amap and baidu maps issued an apology letter: actively take measures to ensure that home appliance repair information is true and accurate
2024-09-24
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on august 27, the shanghai consumer rights protection committee held talks with two well-known map navigation software companies, autonavi and baidu maps, in response to the recent chaos in the home appliance repair service market. the talks focused on the high prices, fake repairs, and false merchant information in the home appliance repair information and services of the two platforms.
on september 24, according to the wechat official account of shanghai consumer council, in response to inaccurate information on home appliance repairs in map services and dishonest behavior of merchants, shanghai consumer council recently received "apology letters" from autonavi maps and baidu maps respectively.
image source: shanghai consumer protection committee official account
amap said that it had immediately set up a special working group to conduct self-inspection and self-correction, and suspended the labeling and display services for home appliance repair merchants in shanghai, concentrating its efforts on re-checking and verifying the home appliance repair poi (point of interest) points on the platform to ensure the accuracy of all types of information.
amap also focuses on map poi review and inspection, business license verification, and handling of violations and breaches of trust, and has established a normalized mechanism to prevent similar problems from happening again.
baidu maps said it has organized a special team to conduct a comprehensive self-examination and cleanup. in order to improve the accuracy of information, baidu maps promised to continue to optimize the data risk control mechanism, upgrade technology and information review capabilities, and strengthen the interception of risk points.
at the same time, baidu maps will also actively coordinate with regulatory authorities and all sectors of society to fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers by setting up feedback channels for consumer experience issues, dispatching map resources to carry out consumer rights publicity work, and other means.
the shanghai consumer council issued a statement saying that home appliance repair is an extremely low-frequency consumption and there is a high degree of information asymmetry in the service process. therefore, it is extremely important to advocate honest operation of the industry and provide consumers with true and accurate information.
the shanghai consumer council hopes that the two companies can implement the improvement measures and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
earlier reports:
from august 14 to august 22, 2024, the shanghai consumer council searched for "air conditioning repair" as the keyword on amap and baidu maps and selected third-party home appliance repair providers recognized or recommended by the platform for testing.
the test used covert filming and recording to record the entire service process of the maintenance personnel in the rental house from all angles. the test scenario was set to a faulty air conditioner remote control, which made it impossible for the remote control to operate the air conditioner.
the results of the undercover investigation showed that the three repair companies found through gaode maps all engaged in behaviors that seriously harmed the rights of consumers, such as false quotations, false repairs, and fictitious faults.
at the same time, the undercover investigation results also showed that one of the two repair companies found through baidu maps had engaged in behaviors that seriously harmed consumer rights, such as false quotations, false repairs, and fictitious faults.
baidu maps interview. image source: shanghai consumer protection committee official account
in addition to false repairs and high charges, the shanghai consumer council also found that there were a large number of false addresses of home appliance repair businesses marked on gaode maps and baidu maps.
74 out of 178 home appliance repair information on amap were suspected of being false, accounting for 41.6%; 65 out of 164 home appliance repair information on baidu map were suspected of being false, accounting for 39.6%. this information not only misled consumers, but also brought great difficulties to consumers' subsequent rights protection.
amap interview meeting. image source: shanghai consumer protection committee official account
in response to the above issues, the shanghai consumer council stated that it is extremely wrong for amap and baidu map to make profits by recommending dishonest businesses to consumers and providing false home appliance repair information.
during the meeting, the shanghai consumer council required autonavi maps and baidu maps to take effective rectification measures immediately. first, they should strictly review and clean up the home appliance repair merchants on the platform to ensure the authenticity and accuracy of the merchant information. second, they should apologize to consumers and compensate them for their wrong behaviors.
