The author | Xu Kuntao
Edit | Jing Pot
On December 12, Mr. Pang test drove to the G3i at the Chengdu Shihao Plaza Experience Center, and learned from the sales staff of the outlet that the new G3i needs to wait 11 to 12 weeks, and there are currently channels to get the exhibition car, which can be delivered in advance to the 25th, because it is an exhibition car, and the merchant also promised to use three percent of the rebate as "compensation".
At 11:00 p.m. on the day of the car viewing (12th), Xiaopeng Sales of Shihao Plaza shop called and confirmed the purchase intention to Mr. Pang again. Because he could deliver the car in advance, Mr. Pang was moved to pay a deposit of 5,000 yuan in advance that night.
The next day (13th), Mr. Pang went to the store to sign the contract and confirmed the delivery time to the sales again. The other party promised that around the 25th, the car could be sent from Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and transported to Chengdu within 3 days.
By the 27th, Mr. Pang's order information remained unchanged. Finding himself hit by the cat that Xiaopeng was selling, Mr. Pang hurriedly called to inquire, but was rejected several times. Then ran to the store to inquire about the situation, and the sales refused to recognize the previous verbal promise, saying that there were no cars in the past few days.
"There is no evidence, you can go to sue", turning his face to verbally push the delivery time to February, in desperation, Mr. Pang decided to unsubscribe, but the sales said, "Only the store manager can sign the unsubscribe contract." ”
Mr. Pang asked where the store manager was? One said in Shanghai, the other said in Guangzhou, and the two salesmen in the store each had a set of prevarications.
Mr. Pang called the 12315 service hotline, but due to the lack of evidence, he could not prove the "delivery commitment" of the previous sales staff, and did not receive effective help. So he refused to leave the store, hoping to get a definite answer, and urged the sales staff to either hand over the car or refund the deposit.
Xiaopeng sales staff saw the situation and reported to the police, hoping to drive away Mr. Pang. After several rounds of verbal clashes, it seems that under pressure, the store manager finally came forward and approved the refund process.
A week after the incident, TechWeb called Xiaopeng Chengdu Shihao Plaza store, and the other party directly denied the sale of exhibition cars. The Chengdu Daci Temple and Chengdu Airport Store said that there are still exhibition cars available for sale, and the "scheduling" time is much smaller than the new car scheduling period, of which several old G3s can pick up the car within a week, and discount 20,000 yuan on the basis of the original price of 200,000 yuan, but the two stores did not respond to "whether it will delay the delivery of the car".
Mr. Pang's experience is not an isolated case, from November to December, many consumers also paid the deposit under the "inducement" of sales, and fell into the dilemma of long waiting and refusal to cancel.
On the black cat complaint platform, an anonymous user launched a collective lawsuit post called "Xiaopeng Automobile did not deliver according to the prescribed date, seriously delayed for three months" in November, as of press time, 31 users have participated in it, and at present, 2/3 of the complainants have received an official response from Xiaopeng. The post lists five reasons for the prosecution:
1. Xiaopeng Automobile did not deliver the car in accordance with the time specified in the contract.
2. The sales of Xiaopeng Automobile induce consumers to conclude a purchase contract by "shortening the delivery time".
3. Xiaopeng Automobile is suspected of using the standard contract to exempt itself from liability, and excludes the liability for delaying the delivery of the car in the contract.
4. Xiaopeng Automobile's failure to perform its contractual obligations constitutes a breach of contract.
5. Xiaopeng Automobile is suspected of selectively discriminating against consumers, and the delivery cycle of long-endurance models (670Km) is shorter than other versions.
As we all know, the rapid growth of the new energy market has led to a shortage of power batteries, the automobile market is widespread in the phenomenon of waiting for cars, and consumers who are eager to pick up cars will take the delivery cycle as a very important consideration when choosing a vehicle.
According to the complaint information, Xiaopeng Automobile attracted consumers to enter into a purchase contract with it by releasing the news of a short delivery cycle, but then tried to delay the delivery time without giving any explanation and compensation, and used the wording of the clause to clear the responsibility for delayed delivery, which made the consumer have no room for counterattack.
In desperation, after collecting a number of successful refund cases, Li Xun, the leader of the Xiaopeng Rights Protection Group of more than 400 people, compiled a set of "Xiaopeng "Unsubscribe Strategies", in order to help consumers across the country who were "fooled" by Xiaopeng sales personnel to order and refused to refund the deposit. Subsequently, more than 100 words of "unsubscribe strategy" circulated in the group, the main content is:
I personally went to the store, the phone / WeChat is useless
Find the store manager (only the store manager has permission)
Require the store manager to report a "special unsubscribe"
"Raiders" also states: the store manager will refund within 1-7 days after reporting, and the store manager will find various reasons to delay.
Some group friends added when reprinting: If it is not possible, you can try to contact the local market supervision bureau and solve it together.
In order to urge Xiaopeng to return the 5,000 yuan deposit, consumers took pains. However, the practice of "blocking" the store manager and taking the "special unsubscription" in "Raiders" is not a foolproof solution.
Mr. Feng neither left chat records nor recordings, could not make a reasonable complaint against Xiaopeng sales "promised to shorten the delivery time" of the inducement to sign the order, several times put forward the cancellation request for delay without the permission of the store manager, and then quarreled with the personnel in the Xiaopeng store, the contradiction intensified, and the two sides pushed each other. "A couple of people wanted to push me out." Mr. Feng stumbled during the argument, "and they also took the opportunity to step on it twice." ”
"You don't want a deposit of 5,000," Xiaopeng Auto sales then threatened, "if you go to the store again, you will fight."
As of press time, Mr. Feng has not returned the deposit.
Figure | Chat history presented to TechWeb by three unsubscribed owners
Weakening the direct operation model, authorized stores "derailed"
Industry insiders believe that there are traces of Xiaopeng sales chaos.
A new energy vehicle practitioner told TechWeb that a large number of car returns and contract disputes in the sales link of Xiaopeng Automobile are directly related to its "new retail" system.
"The essence of Xiaopeng's new retail is to combine direct sales and authorized stores, although this can be rapidly expanded, but it can neither reduce input costs, nor can it unify services like direct stores."
According to early public information, In order to rapidly increase the number of stores and "compete" with other brands for licensors, Xiaopeng gave a relatively low threshold of "joining" conditions.
However, the model revealed serious problems shortly after landing. In July 2019, Xiaopeng Automobile's first model G3 iteration, the new car has a longer endurance and higher cost performance. However, for unknown reasons, some sales staff denied the change before the release of the new car, which caused many consumers to return the car after ordering the old model.
Another employee of a new energy vehicle company believes that such a "forced order" motivation is likely to come from the performance requirements of car companies for "franchisees": if the sales target is not reached, money will be deducted, and there will be a bonus if the target is reached. Pressure is passed on to management, and they will "turn a blind eye" to the outrageous behavior of grassroots sales.
However, Xiaopeng Fang does not seem to be aware of the current situation of downstream sales. On January 6, Dai Bo, deputy general manager of Xiaopeng Automobile Market, told TechWeb that no third-party sales "forced orders" have been found at present, and if the information is verified correctly, it will immediately seek a solution to eliminate such incidents.
It is worth noting that despite the frequent sales routines, Xiaopeng Automobile will not bear any legal responsibility for the sale.
Guo Zhihao, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke Law Firm, told TechWeb that the act of selling should be regarded as the behavior of the automobile sales company, and the customer can request the sales company to cash in based on the recording and WeChat screenshot. For consumers, if there is a serious fraudulent description of the content of the sales dictation and the consumer is deliberately misled when signing the contract, they can claim a refund of one and a loss of three. However, the above legal liabilities will be borne by third-party sales companies and have nothing to do with car companies.
Separating the main body of sales and production responsibilities, Xiaopeng avoids operational risks through the company framework.
According to the data, in the third quarter of 2021, the number of Xiaopeng sales stores increased sharply from 200 to 271, an increase of 35% in a single quarter, including 167 directly operated stores and 104 authorized stores.
The unusual growth rate can't help but be associated with the recent concentrated "derailed" sales practices. Uneven marketing management is tearing the trust bond between brands and users.
The data shows that the growth of the number of stores has greatly promoted its sales. Xiaopeng Automobile delivered 16,000 vehicles in December 2021, an increase of 181% year-on-year, surpassing 15,613 units in November, achieving deliveries of more than 10,000 vehicles for three consecutive months.
However, the large-scale introduction of licensors seems to make Xiaopeng's financial pressure not decrease but increase. According to the financial report of the third quarter of 2021, Xiaopeng's sales cost rose by nearly 50% to 4.9 billion yuan month-on-month, compared with 1.26 billion yuan of research and development expenses in the same period, the former is obviously more dragging down profits, the most direct embodiment is the impact on its gross profit margin, compared with other new car-making forces based on direct operation, Xiaopeng's gross profit margin is 14.4%, lower than Weilai's 20.3% and the ideal 23.3%.
Combined with the chaos of downstream sales, is Xiaopeng "drinking and quenching thirst"? At present, under the double blow of the decline in user experience and the efficiency of capital utilization, its authorized retail model is facing a severe test.
New cars break out frequently, and the car returns to the factory for a week for major repairs
At the same time, several consumers told TechWeb that in addition to delayed delivery, another major motivation for returning cars and unsubscribing is to see a large number of new car quality problems exposed recently.
It is reported that the Xiaopeng P5, a model that was once pinned on rapidly increasing sales, frequently had quality problems during the delivery stage.
Mr. Guo, the first batch of Xiaopeng P5 orderers, said that before and after picking up the car, the mood from expectation to loss to resentment took only one hour.
Mr. Guo told TechWeb that his P5 550P, after full charge, drove 10 kilometers to home, locked the car for an hour and started again, the fault light was on, the vehicle lost power, and could not be moved. After contacting customer service, the P5 that had just been delivered was forced to be overhauled at the original factory and was checked for battery failure. Fortunately, it was not a big problem, and Xiaopeng returned the vehicle the next day.
A Jining P5 rider made a request for a road test vehicle at the time of delivery, but was rejected by the deliverer on the grounds that there was no license plate. After driving 20 kilometers, the P5 tire pressure sensor failed, and the maintenance staff had to remove the BCM module of a P5 test drive in the Jining Experience Center and install it.
Another high-end P5 owner who spent 280,000 yuan to buy found that after the end of the sleep mode, the main driver's seat could not be restored by itself, because it was picked up in a foreign country, so he had to stay in the local hotel and wait for several days of maintenance.
The flagship P7, which has been on the market for nearly two years and accounts for 62% of the total delivery in 2021, is also difficult to overcome the "hurdle" of quality.
Mr. Tao told TechWeb that his long-endurance P7 pick-up car returned to the factory for overhaul in the first week. "At the same time, we encountered a situation where radar and cameras failed, cars and machines frequently crashed, and they could not connect to the Internet."
It is understood that due to the serious failure and the lack of official maintenance points in the city, Mr. Tao had to accept Xiaopeng's proposal to transport the car to Guangzhou for repair, and eventually most of the cost was borne by Xiaopeng Automobile, and a small part of the owner insurance was taken. During the repair process, Mr. Tao and Xiao Pengfang had a conflict and were extremely dissatisfied with the consumer experience. Before the end of the dialogue, Mr. Tao showed the author a customized "rights protection T-shirt" on Taobao, which is planned to be worn at the 2022 auto show and climbed to the roof. Regarding the consequences of rights protection, Mr. Tao said lightly, "Isn't it just five days of detention, it doesn't matter." ”
New energy inner volume aggravated Xiaopeng where to go
Standing on the cusp of the times, Xiaopeng Automobile can be said to be the first batch of vehicle companies to bring the concept of intelligent cars to thousands of households, and take the lead in launching self-developed intelligent functions such as NGP (intelligent navigation assisted driving) and all-scenario in-car voice.
Founder He Xiaopeng also said recently that the "flying cars" of Xiaopeng's companies are becoming more and more perfect. Perhaps because it evokes people's yearning for travel technology in their hearts, Xiaopeng Automobile has countless fans and has won a large number of fans, and its sales have continued to grow rapidly since the first mass-produced car G3 rolled off the production line, becoming a positive force to promote the development of new energy in China.
According to the statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the cumulative sales penetration rate of new energy passenger cars in China increased to 12.7% from January to November. Consumers' acceptance of new energy vehicles is getting higher and higher, and the new energy vehicle market has shifted from policy-driven to market-driven. However, the high growth of new energy vehicle sales has led to a new high in lithium battery prices, battery factories sit on the ground from the ground, and some lithium battery faucets even sign sales guarantees with downstream car factories to be willing to schedule production, which further restricts the profit margins of automakers.
The "inner volume" of the new energy track has also added a lot of pressure to Xiaopeng Automobile. In the past year, not only new cars, but also traditional car companies such as Volkswagen, BYD, and GAC have also made efforts in the pure electric market, and many new models will confront Xiaopeng's current product matrix.
Under multiple pressures, Xiaopeng Automobile had no choice but to exhaust the originally insufficient product advantages in the price war with upstream and downstream. But can these become an excuse for car companies to relax sales supervision and sacrifice the interests of consumers? Obviously, market rules don't allow it, and consumers don't allow it.
He Xiaopeng once said that the market should focus on the masses and sink the market. Nowadays, Xiaopeng Automobile has become a practitioner of this strategy and has achieved good results, and maintaining users, respecting users, and keeping the company sober and maintaining a reverence for the market, I am afraid that it needs a higher awareness.
(The consumers in this article are pseudonyms)