Dear Mr. Lei, Mr. Lu, friends of Xiaomi Group: Hello! Today, on behalf of myself, as an ordinary Xiaomi user and future Xiaomi electric vehicle owner, I use and accompany the company's products for more than 10 years to ask you for help. On April 9, 2020, I officially ordered a 98-inch TV under Redmi priced at 19999 through Xiaomi, with an order number 5200409269347245 Xiaomi Mall. This is the first time that I have purchased a product with a total price of more than 20,000 yuan on the Xiaomi platform and Xiaomi product series, which is not only a recognition of the previous Xiaomi products and services as a rice fan, but also an affirmation of Xiaomi's first use of domestic TV panels as a digital enthusiast. At the same time, it is also the first batch of seed users nationwide after Xiaomi entered the ultra-large-screen TV track.
Due to the oversized size of the 98-inch TV, it took more than a month from the next order on April 9 to the survey of the site and finally the completion of the installation on May 13. For the smooth installation of the TV, I agreed with Xiaomi to help me find a crane and carry out the lifting operation 40 meters above the ground at my own expense of more than 2,500 yuan. The above shocking photos quickly sparked heated discussions after sharing them through social networks, and Mr. Lei, Mr. Lu's Weibo all affirmed my action in the form of forwarding Weibo, and Mr. Lei's Weibo evaluation at the time was: Buy 98 inches, you can't keep a low profile.
My friends in the media public relations circle, investment circle, and boss circle around me also remember this incident vividly. Because the 98-inch TV hoisting operation was too popular on Weibo and Douyin platforms, the follow-up Xiaomi Group classmates followed up and found me and asked if I was willing to authorize the provision of photos of the process of this operation as a follow-up use of Xiaomi. Based on the affirmation of Xiaomi and the trust of Mr. Lei and Mr. Lu, I readily agreed to all requests from Xiaomi for the use of the above photos for promotion. From ordering Redmi98, to hoisting and installation, to Xiaomi's authorized use of photos, the whole process is my voluntary and spontaneous behavior, and the subsequent official promotion content has not had any form of cooperation with me, completely based on the enthusiasm of a rice noodles.
At the press conference of Redmi 86-inch TV on May 26, 2020, the photo of the blue sky and white clouds and the crane on the background of Mr. Lu was the hoisting operation from my home. As a crazy rice noodle regardless of the cost of crane broken windows to buy TV, Xiaomi large-screen TV is famous all over the world, and has since become a good story.
However, this is not the end of happiness, but the beginning of trouble. Redmi98 only 38 days after normal use, the failure of regional splash screen and large area dark spots occurred.
In the case of ineffective replacement of the panel, decided to replace the whole machine, the result of 146 days later the same failure occurred again, Xiaomi once again to replace the TV, and only 44 days after the replacement, the TV still had the same problem, when Xiaomi asked for the third replacement was rejected by me, after questioning the product design defect and the request for a refund of one compensation was unsuccessful, I had to find a friend of Xiaomi Beijing headquarters through personal relationships, With the assistance of friends, the manufacturer's engineer team went to Hangzhou for door-to-door inspection and maintenance. But less than 1 year after this repair, the TV still has a large area of dark spot failure, Xiaomi engineers and after-sales received me a total of 5 TV repair reports in the past 3 years, completed two complete replacements, three overhauls of the back panel completely replaced, but the problem still exists.
Although the team of engineers who repaired the after-sales service worked hard, the problem still exists to this day, and when I raised the problem again and it was not solved, Xiaomi after-sales refused to continue to provide after-sales service on the grounds that the product was out of warranty. According to incomplete statistics, the normal state of this TV is only about 55% of the overall time since the purchase. In the process of five repairs and replacements in the past 3 years, Xiaomi refused to recall the whole machine and insisted on replacing the repair. Until the last repair in November 2022, I learned from the mouth of the maintenance engineer that the same problem of the same model is common, and it is not limited to my case. So since then, I decided to put aside the rice noodle mentality and try to defend my rights under China's consumer protection law as an ordinary consumer, and in the process of rights protection, I described to my friend the many situations I encountered when buying Redmi98 TVs, and accidentally found through overseas friends that Xiaomi has obvious differences between China's domestic and overseas markets:
Xiaomi has not appeared in China to recall the official information disclosure announcement of the factory, Xiaomi's official website has never had a suspected recall information announcement column setting, but overseas Xiaomi has a special information reminder column, and regularly publishes relevant information related to products with safety and quality hazards related to the design defects of Xiaomi's products.
For example, the above-mentioned global recall notice of Xiaomi's M365 electric scooter with safety hazards in overseas sales has obvious contrast with the so-called "domestic recall" of the previous 2022 Xiaomi 11 mobile phone with quality problems and only providing replacement panels and extended warranty services in China, which immediately reminded me of Tesla China, which disappointed me before.
In the literal sense, it is indeed a clever after-sales treatment method and ingenious text narrative method compared with the recall method. For small volume, low-tech value-added mobile phones and smart home products in the early years, the cost of manpower and time for engineers to repair is much higher than that for replacement, so for a long time as a rice noodle I have been praised for this service system of Xiaomi. But as Xiaomi's products and technologies gradually move towards the deep water area, more and more high-end product sequences begin to be laid, large-volume, high-tech value-added products enter the market, consumption upgrades of rice noodles and Xiaomi after-sales are inadvertently changed on the demand side - buying high-end serial products of rice noodles hope to get reliable quality, safe and safe quality, Xiaomi after-sales in the provision of convenient services must also consider user needs and realistic cost issues. As Xiaomi, who is about to enter the new energy vehicle track, as a rice fan who holds coins and waits and sees, I can't help but ask Mr. Lei 4 questions:
- When there are design defects, in the face of the advent of Xiaomi's new energy vehicles, which have more parts and complex designs than TVs, and involve travel safety issues, does Xiaomi insist on not recalling, but continue to issue warranty extension and replacement parts notices through Weibo?
- If there is a recall policy in the future, will Xiaomi distinguish between domestic and foreign markets?
- In the future, Xiaomi's after-sales policy for high-end product lines and low-end product lines is different, or will it be treated equally?
- If Xiaomi's after-sales service system for consumer electronics and new energy vehicles is treated equally, will it adhere to the current replacement policy?
Finally, thank you for taking the time to read my letter, although the current situation of rights defense is very difficult, but after suffering and suffering, it may bear fruit, because I firmly believe in the famous saying - "always believe that good things are about to happen".
Looking forward to your reply. A Hangzhou rice noodle attached - Redmi98 rights protection time series:
On June 20, 2020, the first after-sales warranty to Xiaomi 38 days after the completion of the installation, the 98-inch TV had the problem of frequent regional splash screen, and after remote assistance by engineers, software settings and function key operation reset were invalid, after-sales said that it was waiting for the company's material accessories to arrive.
On July 2, 2020, Xiaomi's engineering team carried out the first door-to-door disassembly installation of XI and replaced several panels on the back of the TV. After the power-on test is successful, the after-sales service is completed. Unexpectedly, in the early morning of the next day, the TV set again had a regional splash screen, and after feedback to the after-sales, the after-sales had to report to the leadership.
On July 8, 2020, Xiaomi after-sales informed that the TV would be replaced and told to cancel the maintenance order, and after a few days of confirmation, the familiar crane, familiar onlookers, and the familiar 40-meter broken window operation happened again, only this time compared to the last hot search, the onlookers found that there was also a TV set that was taken away from a height of 40 meters.
On December 1, 2020, the Redmi 98-inch TV that completed the replacement again had a regional splash screen, the difference being that the position of the regional splash screen this time had changed from the bottom left to the bottom right side, and the TV also appeared in multiple black shadow blocks (disappeared after restarting, but will still appear later).
On December 7, 2020, the after-sales conveyed that the application for the second replacement of the 98-inch TV has been approved, and I raised the question of the replacement repair method for the first time, but the after-sales said that the 98-inch is returned for repair, so it can only be repaired by replacement.
On December 25, 2020, the Xiaomi engineer team carried out the second replacement, which is still a lifting operation, and I said that the two replacement and lifting is the limit of my patience with Xiaomi products, and I don't want to have a next one.
On February 7, 2021, the replacement of the 98-inch TV failed again, and a large area of dark spots continued to be distributed and expanded, affecting normal use.
On February 9, 2021, the after-sales service expressed whether to accept the third replacement, but I refused, and proposed two plans at that time: 1. Refund one compensation and three treatment according to consumer insurance, and recover this supernatural TV. 2. In the case of not replacing the machine, the cause of the TV failure must be found and repaired.
On February 22, 2021, the after-sales service conveyed the meaning of the leader: either return or change, the 98-inch TV did not return one compensation three, and door-to-door maintenance. I had to contact a friend at Xiaomi's headquarters in Beijing through my identity as a media person other than an ordinary user, and directly gave point-to-peer feedback to the executives of the Redmi team, putting forward my willingness and determination to solve the problem, hoping to end the torture before the arrival of 315.
On February 24, 2021, the expert team from the Redmi factory in Jiangsu drove hundreds of kilometers to Hangzhou, and the group conducted several hours of testing and inspection at my home. It was not until nearly 6 o'clock that afternoon that the engineer team finally came to a conclusion: the wall bracket installed by the TV had the problem of tilting the installation angle and causing damage, and the engineer returned to normal after replacing the damaged parts and adjusting the wall mount.
On February 2, 2022, I reported to Xiaomi after-sales for the fourth time that the TV was abnormal, and a large area of black shadows appeared, but due to the severe epidemic situation in 2022, my community was locked down shortly after due to confirmed cases, so that door-to-door maintenance was delayed again and again, and I could only endure black spots and wait for the epidemic to improve.
On November 26, 2022, Xiaomi engineers came to the door for the fifth time and replaced the backplane, the engineer said that the previous backplane of this TV was no longer produced, this time the replacement was the latest model, and informed that because my TV has been insured, so this service is a special maintenance, but there is no next time.
On November 30, 2022, I reported to Xiaomi for the fifth time that the black shadow of the TV still exists, but the position has changed, appearing on the upper side of the middle of the TV, but Xiaomi after-sales said that it has given feedback to the leadership, but has not received a reply so far.
As of March 15, 2023, the Redmi 98-inch TV has still not been repaired.