A mobile phone rental platform called Hi Rent has quietly emerged online, "renting" mobile phones to consumers through offline cooperative merchants.
However, according to media reports, some consumers complained that the Hi Rent platform was suspected of inducing minors to rent mobile phones in installments, not only the total rent price after installments was more than double the market price of mobile phones, but also the interest generated after overdue was several times higher than the original value of mobile phones.
According to Tianyan, Chongqing Quhi Rental Technology Co., Ltd., the operator of the Hi Rental Platform, has had hundreds of cases involving disputes over mobile phone lease contracts.
Renting a cell phone is twice as expensive as buying one
The Central Broadcasting Network reported that in November 2020, Yang Xue (pseudonym), who had just turned 16, saw the store advertising "0 down payment, installment payment mobile phone" in a mobile phone store in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, so under the guidance of the store owner, he logged in a software called Hi Rent on the mobile phone, "rented" a mobile phone that was sold for less than 3,000 yuan on the market at the time, thinking that 3,000 yuan was repaid in 12 installments. But when the money was really repaid, it was found that the monthly repayment was 520 yuan, and the total price was more than 6,000 yuan, so after paying the first installment, there was no repayment. After Yang Xue said that after the overdue, the Hi rent platform side had a tough attitude, claiming to sue her in court, and even she received a summons from the court, and finally her family paid the full price of the mobile phone for her and settled with the Hi rent platform.
Yang Xue is not the only one who has encountered the same problem, and the financial network technology has found that there are 657 complaints on the black cat complaint, "luring minors to rent a mobile phone", "telling me when installment mobile phone is no down payment zero interest", "huge high interest is unbearable" and so on have become more consistent complaints.
Li Ming (pseudonym), who complained on the above-mentioned complaint platform, told Caijing Technology that in September 2021, the 17-year-old saw a short video on Kuaishou that he could buy a 0 down payment and buy a mobile phone in installments, and he just happened to have the idea of changing his mobile phone. After coming to the offline store according to the video prompts, he chose an iPhone 11 with a price of 3880 yuan, not brand new, 128G, but when he began to pay back the money in the first month, he found that something was wrong.
Image courtesy of the complainant
Li Ming said that at that time, he told the sales that he would be divided into 6 installments, a total of 3880 yuan, and the sales also gave him an invoice. "After a month, it's time to pay the bill, and then when I go in to see it, it's 12 installments." Li Ming recalled, "The installment display is 12 installments, and the first installment has to repay 566 yuan, plus a total of almost 6,000, which feels cheated." ”
When talking about why the 6th period became 12th issue, whether to ask the sales about the situation and look at the contract carefully, he also said that he was not old at the time and did not understand the contract very well, "At that time, after I signed it, he directly put it away." ”
Similar to Li Ming's situation, Zhang Hua (pseudonym) also saw a short video of installment purchase of mobile phones on Kuaishou, and in a mobile phone store in Dongguan, the installment purchase of Apple's non-brand new mobile phones with a value of more than 3,000 yuan is currently overdue, and Zhang Hua was told by the platform to be sued.
Image from Kuaishou screenshot
Zhang Hua told Caijing Network Technology that he thought that 3800 yuan was the price of the mobile phone agreed with the sales, paid in 12 installments, but did not expect to pay more than 6000 yuan in the end. It is understood that after Zhang Hua began to pay the first installment in May 2021, he has now repaid 7 installments, each period of 540 yuan, but "after I was opened by the factory (terminated the labor contract) in October, I now have no ability to repay the loan, but the customer service there said that no matter what the reason for your money came from, where it came from, you must pay this money back." ”
In addition to the controversy over the "purchase price" of the mobile phone, in the black cat complaint, many consumers said that the interest rate after the overdue period was high. The Central Broadcasting Network reported that some consumers also rented a mobile phone of more than 3,000 yuan on the Hi rental platform, and according to the rent automatically calculated by the system, he had to pay back 490 yuan per month, divided into 12 installments. But he found afterwards that the interest rate after the overdue period became higher and higher, and the cost of overdue has reached more than 6,000 yuan.
When Caijing Network Technology called the Hi Rent customer service to understand how the overdue liquidated damages were calculated, the customer service explained, "The rent payment date on the 12th, but if the rent is not paid on the 13th, there will be liquidated damages every day, and the liquidated damages will be charged according to 0.09% of the total rent per day." According to rough calculations, the annualization of liquidated damages is about 32.8%.
Hi Purchase Response: The customer is fully capable of bearing the monthly rent
Through the complaints on the black cat complaint and media reports, Caijing Network Technology found that the complaints about the rental of mobile phones on the Hi Purchase platform mainly include three points, one is found after rent payment that the total amount of mobile phone rent payment far exceeds the purchase price of the new machine, and the consumer is not aware of it at the time of application; second, if the rent is not paid in time during the lease period, the consumer has to pay a high liquidated damages; third, after the consumer does not pay the rent continuously, the platform will always call the consumer's relatives and friends to "urge" the consumer to repay.
Why is the consumer's original understanding of mobile phone prices and the price calculated after installments so large? With the overdue liquidated damages so high, why do consumers seem unaware of it in advance? Why does the platform handle business with minors, and whether there is any audit omission in the former?
When Caijing Network Technology asked hi rent customer service the above questions as a consumer, the customer service said: The leasing business handled by the platform must be at least 16 years old, and the consumer has a stable job when handling. Customer service also said that the platform will directly contact the customer himself, and then warmly remind consumers to prepare the rent in time and do not overdue. If the rent cannot be paid on the day of payment, the customer can also apply for an extension on the platform, and the current period of each month can be extended for up to 15 days.
When it comes to the zero down payment and installment payment problem mentioned by consumers, Hi Rent customer service emphasizes, "We are a leasing platform, mobile phones in our platform are mainly leased, there is no sale, but after the customer himself pays the rent, our company considers that the mobile phone is a consumable, and will give the mobile phone to the customer himself." In addition, the "Hi Rent Leasing Business Introduction" document provided to the financial network technology also said, "In some mobile phone stores will appear this word, it is understood that the mobile phone store and other staging companies have cooperation, other companies' promotional materials, and our company has nothing to do with our company, our company also has its own conspicuous poster, and will ask customers to watch, after the customer gets the leased items, will also ask customers to take photos at the poster and other behaviors, in order to remind customers again of the nature of our business." ”
At the same time, the rent and liquidated damages that often occur in the complaints of the black cat show that the rent is automatically calculated by the system according to the current market supply and demand relationship of the leased goods, and the rent of each leased item is not necessarily proportional to the original value of the mobile phone at that time. When signing the contract, the customer will clearly inform the customer of the monthly rent of the current leased property and how much money needs to be paid after the expiration of the lease period, and the total amount payable is clear and clear (there is a call recording). In addition, "when the customer signs a lease contract with our company, the liquidated damages are clearly agreed upon by both parties, the purpose is to urge the customer to perform the contract on time, the customer works in the company, has a fixed income every month, the salary is generally about 3000-7000 yuan, it is fully capable of bearing the rent of about 300-600 yuan per month, as long as the customer himself has the willingness to pay the rent, there will be no default." ”
However, the complainants Li Ming and Zhang Hua were previously unemployed, and when communicating with Caijing Technology, they both indicated that they did not carefully look at the contract, and the contract was taken away after signing, and they did not even know that there was an electronic contract in the rent payment App.
Lawyer: If consumers make purchases based on material misunderstandings, the platform is more at fault
"(Hi Rent) is essentially a form of merchant service providing services and consumers paying for rental services, but moving from offline to online." Huang Dazhi, a researcher at Suning Institute of Finance, said when analyzing the business model of Hi Rent to Caijing Technology.
For the problem that consumers in the black cat complaint do not know that they are renting mobile phones when they "buy" mobile phones, and even do not know the high liquidated damages after the overdue, Huang Dazhi believes that on the one hand, consumers are not cautious enough when purchasing this service, and lack a necessary understanding of the service. On the other hand, many offline platforms or third-party platforms, especially offline service personnel, do not indicate that this is a rental business when providing tour guide services for mobile phone rental. For example, the rental service is provided, but when selling or signing the contract, the consumer is deceived that the purchase service has been completed. In addition, the rental platform is also obliged to inform consumers of the price of its products and services, such as in the process of contract signing and service purchase, prompting the necessary terms and conditions, allowing consumers to browse in detail and then sign their names.
"The most important thing is whether the platform and the store have false publicity, misleading consumers to have a major misunderstanding of consumption patterns, and whether they infringe on consumers' right to know." Lawyer Li Min, a senior partner at Shanghai Hansheng Law Firm, told Caijing Technology that the Hi Rent platform does not provide consumers with a direct way to lease themselves, and it seems that consumers must go to offline stores and apply by offline stores. Most consumer complaints mention that the store staff completes the operation on behalf of the store, and the consumer has completed the consumption before fully understanding the service content.
"Regardless of the consumption model, both parties to the contract are undoubtedly consumers and platforms, so the first obligor to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the information should be the consumer, and the first responsible person to undertake the audit obligation should be the platform." Judging from the available information, it seems that the platform has not fully fulfilled its obligation to inform and protect the consumer's right to know in the process of service, so if the consumer consumes based on a major misunderstanding or wrong understanding, the fault of the platform is more obvious. Lawyer Li Min also said.