SOME Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Shenzhen have stopped charging financial service fees but said the same fee collected from previous customers is not refundable, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

A dispute between a Mercedes-Benz dealership and a customer in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, over a faulty new car that leaked oil has triggered widespread concern among consumers.

In addition to the faulty car, the woman also claimed that she was asked to pay a “financial service fee” of 15,000 yuan (US$2,242) without knowing what the money was for, as the dealer had not provided any services.

The incident has aroused strong reactions among consumers who are also distressed by hazy guidelines on their rights over faulty products and consumption bundles.

A woman surnamed Wei in Shenzhen is one of them. Wei recently spent more than 300,000 yuan on a new Mercedes-Benz car at the Daxing dealership of the German brand in Luohu District, but found the car’s water tank to have abnormal water temperature three days after purchase.

Wei also discovered that she had been charged 25,200 yuan by the dealer in “service fees.” The dealership explained that the fees included three items, namely 5,000 yuan for a licensing service fee, 6,000 yuan for an installment service fee, and 14,200 yuan for a quality service fee.

When asked what the installment service fee entails, the Daxing dealership’s sales director, surnamed An, explained that installment service fee refers to the cost of applying for loans for customers, that is, it is a financial service fee in the common sense.

According to the Shenzhen Consumer Council, in 2018, the council received more than 120 complaints about automobile financial service fees. The sum of financial service fees mainly ranged from 2,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan.

On a field visit to some of the 4S dealerships of famous car brands in Shenzhen, a reporter from the Daily found that the collection of a financial service fee, licensing fee and insurance premium is common practice among dealers.

There are also many terms for the expenses incurred in the process of applying for loans, including “financial service fee,” “installment service fee” and “loan service fee,” according to the Daily.

Although some local dealerships have currently scrapped the financial service fee, they will not return the fees that previous customers have paid, the reporter learned.

According to lawyer Yan Zhaoxiong with Guangdong Junyan Law Firm, as long as the car owner can provide evidence of deception, the car owner has the right to ask for a refund of the financial service fee and to obtain punitive damages three times the fee. (Zhang Yu)