To be honest, I have a general impression of the home furnishing industry. Prices tend to be high, yet often don't reflect their true value. There are numerous small operators and few large, reputable companies. This makes me quite uneasy about home renovations. I asked a reporter, "Isn't it worrying?" Ms. Huang, who was selecting tiles in a building materials store in Shenzhen, frankly expressed her distrust of the home renovation industry, and the accompanying interior designer could only shake her head in embarrassment.
For a long time, the home furnishing industry has struggled to shed the negative image consumers hold towards it. Issues such as inconsistent service quality, harmful and toxic materials, repeated prohibitions, and confusing charging standards have seriously harmed consumer interests.
Last month, the first draft of the domestic home furnishing industry standard, "Standards for Business Services in the Home Furnishing and Home Goods Industry," was announced, with plans for official release by the review committee this month.
The highlight of the draft lies in its regulations regarding additional costs in home renovations. The actual cost of home renovation services should not exceed 8% of the pre-agreed engineering contract quote, with any excess covered by the company, unless the client actively requests additional work.
Industry insiders noted that most of the branded home furnishing companies in Shenzhen have already reached the new service standards. As the first service standard in the home furnishing and home goods industry, these new regulations will become a guiding force for the industry, promoting its transition from rough to refined practices. This will hopefully create a more transparent and reassuring market environment for citizens.
One common issue in home improvement costs is overspending. Statistics show that as early as 2010, the output value of household items like lighting, building ceramics, sanitary ware, building hardware, furniture, paint, and flooring reached 2 trillion yuan, with home decoration enterprises reaching 40 billion yuan. However, despite the industry's prosperity, many problems remain, primarily concerning service quality.
Based on the opinions of numerous industry insiders and dozens of citizens, there are currently two main shortcomings in the Shenzhen home furnishing industry. First, in household goods manufacturing and sales companies, unclear labeling, inferior materials, counterfeit foreign brands, and false pricing are prevalent; second, false promises in sales are often unfulfilled. Environmental protection standards for furniture and decorative materials are often exceeded, and companies lack social responsibility.
Regarding home decoration companies, service quality varies greatly. Issues include difficulty in ensuring quality, failure to meet customer requirements, exceeding the budget, failing to achieve the desired design effect, using substandard materials, and uncontrollable material prices. Advertising is widespread, and issues like intentional omissions in quotations and indiscriminate design charges are common.
Mr. Song, who lives in a community in Longgang, complained online, "The budget negotiated with the decoration company was originally 200,000 yuan, but ended up exceeding 240,000 yuan." He added, "The extra cost was due to items not included in the original contract, but omitting parts of the renovation would have been even worse."
The reporter noticed on several local home furnishing forums that many homeowners renovating or having recently moved in had encountered similar issues, wanting to complain but finding no corresponding regulations to support them.
In fact, various government departments and relevant authorities in Shenzhen have successively issued a series of laws, regulations, policies, and technical standards related to household decoration and construction specifications, pollutant limits for household products, but the rapid development of the home furnishing industry over the past 30 years has outpaced these measures. This draft is also the first specialized industry service standard in China.
Tan Xinzheng, executive director of the Zero Supply Committee of the China Chamber of Commerce, introduced that the standard-setting plan was issued by the Ministry of Commerce in early 2012 and launched in July. After the introduction of the specification, its impact will cover the fields of stores, furniture, home product manufacturing, and home improvement services. It is planned to be submitted to the Ministry of Commerce for approval by the review meeting in November.
The biggest highlight of the new regulations is the provision for additions to the decoration. The actual construction cost of home decoration services should not exceed 8% of the pre-agreed engineering contract price, with any excess covered by the company, except for items the customer actively requests to add.
Xu Hongnan, deputy general manager of the home improvement department of Juzhong Decoration Shenzhen, said that although the barriers to entry in the home decoration industry are low, leading to frequent chaos and mixed quality, most of the branded home improvement companies in Shenzhen have already included the scope of additions to the decoration in their contracts. "Generally speaking, 10% is added as the limit for customer-initiated increases in projects."
Xu Hongnan believes that the 8% increase under the new regulations will help regulate the operating behavior of home improvement companies and require companies to be more standardized and standardized in design, measurement, and budgeting. "As far as I know, it is not too difficult to comply with the 8% increase."
In addition to making provisions for the addition of home improvements, the draft also addresses issues prone to pollution. When customers need it, the decoration company should cooperate with them to carry out indoor environmental testing services for harmful substances. Regarding after-sales service issues, the draft stipulates that the decoration company must clearly indicate to the customer the specific warranty period and warranty scope for each part.
In this regard, Xu Hongnan mentioned that the industry's focus on the new regulations is on these three aspects. "We are relieved to see the draft opinion." According to his understanding, in recent years, Shenzhen's branded home furnishing companies have successively launched the concept of green home furnishings, checking environmental protection from materials, construction, and after-sales processes.
For example, each time the company completes a home improvement project, it will issue an indoor environmental monitoring report from the Shenzhen Bureau of Quality and Metrology Inspection to the customer. "This is the company's self-promoted service, costing over 2 million yuan annually." In terms of warranty, after the project is completed, the customer will receive a warranty card and decoration invoice, with a waterproof warranty of 5 years and a 2-year warranty for basic decoration work, which is also consistent with the new regulations. Xu Hongnan admitted that the new regulations are not too difficult for regular branded home improvement companies to implement but bring constraints to some non-compliant home improvement companies.
The reporter also contacted several branded home improvement companies such as Haida Decoration, Mingdiao Decoration, and Xingyi Decoration. The situation is exactly as Xu Hongnan described. For instance, "free air quality testing," "5-year water and electricity guarantee, 2-year other engineering quality guarantee," and other contents, as well as regular return visits and inspection and maintenance guarantee systems, have become important ways for home improvement companies to expand their business.
However, there are also voices questioning the enforceability of the new regulations. Some industry insiders who wished to remain anonymous pointed out that, according to the level, domestic standards are mainly divided into three categories: national standards, industry standards, and enterprise standards. National standards are the most mandatory but have the lowest threshold. All industries and enterprises must meet this standard; industry standards are generally stricter than national standards and regulate the production and operation of the industry; while enterprise-set standards are the highest, usually formulated based on meeting national standards and industry standards, serving as a norm for enterprise behavior.
However, the draft currently in the publicity stage is a "standard," which is a constraint on industry behavior. It is unclear whether it is mandatory. Even if it is mandatory, since the products provided by the home furnishing industry are mostly services, how to regulate the service is a problem the regulation must address. For non-standard enterprises, how to supervise and punish is more worthy of attention.
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