"I hired someone to come to my home to repair the dryer, and it ended up costing 4,000 yuan." Lang Yifei, a post-90s woman from Shanghai, told the reporter about the frustrating experience she had at the beginning of this year. Because her dryer was not working properly, she searched online for the brand's after-sales service. After seeing the word "guarantee" displayed on the page, she called the number, and the other party quickly arranged for a technician to come to her home for repairs. But when it came time to pay, Lang Yifei was stunned by the bill: "2,998 yuan for a mainboard, 400 yuan for a starter, plus the repair fee and on-site service fee, I paid 4,000 yuan in total."

　　Lang Yifei's experience is not an isolated case. A search by the reporter on online platforms found that many netizens have posted about problems encountered with on-site repair services. Posts such as "spent over a thousand yuan to unclog a drain" and "was overcharged outrageously to fix a washing machine" are not uncommon. Some netizens have even compiled "pitfall-avoidance guides" and "rights-protection guides" to offer tips for protecting consumers' rights and interests.

　　Ahead of "March 15 International Consumer Rights Day," a survey of 1,000 respondents conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily in collaboration with wenjuan.com showed that non-transparent items and prices are the main problem respondents believe exist in household repair services. 86.8% of respondents called for stronger governance of the household repair service industry.

　　Chaos in household repair services: non-transparent items and prices ranks first

　　Zhang Tao, a post-90s man working in Beijing, rents an apartment in an old residential community. Some time ago, the drain in his bathroom got clogged, so he found a repair company on a certain platform. After confirming the on-site service price with customer service, a repair technician soon arrived at the scene. After inspection, the technician said the pipes were aging and that a drain-cleaning agent needed to be added, at 180 yuan per jin. "I felt the price was a bit expensive, but at the time I just wanted to solve the problem quickly, so I didn't haggle with them." Zhang Tao originally wanted to search online for the price of the drain-cleaning agent, but he found that the agent the technician brought was in a large plastic bucket with no brand label. "Including the on-site service fee, repair fee, and the cost of the drain-cleaning agent, I ended up paying 800 yuan."

　　As for the "pitfalls" in household repair services, non-transparent items and prices ranked first, with a selection rate of 50.3%. 45.0% of respondents believed there was temporary price increases during the service, and 43.2% of respondents said there were hidden items in the service. Other issues included: unclear about the quality of the products used (37.4%), high repair service charges (35.9%), difficulty in guaranteeing after-sales service (22.6%), and poor service attitude of practitioners (21.4%).

　　Shi Yin, a post-00s woman currently living in Hangzhou, found before the Chinese New Year that the air conditioner in her room was no longer heating. Through a search, she chose a household repair company on a certain platform that waived the on-site fee and only charged a 30-yuan appointment fee. But when it came time to pay after the repair was finished, Shi Yin found she still had to pay another 750 yuan, "including the repair service fee, the cost of replacement products, and so on, and it was not paid through the platform but directly to the technician personally." During the repair process, Shi Yin asked the technician whether there was a quotation sheet stipulated by the company, and the answer was no. Moreover, the company was only responsible for referring business to the technician, and the specific service fee was negotiated on site. "In other words, how much to charge is up to the technician personally."

　　The survey shows that, as for the reasons for the frequent chaos in household repair services, 49.6% of respondents believed it was due to the lack of an effective industry supervision and restraint mechanism, 48.5% of respondents felt it was due to the lack of qualification review of practitioners, and 45.0% of respondents believed it was due to information asymmetry, making it easy to deceive consumers. Other reasons included: inadequate internal management of enterprises (39.3%), insufficient platform supervision (39.1%), low industry entry thresholds (35.4%), imperfect relevant laws and regulations (31.1%), weak consumer awareness of rights protection (21.5%), and obstructed channels for consumers to defend their rights (17.0%).

　　Sun Ying, a professor at the Civil, Commercial and Economic Law School of China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out that in recent years the household repair service industry has developed rapidly, but neither household repair service platforms nor household repair practitioners currently have strict qualification review standards, and there is a lack of feedback and complaint mechanisms, leading to chaos such as uneven service quality, arbitrary price hikes, and endless hidden items.

　　"There are also multiple difficulties in governance at present." Sun Ying said that, first, consumers differ greatly in their level of understanding of repair activities, making it difficult for them to judge and supervise the abilities and behavior of repair workers; second, it is difficult to determine the difficulty of repairs and the consumables needed, so there are problems in determining whether pricing is reasonable; third, consumers lack understanding of the replacement products, parts, and auxiliary materials, so situations may arise in which repair personnel pass off inferior goods as good ones or fake ones as genuine ones, and they may also require consumers to pay extra fees after repairs, making it difficult to guarantee consumers' right to know and right to independent choice; fourth, consumers' private information such as addresses is easily leaked, and there are psychological obstacles to reporting.

　　Sun Ying pointed out that because the field of household repair services is complex, diverse, and varied in form, existing laws and regulations are not well targeted, and the precision of regulation needs to be improved. At the same time, there are problems for consumers in providing evidence, defending their rights, and obtaining determinations, making it difficult to provide effective protection for consumers. "Industry standards and charging standards for household repair services urgently need to be unified."

　　86.8% of respondents call for stronger governance of the household repair service industry

　　Shi Yin found that some companies on platforms now act only as intermediaries, assigning consumers' orders to repair technicians and lacking management of the repair process and follow-up services. Shi Yin hopes that relevant companies will strengthen management of repair technicians and at the same time provide formal quotation sheets during service so that consumers know the prices of items clearly. "Platforms should also strengthen review and strict supervision of repair companies, and prohibit companies with many complaints and numerous disputes from being displayed on the homepage."

　　The survey shows that 86.8% of respondents call for stronger governance of the household repair service industry.

　　"I think supervision of the household repair service industry needs to be strengthened." Lang Yifei hopes that relevant departments will strengthen governance of platforms and issue relevant guidance, such as requiring advertisements on search pages to be labeled and official websites to be ranked first. For repair companies that repeatedly infringe on consumers' rights and interests, platforms should ban them and increase supervision and punishment. "On the other hand, I hope a blacklist system for repair service personnel will be established, prohibiting repair personnel with bad records from taking orders, strengthening qualification review of them, and protecting consumers' rights and interests."

　　To govern the chaos in household repair services, 67.7% of respondents suggested clarifying industry standards and standardizing repair content, procedures, and prices; 61.0% of respondents believed it is necessary to smooth evaluation, supervision, and reporting channels and reduce the cost of consumer rights protection; and 52.7% of respondents suggested improving relevant laws and regulations and severely cracking down on chaos in repair services. Other suggestions included: strengthening supervision by internet platforms and handling non-compliant merchants (52.3%), strengthening qualification review and training of household repair practitioners (36.2%), and strengthening consumers' awareness of their rights and encouraging them to defend their rights (23.8%).

　　"To govern the chaos in household repair services, we need to move toward the goal of professional, procedural, and unified services in order to safeguard consumers' lawful rights and interests." Sun Ying believes that, on the one hand, supervision must be strengthened; on the other hand, industry associations need to be encouraged to strengthen self-discipline, formulate industry service standards, and gradually develop reasonable, scientific, and standardized operating content and procedures as well as transparent, fair, and reasonable prices. In addition, the qualification requirements for operators and practitioners should be raised, and business training should be strengthened to eliminate those who are merely making up the numbers and the bad apples in the industry.

　　"Platforms, as the first responsible parties, should stand guard and check things properly for consumers." Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law and professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, believes that when consumers' rights and interests are harmed, platforms should first bear compensation liability, and then the platforms should seek recovery from the non-compliant repair service operators. "It is necessary to increase consumers' returns from rights protection and reduce the cost of rights protection so that the returns exceed the costs. At the same time, it is necessary to increase the cost of dishonesty for enterprises and reduce the returns from dishonesty, ensuring that the cost of dishonesty exceeds the returns. By achieving the 'double increase and double decrease,' we can create a fair, just, win-win, and shared ecological environment for the repair market."

　　Among the respondents to this survey, 10.8% were post-00s, 21.5% were post-95s, 41.2% were post-90s, 15.2% were post-85s, and 11.3% were post-80s. 31.1% came from first-tier cities, 41.4% from second-tier cities, 22.0% from third- and fourth-tier cities, 4.4% from county towns or towns, and 1.1% from rural areas.