Recently, there has been follow-up news about Lexus selling cars with a 100,000 yuan price increase.
According to the news from the Haikou Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, Haikou Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile Sales & Service Co., Ltd. will be included in the list of serious illegal and faith-breaking entities, and the inclusion period will be three years from the date of inclusion. At the same time, it is proposed to impose an administrative penalty of 450,000 yuan on Haikou Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile Sales & Service Co., Ltd.
A review of the relevant events shows that in January this year, Mr. Wang in Haikou City ordered a Lexus GX550 model at the Haikou Zhongsheng Lexus 4S store. Both parties have signed a purchase intention contract, which states that Mr. Wang will purchase the new GX550 model at a price of 931,873 yuan and pay a deposit of 50,000 yuan. The deposit is non-refundable and non-exchangeable, and it is expected to complete the process of picking up the car and paying the balance before May 10.
However, as the time for delivery approaches, the car owner was told that an additional 100,000 yuan service fee would be required to pick up the car. In response to this behavior, Mr. Wang refused to pay the surcharge, and the 4S store cancelled the contract and returned the deposit. Subsequently, Mr. Wang complained to the relevant departments.
After receiving the complaint, the Haikou Municipal Bureau of Commerce and the market supervision and administration department went to the store quickly to interview the relevant person in charge. The customer service manager of the 4S store could not produce the relevant clauses on the collection of value-added service fees of the company in the face of the law enforcement personnel, nor could he explain why the 50,000 yuan deposit was invalid.
In the conversation between the two parties, the customer service manager of Haikou Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile Sales & Service Co., Ltd. could not provide relevant clause documents, and even said, “Then I won’t talk about it, see you in court.”
Relevant videos and screenshots of the incident have also been circulating on the internet, attracting the attention of many netizens. On March 12, Haikou Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile Sales & Service Co., Ltd. issued an apology statement regarding the matter. In the statement, the official stated that the company attaches great importance to and feels deeply sorry for the recent public opinion incident.
It is stated that the cause of the incident is due to the company’s lack of management and training on the service process and quality of employees. The customer service manager who made inappropriate remarks in this incident and caused a bad experience for consumers will be dismissed.
At the same time, we will further improve the company’s performance, assessment and other rules and regulations, and strive to ensure that every employee can face every consumer with professional, enthusiastic and considerate service. For the behavior of suspected price increase, our company is currently conducting self-inspection and making every effort to actively cooperate with the supervision and inspection of the Haikou Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, striving to find and correct the problem from the source. Our company will make every effort to implement the final disposal results and improvement measures of the relevant departments.
In fact, news about Lexus’s price-increasing car purchases is not uncommon. As a luxury brand under Toyota, Lexus entered the Chinese market for sales in 2005. Relying on Toyota’s endorsement and the aura of imported brands, some popular models of Lexus are in short supply in the Chinese market, and it is also common that they cannot be purchased without a price increase. For example, the new Lexus LM seven-seat version, which was launched in August last year, has an official guide price of 1.199 million yuan. However, some domestic netizens reported that the final cost of the car they bought was 2.1 million yuan. It is not difficult to calculate that the price increase of this netizen is as high as 900,000 yuan.
For the price-increasing behavior, some netizens pointed out that it is understandable to increase the price of popular models. After all, one is willing to hit and the other is willing to suffer, but it should be said in advance why to increase the price. Don’t come up with other fees when it’s almost time to pick up the car. Clearly marked prices in advance, you can buy if you can accept it, and you don’t buy if you can’t. In this regard, some industry insiders pointed out that the reason for the existence of the price-increasing situation is mainly that there are no clear laws and regulations to clarify that dealers are strictly prohibited from increasing prices when selling cars, resulting in the existence of price-increasing car lifting phenomenon.
