Source: CCTV
Recently, a college student reported on the video platform that he had rented an Audi A6 in an online car rental platform called "Xinsheng Car Rental", and found that the vehicle headlights had tiny scratches when returning the car for inspection, and the merchant refused to return the deposit, and the car rental company insisted on replacing the headlights in the case that it could spend more than 2,000 yuan on technical means to recover, and asked it to bear a total of 68,800 yuan for replacement parts, lost work, depreciation, etc.
On April 11, the local market supervision department in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, said that it had received the corresponding report and that law enforcement personnel were intervening to deal with it. The platform said that it had simultaneously removed the stores involved.
The staff of the Housing Construction and Transportation Bureau of Wuhou District, Chengdu City, said that the incident has been grasped at present, and the bureau is conducting follow-up verification, and will reply according to the verification situation.
When the car was returned and found tiny scratches, the deposit of 10,000 yuan was refused
According to the college student, on April 3, he booked an ideal ONE car at a car rental agency called "Xinsheng Car Rental" in Chengdu, and after negotiation, the staff of the car dealer replaced him with an Audi A6, which was originally scheduled to be delivered at 11 p.m., but it was not delivered until the early morning of the next day. During this period, they were also charged a deposit of 10,000 yuan for car damage, a deposit of 2,000 yuan for violations and a 200 yuan for leaving the city.
On April 5, the college student returned the vehicle, and the merchant found a tiny scratch on the headlight when the car was inspected, so he refused to refund the 10,000 yuan car rental deposit.
On April 8, the college student and the merchant went to the Chengdu Shuangliu Audi 4S store to assess the damage, "The 4S store said that this small scratch can be repaired by technical means, and the contract hour cost is about 2,200 yuan." ”
"Car rental businesses insist that if the headlights are repaired, it will cause the price of second-hand cars to depreciate, the quality of the headlights will deteriorate, and the headlights will enter the water and fog on rainy days, affecting driving safety, requiring the replacement of 49,000 yuan of the original headlights, plus the cost of vehicle damage, lost work, a total of 68,800 yuan." The university student said he could not accept the offer and mentioned that when he picked up the car, the headlights of the car had fogged up.
After negotiations, the other party finally put forward three plans, one plan is to deal with it in accordance with the procedure, the rental party will directly send it for repair, and then it will be sued, including more than 49,000 yuan for headlights, plus more than 19,000 yuan for vehicle damage, including more than 68,000 yuan for stopping freight, lawyer fees and litigation costs; The second plan is for the rental car to apply for insurance, and the compensation fee is more than 20,000 yuan for depreciation plus insurance floating costs; The third plan is to send the vehicle to the car rental dealer more familiar repair shop, the cost of the lamp is 6,000 yuan, including the loss fee of 2,400 yuan and 400 yuan of lost work, a total of 8,800 yuan.
The college student said that during the period, the staff also said that if they did not pay compensation, they would be sued, which would affect their future employment and other aspects.
The college student said that in the end, they called the police to deal with it, but the other party turned around and left when they saw the police arrive. The college student believes that he has encountered the "routine" of the car rental company. He posted the process online for help.
The car rental business involved has been complained of similar problems
According to the college student, the corresponding entity of "Xinsheng Car Rental" is Chengdu Dingfu Xinsheng Business Service Co., Ltd.
According to the public information retrieved by the reporter, on January 12, 2024, netizens complained on the "Voice of the Masses" website of the Cyberspace Administration of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee that they rented an ideal ONE car from Chengdu Dingfu Xinsheng Car Rental Company on the online car rental platform on January 9, and the platform clearly marked that the credit was exempt, and after arriving at the scene, on the grounds that we wanted to go out of the city, we privately collected 8,000 yuan in cash as a deposit, 6,000 car damage deposits, and 2,000 violation deposits.
Netizens complained that on the day of returning the car, the platform agreed to return the car at 12:30 noon, after he contacted the merchant, the other party asked him to send it to the suburbs of Chengdu 25 kilometers away from the agreed return location, and there were no cameras around after arriving. No one on the platform handles it, and no one can contact the company. Later, I found consumers with similar experiences in the comments on the platform, and the company used this method to trick consumers into deposits, hoping that the relevant departments could find out the truth and return the deposits.
On January 22, the Housing Construction and Transportation Bureau of Wuhou District, Chengdu City, replied that after investigation, on the issue of "the caller reported the economic dispute with Chengdu Dingfu Xinsheng Business Service Co., Ltd.", the staff of the District Traffic Management Office contacted both parties, and the two sides are currently further negotiating the maintenance costs.
"Lantern inspection" refreshes cognition
The tiny scratch of less than 1 cm on the headlight was "claimed" for nearly 70,000, which really made people's jaws drop. Such a "lion's mouth" is clearly beyond the scope of reasonable claims. Many netizens said that this incident can be called an upgraded version of "lantern damage assessment".
What is the truth of the matter, and whether the car rental company has deliberately set up a pit to "extort" consumers to seek illegal benefits, must be strictly investigated to the end.
Consumers who rent a vehicle and cause damage in the process of using the car should of course bear the cost of repair, which is also a basic contract agreement and specification in the industry. However, the rental car owner's claim must be within a reasonable range, and the price cannot be exorbitant on the basis of the consumer's deposit.
In the face of tiny scratches, the merchant refused the repair plan of the 4S store, insisted on replacing the headlights, and issued a sky-high compensation price, which is no longer a simple consumer dispute, or has been suspected of extortion.
In this case, there are two points in question. First, is the damage to the vehicle really caused by the consumer? According to the consumer's account, the headlights were fogged up when the car was picked up, and the damage was suspected to have existed in the first place; Second, the 4S shop made it clear that it could be completely repaired for about 2,200 yuan, so why did the car rental company make a high claim?
In the absence of clear evidence to prove the fault of consumers, the car rental company's treatment of small scratches is too strict, which will inevitably lead to the association of car rental routines.
In fact, there is a precedent for similar car rental routines to magnify the small damage caused by consumers' cars and use them to make high claims, and even car rental companies take advantage of consumers' inattention when sending and returning cars. At the beginning of last year, the "Sanya car rental was pitted" incident caused widespread concern, and finally six people were criminally detained on suspicion of extortion.
In particular, it is worth mentioning that the car rental company involved in this incident has been complained by netizens that it was damaged with small scratches, deducted consumer deposits, and made additional claims. The "black history" that has been complained about many times has undoubtedly further exacerbated the doubts of the outside world about "fake car repairs and real money".
Therefore, in the end, whether the consumer really damaged the car, whether the claim is the cost that should be paid for repairing the car, or in the name of repairing the car, using the topic to engage in extortion, it is necessary for the market supervision department to conduct an in-depth investigation, seriously deal with the possible non-standard service and charging problems, and give an explanation to the parties and the society.
As an important part of the service industry, the car rental industry should provide convenient, safe and high-quality services. This incident is a microcosm of the chaos in the industry and a reminder. The market supervision department should put the focus of supervision in the front, strengthen the daily supervision of the car rental industry, and standardize the order of the industry. For some businesses that have been repeatedly complained, it is necessary to focus on monitoring and urging businesses to standardize and operate in good faith.
In addition, it is not enough for the online car rental platform to cooperate with the investigation and remove the stores involved. In this case, the car rental company used the platform to attract traffic, and finally made a private transaction with the consumer. Circumventing platform supervision is an important reason why car rental companies dare to ask for high compensation, but this does not mean that the dispute has nothing to do with the car rental company.
In daily operations, car rental platforms should strengthen the review and management of settled merchants, ensure that merchants comply with laws, regulations and industry norms, provide consumers with high-quality services, and eradicate the survival soil of unscrupulous merchants who rely on routines to seek illegal benefits.
From "lantern damage assessment" to "lantern inspection", similar incidents have refreshed public cognition and will also cause damage to the image of the local and industry. Because of this, local functional departments must also strengthen supervision and law enforcement, and must not let a rat poop spoil a pot of porridge, and beware of cases that harm consumers become an unspoken rule.
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