In today's e-commerce era, how many steps does it take to buy a computer? The first step is to search for the favorite model and price comparison on the e-commerce platform; the second step is to place an order; the third step is to receive and use the goods. Compared with physical store purchases, online purchases are indeed more convenient, but the invisible form of shopping also hides risks, recently, there are consumers to Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter complaints, their own Jingdong platform to buy the computer and the official version of the brand has obvious differences.
Brand customer service: This version has never been produced
Consumer Ms. Li told reporters that in August 2021, she purchased a laptop computer at a merchant on the JD platform. "I looked at the store page and the product page, which said that the store has the official authorization of the brand, and the words 'original genuine' and other words are noted, and I think there should be no problem."
In November 2021, Ms. Li's family found that the computer frequently restarted, blue screen or crashed during use. After contacting the store customer service, the customer service said that Ms. Li could send the computer to the brand's offline outlets for repair. After the brand offline outlets tested, it was believed that the purchase time of the computer was short but the problem was more serious, so it applied for a new treatment for Ms. Li.
In December 2021, after Ms. Li took back the new machine from the brand outlets, she found that the parameters of the new machine were different from the parameters of the computer sent for repair, ms. Li purchased 1T of computer memory, but the new computer memory replaced by the outlet was 512G. With doubts, Ms. Li consulted the brand customer service, and under the guidance of the customer service, she inquired about the serial number of the broken computer, and Ms. Li found that the computer model she bought in Jingdong did not match the official version of the brand.
"This computer only has a 512G configuration, and the official version of 1T memory has never been produced." Brand customer service told Ms. Li that the reason why her previous computer had frequent restarts, blue screens or crashes was because the computer's hard disk had been replaced and there were compatibility problems with other accessories.
Ms. Li noticed that she had originally purchased the so-called "customized" computer in the store, and the store would only ship to consumers after disassembling the computer, but the relevant instructions of the store for the customized model were placed at the bottom of the product page, which was not conspicuous, and Ms. Li did not pay attention to it when purchasing.
The concept of customized models is vague, and it takes 5 months to refund rights
Subsequently, Ms. Li contacted customer service to protect her rights, and the price of the 1T version of the computer modified by the store was 7699 yuan, while the official 512G genuine computer was only 6299 yuan, and Ms. Li hoped that the store could refund the difference. Because he could not reach an agreement with the store, he applied for JD customer service intervention.
Jingdong customer service said that Ms. Li purchased a customized computer in the store, and she must comply with the store's regulations for customized computers, such as replacing accessories by default, not going to official outlets for maintenance, and so on. And the brand official has replaced the new machine for her, which is equivalent to the brand tacitly acknowledging that this customized computer is genuine and legal, so it is only willing to compensate 500 yuan for the voucher.
Ms. Li believes that when she purchased it, she did not know that this was a custom computer, and the so-called customized model of the store itself is a very vague concept, and consumers can only know that the spare parts in the original machine have been replaced, but they cannot understand what parts have been replaced. The reporter also consulted the store customer service, the hardware in the computer was replaced with what brand, what model of hardware, customer service only vaguely said that the parts are big brand genuine, and did not provide specific parameters.
In addition, the store said in the description of the customized model that the customized computer cannot enjoy the brand's official national joint warranty policy, and the store will provide consumers with a two-year warranty. However, when Ms. Li's computer malfunctioned, the customer service did not remind her, but took the initiative to provide the website of the brand service station, suggesting that Ms. Li go to the brand outlets for maintenance.
From the incident in November 2021 to March 2022, after 5 months of rights protection, Ms. Li reached an agreement with the JD platform and the store, Ms. Li returned the computer, and the merchant refunded. "Because the bad computer was taken back by the brand, they asked me to return this new computer, and I don't know what the store will do when the computer is returned." Ms. Lee said.
Lawyer: Consumers' right to know and choose cannot be infringed
In fact, on the issue of rights protection encountered by customized computers, Ms. Li is not the first person. The reporter's inquiry found that many stores will modify and sell the brand computer, but most of the specific parameters of the reloaded parts will not inform consumers. The reporter randomly selected 10 shops that modified the computer to inquire, and only two informed the specific parameters of the newly installed parts.
"The risk of modifying machines sold online is very high, open the original packaging, who dares to guarantee that some unscrupulous merchants do not replace the contents of it?" For example, the memory stick for you to change, the hard disk for you to change, what brand of the new solid hard disk, what material, service life, etc., these things are difficult for consumers to know, after all, the computer back shell is a cover, the store said what is what. Mr. Yu, the owner of a computer repair shop in Changsha, told reporters that disassembling and installing computers may also cause scratches and damage to the new computer.
In addition, most brands of the computer joint guarantee policy have provisions, if it is man-made damage will not be warranted, the reporter consulted a number of brands of computer offline outlets, the staff of the outlets said that the disassembled computer will affect the implementation of the brand warranty policy, the specific also depends on the damage of the computer to judge. And this point, many modification stores will not directly remind consumers.
Lawyers said that consumers often decide whether to buy products because of the relevant configuration of the products. If the product does not match the advertisement, it violates the consumer's right to know and choose. Consumers have the right to submit compensation claims to the store, and if the negotiation fails, consumers can complain to the platform, consumer association and other relevant parties and request to intervene in mediation.
The reporter reminded that consumers try to buy through official channels when purchasing computers, if there is a demand for customized computers, they need to carefully read the relevant instructions of the product, and reach an agreement with the seller on accessories, after-sales and other issues.
Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Shen Xiaoyi