On the evening of March 15, CCTV’s “3.15” party exposed the issue of Kohler Bathroom installing cameras with facial recognition functions in its bathroom stores to illegally collect facial data. This suspected illegal collection of customer privacy has aroused the concerns of many consumers, and some consumers even proposed to sue Kohler Bathroom. On March 16, after the report was exposed, Kohler Bathroom issued an apology statement through Weibo, stating that it had dismantled the facial information collection equipment overnight.
Recently, during the "3.15" period, many consumers exposed and complained through online platforms, triggering a "rights protection craze." However, not all consumers have the opportunity to expose consumer infringement on a high-profile platform like CCTV and successfully defend their rights, especially in the field of ceramic tile consumption.
Due to low attention, ceramic tiles are not known to many consumers, so disputes over ceramic tile consumption often occur. What should you do when buying bricks to reduce the probability of disputes and rights protection? What issues should we pay attention to? How to safeguard rights? Zhongtaojun classified three types of problems that may be encountered when buying/selling bricks from actual cases, and summarized the inspiration for buying/selling bricks based on the cases for your reference (since there are countless cases of ceramic tile disputes, in order to To avoid being cumbersome, only one or two examples are given below for each type of question).
1
The ceramic tiles have a big color difference and the goods are wrong
Case 1:
In September 2020, Ms. Hu, a citizen, purchased ceramic tiles worth more than 7,000 yuan from a ceramic tile store on Tiangong South Road in Suining City. After receiving the goods, she found that the ceramic tiles received were significantly different from the previously ordered sample ceramic tiles. Ms. Hu said that she purchased two types of tiles for kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. The brand logo and shading of the bedroom tiles were completely different from the predetermined sample tiles, and there were also certain differences in the colors of the two tiles. She went to the merchant and asked to replace the tiles, and the merchant produced quality inspection reports and internal company documents, indicating that the two brands were owned by the same company, and that the different shading patterns were caused by the different molds and batches used to produce the tiles. At the same time, the merchant agreed to return and exchange the tiles, but the goods were not sent upstairs until they were accepted. The cost of returning the tiles must be borne by both parties. However, Ms. Hu believed that the tiles delivered were not the tiles she had ordered, and the merchant should be responsible for the related expenses incurred in returning the tiles. In the end, after mediation by the staff of the Economic Development Branch of Suining Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, the two parties reached a return agreement. The merchant was responsible for finding someone to move the tiles and refunding Ms. Hu in full.
Case 2:
On December 27, 2019, consumer Ms. Li complained to the Quanzhou Consumer Committee that she had taken a fancy to a ceramic tile in the exhibition hall of a brand store in the Xiyingmen International Building Materials Center in Quanzhou City in October. After communicating with the merchant, he ordered 47 tiles of this model and paid 30,100 yuan for the tiles. During the acceptance inspection at the completion site, she discovered that the color of the tiles after laying was too different from the color of the samples displayed in the store at the time. Subsequently, she communicated with the merchant many times about refunds and returns, but the store manager refused her request for refunds and returns on the grounds that there was no color difference and all the tiles had been laid. The Quanzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau stated that merchants cannot cause losses to consumers because of large color differences in ceramic tiles caused by different batches. At the same time, they must inform consumers in advance of the possibility of color differences; and Ms. Li did not check the acceptance clearly when receiving the goods, which also caused certain fault. In the end, the merchant agreed to refund 18,100 yuan and pay 600 yuan for the plastering work. Ms. Li no longer held the merchant accountable, and the two parties reached a settlement.
Inspiration for buying/selling bricks:The disputes in the above two cases were caused by incorrect ceramic tiles, but The processing results are also different due to the different receiving and acceptance steps of consumers. For consumers, when purchasing ceramic tiles, they should pay attention to clearly stating the specifications, performance, price, brand, model and color in the purchase contract; before signing the contract, be sure to confirm the contract content; when receiving the goods, first compare with the agreement , check whether it is the product you selected. If there is any discrepancy in the product, do not sign the receipt to avoid unnecessary losses. For ceramic tile merchants, in order to avoid disputes, merchants should inform consumers in advance that there may be color differences in ceramic tiles, and remind consumers to pay attention to inspection and acceptance.
2
The tiles cracked, hollowed out and fell off after being laid
Case 3:
In November 2019, Ms. Yuan, a citizen, complained to the Tianjin Beichen District Consumers Association, saying that her son bought a certain brand of ceramic tiles worth more than 28,000 yuan at the Red Star Macalline Beichen store in May. After laying them, she found two bathrooms The wall tiles are cracked to varying degrees in large areas. andAfter communicating with the merchant, the other party said that they could compensate four times the price of the cracked wall tiles, a total of 36,000 yuan. Ms. Yuan believes that the total cost of material, labor, and lost time for repurchasing brick paving, as well as the bathroom door, electrical appliances that need to be reinstalled, and other unknown losses caused by smashing the wall add up to 230,000 yuan. She disagrees with the merchant's statement. Process the results. In the end, after mediation, the merchant compensated Ms. Yuan for a total of 80,000 yuan in one-time compensation for various losses, and the two parties reached a settlement.
Inspiration for buying/selling bricks:According to the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 23 of the "Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law", in addition to providing qualified products, dealers Except for the certificate, if no evidence can be provided to prove that the cracking of the product is not caused by product quality, the manufacturer shall bear all losses caused thereby. Therefore, in the above three cases, the ceramic tile merchants ultimately compensated consumers for their losses. However, there are many reasons for cracking and hollowing of ceramic tiles, including ceramic tile quality and construction methods. Therefore, after purchasing ceramic tiles, consumers should ask professional pavers to lay and decorate them. After completion, they should carefully check the quality of the project to avoid subsequent problems.
3
Tile service issues
Case 4:
In January 2020, Ms. Meng complained to the Hebei District Consumers Association that she spent 25,000 yuan to buy a certain brand of ceramic tiles at the Jinxiu Tenglong Decoration Materials Sales Center in Hebei District, Tianjin, Beishu Decoration City, and the merchant promised to deliver it to her door. If the number of tiles is too large, the quantity of tiles will be refunded or replenished. However, after the paving, the two parties had a dispute over the refund of the remaining tiles: the original purchaseAt that time, the two parties did not make a clear agreement on the return matter, and only verbally expressed it. Afterwards, the merchant did not agree to refund the remaining tiles. In the end, after mediation by the staff of the Hebei District Consumers Association, the merchant agreed to provide free shipping returns for the remaining portion of the ceramic tiles purchased by Ms. Meng.
Case 5:
In November 2020, due to renovation needs, Mr. Bai bought a batch of ceramic tiles from a ceramics store in Mawangdui Ceramic City, Furong District. At the same time, he provided the merchant with a detailed drawing of the ceramic tile processing technology and size requirements. After confirming the order, he immediately transferred the payment and processing fee of more than 7,000 yuan to the merchant via WeChat. But after receiving the goods, he and the construction staff found that the tiles had been cut at the outer corners, which was completely inconsistent with the size he requested and could not be used. He contacted the store salesperson to negotiate, but to no avail, so he asked Changsha City’s “12345” for help. After verification, the Furong District Mars Market Supervision and Management Office issued a "Mediation Proposal": According to the drawings confirmed by both parties, the operator misunderstood the drawings and failed to communicate with the complainant, resulting in the product not meeting the delivery requirements. According to the "Consumer According to Paragraph 2 of Article 8 of the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests, the operator shall refund the purchase price and the complainant shall return all the products. However, the merchant did not agree with the mediation proposal: Mr. Bai's processing fee was paid to the processing factory, and we acted as an agent and did not charge a service fee. Mr. Bai should be held responsible for his own mistakes in processing dimensions, and we will not compensate him. Regarding Mr. Bai's situation, the lawyer believes that if the merchant's salesperson misunderstands the drawings and causes "misprocessing", Mr. Bai can claim compensation from the merchant.
Inspiration for buying bricks/selling bricks: Oral promises have legal effect. Therefore, the merchant in Case 5 should fulfill the promise for consumption. or returns. Consumers should try their best to implement verbal after-sales service commitments from merchants in written words, which will help protect their rights when after-sales service disputes arise. For ceramic tile merchants, do not arbitrarily promise services that consumers cannot deliver for the sake of orders. The services you promise must be clearly communicated and followed up to avoid rights protection disputes.
These three types of problems are the most common disputes between buying and selling tiles: large color difference of ceramic tiles, incorrect goods, cracking, hollowing and falling off after laying, and service problems. However, ceramic tile consumption disputes vary widely and it is impossible to generalize. Different processes may lead to different results. In fact, consumer disputes when buying or selling bricks are consequences that neither consumers nor merchants want to see.
But once a consumer dispute does occur, both consumers and merchants should face it sincerely and make every effort to resolve it. For merchants,they should not focus on public relations. They will only sincerely admit their mistakes and be unwilling to substantively solve the problem, let alone pass the buck. On the one hand, they avoid consumers and on the other hand, they push the responsibility to the manufacturers. For consumers, the most important thing is to stay calm and never lose their minds to the point of making unreasonable troubles or even fighting, turning themselves from justified to guilty. In addition, Relevant government regulatory authorities must also strengthen supervision. Sometimes the conscience of enterprises is managed, and supervision with long teeth can also make people really remember.
Have you ever encountered any disputes when buying or selling bricks? Welcome to "complain" and share!
