Cancellation requires deduction of fees? Journalist reveals the chaos of "free" installation of ETC, which requires recharging ETC for card application | Fees | Reporter

Recently, Huang Bin from Guangdong installed high-speed ETC for free. This so-called free installation is actually not free. Huang Bin claimed that the other party helped him download a software, pre paid 300 yuan, and then paid 130 yuan for the production fee. However, when he wanted to cancel his account, he was told to do so within 60 months, and the user would need to deduct 300 yuan from the pre recharge. "What they said during sales is completely inconsistent with the actual situation. This is false advertising, and I have filed a complaint against them."

The ETC software complained by Huang Bin is called Yixingtong. Public information shows that the Yixingtong APP is a product of Chengdu Zhiyuan Yixing Technology Co., Ltd. The person in charge of Zhiyuan Yixing confirmed to reporters that the company has indeed received similar complaints since the end of 2022. The person in charge stated that in order to expand the promotion volume, the company has cooperated with promotion teams in many places, and some personnel have indeed deceived consumers and carried out false advertising.

Huang Bin's experience is not an isolated case. On a certain complaint platform, inputting the keyword "ETC false advertising" resulted in 1068 related complaint contents.

Regarding the issue of ETC chaos, on May 29th this year, the Jiangxi Provincial Traffic Monitoring and Command Center stated that there are generally certain problems with ETCs handled by scalpers, such as chaotic charging, illegal charging under the names of installation fees, security deposits, value-added service fees, membership fees, etc., as well as deceiving car owners to replace or cancel them at high prices in the later stage. There is a risk of leakage of car owner information, which may harm the privacy and other rights of car owners.

"Free" ETC software

Huang Bin explained that after receiving the call, he saw two staff members downstairs wearing yellow reflective vests with the words "high-speed ETC" printed on them, and presented their work permits, which also had the words "high-speed ETC" printed on them.

"From their attire, I thought they were 'highway workers'. At that time, I asked them specifically where the workers were, but they diverted the topic," Huang Bin said.

Huang Bin told reporters that the other party stated that they could install ETC devices for free without charging any fees during this process, and he agreed to it himself. Then, a staff member took Huang Bin's phone and downloaded a software called "Yixingtong" on his behalf.

Subsequently, the staff informed Huang Bin that he needed to pre charge 300 yuan in the software, which could be withdrawn to WeChat after opening the account to offset the highway fee. During this period, the other party also asked him to confirm the recording in the software according to the text content.

Huang Bin said that after following the steps prompted by the staff, the other party told him that they also need to pay an additional 130 yuan for the production cost. "At the beginning, they said it was all free, not only pre paid, but also charged a production fee. I disagree, so in the end, they charged 110 yuan."

After paying the cost of production, the more Huang Bin thought about it, the more wrong it became. He said that the other party sent a text message clearly stating: "The 300 yuan pre recharged in the software can only be used to offset highway tolls when the bank card limit bound to WeChat cannot be deducted, and cannot be withdrawn on WeChat."

The text also indicates that the 300 yuan pre recharged this time will only be refunded as a reward when the usage period reaches 60 months. If ETC is cancelled within 60 months, this fee will be deducted in one lump sum. In addition, the software will charge a 2% service fee for each toll payment on the highway.

After Huang Bin completed the ETC process, the local promotion personnel sent Huang Bin an easy to follow notification letter

The reporter consulted with the customer service personnel of Yixingtong on behalf of consumers, and the other party stated that due to the different packages in the Yixingtong software, the corresponding service fee charging standards also vary, so the fees deducted during cancellation are also different. But what can be clear is, "During the software installation process, we will definitely not charge any production costs."

Huang Bin said that the Yixingtong software contains multiple packages, but the promoters did not provide a detailed introduction at all, and they said it was a "free installation".

Lawyer Han Xiao from Beijing Kangda Law Firm stated that if ETC's local promoters engage in false advertising, mislead consumers, and harm consumers' right to know during the sales process, both the local promoters and ETC Company, as operators, should bear corresponding compensation responsibilities.

Han Xiao stated that for promotional personnel wearing clothes with words such as "China Expressway" and "Expressway ETC" and carrying work permits to deceive consumers into applying for cards. According to Article 500 of the Civil Code, intentionally concealing the true situation and providing false information by promotional personnel constitutes civil fraud. Serious circumstances and a huge amount of suspected fraud.

Cat tricks in ETC deregistration

Huang Bin felt that there was an issue with the fees, so he contacted the customer service personnel of E-XingTong through the software backend. The other party said that the ETC has been activated and cannot be refunded, so they can only choose to cancel it. "If cancelled, a penalty will be deducted."

Zhiyuan Yixing claims its mission is to make transportation more convenient. According to the official website, the company is mainly engaged in the issuance, promotion and after-sales service of ETCs, and supports the handling of ETCs such as trucks, buses, enterprise vehicles, and rental vehicles. Currently, the provinces of cooperation include Xinjiang, Xizang, Hebei, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guangdong.

On June 13th, under the "fee" clause in the "User Service Agreement" of the "Yixingtong" APP, the reporter saw detailed provisions on "usage service fee", "value-added service and technical service fee", and "cancellation fee". Among them, the fee standard for "cancellation fee" ranges from 180 yuan to 298 yuan. The conditions for free cancellation include "using ETC for at least 60 months" for buses, and "using ETC equipment for at least 3 years and consuming more than 300000 yuan" for trucks. In addition, the service fee for the use of the ETC accounting card on buses is agreed to be calculated by multiplying each transaction amount by the corresponding vehicle fee rate. The service fee for the use of the ETC accounting card on buses is within 3.5%.

The person in charge of Zhiyuan Yixing told reporters that due to the fact that ETC devices can only be bound to fixed vehicle information, after users register their accounts, the corresponding devices already incur costs. After users use this ETC, the company will charge corresponding service fees in order to gradually recover costs.

The person in charge stated that after receiving relevant complaints, Zhiyuan Yixing has required users to sign an electronic version of the product agreement with their real names when handling ETC, which includes detailed provisions on fees and products. In addition, users also need to voice input product fees and other content during the application process. Through the above methods, try to make consumers clear that this ETC is not "completely free".

On June 13th, staff from the ETC service supervision hotline told reporters that in Beijing, installing ETC can be done through the WeChat mini program. If you choose the bank contract binding method, you can install it for free, and there is no age requirement for cancellation, and cancellation is free of charge. If there is no associated bank card deduction and only the money is charged in ETC to offset the highway fee, a device purchase fee of 180 yuan will be charged. In addition, neither of these two processing methods will incur additional service fees during use. At the same time, the staff also stated that there are currently no promotional personnel in Beijing to provide on-site services.

There are common problems with ETC processed by scalpers

Like Huang Bin, Zhang Ting from Jiangsu also encountered a staff member wearing a reflective vest with the words "highway". The other party stated that ETC can be installed for free, but a deposit of 300 yuan is required, which can be directly used to deduct highway fees. Afterwards, the merchant will also give a deposit amount of 200 yuan, totaling 500 yuan.

After the process was completed, Zhang Ting found that the previously promised 500 yuan "pre deposit" had become "equity deposit", and this money could only be used to purchase goods in the corresponding mini program. After communicating with customer service, Zhang Ting was informed that canceling the account would require a minimum deduction of 80 yuan.

The balance of 500 yuan in Zhang Ting's account, including 300 yuan pre deposited by oneself and 200 yuan gifted by the merchant

On June 14th, the reporter contacted Century Hengtong Technology Co., Ltd., and a staff member of the company stated that this was the personal behavior of the local promotion personnel. "Not only our company, but also in the entire ETC industry, many companies cooperate with local promotion companies, and there are cases of false advertising by local promotion personnel. If we verify that it is indeed local promotion personnel misleading consumers, we will refund consumers."

The person in charge of Zhiyuan Yixing stated that the company has been reminding consumers to pay attention to such phenomena on various social media platforms. Once a consumer complains to customer service and it can be confirmed that the salesperson has a problem, they will actively refund, but this also invisibly increases the company's costs.

Regarding consumer complaints about false advertising during the installation of ETC, Liu Xiaobo, Dean of the School of Transportation and Logistics at Southwest Jiaotong University, stated that previously ETC was mainly issued by banks, but later market-oriented ETC companies began to emerge. Due to dispersed users, companies did not have enough energy and manpower to provide fragmented issuance and installation services, so they chose to outsource their sales channels.

He said that in this situation, companies can reduce operating costs, but local sales personnel may engage in false advertising in order to gain performance and reduce order volume, resulting in the inability to fulfill the terms mentioned in the sales process.

Liu Xiaobo stated that although local promotion personnel are the main factor leading to false advertising, ETC company, as the main body signing contracts with users, should assume the after-sales service of consumers, establish rights protection measures, and develop a bottom-up solution for consumers.

To avoid such phenomena, Liu Xiaobo stated that ETC company should do a good job in process management. For example, in the user registration process, all steps should be checked, confirmed, and signed by the user through a contract list. Alternatively, voice prompts can be provided to avoid false advertising by promotional personnel.

Urgent need to introduce fee standards

ETC handling is not a new thing, as early as March 2008, China began piloting and promoting ETC.

In May 2019, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Implementation Plan for Deepening the Reform of the Toll Highway System and Cancelling Provincial Toll Stations on Highways", proposing to strive for the basic cancellation of provincial toll stations on highways nationwide by the end of 2019. The proportion of ETC used by vehicles entering highways in each province should reach over 90%, and achieve full coverage of mobile payments on manual toll lanes.

Subsequently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Application of Electronic Non stop Toll Collection Services on Highways, encouraging banks and third-party payment institutions to develop ETC services. This not only achieves full coverage of free installation of onboard devices, but also encourages social capital to participate in issuance. Through forms such as points, discounts, rebates, and red envelopes, ETC vehicles will be given a toll discount of no less than 5%.

According to relevant data from the Ministry of Transport, as of the end of 2020, the number of ETC users was 225 million. Liu Xiaobo told reporters that after achieving nationwide connectivity in 2015, ETC technology has rapidly developed in the construction of toll free highways by the Ministry of Transport in 2019, with users quickly exceeding 200 million, resulting in a significant improvement in highway traffic efficiency. In addition to toll collection, the ETC system provides rich scenarios for the development of smart highways, and the current development status and prospects of this industry are optimistic.

In 2022, National People's Congress representative Xu Jianxian proposed the "Suggestions on Strengthening the Management of High Speed ETC". The Ministry of Transport replied that in April 2022, it organized a special governance work on the standardization of issuance services, guided ETC issuance service institutions in various regions, systematically sorted out issuance cooperation channels, conducted in-depth investigations on various processing platforms for non compliant business issues such as unspecified cancellation methods, setting cancellation thresholds, and long cancellation times, and strictly completed rectification in accordance with relevant regulations and requirements.

Liu Xiaobo stated that due to the lack of clear charging standards in the domestic ETC industry, the charging models of various companies in the industry are different and relatively chaotic. If the ETC industry can develop in a healthy and orderly manner, the regulatory authorities can introduce charging standards. For example, the current equipment cost is about 50 yuan/set, the key filling cost of the equipment is about 10 to 15 yuan/set, the labor cost of installing the equipment on the vehicle is about 100 to 150 yuan/set, and the cost of other links should be accurately calculated. On this basis, a reasonable distribution of interests among all parties is necessary to fundamentally eliminate problems in the issuance process.