Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 新 entropy, Author 丨 Yu Matsuba, Editor 丨 月見
On January 20, 2022, SKULLPANDA, one of the five major IPs under Bubble Mart, launched the fifth generation of night city series blind boxes, containing 12 regular models and 1 hidden model, the price of a single blind box is 69 yuan, and the price of the whole set is 828 yuan, of which the sampling probability of the hidden blind box "Night Guardian" is 1/144.
Because it is a blockbuster IP, the Night City series of blind boxes was sold out shortly after the first launch, but when countless players were looking forward to the arrival of the blind boxes, a farce was quietly beginning.
After receiving the blind box, many consumers found that the hidden version of the series "Night Guard" was flawed, and then contacted Bubble Mart to return to the factory for replacement. However, after dozens of consumers sent back the defective blind box, they were refused to exchange the goods by the official customer service on the grounds that they were "inconsistent with the genuine product".
Some consumers said that after the replacement was fruitless, Bubble Mart returned the courier, but found that the returned dolls were inconsistent with the sending, and the boxes and cards were not returned.
On March 11, Bubble Mart staff explained to the media on this matter, "The specific reasons that lead to errors in identification are still being investigated, because it is a hot-selling series, different batches of goods from a number of factories, there may be some subtle differences, the initial problem is due to the time difference between our internal synchronization of information in this regard."
Such a thing is not the first time, Bubble Mart's after-sales, quality control and other issues have made new and old players "heart plug" N times, but there is still no solution.
01、 Blind box return to factory "Rashomon"
The blind box, a "blind" word, points out the meaning of uncertainty within it. However, in the blind box market that is not yet standardized, this "blind" word also shows the meaning of its trading risk.
In the past month or so, many consumers have encountered the situation that SKULLPANDA's fifth-generation hidden model "Night Guardian" was officially told that it was "inconsistent with the genuine product" after returning to the factory, and asked consumers to produce evidence (provide unboxed videos or send back videos).
On the Little Red Book, many players said that the Night Guardian was officially told that it was not genuine after returning to the factory
In fact, in the blind box secondary market, there is an invisible regulation among players to record the video of the unbox when receiving the goods to avoid transaction disputes. However, in the primary market, consumers rarely record out of the box video out of trust in the brand side. In the past two years, due to the frequent problems of packages issued by Bubble Mart officially, a small number of players have also formed a consciousness of the official package recording unboxing video, but this behavior is far from becoming a consensus in the circle.
More importantly, the official Mini Program of Bubble Mart does not prompt consumers to record unboxing videos for after-sales, tmall flagship stores have prompted consumers to provide unboxing videos, but many consumers in the actual rights protection process, found that the unboxing videos they recorded are not recognized by the brand side, and will be told by the brand side to record the six sides of the full express package before opening the box.
There is no prompt in the Mini Program, the official flagship store prompt is vague, and the long-term inaction of Bubble Mart has laid layers of obstacles for consumer rights protection.
When many consumers were unable to prove that the blind box they sent back was officially sent due to the lack of unboxing videos and return videos, things took a turn for the better.
Some consumers said that the customer service did not mention the previous determination that the consumer sent back the fake
The huge change in the official attitude made Li Wei stunned, and after communicating with many blind box players who had the same experience, Li Wei found that things were getting more and more strange.
The "Guardian of the Night" that was questioned and sent back is a consumer of fake goods, and dozens of people have spoken out on social platforms, and the change in official attitude has proved the innocence of consumers. But why there will be a large area of return to the factory blind box is officially questioned as a fake, players have guessed two possibilities.
Li Wei said: "When Bubble Mart customer service called me to tell me that I needed to recall the blind box in my hand, it meant that they had already figured out the problem internally. But without telling us the specific reasons for consumers, we were unjustly wronged once. ”
When the blind box in the hands of the unknown consumers was recalled, the consumers realized what Bubble Mart might be hiding.
"If there is an internal ghost in the employee, it is more likely that the blind box we receive is a fake, which means that Bubble Mart has sold the fake itself." But now that the products in everyone's hands have been recalled, even if they are really sold fake, we have lost the evidence, and we cannot defend our rights according to the false one compensation ten, and can only follow the compensation standards of the defective goods. However, for the current processing results of only replacing the blind box and compensating the voucher, many of us are not satisfied and are still defending our rights. Li Wei added.
By now, the Night Guardian Return Incident has evolved into Rashomon. Unlike Rashomon in the conventional sense, Bubble Mart, which occupies a strong position, has the ability to eliminate all doubts in consumer disputes, while consumers are always in a passive position.
02、 Invisible "black box"
It can be seen from the night guardian return incident that there are certain degrees of defects in the pre-sales service and after-sales service process of Bubble Mart, which in turn leads to the emergence of a "black box" for rights protection, and the cause of the accident in the black box is always difficult for consumers to glimpse.
Blind box players generally believe that Bubble Mart is fully capable of improving the pre-sales and after-sales service process in advance.
First of all, before the consumer purchases, Bubble Mart is fully capable of improving the identification process and returning to the factory standard, informing consumers that they need to shoot an "unboxing video showing the six sides of the box completely" to avoid consumers falling into the dilemma of rights protection.
At present, blind box brands such as Ruolai and Xiangli have done anti-counterfeiting measures such as two-dimensional codes and coding at the bottom of the product, but Bubble Mart, as the industry leader, has never made anti-counterfeiting marks for blind boxes, which not only makes itself and consumers have a dispute over whether the blind box is genuine or not, but also aggravates the chaos in the secondary market.
From left to right, the bottom of the blind box of Ruolai, Looking for unicorns, and Bubble Mart, the first two have anti-counterfeiting marks
But in the past year, more and more "black boxes" have emerged, and they are no longer officially responded to and solved. For example, in 2021, many consumers found that the fukubukull purchased from the official flagship store actually had a QR code of the second-hand blind box trading platform Tide Player attached to the box.
Later, consumers even saw a hanging card with a QR code of the Tide Play family in the official live broadcast room of Bubble Mart. When a consumer questions, it is immediately banned by the authorities.
Consumers found that the official blessing bag of Bubble Mart and the hanging card in the live broadcast room had a two-dimensional code of the tide play family
In terms of return to the factory service, in addition to the recent outbreak of the night guard return incident, for a long time, there have been many consumers are difficult to spy on the "black box".
However, this strange phenomenon of returning to the factory has not received any official response, and the blind box return to the factory usually takes several months to complete. As a result, more and more consumers prefer to sell them quickly at a low price after encountering defective blind boxes, rather than spending energy to return to the factory.
"If these disgusting phenomena in the return to the factory are bubble mart to make consumers retreat and deliberately do it, then it really wins." A veteran blind box player complained on social media.
03, expanding production capacity, is the source of "cat greasy"?
However, the problem of long time and slow return to the factory has a long history, which can only show that Bubble Mart is aware of the relevant situation, but it has always been reluctant to increase the number of spare parts. Because saving production capacity and continuously improving the speed of replenishment and sales are the top priorities of Bubble Mart. This also answers a big myth of bubble mart players for a long time, that is, why blind boxes are often told that there is no spare product after returning to the factory, but online box pumping machines and offline stores have always had whole boxes of replenishment for consumers to continue to draw boxes.
Blind box players observed the side information of the box and found that the two factories that produced the Night City series of blind boxes were located in Haifeng and Shenzhen, codenamed 004 and 006 respectively. The series of blind boxes produced by Haifeng 004 generally has a thicker makeup surface and a smooth body; the makeup surface produced by Shenzhen 006 is light, and the baby body is partial to the fog surface effect.
Comparison of the appearance of the two editions, source: Little Red Book @ Little Milk Pig's growth record
In terms of detail, 004 is generally more refined. For example, the meditator 004 version of the doll's eye sequins are more brighter and more in line with the official renderings, so most players think that the 004 version is better than the 006 version. There are also a few players who think that the 006 version of the doll is softer and more beautiful.
In addition to the obvious differences in appearance, some consumers have found that the 004 version of the doll has better light transmission, and the 006 version is almost completely opaque. Players generally believe that the difference in light transmission indicates that there is a huge difference in the material or process of the two versions of the blind box. Some players speculate that the 004 version of the light transmission is better because this version of the doll is hollow, which is the embodiment of cutting corners.
Comparison of the transmittance of the two versions, source: Little Red Book @ Glorian
Although the 006 version is also loved by some consumers, due to the differences caused by different factories, it still affects the popularity of the doll. Some players have reported that the Dancer version 004 version is obviously more refined than the 006 version. However, due to the 006 version of its appearance, this blind box is classified as a thunder model by the market.
What is even more unpleasant to consumers is that at present, in the secondary market, the price of the same doll 004 version is generally higher than that of the 006 version. Not suffering from unevenness, due to the imbalance added to the secondary market due to the difference in versions, consumers are deeper resentful of Bubble Mart.
The night guardian return incident once again exposed the problems of Bubble Mart in pre-sales and after-sales service, quality control, production capacity, etc., if these problems are not improved for a long time, Bubble Mart may lose its momentum. The current Bubble Mart has fallen into a vicious circle due to the blind pursuit of market size and sales.
"Bubble Mart is in jail for making quick money, leaving players with a bunch of soulless little trash." After this incident, a veteran blind box player left such a "abandoned pit" declaration on social networks.
Note: Li Wei and Xiao Lin are pseudonyms in the text.