Elephant News reporter Tang Lei
Mr. Liu, a citizen of Zhoukou, recently encountered an annoyance, the new car he bought in December 2023 almost became a "soaked" car because of the modification of the car audio speaker. Merchants, platforms and offline modification shops that sell car audio are unwilling to take responsibility, so Mr. Liu has no choice but to send a request for help to Elephant News and Elephant Gang.
"I bought a Toyota CHR, which was licensed at the end of December 2023, and now I have only driven more than 2,000 kilometers. On April 12 this year, I bought a 4-door 6-speaker and DSP modification kit for 4,000 yuan at a JBL car flagship store through an e-commerce platform, and wanted to upgrade the configuration. Mr. Liu said that he had asked many times whether it was a non-destructive installation before purchasing, and only after receiving a positive answer from the merchant's customer service did Mr. Liu place an order, and paid an additional 380 yuan for offline installation.
On April 16, after receiving the audio purchased online, Mr. Liu went to the bel canto car audio store cooperated by Renhe Road merchants in Chuanhui District, Zhoukou City for installation. During the installation process, Mr. Liu found that the horn needed to be punched in the body, which was not the non-destructive installation promised by the previous merchant. "I asked the merchant at the time, and they said no problem. But after the installation, I found that the car machine had a splash screen and a blurred screen, and the merchant still insisted that the installation was no problem. On April 20, when Mr. Liu washed his car, he found that there was water seepage from the inside out in the gaps of the four doors, so he drove the car to a local 4S store for testing.
"After the 4S shop tested to me, it was said that the reason for the water seepage was because when the car audio was installed, there was no hole in the reserved 'hole vacancy', and the maintenance plan given was to replace the assembly of the four doors, and listed a maintenance list of nearly 20,000 yuan. Mr. Liu told reporters that if this problem is not dealt with, there will be safety hazards in the rain, and the vehicle will be regarded as a soaking car when it is repaired and sold in the future.
Mr. Liu, who had just bought a quasi-new car for 4 months, saw that it was going to be turned into a soaking water truck, "I contacted the merchant, and the merchant said that it was the responsibility of the installation and asked me to find an installation store." I looked for an installation store, and they said that it was carried out according to the process of the store, and asked me to find a merchant. Mr. Liu applied for arbitration on the e-commerce platform, "The platform told me that I could only refund the cost of the speaker product, and if the merchant wanted to compensate for the loss caused by the installation of the vehicle, there must be a legal judgment." ”
Liang Xinglu, a lawyer at Beijing Zhonglun W&D (Zhengzhou) Law Firm, believes that this case is a contract dispute, and one party to the contract is Mr. Liu, because the offline store is designated by the online store, so the other party to the contract is the online store and the offline store, so Mr. Liu can sue the online store and the offline store at the same time and demand that the other party bear the liability for compensation. At the same time, according to Article 44 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, if a consumer purchases goods or receives services through an online trading platform, and his or her legitimate rights and interests are harmed, he or she may claim compensation from the seller or service provider. Where an online trading platform provider is unable to provide the real name, address, and effective contact information of the seller or service provider, consumers may also demand compensation from the online trading platform provider; After the online trading platform provider compensates, it has the right to recover from the seller or service provider. Where an online trading platform provider clearly knows or should know that a seller or service provider is using its platform to infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of consumers, but fails to take necessary measures, it bears joint and several liability with the seller or service provider in accordance with law. Therefore, if the above-mentioned circumstances exist on the e-commerce platform, Mr. Liu can sue the e-commerce platform, the online store and the offline store at the same time.
The reporter responded to Mr. Liu's question to the local 12315, and will continue to pay attention to the follow-up progress.