In the past few years, instead of falling into a price war, sweeping robots have become a category of home appliances that are becoming more and more expensive. This is inseparable from the upgrading and packaging of intelligent product technology.
However, under the general trend of intelligent advancement, the quality problems of sweeping robots have gradually become prominent, which seems to have cast a shadow on the development of the industry. Recently, Consumer Reports has received some complaints about Cloud Whale Robots. The feedback problems are mainly focused on frequent over-warranty failures, abnormal noises, etc.
Approaching 618, can the product reputation of Cloud Whale still support its sales data?
Cloud whale over-insurance frequent failures, maintenance costs scare off consumers
As a loyal user of the original product J1, Mr. Qiao, a consumer, was satisfied with the product experience of Yunjing, but he was troubled by the frequent failures after the product was out of warranty.
He told reporters that the machine broke down just after it was out of warranty, and he sent it back for repair (replacement parts) at his own expense according to the customer service requirements; About 5 months after the repair came back, the same fault occurred in the machine again, and after many times of communication, Yunjing agreed to repair (replace parts) at half price; About 4 months after the second repair, the same problem occurred again with the machine. It is manifested as "the machine cannot be operated, and the app prompts an abnormal magnetic field".
The chat record provided by Mr. Qiao with the after-sales service of Cloud Whale
Due to the refusal of Yunjing to provide maintenance records, Mr. Qiao could not accept the third repair at his own expense. He said that he had replaced the parts twice at his own expense for the same failure, but the product still had problems. It is the responsibility of the cloud whale to provide maintenance records to prove that the defective parts have been replaced.
"I think J1 is very good to use, and recommended it to friends around, but everyone has reported that after the warranty period, the product has failed, and it feels like it is not a coincidence", Mr. Qiao said: "The warranty period of the new parts replaced is only 3 months, and each time it is broken after 3 months, I feel that the maintenance fee is a bottomless pit, I dare not pay for repair, otherwise the price of three repairs is nearly one-third of the purchase price of the product." ”
At present, Mr. Qiao's appeal is that Yunjing will deal with the failure problem free of charge, and extend the warranty period for replacing new parts to half a year.
As the originator of the automatic mop washing category, perhaps because of the lack of enough competing products, the first generation of Yunjing product J1 was sold for more than two years before it was upgraded to J2, mainly adding the "automatic loading and unloading" function. However, this function does not seem to be a "fuel-efficient lamp" either.
Ms. Wang, a consumer, purchased the Yunjing J2 sweeping robot in June 2022 and was one of the first seed users to experience it. In March this year, she found that the automatic water tee equipped with the product was rusted, which caused the water inlet pipe of the relevant connected machine (Yunjing J2 and Panasonic washing machine and dryer) to be invaded by water rust, and the water supply pipe of Cloud Whale J2 was completely blocked by water rust, resulting in the unusability of the Cloud Whale sweeping robot.
Ms. Wang showed the reporter the rust situation
After Ms. Wang gave feedback to Yunjing customer service, the other party blamed the problem on water quality. Ms. Wang adduced evidence that the house was equipped with water purification equipment for the whole house, and there were no traces of rust at the joints of the other water equipment after they were disassembled.
At present, the solution proposed by Cloud Whale is to replace a new three-way water valve. However, Ms. Wang is dissatisfied with this, she believes that Yunjing should face up to the product problem, and the problem with the accessories has affected her other electrical appliances, and compensation should be made; Or return and exchange the whole machine.
Ms. Wang mentioned the experience of using the product that the robot has undergone a replacement treatment due to a failure during the warranty period. Cloud Whale's mop, cleaning liquid and other consumables are overpriced. Moreover, Yunjing stipulates that only special detergents under the brand can be used, which is suspected of malicious market monopoly and increases the cost of use for consumers.
The reporter noticed in the cloud whale mall that the price of the special sterilizing cleaner (930mL) suitable for J2/J3/J4 is 129 yuan, while on the e-commerce platform, the price of 2 liters of sweeping robot cleaners such as well-known brands such as Dettol and Kao is less than 60 yuan.
The reporter searched for more than 1,000 consumer complaints about cloud whales on the black cat complaint. The complaints mainly focus on the quality of consumables, frequent failures, noise and abnormal noises, product damage to floors/tiles, etc.
Black Cat Complaint A complainant complained to reporters that the J2 sweeping robot purchased last year began to make buzzing noises at work this year, affecting daily life. Over a period of more than two months, it went through five repairs and one replacement, but the noise problem was not completely solved.
The market potential is full, and the road to intelligence has a long way to go
With the advent of the concept of smart home, sweeping robots have once again led to a small climax of consumption. According to data from AVC, the retail sales of sweepers in 2023 will be 13.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10%; Retail sales were 4.58 million units, up 4% year-on-year. In comparison, the retail sales of sweeping robots in China in 2022 will be 4.414 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 23.8%. At present, the market penetration rate of sweepers in the European and American markets has reached about 15% in 2021, and the overall annual growth rate has maintained about 20%. The current penetration rate of the Chinese market is about 7%, and there is obvious room for growth.
The leading brands in the market are mainly Ecovacs, Roborock, Dreame and Cloud Whale. These four brands occupy about 80% of the market share with high product unit prices. They are also known as the "CR4 of sweepers". Ecovacs and Roborock were listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in May 2018 and February 2020 respectively, with a market value of over 100 billion yuan at its peak.
Compared with the other three competitors with more complete product lines, Yunjing focuses on two categories: sweeping robots and handheld floor scrubbers, of which the iteration of sweepers is from J1 to J4; The two products of the handheld floor scrubber are the S1 Max and the S1.
Screenshot source: Cloud Whale official website
Zhang Junbin, the founder of Cloud Whale, believes that there are basically five companies left in the competition in the home appliance industry in the end, and the first three eat up 70% to 80% of the market share.
Senior analysts of Aowei cloud network believe that the future product iteration and innovation of the sweeping robot industry is very important in the intelligent competition.
But the embarrassing thing is that at the beginning of this year, Cloud Whale made a big joke on the smart road. The surveillance video in the consumer's home shows that the cloud whale J4 sweeping robot suddenly bit the dog's tail when it was working. In the face of the dog's frightened yelling and trying to get out, the robot did not let go. After checking the surveillance, the consumer had to go home to help the dog get out of trouble. In other words, the latest product of Cloud Whale equipped with obstacle avoidance function, J4, does not recognize the dog's tail.
Consumer Reports sent an interview letter to Yunjing for the situation mentioned in this article, but did not receive a reply as of press time.
Although the sweeping robot has realized the basic cleaning and mopping functions, the current product is still facing many places that require human participation, such as obstacle cards and route planning recognition. Intelligence still has a long way to go for cloud whales.