Ms. Huang, who was shopping for tiles at a building materials store in Shenzhen, openly expressed her skepticism about the home improvement industry when asked by a reporter. Accompanying her during the selection process, the home improvement designer accompanying her could only shake her head in embarrassment.
For a long time, the home furnishing industry has struggled to shake off the negative perception of consumers due to issues like uneven service levels, harmful and toxic materials, repeated prohibitions, and inconsistent charging standards. These practices have significantly harmed consumer interests.
The initial draft of the "Home Furnishing and Home Improvement Industry Business Service Standards" consultation version was released at the end of last month, with plans for formal release following approval by the review committee this month.
One of the highlights of the draft is the regulation on additional decoration costs. The actual cost of home decoration services should not exceed 8% of the pre-agreed engineering contract quotation, with any excess to be borne by the company unless the client actively requests additional items.
Industry insiders pointed out that most of Shenzhen's branded home furnishing companies have already met the new service standards. As the first service standard in the home furnishing and home improvement industry, these new regulations will serve as a guide for the industry, promoting greater transparency and reliability in the market.
Over-budgeting in home improvement costs is a common occurrence. Statistics from relevant government departments show that as early as 2010, the output value of lighting, building ceramics, sanitary ware, building hardware, furniture, paint, flooring, and other household items had reached 2 trillion yuan, with the output value of home decoration enterprises reaching 400 billion yuan. However, despite the industry's prosperity, many problems persist, particularly in service areas.
Based on the opinions of numerous industry insiders and dozens of citizens, there are currently two main issues in the Shenzhen home furnishing industry. In terms of household goods manufacturing and sales companies, unclear labeling, inferior materials, counterfeit foreign brands, and false pricing are common. False promises made during sales are often unfulfilled, with furniture and decorative materials exceeding environmental protection standards, and companies lacking social responsibility.
Regarding home decoration companies, service levels vary greatly. Issues include difficulty in ensuring quality and meeting customer expectations, project costs exceeding the budget of the home improvement company and the homeowner, failure to achieve the design level in the final decoration, suboptimal decoration materials, and uncontrollable material prices. Additionally, there are widespread advertisements, intentional omissions in quotations, and indiscriminate design charges.
"Originally, the negotiation with the decoration company was for a budget of 200,000 yuan, but the final cost exceeded 240,000 yuan," complained Mr. Song, a resident of a community in Longgang. "The excess was due to items not listed in the original contract, but omitting decorations would have been even worse. We just had to bear the extra expenses."
The reporter noticed that on many local home furnishing forums, homeowners either renovating or having moved in frequently encounter similar situations, wanting to complain but unable to find corresponding regulations to support their claims.
The industry generally adopts a 10% increase limit. In fact, various governments and relevant authorities within Shenzhen have successively issued a series of laws, regulations, policies, and technical standards documents related to household decoration and construction specifications, as well as household product pollutant limits. However, with the rapid development of the home furnishing industry over the past 30 years, 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 shall not exceed 8% of the engineering contract price agreed in advance, and the excess shall be borne by the company, except for the items that the customer actively requests to increase.
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 fish, most of the branded home improvement companies in Shenzhen have already included the scope of additions to the decoration in their contracts. "Generally speaking, in the contract, 10% is added as the limit of addition to the customer's initiative to increase the project."
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 standard in design, measurement, and budget. "As far as I know, it is not too difficult to follow the 8% increase."
In the future, the warranty period shall be clearly stated. In addition to making provisions for the addition of home improvement, the draft of the opinion on the problem of decoration that is prone to pollution states that the decoration company should cooperate with the customer to carry out indoor environmental testing services for harmful substances when the customer needs it. For after-sales service issues, the draft of the opinion stipulates that the decoration company must clearly indicate to the customer the specific warranty period and warranty scope of each part.
In this regard, Xu Hongnan mentioned that the industry's focus on the new regulations is the above three aspects. "We are relieved to see the opinion draft." According to his understanding, in recent years, Shenzhen's branded home furnishing companies have successively launched the concept of green home furnishing, checking the 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 environment monitoring report issued by the Shenzhen Bureau of Quality and Metrology Inspection to the customer. "This is the company's self-promoted service. More than 2 million yuan is invested annually in this service." In terms of warranty, after the project is completed, the customer will receive a warranty card and decoration invoice, with waterproofing guaranteed for 5 years and basic decoration works guaranteed for 2 years, which is also consistent with the new regulations. Xu Hongnan admitted that the new regulations are not too difficult for regular brand home improvement companies to implement, but instead bring constraints to some non-compliant home improvement companies.
The reporter also contacted several major 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 guarantees, 2-year guarantees for other engineering quality," and other content, along with regular return visits and inspection and maintenance guarantee systems, have become important tools for home improvement companies to expand their markets.
Experts question the operability of the new regulations. For the introduction of new regulations, the home furnishing industry has many positive expectations.
"The development history of the home furnishing industry is relatively short, and because the entry barrier is low, it has led to a lot of chaos in the industry and a mixture of fish and dragons. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate service standards. At the same time, the implementation of the standards requires the supervision of the entire industry and society to ensure they are operable, allowing good companies to have more room for development and poor companies to be eliminated by the market as soon as possible," said Ren Cheng, vice president of Home.
But there is another voice questioning the mandatory nature and operability of the new regulations. Some industry insiders who wished to remain anonymous pointed out that, according to the level, the current domestic standards are mainly divided into three categories: national standards, industry standards, and enterprise standards. National standards are the most mandatory, but the threshold is the lowest. Various 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 the standards set by the enterprise itself are the highest, generally formulated on the basis of meeting national standards and industry standards, serving as a norm for the behavior of the enterprise itself.
However, the opinion draft currently in the publicity stage is a "standard," but 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 that the regulation has to solve. For non-standard enterprises, how to supervise and punish is more worthy of attention.
Combo emergency exit light that combines a 2x3W LED lamp with a 3W exit sign. The LED lamp provides bright and energy-efficient lighting in emergency situations, while the exit sign clearly indicates the way to safety. This product is designed to provide illumination and guidance during power outages or emergencies, ensuring that occupants can safely and quickly evacuate a building.
Combo Emergency Exit Light,Exit Light Combo,Exit Emergency Combo,Exit Emergency Light Combo
JIALINGHANG ELECTRONIC CO.,LTD. , https://www.jlhemergencylighting.com