Alipay is cracking down on illegal rentals. What are the tricks in rental mini-programs?

Recently, Alipay has rectified illegal rental mini-programs. There are various irregularities in the rental market, and it is easy to fall into traps if you are not careful. Let's take a look at the tricks of rental mini-programs and how Alipay rectified them.

There are many digital enthusiasts among Xiaolei’s fans, right? Let me ask you a question: With so many different types of digital products released by various manufacturers every year, do you buy them all to play with?

It is estimated that many friends mostly play with them in offline stores. After all, it is unrealistic and unnecessary to buy all the wallets to lose weight.

What Xiao Lei often does is "renting". That's right, he rents his favorite digital products for a few days to play with them.

In this way, you only need to pay a lower fee to have free time to use the product. It's a great deal with little money.

To be honest, there are many tricks in the rental market, which is not suitable for novice users to use without understanding.

Ahem, the water here is a bit deep. When Xiao Lei was a newcomer, he was cheated several times by some platforms.

However, Xiao Lei saw the light of day today. The payment giant Alipay took action to regulate the leasing industry!

For those who want to enter the "rental" circle, it is recommended that you take a look at Xiao Lei's article today to be prepared.

1. Alipay cracks down on illegal leasing

On the evening of March 13, the official account @Alipay Open Platform released a new tweet.

The tweet stated: Since last year, the Alipay platform has handled more than 4,300 illegal rental mini-programs.

Wow, I know there are tricks in the rental industry, but it’s still hard to imagine that so many small programs can be handled in one year.

On average, this is equivalent to processing nearly 12 small programs every day. This speed and attitude deserve praise.

Image source: Official account @Alipay Open Platform

Well, Alipay is a platform that provides technical services for leasing merchants to launch third-party mini-programs to engage in leasing services.

Please note that Alipay does not directly provide leasing services, but rather transactions are conducted directly between third-party merchants and users.

Therefore, as a platform, Alipay naturally has the responsibility to supervise merchants and their mini-programs.

Since March last year, Alipay has noticed some chaos in the leasing industry and has begun to gradually rectify it.

The Alipay Rental Industry Management Standards have been updated several times:

It is specifically stipulated that the total annual rental and resale amount of leased goods cannot exceed 130% of the official website price of the product.

Image source: Official account @Alipay Open Platform

It was even more severe in June last year, when Alipay directly put together a "full-link upgrade" governance solution.

A joint governance group for the leasing industry was established, which carried out a number of special rectification actions in stages and also worked together with users.

If users find any problems with the rental app, they can file a complaint or report it. After official verification, the merchant will be punished.

This includes but is not limited to taking warnings and global search blocking measures against third-party merchants’ rental mini-programs. What a good job!

With such a combination of measures, it is no wonder that Alipay was able to handle more than 4,300 illegal mini-programs in one year.

Image source: Official account @Alipay Open Platform

Then the question arises again, what are the tricks in the rental mini-programs that are worth Alipay’s efforts to deal with?

2. The leasing industry is in chaos

Next, Xiao Lei will take you through the chaos in the rental market that can easily lead to pitfalls if you don’t pay attention.

The first is that leasing turns into usury. The netizen rented an iPhone 13 Pro Max with an actual market price of 7,000 yuan.

He had already repaid more than 9,000 yuan in 12 installments, but unfortunately his cell phone was lost. He contacted customer service and they asked him to buy it out.

This is normal, after all, you can't return the phone to the platform if it is lost. However, the customer service said that the buyout cost is 4,925 yuan.

Xiao Lei calculated that the actual repayment for this Apple phone is more than 14,800 yuan, more than twice the actual price.

My goodness, this is not a rental at all, it has turned into a loan shark in a second...

Image source: Black Cat Complaint

The second is to induce minors to use rental services and charge high rental fees.

Minors have low discernment and are easily misled by external factors, so they can easily be deceived by improper rental platforms.

For example, the complaint below is about a minor who saw a "really good post" on a short video platform and thought he had gotten a bargain and rented a mobile phone.

As a result, the original second-hand price of the mobile phone was only 4,000 yuan, but the interest was also 4,000 yuan. This money is enough to buy these two mobile phones.

First of all, the platform should not provide rental services to minors. Secondly, it maliciously raises the price and stacks up the buffs.

Image source: Black Cat Complaint

The above two types only involve money, while the third type of rental with violent debt collection also involves mental torture.

Users who fail to repay on time or who refuse to repay due to usurious prices may be subjected to violent debt collection by platform staff.

It is one thing to be insulted over the phone, but in many cases it even involves family and friends, and it is really hard to bear being insulted every day.

Image source: Black Cat Complaint

The fourth type is that the accounts don’t match. When you lease it, they say the amount is a certain amount, but when you pay back the money after the lease, they say there’s some extra money that hasn’t been paid.

I had to pass the buck back and forth when negotiating with customer service. If I gave the money I would be at a loss, but if I didn't give it to the platform they would hold me accountable. I would not feel happy no matter what I did.

Image source: Black Cat Complaint

The above four leasing situations are the more representative undesirable phenomena existing in the leasing industry at this stage.

Of course, due to limited space, Xiao Lei cannot list them one by one, and friends can also add to them in the comment section.

Without official intervention, the rental market will only become more and more chaotic, and consumers will be discouraged from using it.

3. Although leasing is good, it is better to be careful

As an emerging industry that has become popular in recent years, Xiao Lei is still very optimistic about the future development of the rental market.

On the one hand, hardware such as mobile phones, computers, and cameras are needed but not used often, and consumers’ demand for leasing them is increasing.

On the other hand, the rental platform can also earn a certain premium income by providing machines, which is a win-win cooperation.

However, judging from the current situation in the leasing industry, the authorities need to continue to rectify the situation in order to maintain the normal development of the industry.

Xiao Lei also gives some tips to those who want to get into the game:

First of all, please rent things on a regular rental platform, and don’t rent from any strange platform.

Secondly, read the terms of the lease contract carefully, and only agree to it carefully if it complies with laws and regulations and is acceptable to you.

Finally, remember not to be greedy for small profits. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Too good a rental price often has something fishy behind it.

To take a step back, if you really encounter a bad rental platform, you can also make good use of the reporting function.

For example, you can go to Sina’s consumer service platform Black Cat Complaint, which Xiao Lei mentioned earlier, to file a complaint.

Image source: Black Cat Complaint

If there is a problem with the rental app on the Alipay platform, you can call the official hotline 95188 to complain to customer service.

You can also click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the mini program - Feedback and Complaints - Report Violations, and it is also OK to complain about the mini program.

Of course, in the end, Xiao Lei hopes that friends can have fun renting and having fun on the road of exploring digital devices.

Image source: Alipay

Cover image source: Alipay

Editor: Jonty

Original title: Alipay suddenly reveals new news! This time it’s really a big deal

Source: Xiaolei Bibi (ID: xiaoleibbb), bibi about things in the technology circle every day.