"The air conditioner needs to be fluorinated". Some people are taking advantage of your "ignorance"

【 Minsheng Survey Bureau 】 Editor's Note: This is the People's Livelihood Survey Bureau, which investigates changes in people's livelihood. Focus on what you want to focus on and what you don't, and investigate what you want to see and what you don't see.

BEIJING, Aug. 30 (China News Finance reporter Xie Yiguan) This summer, the high temperature continued, and the air conditioner became a "life sustaining weapon". After several months of high-frequency use, many people found that the air conditioner began to "strike". Once the air conditioner doesn't work, many people will contact the maintenance technician directly.

(Related data drawing)

But in reality, the maintenance master's words "need to add fluoride" may make your tears fall

One time fluorination, charge 1280 yuan

"I spent more than 1000 yuan on fluoride, and I feel that I am a big enemy," said Yang Yang (a pseudonym), a consumer.

This summer, because the air conditioner didn't cool, Yang Yang made an appointment to add fluoride to the air conditioner on a platform. At that time, the maintenance technician told her that there was almost no Freon after measuring. "Because it is a rented house, I just wanted to add enough, but the master said that it would not be cool if we didn't fill it up. When we asked how much it would cost to fill it up, he said that about 1000 yuan would make it cheaper for us."

But to Yangyang's surprise, the master finally told her that a total of 16 presses (the unit for adding fluorine to the air conditioner) were added, and each press was 80 yuan, and finally 1280 yuan was required to be paid.

Yang Yang, who paid the money, felt more and more wrong. When he contacted the master again, he had already pulled her black. After the final communication with the platform, Yang Yang was refunded 200 yuan.

In life, there are still many people trapped due to air conditioning plus fluoride. On the black cat complaint of the consumer service platform, the search for "fluoride" can find more than 400 related complaints.

A consumer said that in June 2022, it would cost 1700 yuan to add fluoride and replace the tubes of three air conditioners in his home. "At that time, the maintenance master said that it could be used for 3-5 years after adding fluoride. One air conditioner had never been used, and it did not cool after it was opened in June this year. After finding the woodpecker platform again, the master said it was lack of fluoride, and asked us to add fluoride at our own expense."

Press charges, some people are taking advantage of your "ignorance"

Spending thousands of yuan to add fluoride once is enough to buy a small air conditioner. Is it really so expensive to add fluoride to air conditioners?

The staff of a Gree store in Beijing told the reporter that if the air conditioner is within the warranty period and is not damaged by human, there is no charge for adding fluoride; After the warranty period, the fluorine will be charged per unit. For an air conditioner with a capacity of 1 to 1.5 units, the fluorine will be charged 100 yuan for pure fluorine, and 240 yuan for "fluorine leakage".

How did the "Yangyang Men" charge thousands of yuan for fluorination? The reporter consulted the air conditioner maintenance personnel on several platforms as consumers. According to the feedback, they all charge for pressing, and it costs about 40 yuan to 80 yuan to add one pressing. The maintenance personnel will adjust the price appropriately according to the air conditioner model.

How much pressure does an air conditioner need? Several maintenance personnel said that they would need to go home for measurement before they could determine. Once you visit, you will incur door-to-door expenses.

The consumer Mang Mang (not his real name) told the reporter that he felt that there was no fluoride in the air conditioner at home before. After seeing the small advertisement pushed in from the door, he contacted the maintenance technician, but the maintenance technician did not tell him the price. After he came to the door, he said that it was a variable frequency air conditioner. He could only add refrigerant, which would cost 80 yuan each. "Finally, 11.5 were added, and 1180 yuan was charged, including door-to-door fees."

As for the charging method of press calculation in the market, the staff of the Gree store mentioned above said that the official maintenance services are charged per machine. She also mentioned that, for example, a 1.5 horse air conditioner only has 8 to 8.5 pressure in total. "If the maintenance personnel say they need to add more than a dozen pressure points, it's a lie."

A professional after-sales personage also told the media that the refrigerant of air conditioners is calculated by weight, and it is usually about 60 yuan per kilogram of refrigerant on the market. One kilogram of refrigerant is enough for a 1.5-piece hang up machine. "Refrigerant is liquid in low temperature environment, and the pressure is relatively low; it is gaseous in high temperature, and the pressure will rise. Therefore, it is unprofessional for air conditioners to charge according to the pressure."

How should consumers protect their rights in case of maintenance fraud?

It could have cost one or two hundred yuan, but under the "fooling" of maintenance personnel, many people like Yang Yang spent hundreds or even thousands of yuan to add fluoride.

In this case, Yan Bing, a senior partner of Jiuhe Law Firm, told the reporter that if the maintenance technician did add fluoride beyond the maintenance standard, this behavior was suspected of forced buying and forced selling, which infringed the consumers' right to know and the right to fair trade, and was illegal. Consumers have the right to require price adjustment or even refuse to pay the price according to the objective standards of the industry.

In daily life, the small air volume of the air conditioner and the poor cooling effect are related to many factors, such as high ambient temperature, low power supply voltage, too much ash on the air filter screen, improper adjustment of the temperature controller, etc. However, many informal air conditioner maintenance personnel make use of the consumers' psychology of linking non refrigeration and lack of fluoride to make up the lack of fluoride in the air conditioner, so as to easily earn maintenance costs.

Some consumers said that when the master came to the house for maintenance, he said that there was a lack of 9 pressures of fluoride. After filling up, the external machine was too dirty to affect refrigeration, so he cleaned the external machine. However, after spending 850 yuan, I found that the air conditioner was the same as before. After failing to contact the master, I chose to call the police.

In Yan Bing's opinion, if the maintenance master fabricated the lack of fluoride, this behavior constituted contract fraud, which was obviously illegal. "If the repairer belongs to the business entity and the consumer is protected by the consumer rights protection law, they can complain to the platform, report to the market supervision department or even sue. But if the repairer is an individual natural person, it will be much more difficult for consumers to safeguard their rights, and it will take a lot of energy just to determine their identity and find the other party." Therefore, He suggested that consumers seek qualified business entities to avoid wrangling later.

In order to effectively deal with the problem of arbitrary charges for home appliance maintenance, the reporter noticed that the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, together with relevant departments, has recently studied and drafted the Beijing Regulations on Clearly Marking the Price of Home Appliance Maintenance Services (Draft for Comments), which specifies that the items, contents, prices and pricing methods of home appliance maintenance services should be clearly marked, It is not allowed to provide services or sell related products at a higher price than the marked price, and it is not allowed to charge any fees not marked.

Once the regulation is issued, it will also provide institutional support for cracking the phenomenon of charging indiscriminately for air conditioning maintenance. (End)

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