On the morning of May 15, Red Star Macalline, located in Licheng District, Putian City, Fujian Province, held a meeting, at which it was mentioned that the turmoil in Opai had passed, and there would be new people to take over, and operations would resume in the next few days.
In Liu Xiao's (pseudonym), this is a signal that the new dealer has been negotiated, "because he needs to take the cooperation agreement with Oppai to negotiate the lease with Red Star Macalline, if no cooperation is reached, the lease agreement cannot be signed, and the store will still be closed."
The settlement of the new dealer also means that the "thunder" storm of Putian Opai dealers has entered a new stage, but this does not mean that the problem is completely solved, especially for customers who move in with their bags and complete their homes.
Taking Lu Hua (pseudonym) as an example, after expressing his intention to the relevant personnel of the E-commerce Department of Oppai, his information was assigned to Huang, a distributor in Putian, and signed a contract with him for the whole home, but it was not until the dealer "exploded" that he learned that Huang did not have the authorization of Opai Home, and the relevant basic works were outsourced to a third party, and the money he paid was not remitted to Oppai, but entered a private account.
In this context, the "Lu Huas" became the "hot potato" in the "thunder" incident of the Putian dealers, and no one took over.
Lu Hua was also very aggrieved, he said that he was seeking cooperation with the brand Oppai, and it was also the Opai e-commerce department that diverted himself to the Putian dealer, since this dealer did not have a complete authorization, so why distribute it like this? As for whether the funds have flowed to Oppai in the end, how can customers identify?
With these questions, he ran for half a month and kept filing complaints on Oppai's mini program, but so far he has not received any response. Lu Hua said that he didn't understand, and the problem in the whole incident obviously appeared between Opai and the dealer, but he paid the bill. He asked reporters, "If it's not fraud, what is it?" ”
Dealers "run away"
"I transferred the account on April 17, and he closed the door on May 1 and 'ran away', and he already knew that he couldn't continue to operate, so why did he want us to sign a contract to transfer money?"
In the past half month, Li Lie (pseudonym) has been very anxious. At the beginning of April, because a new house at home needed to be renovated, Li Lie found the Oupai Home Furnishing store of Red Star Macalline, and after paying a deposit of 50,000 yuan on the 12th, he signed a contract on the 17th and paid another 82,000 yuan, totaling about 90% of the total price.
Because it is a hardcover room, Li Lie's order only includes some partial renovation and customized furniture, which belongs to the check-in category. According to the contract, the products were to be delivered on June 5 and installation and commissioning would begin within 7 days.
Talking about the reason for choosing Oppai, Li Lie said that he had previously commissioned Oppai to renovate a house, and the cooperation was very smooth at that time, and the decoration quality and project efficiency were recognized by him.
The foundation of trust was the main reason why he chose Opai again, but this cooperation did not go on. Half a month later, the store "exploded", and it was not only Li Lie who was stunned by this "stuffy stick".
It is understood that the store that Li Lie cooperated with belongs to Huang, a distributor in Putian City. In addition to the store, Huang also has 1 store each in Xiyingmen International Building, Chengxiang District, Putian City, and Wanda Plaza in Xiuyu District, a total of 4 stores. With the rupture of Huang's capital chain, these 4 stores all "exploded", affecting more than 100 customers.
Xu Ying (pseudonym) paid at the Xiyingmen International Building store. In February this year, she placed an order for customized products including Opai cabinets and wardrobes, and paid a total deposit of 60,000 yuan in batches, but the contract has not yet been signed, and the estimated total price is about 90,000 yuan.
When the follow-up communication plan, Xu Ying obviously felt that the designer's work attitude was negative, and the plan had not been able to come out, "one would say that he was going to travel during the holiday, and the other would say that he would move." At the end of April, Xu Ying urged the designer again to make a plan, but was told that he had left, and then she found the store manager, who also said that she was asking for a salary, "I was stunned at that time."
It was at this time that Xu Ying realized that there was a problem with Huang's funds.
From the perspective of employees, the signs of "thunder" have already appeared.
Li Meng (pseudonym) is a salesperson at the Wanda Plaza store in Xiuyu District, and has sold 35 customers in one year. Due to frequent changes in performance requirements, work arrangements, salary structure, etc., she proposed to leave at the end of last year, "many things make me feel that this company is unreliable."
After resigning, Li Meng still had a salary of more than 6,000 yuan that had not been received, and he had been unsuccessful in begging for salary. According to what she said, Huang had cancelled the business license of the Xiuyu store at the end of last month, and she planned to go to court with other employees to sue, but she was also worried that "if Huang declares bankruptcy, will these wages not come back?" ”
In fact, there are not a few people who are owed wages. A person familiar with the matter told the "International Financial News" reporter that Huang's overall arrears were about 1 million yuan, involving thirty or forty people, including some partners, front-line workers, and in-service employees.
Some time ago, a group of employees who were in a state of disengagement found Huang, and he signed a letter of arrears of wages to everyone, promising to settle the wages before May 5, and there was still no follow-up when it expired.
The amount involved is more than 10 million
There are also relatively lucky employees. After the new dealer was settled, some front-line and operating personnel were rehired, and the arrears of wages of these employees were borne by the new dealer, and those who were not rehired needed to contact Huang to deal with it.
In a similar way, new dealers only take over customized customers, i.e., groups that only involve retail products such as cabinets and wardrobes.
Since May 10, many customized customers have received notices from new dealers to continue to perform the contract, but the two parties need to sign an agreement, the specific content of which includes: the contract order will continue to be put into production by Oppai Group, and the new dealer will be responsible for logistics delivery, installation and after-sales; Customers who have paid the deposit but have not signed the contract shall perform the contract according to the original order, and the deposit will not be refunded or transferred; If the delivery or installation of the goods is delayed due to the original dealer, the new dealer shall not be held accountable for the responsibility and claim.
Some people said that they "understand" the agreement, and reported that the day after the agreement was signed, their orders were progressing. There are also doubts that the agreement only exempts new dealers from liability, but does not mention their responsibilities and obligations, and they question whether this is another form of "overlord clause".
Xu Ying has also communicated with the new dealer, and she hopes to sign her own contract at the same time as signing this agreement, so that she will have a clearer understanding of the specific design plan and the total price. It's just that she hasn't received a plan quotation from the new dealer, "In case I sign it, the new dealer gives me a quote of 200,000 yuan, do I have to make up the balance of 140,000 yuan?" ”
On May 15, the reporter contacted the new dealer, and he told the reporter that not long after the "thunder" incident, Oppai had actually sorted out the situation of the customers involved, including retail customization, bag check-in, and home furnishing, and almost all customers' funds were not remitted to Oppai's account.
Considering that Huang does hold the authorization of the retail custom furniture business, Oupai advances funds for such customers, and the executor is a new distributor, the former produces products, and the latter is responsible for logistics and installation.
According to what he said, as of the 15th, except for a few who insisted on refunds, he had processed orders from more than 130 customers, who did not belong to any store, "they all collected money in the hotel outside, and they basically solved it." In addition, Red Star Macalline and Xiyingmen have about 100 customers, which will also be processed in the next few days.
He calculated an account for the reporter, the amount involved in the whole home furnishing sector is more than 2 million yuan, and the money of the construction workers and material suppliers involved in this part of the business has not been paid, including retail customization, the scale of funds has reached 10 million yuan. "I didn't count the bag and move in, this part is related to Lin, the funds are all into his account, this is even more problematic, he didn't authorize it."
A document corroborates the above statements. The original dealer Huang had proposed solutions for different orders, one of which was that for the order of moving in with a bag, the payee was a certain person in Lin's account, and he needed to find the person to understand the payment situation. He and Huang are in a cooperative relationship, and if the customer does not confirm the plan, it means that Lin has not paid Huang to place an order.
Who's customized
For such a way of processing, it is obviously unacceptable for customers who move in with their bags and complete their homes. They said that they did place an order with the Oppai dealer, and the deposit receipt also clearly stated that Guangdong Opai Group, and the mistake in the payment link was not within the scope of customer identification at all.
Another question is that some of the whole customers are partially transferred to Huang through Oppai e-commerce, so since Huang does not have the authorization to complete the home, why does Oppai have to distribute it like this? If it is outsourced, should the obligation to inform be fulfilled?
Lu Hua learned about Oppai's home furnishings through Douyin live broadcast. In September 2023, when he was swiping Douyin, he saw a live broadcast with the ID of "Oppai Whole Home", and left his mobile phone number after clicking in.
In January 2024, Lu Hua paid the first deposit of 60,000 yuan, counting the part of the subsequent financial payment to Huang, totaling 196,000 yuan. Up to now, his house has only made windows and tiles, until Huang "thundered", the workers turned to him to ask for wages, he knew that these basic projects are the third partner found by Huang, "He told me from beginning to end that they belong to the European team, and I also saw that the European school does have a whole business, so I came."
Wei Xiang (pseudonym) has a similar experience to Lu Hua, when he saw an advertisement for Oppai's home furnishings on the WeChat platform, saying that the blank could also be renovated. After communicating with the relevant customer service intentions, his information was also pushed to Huang, a Putian dealer, and it was changed from online to offline.
After the contract was signed, Wei Xiang paid a total of more than 300,000 yuan for the contract, and only the balance of more than 6,000 yuan needed to be paid on the day of delivery, but now the cabinet is only half installed, the floor has not been paved, the paint has not been brushed, and the bathroom has not been done.
After sorting out the whole thing, Wei Xiang clarified his demands, he chose to take a step back, hoping that Oppai could take responsibility for his customized products to the end, "My goods have arrived, and now no one will install them." But the European side seems to have chosen to take the cold approach. Since May 1, Wei Xiang has continued to file complaints to express his demands, and more than ten days have passed, and the complaint work order on the mini program has not received feedback, and no relevant personnel have contacted him.
According to public information, Oppai began to pilot the promotion of the whole home furnishing business model in 2018, and in the business structure of Oppai, the whole is a very important sector, which once said that "the whole home furnishing is one of the important paths for the company to climb to the top of the big home, and the other path is to carry out cooperation with home decoration and complete companies through the retail home furnishing model."
Search for the keyword "Oppai Decoration" on the Douyin platform, and you can see several accounts, including "Oppai Decoration Home", which also introduce the complete customization package, covering construction, base installation, hard decoration and customization.
As for the business model, Oppai directly chooses to carry out agency distribution cooperation with large-scale and well-known home improvement companies in various places to provide drainage and marketing assistance for complete dealers; At the same time, it actively guides traditional retail dealers to carry out various forms of business cooperation with local home improvement and complete decoration channel companies, so as to complete the sales expansion of the local home furnishing market and enhance the overall brand share.
From this point of view, the whole home furnishing involved by Huang belongs to the latter. Regarding this turmoil, as well as the business situation of the whole home, the reporter sent an email to Opai Home Furnishing for verification, but there was no response as of press time.
Why did it "explode"
Another question that everyone is concerned about is why Huang suddenly "exploded".
A number of relevant people told reporters that Huang himself did not have any bad habits, and he was dragged down by Oppai's store expansion requirements, rent, etc., which can also be said to be a loss caused by poor management.
Someone calculated an account for the reporter, the total rent of Red Star Macalline is 80,000 yuan/month, the Xiyingmen store is 60,000 yuan/month, and the Xiuyu District is 20,000 yuan/month, plus the rent of the Hanjiang store without "thunder", this part of the cost is about 2 million yuan a year.
Under the regulations of the three-year renovation of dealer stores in Oupai, Huang's stores have been reinstalled from the second half of 2022 to the first half of 2023. The actual operating area of the four stores in Red Star Macalline, Xiyingmen and Xiuyu District is 2,500 square meters, and the decoration cost per square meter is about 2,500 yuan to 3,000 yuan.
Rent and decoration consumed a lot of cash flow, and at the same time, under the impact of the environment, the store's revenue did not grow, and its own hematopoietic ability could not keep up. These expansions and reinstallations cost nearly 10 million yuan, but the profits are not so high. A person familiar with the matter told reporters that Huang's collapse was due to a misjudgment of the situation.
Liaoning Haicheng dealer Zhao Xiao (pseudonym) also fell here, he admitted that he had gone bankrupt, but did not "run away", he was cooperating with all parties to deal with the situation.
Zhao Xiao told reporters that the regulations on the reconstruction, sample change, and hoarding of dealers have consumed a lot of their own funds, and he said that each reinstallation is once every three years, and the products used are all Oupai, and the two reinstallations cost more than 4 million; The sample change is equivalent to partial reloading, between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan each time, although the amount is not large, but the frequency is very high; Hoarding is out of performance requirements, when the performance is not up to standard, dealers usually choose to hoard goods to complete the performance, "the craziest time, my kind of small county pressure goods have to reach one or two million, and some large business scale can reach the level of 10 million."
Normally, these requirements will be bound to the purchase cost of the dealer, if not cooperated, the purchase cost of the dealer will be raised, "suppose your original purchase price is 5% off, the performance is not up to 6% off, then you will lose money."
The reporter tried to contact Huang for verification, but did not receive a response as of press time.
There are also views in the industry that Oppai does have higher requirements for dealers in terms of performance growth and operation, but the dealers chose to enter the game, which also shows that he accepted these requirements.
At present, the dealers in Daqing, Heilongjiang, Haicheng, Liaoning, Yangxin, Shandong and other places are still dealing with the "thunder" incident. Yao Liangsong, chairman of Opai Home Furnishing, said at the shareholders' meeting on May 15 that he was cooperating with relevant departments to properly deal with the problem of some agents "running away", and he stressed that the number was not much.
However, the knock-on effect of these events is difficult to evaluate quantitatively, and the frequent exposure of "runaway" incidents has affected consumers' trust in Oppai's brand.
A number of consumers who paid were told that "the order has nothing to do with Oppai". Such a reply was unacceptable to them, but their questions were now unanswered.