According to China Youth Daily Travel Weekly, rights-defending car owners believe that Zhiji is suspected of fabricating the illusion of scarce rights and interests, and conceals the preferential policies for promotion from other channels, which affects and damages consumers’ full right to know and their right to choose independently, and demands Zhiji to fully disclose and explain the financial promotion policies for differential treatment of "angel wheel" car owners, and fulfill its commitment to consumers’ rights and interests fairly ……..
On the evening of May 10th, 102 owners of Zhiji "Angel Wheel" issued a joint statement to defend their rights, demanding that Zhiji officials give a positive response to such issues as "Angel Wheel’s rights and interests have been surpassed, and scarce seats are not scarce", "The conditions for upgrading laser radar and high-end energy batteries are not clear", "The 93kWh battery capacity advertised in the configuration table is inconsistent with the registration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology", "Many auto show announcements and advertisements have not been fulfilled" and "The official App community management is chaotic". Photo courtesy of vision china
"After waiting for a year, I was disappointed. Originally, I went to SAIC, a big company. I didn’t expect it to be so unreliable. " Recently, Lu Jun, the owner of the "Angel Wheel" of Zhiji Automobile, explained his experience to reporters. As one of the first 3,000 people to book the Zhiji L7, he felt "routine". The so-called "scarce enjoyment" is not scarce, and the contrast between the earliest official configuration propaganda and the actual configuration announcement also made him feel cheated.
"Many car owners have given feedback on vehicle allocation and false publicity in the official App community of Zhiji. Instead of getting a reasonable answer, Zhiji’s employees also insulted the car owner’s’ great cleverness’ and’ Kong Yiji’, which is unacceptable." Lu Jun said angrily.
Hundreds of car owners jointly defended their rights, and "rights and interests backstab" became the biggest controversy.
Since April, 2021, Zhiji Automobile has launched the promotion policy of "angel rights" for the first 3,000 car owners who reserve the Zhiji L7. These 3,000 places are also called "angel wheel seats".
In March of this year, Zhiji Automobile officially announced the price of Zhiji L7 Pro, the first model in mass production-408,800 yuan. At the same time, Zhiji Auto also opened the lock list for Angel Wheel users and A Wheel users, and announced the full version of "Angel Wheel User Special Rights" and "A Wheel User Exclusive Rights". At this point, the owner of the "Angel Wheel" who has been waiting for one year will welcome the delivery of the lock order.
However, some car owners found that there were many differences between the configuration table of Zhiji car and the configuration promised at the previous press conference, and then they discussed related issues in WeChat riders group and Zhiji official App community, hoping to get a reasonable answer.
To their surprise, the management of Zhiji automobile community is chaotic, the official attitude is bad, and the normal inquiry about the owner’s rights and interests is rudely satirized. The owner of the "Angel Wheel" used by Zhiji Automobile to repeatedly publicize and prove that its products are hot has become a typical example of "much ado about nothing". An "angel wheel" owner said with a wry smile that he felt "used".
After many unsuccessful communications, on the evening of May 10th, 102 owners of Zhiji "Angel Wheel" issued a joint statement to defend their rights, demanding that Zhiji officials give positive comments on such issues as "Angel Wheel’s rights and interests have been surpassed, and scarce seats are not scarce", "The conditions for upgrading lidar and high-end energy batteries are not clear", "The battery capacity advertised in the configuration table is inconsistent with the registration of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology", "A number of auto show announcements and advertisements have not been fulfilled" and "Chaos in the management of the official App community".
Yu Yang, an "angel wheel" owner, told reporters that the demands of rights-defending car owners are different, but "the rights and interests of angel wheel are surpassed and scarce seats are not scarce" is the focus of most people’s attention.
"Earlier, the owners of’ Angel Wheel’ have been fighting for interest-free rights, but now the preferential rights of group customers have come out. Zhiji not only provides financial interest-free services to group customers, but also superimposes angel card rights. This made us the earliest’ prospective car owners’ feel cheated. " Lu Jun said that Zhiji Automobile is cutting the leek of the owner of the "Angel Wheel".
It is understood that the employees of the founding shareholders will give away the IM Care brand auto insurance service package for the first year (commercial car damage insurance+compulsory insurance+2 million third party liability insurance+vehicle personnel liability insurance, unlimited vehicle maintenance, car delivery service, scooter service on-site tire repair, 4 vehicle health monitoring, off-site power supply, paint repair, 12 vehicle fine washing) free of charge, and 24 interest-free periods starting from 15% down payment; 36 low-interest loans with a rate of 0.99% from the 15% down payment. The rights and interests cover employees of SAIC, Ali and Zhangjiang Group and their immediate family members, with hundreds of thousands of people.
In addition to the financial policy of 7% down payment, 2.99% rate and 72 repayment periods, the owner of "Angel Wheel" also enjoys the crystal welfare of Angel Wheel users (800 crystal red envelopes per week, with the number of crystals accelerating by 3 times), "iAd intelligent driving full-function package" (standard intelligent driving full-function package, free upgrade for life), and software and hardware upgrade of data rights exchange (the laser radar integrated driving system can be upgraded, and after three years,
It is not difficult to see that the rights and interests of group customers are different from the rights and interests of angel cards, but if group customers have the number of angel wheels, then group customers can enjoy the rights and interests of angel cards superimposed by group interests. Therefore, there have been many posts on the idle fish about the transfer and purchase of seats on the Angel Wheel.
"If a group customer buys the number of’ Angel Wheel’ car owners in 2021, and the rights and interests of group customers are superimposed this year, then we also recognize it. After all, these people are only a minority." Lu Jun said, "After the introduction of the rights and interests of large customers, many employees of Alibaba around me went to Idle Fish to purchase the places of angel wheel owners for the superposition of rights and interests."
Rights-defending car owners believe that Zhiji is suspected of fabricating the illusion of scarce rights and interests, and conceals the preferential promotion policies of other channels, which affects and damages consumers’ full right to know and their right to choose independently. Zhiji is required to fully disclose and explain the financial promotion policies that treat "angel wheel" car owners differently, fulfill its commitment to consumers’ rights and interests fairly, and clearly distinguish between them and internal employee benefits.
In this regard, IM Zhiji user manager Mao Xuan told reporters that whether the interest-free policy for "Angel Wheel" owners will be based on the policy issued by the headquarters, and the rights and interests of angel wheels and group customers currently given will basically remain unchanged.
In view of the transfer of angel wheel quota on idle fish, Zhiji official customer service said that angel wheel quota does not support third-party resale. In order to avoid resale, Zhiji official has restricted the modification of mobile phone number. In other words, if users need to modify their mobile phone numbers, they are only allowed to modify other mobile phone numbers authenticated by their real names, which is also to avoid the situation of angel wheel and A-round quota sales.
"If there is any situation that exceeds the official and reasonable scope of personal use because of these rights and interests, such as making profits, illegally making profits, transferring or transferring the rights and interests of angel wheel users, and placing orders on their behalf, we have the right to take measures to terminate orders, cancel transactions and suspend the interruption of users’ rights and interests." The customer service explained that someone had bought the angel wheel quota on the idle fish.
In a statement, Zhiji Automobile admitted that it has indeed introduced a group customer policy for employees of the founding shareholders, which is also a common way for major automobile manufacturers to purchase in-house users of related groups. However, there is no binding relationship between group customer rights and angel wheel and A wheel user rights.
Cyrus, a lawyer of a law firm in Dalian, said in an interview that if Zhiji Automobile and the buyer clearly agreed on the level or content of the rights and interests of the "Angel Wheel" users in the car purchase contract, and the subsequent Zhiji Automobile failed to fulfill or promise as agreed, consumers could file a lawsuit or complain to the consumers’ association for rights protection.
"Assuming that in the car purchase contract, Zhiji Automobile has a statement like’ the rights and interests of other subsequent car booking users will not be able to surpass the rights and interests of angel wheel users’, then when the rights and interests of angel wheel users are surpassed, Zhiji Automobile may have the problem of breach of contract." For example, Li Sheng said.
After consulting the Notes on the Angel Card of Zhiji Automobile and the Letter of Intent for the Booking of Zhiji Automobile, the reporter did not find a statement similar to "the rights and interests of other subsequent car booking users will not exceed the rights and interests of angel wheel users".
However, according to Liu Zhichao, an analyst in the automobile industry, usually, in the commercial and financing fields, the angel wheel is often the part with the most rights and interests and the most benefit in the later period.
Liu Zhichao told reporters: "In particular, at the beginning, Zhiji Automobile also bound the angel wheel users with the concepts of" scarcity and enjoyment "and" limited to 3,000 seats ",which easily made consumers feel that angel wheel users must be the most cost-effective and affordable."
He admits that it is precisely for this reason that many consumers choose to become angel wheel users of Zhiji Automobile, but today’s sense of gap is unacceptable to many people. "This practice of’ painting cakes’ for users will hurt consumers who like and support brands, which will have a negative impact on brand reputation and the future development of enterprises."
"Every detail in the description of Zhiji Auto Angel Card is to protect the rights and interests of Zhiji, not the rights and interests of consumers. For example, there is a clause in the contract: if the subsequent published rules conflict with this description, the subsequent rules shall prevail. " Lu Jun said, "No one knows how long Zhizhi can go. If the original promise is not fulfilled now, how can the rights and interests of consumers be protected?"
Exaggerated promises are not fulfilled, and car companies’ "low cost of dishonesty" is the main reason.
On May 8th, an "Angel Wheel" user found that the actual battery level of Zhiji L7 did not match the publicity. Zhiji officially promoted that Zhiji L7 was equipped with a 93kWh battery, but the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declared that it was 90kWh, and the actual vehicle was 89.9kWh.
In this regard, Zhiji Automobile responded that there are currently two sets of standards related to battery power: one is the standard used to test the energy density of the battery system, that is, the "Test Method for Technical Indicators Related to Power Batteries and Fuel Batteries" is usually tested according to "0.33C discharge rate" (3 hours discharge battery power); The other set is the standard adopted when the whole vehicle is declared, that is, "Electrical Performance Requirements and Test Methods for Power Batteries for Electric Vehicles", which is tested according to "1C discharge rate" (discharge battery power for 1 hour).
The data difference between them is caused by different battery charge test methods, so the cruising range and other important performance parameters of Zhiji L7 battery have not changed.
"The official statement of Zhiji is unreasonable. After all, there is only one set of national standards." Lu Jun believes.
In this regard, Zhiji Automobile said that it has realized that it is not rigorous in its work, and explained it in Zhiji App, and accepted user suggestions. In the future, we will adopt a unified data caliber and clearly publicize the relevant test standards and remarks, and optimize them in the external publicity materials, so that everyone can know the product information of Zhiji L7 more clearly.
At the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, the relevant person in charge of Zhiji Automobile told the technical highlights of Zhiji L7 at the press conference. The most eye-catching one is undoubtedly that Zhiji L7 comes standard with wireless charging technology. However, on the configuration table published later, the owner found that the wireless charging receiver at the vehicle end needs to spend 6000 yuan to choose.
In this regard, Zhiji Automobile retorted that Zhiji Automobile did not promise that "wireless charging configuration" was standard in any public publicity occasion, but only indicated that Zhiji L7 had the technical capability of wireless charging.
The reporter can clearly hear the statement of the person in charge of the site from a short video released by the official account of Zhiji Auto Tik Tok-"IM Zhiji Auto" on April 21, 2021: "The mass-produced’ standard’ wireless charging technology supports 11 kW high-power wireless charging."
However, this video has been deleted at present, and the reason for deletion is unknown.
In addition to wireless charging technology, Lu Jun said that the reduction of Zhiji L7 includes: 21+6 piston calipers become 20+4 piston calipers; 12 HD cameras were reduced to 11; Five fifth-generation millimeter-wave radars were reduced to four; Front seat ventilation is reduced to backrest ventilation; Kick-type electric tailgate becomes electric tailgate, etc.
Yu Yang told reporters that the "reduction" time appeared in March 2022, and Zhiji announced the angel wheel configuration table. At that time, he didn’t pay close attention and paid 5000 yuan for the lock order directly.
The reporter saw in the Letter of Intent for the Booking of Zhiji Automobile that "pre-sale configuration and final configuration" is described as follows: the contents and pre-sale configuration of this letter of intent do not constitute a unilateral promise or any promise or guarantee (including but not limited to vehicle name, interior and exterior decoration, configuration specifications, product functions, production/delivery date, etc.) of Zhiji Company for the information of your scheduled vehicle type and other scheduled matters, and the final configuration shall be based on the physical configuration of the finally officially listed Zhiji automobile.
In this regard, Cyrus reminded: "Before signing a car purchase contract, consumers must carefully read all kinds of details of the contract. For paragraphs that are relatively vague or easy to generate doubts, they should communicate with the seller or the car company in time to avoid unnecessary troubles after signing the contract."
It is worth noting that the official did not respond to the two key issues: "the conditions for upgrading lidar and high-end energy batteries are not clear" and "the official App community management is chaotic". Especially in the problem of "the conditions for upgrading lidar and high-order energy batteries are not clear", car owners mentioned the problem of "original stone points", and the acquisition method of original stone points and the specific amount required for upgrading were not clearly disclosed.
Cyrus said that if an automobile company promises some preferential treatment or rights and interests, but does not specify its use time, quantity and other information in the car purchase contract, it is not clearly agreed. In this case, if consumers want to realize their rights and interests, they should negotiate with the car companies. If the car companies fail to give a reply, then consumers can complain to the consumer association about their rights protection.
In response to this rights protection incident, some "angel wheel" car owners said that the official needs to give a reasonable explanation, and can’t deal with the problem by deleting the video evidence and vague words of the official press conference. In addition to their own rights and interests, car owners also care about their own official attitude.
"On the one hand, whether the official promises can be written in the contract, or whether there is a statement of security, the contract cannot all protect the interests of the enterprise. On the other hand, so far, no management has come forward to apologize for employees insulting car owners, which will make people feel that Zhiji is a company with a lack of morality. " Lu Jun said.
In Liu Zhichao’s view, the publicity of Zhiji Automobile is suspected of being deliberately exaggerated, and the rapid changes in configuration and policies have caused many "angel wheel" owners to complain. In addition, in the terms of the contract, Zhiji Automobile adopts the disclaimer of "material configuration is the final basis". For ordinary consumers, even if problems are found, it is difficult to ask the manufacturer to modify the contract.
Judging from some automobile rights protection incidents in recent years, the "low cost of dishonesty" of automobile enterprises is the main reason why consumers are difficult to protect their rights. When products are publicized and "fan marketing", car companies tend to exaggerate and put on a posture of "trust me, that’s right", but when the actual products are delivered, there are many reasons to go back on our word and are unwilling to take any responsibility. Consumers in a weak position are often unable to compete with enterprises.
An insider believes that consumers can "vote with their feet". Even if dishonest enterprises can take advantage of legal loopholes, if they always take the means of "kicking down the bridge" in the process of enterprise development, they will also be reviled by the market. We have been talking about corporate social responsibility, and "honesty and trustworthiness" is actually a responsibility.
(At the request of the interviewee, Lu Jun, Yu Yang and Li Sheng are all pseudonyms. )
Original title: The treacherous "Angel Wheel" owner Zhiji car fell into a crisis of integrity
