
Strengthen regulatory enforcement and standardize industry development. During the investigation of the automotive repair industry, over 30% of consumers were not very satisfied with the state of the automotive repair market. All survey respondents believed that the automotive repair market needed government departments to strengthen administrative law enforcement and supervision. Nearly half of consumers believe that consumer associations, auto parts associations, and other organizations should strengthen communication between enterprises and consumers. 20% of consumers believe that enterprises must abide by corporate ethics, be self disciplined and self reliant, and optimize their corporate structure. This indicates that there are still some issues in the automotive repair market, such as insufficient emphasis on safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and non-standard industry development.