"The iPhone 13 ProMax 256 mobile phone, which was initially priced at 4,900 yuan on Apple's official website, was priced at 0 yuan after being sent to the Avg Pai recycling site!" This is a bizarre experience of a consumer recycling at "Ai Avg Pai". It is worth mentioning that Avg Pai is an officially authorized second-hand platform for Apple. As a partner, Avg Pai's recent order volume has been overwhelming, but many problems have surfaced.
Sina Technology summarized the main problems of Avantgarde, which can be roughly divided into four categories: "malicious price reduction", "destruction of equipment", "delay in payment", and even "non-return of mobile phones". At the same time, according to estimates, the initial pricing price on Apple's official website will generally be reduced to 50% off in the hands of Avant-Garde, and some models may even be directly discounted to 20% to 30% off the estimated price.
Too outrageous! Want to recycle your iPhone for 0 yuan?
On November 21 this year, Wang applied through Apple’s official website to recycle the Hong Kong iPhone 13 ProMax 256 graphite black phone for his own use without any faults or repairs. Apple officially priced the phone at 4,900 yuan after filling in the information. On November 26, I received a reply text message from Aifengpai, saying that I had received the mobile phone. But three days later, Aifengpai responded via text message saying that "a charging failure was detected and will be recycled at 0 yuan."
Wang found it difficult to accept this evaluation price, so he asked Aifengpai to immediately send back the phone in its original condition and ensure that it was completely intact (including the original box, data cable, manual, etc.). At the same time, it said, "If it is found that it does not match the situation when it was sent, we will ask Aifengpai for the original price compensation."
According to Wang’s disclosure to Sina Technology, after repeatedly calling Avantgarde’s official customer service and finally complaining to Apple to report the situation, his phone has been sent back. But "the phone's protective film has been torn off by the avant-garde parties." At present, the returned mobile phone "can be charged normally", which is the same as when I sent it, but it is inexplicably priced as a "0 yuan mobile phone".
"Maybe the other party didn't want to recycle it, so they found such a reason to persuade them to withdraw." Wang said that he has sold the mobile phone at a high price.
Wang’s situation is not unique. Regarding Black Cat complaints, more than 200 complaints have appeared intensively in the past month, and there are many cases of complaints about Aifengpai’s malicious low-price repurchase.
There was an iPhone 13 Pro with a recycling price of 3,950 yuan through Apple’s official website channel, but Avengpai told them that it could only recycle it for 700 yuan. After the user said he did not accept it, there was no follow-up, and customer service could not be contacted. There was also an iPhone 12 that was recycled in a physical store before recycling, with a value of 1,600 yuan, and Avengpai only offered a recycling price of 400 yuan.
Behind the malicious lowering of recycling prices, it reflects the fact that the second-hand product testing process of Aifengpai is not transparent and the pricing method is baseless. In addition, there are many complaints from users: "There are scratches on the mobile phone after Avengpai returned it", "The protective film of the user's mobile phone was damaged by disassembly", "The person lost contact and refused to return the mobile phone after rejecting the other party's offer", "No payment was made for a long time after recycling the mobile phone".
As an officially authorized second-hand partner of Apple, iFengpai officially launched its Apple product recycling business in July this year. According to previous information released by iFengpai: "For the same iPhone model, iFengpai will provide users with a higher recycling price than other recycling channels; it does not play tricks or lower prices, and the entire inspection process is videotaped to prevent improper operation by staff from causing additional damage to the machine."
However, judging from the intensive complaints, Aifengpai's "words and deeds are inconsistent" in the process of recycling Apple devices, which is a clear violation of the company's original commitment to launch Apple product recycling business.
Don’t repent! Has been implicated in lawsuits against Apple
On Zhihu, Xiaohongshu and other platforms, there are also a large number of complaints about the "malicious price reduction and zero-yuan recycling" of the Ai Fengpai. However, as of now, Aifengpai has not responded to this.
In September 2021, Aifengpai was sued by a user for pricing an old computer with an official Apple appraisal price of 4,200 yuan at 0 yuan. In the end, the court supported the user's lawsuit and implicated Apple in being ordered to pay Mr. Xia a discount of 4,200 yuan as agreed. Today, the same tactics are being used again.
Behind the repeated overdraft of user trust, problems such as the high degree of non-standardization of 3C products such as second-hand mobile phones, the difficulty in building an evaluation system and low returns may be becoming the core reasons why companies such as Avantgarde frequently engage in risk and "malicious price reduction".
Industry insiders pointed out that on the one hand, 3C equipment such as mobile phones have high technical thresholds and are damaged by multiple causes. To fully detect and give reasonable pricing for each device requires professional skill reserves and expertise. Even establishing a complete evaluation system through the purchase of equipment requires a large amount of capital investment. Moreover, as each generation of 3C products is upgraded, the corresponding evaluation and inspection methods will often change accordingly, making it difficult to quickly follow up and iterate.
On the other hand, as the growth of the consumer Internet industry peaks, non-essential second-hand platforms such as iFengpai lack long-term user stickiness, and the cost of acquiring customers through marketing is also expanding. Cooperating with brands such as Apple not only lacks user trust, but also often cannot compare with the original manufacturers that directly produce 3C equipment in terms of testing and evaluation capabilities. In the end, it can only be reduced to a platform that collects second-hand goods for 3C digital manufacturers and resells them to earn the difference.
As of now, Aifengpai has not announced the company’s revenue. However, judging from the revenue of second-hand peers such as Zhuanzhuan and Aihuishou, it is highly unlikely that Aifengpai’s revenue performance will be optimistic. According to information on Zhuanzhuan’s official website, Zhuanzhuan has more than 200 stores in 50 cities across the country. So far, it has not disclosed its revenue and profitability. Aihuishou’s parent company, Wanwu Xinsheng, has not yet achieved profitability.
For avant-garde fans, repeatedly overdrafting user trust when the ability to make money cannot give a convincing answer is tantamount to "playing with fire and burning yourself".
Text丨Sina Technology Zhou Wenmeng