After 3 years of online shopping, the leather sofa cracked. The lawyer claimed 3 times, and the merchant： it was two layers of leather.

A cracked sofa. Photo of this article Red Star News

Three years ago, Mr. Su, a lawyer in Chengdu, bought a set of high-grade leather sofas on an e-commerce platform, which cost 12,000 yuan. Three years later, the sofa armrests cracked, exposing the back of the sofa, which was a very rough texture.

"The customer service said that they have never sold genuine leather, but they sell high-quality leather, which is microfiber." Mr. Su said that he sued the official flagship store of Santa Monica Furniture to the court, claiming triple compensation for consumer fraud.

On December 19th, the official flagship store of Santa Monica Furniture was interviewed and said that what was sold to Mr. Su was genuine leather, but not cow’s head leather, but "two-layer transfer coating leather".

Lawyers believe that according to the principle of who advocates who gives evidence, consumers should identify the sofa. If it is not genuine leather, it constitutes consumer fraud, and vice versa.

12,000 yuan to buy a leather sofa cracked for three years.

Customer service calls it "microfiber"

Mr. Su is a lawyer who has worked for more than ten years. On May 31, 2016, he bought an American leather sofa in the official flagship store of Santa Monica Furniture, an e-commerce platform. The original price was 15,000, and the discount was 12,000.

"In my profession, I will definitely conduct a careful review when buying large items." Mr. Su said that although the official flagship store of Santa Monica Furniture is a third-party seller of the platform, it is naturally relatively reliable since it has the credit endorsement of the platform.

In October this year, the sofa armrest suddenly cracked, exposing the inner layer and the reverse side of the sofa. The reverse side is very rough texture, while the inner layer is cloth.

"If it is real leather, the reverse side should be fluff, and it should not be so prone to cracking." Mr. Su said that he communicated with the customer service, and the customer service told him directly that they had never sold genuine leather for this sofa, but sold "high quality leather", and the so-called high quality leather was "microfiber".

According to public information, microfiber is superfine fiber PU synthetic leather, which can almost replace genuine leather.

Mr. Su chats with customer service.

"According to the light industry standards, the top layer of leather is allowed to be marked as’ genuine leather’ when the surface material reaches more than 90%, and other imitation leather or synthetic leather cannot be called genuine leather." Mr. Su said that if it is synthetic leather, it obviously doesn’t match his emphasis on the quality of life and the style of the house, so he can’t choose to buy it. He notarized the details page of the sofa, sued the merchant to the People’s Court of Chengdu District, Tianfu New District, Sichuan Province, and demanded triple compensation for "consumer fraud". At present, it is in the pre-litigation mediation stage and has not been formally filed.

On December 22, talking about this encounter, Mr. Su was angry and laughing.

"It is estimated that people in the circle will laugh to death, and buying a sofa can be burned (pitted)." Mr. Su said that the reply given by the e-commerce platform after the intervention was consistent with that of the merchant. "The merchant said that it was a second-layer leather, and the platform believed it. The second-layer leather was not natural animal skin, but it was also reprocessed."

Mr. Su said that according to the light industry standard of China, the definition of leather sofa is very clear. "Either it is full leather, all of it is natural leather, or the contact surface is natural leather." In this case, he believes that it is only necessary to identify whether the sofa is natural leather, or even not. In the indictment, he did not put forward the appraisal, but advocated that the "appraisal fee" should be borne by the seller. "Now there is a complete chain of evidence to prove that it is false. If the merchants are dissatisfied, they can submit an appraisal to the court. In the end, they lose the case, and this appraisal fee is also borne by them."

The order is displayed as genuine leather.

Merchant response

"It’s not high-quality leather, it’s two-layer leather."

Red Star journalists searched in the official flagship store of Santa Monica Furniture on the e-commerce platform and found that this sofa no longer exists. Su Xiansheng’s page shows that this set of sofas has been removed from the shelf. The cracked sofa model is 8019A single-seat sofa. Its purchase link and details page indicate "selected leather", "high-quality leather" and "leather sofa" in many places. The page is attached with the Inspection Report of the National Leather Products Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, which shows that many sofa samples such as 8019 are made of "cow’s head leather".

The screenshot of Mr. Su’s chat with the customer service shows that the customer service directly stated that "this model we have been selling is not genuine leather, but high-quality leather, which is not the first layer of cowhide, but microfiber".

On December 19th, Commissioner Liu, the customer service of the official flagship store of Santa Monica Furniture, replied to an interview with Red Star News reporter that the customer service had just arrived at the post and there was an introduction deviation. This sofa used to sell genuine leather, but last year it was upgraded to high-quality leather, which is microfiber.

"It’s really genuine leather, but it’s not cow’s head leather, but two layers of genuine leather." Miss Liu said that there are several grades of leather, the first is the first layer of leather, and the second is the second layer of leather, which is called the second layer of transfer coating leather in the industry and belongs to the category of leather. For the same sofa, the first leather is 6000 yuan more expensive than the second leather.

"The sofa purchased by Mr. Su has exceeded the shelf life, and now there is a crack. Mr. Su suspects that it is not genuine leather. Even the most professional maintenance master can’t judge whether it is genuine leather from the naked eye." Miss Liu said that if Mr. Su thinks it is not genuine leather, he needs to ask a third-party professional organization for identification; Starting from solving the problem, Mr. Su’s sofa can only be repaired at present, and the expenses need to be borne by Mr. Su himself. "If Mr. Su is willing to solve it, we can reduce the cost."

According to public information, the second-layer cowhide is made by breaking the scraps of the first-layer cowhide, adding polyethylene material and re-bonding, and then spraying with chemical materials or covering with PVC and PU films. The State Light Industry Bureau requires that the new industry logo be implemented on April 1, 2011, and the first layer of cowhide and the first layer of patent leather be renamed as "cow leather"; The second layer of leather was renamed as "artificial leather with cowhide fiber".

Platform response:

"The second skin can be introduced as genuine leather"

On this matter, on December 19th, the Red Star journalist sent an interview outline to the e-commerce platform. On December 26th, the platform responded that the official flagship store of Santa Monica Furniture belonged to a third-party merchant, and the platform checked with the third-party merchant at the first time. After communication and verification, the merchant customer service answered the customer’s questions about the leather of the goods according to the materials of the recently sold goods, which led to misunderstanding. In addition, the 2017 test report uploaded by the merchant was confirmed to be suitable for the post-uploaded goods. At the same time, after verification with the testing agency, the second layer of leather marked on the products sold by the merchant when the customer purchased in 2016 can be introduced as genuine leather.

A snapshot of the products of third-party merchants provided by the platform shows that the product introduction is "selected premium leather", "the contact surface is thickened two-layer leather, and the non-contact surface is imitation leather". The public relations of the platform said that they have coordinated the merchants to carry out free maintenance and follow up the follow-up treatment for the damage of customers’ goods.

Lawyer’s statement

The calculation of limitation of action is controversial.

Lawyer Fang Yi of Beijing Junzejun (Chengdu) Law Firm believes that whether the goods sold by the seller are genuine leather or not depends on the appraisal of relevant appraisal institutions. If the identified goods do not belong to genuine leather, then the seller may be suspected of fraudulent sales and should pay compensation to consumers according to Article 55 of the Consumer Protection Law.

"Although it has been several years since the sale, consumers have only recently discovered and thought that their rights and interests have been damaged, and they have the right to bring a lawsuit to the court within three years from the date of knowing that their rights and interests have been damaged." In this dispute, although the seller excused himself on the grounds of exceeding the warranty period, the dispute in this case is not a product quality liability dispute, nor is the consumer claiming that the seller should bear the responsibility for the quality of the goods, but should pay compensation for the alleged sales fraud. Therefore, the seller’s defense is not the same as what consumers advocate.

Xing Lianchao, a lawyer of Sichuan Jihe Law Firm, believes that the limitation of action should be calculated from the date of delivery.

"After delivery, consumers should be able to judge whether the product quality is qualified or not, and the calculation will start from then on. However, at present, judges are more relaxed about the statute of limitations and generally will not be so strict." Xing Lianchao said that according to who advocates who gives evidence, consumers should identify whether the sofa is genuine leather. If the identification is not genuine leather, they can claim triple compensation.

(The original title is: "Lawyers bought leather sofas online, and the sofa cracked three times after three years, and the merchant: it was two layers of leather")