A Henan TV Sting Found Three of Five Repairmen Inventing Faults on a Working Stove
A Henan TV consumer-dispute programme rigged a gas stove with two trivial faults and sent five repairmen from three national platforms. Three invented faults that didn't exist; two told the truth — a lesson in why so many Chinese households distrust home-repair services.
A working gas stove was the test of a sting operation last week by Xiaoli Bangmang (小莉帮忙), a Henan TV programme known for mediating consumer disputes, and the results explain why so many Chinese households distrust home-repair services.
The reporters rigged a gas stove with two trivial faults: a dead igniter battery, which costs about five yuan, and a safety valve that had swung shut — the device's normal off position. Fixing either costs nothing. They then ordered repair visits from three of the country's biggest home-service platforms: Woodpecker (啄木鸟), Swan Home (天鹅到家), and 58 Daojia (58到家). Three of the five technicians who arrived invented faults that did not exist.
The Woodpecker technician charged 260 yuan for a "circuit fault" and a broken switch assembly, priced at 316 yuan on his app and discounted to 260. While the reporter stepped out of the kitchen, he lifted the cooktop lid himself and murmured the real diagnosis: "it's just out of battery." He had secretly swapped the battery while the reporter was out, then charged 260 yuan for a fault that did not exist. The Swan Home worker called the closed valve a "broken assembly" and billed 244 yuan, then twisted it open and took the money. The 58 Daojia man diagnosed a "pulse igniter" fault at 160 yuan.
The two honest ones were the opposite. The fourth technician saw the problem at a glance, flipped the valve open, and told the reporter: "你这30块花得冤枉，灶没问题" — "your 30 yuan was wasted, the stove is fine." The fifth charged only the 30-yuan call-out fee.
The dishonesty is not a few bad apples; it is a market structure. The report notes that the Woodpecker platform has exceeded 12,000 complaints on one review platform, and observed that repairmen spend their half-hour visit calculating how to overcharge, not diagnosing problems. One Weibo user advised: get multiple quotes, ask for an itemized breakdown before you commit to anything. Another called the trap 小病大修、无病乱修 — minor illness treated as major repair, nonexistent faults conjured whole — exploiting the information gap between industry and household.
The sting's most telling number is the 12,000 complaints against Woodpecker alone — and the platforms have not yet responded to it.