Xiaomi New Tagline ‘It Wasn’t Me’- Xiaomi Slammed by Chinese TV for Deceit

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August 25, 2014 by ...

ChXiaomi was recently slammed by China’s CCTV investigators for deceiving customers about the mAh capacity of its battery banks. A good percentage of the banks had less than the 5200 mAh claimed. According to Chinese officials, Xiaomi had knowingly mislead customers and sold them an inferior product.

Such things happen and consumers can be forgiving, as long as they are convinced that their needs are being addressed and the issue rectified. Xiaomi, it would seem, does not take such a course of action. In fact, what is troubling, however, was Xiaomi’s ‘it wasn’t me’ response to the allegations. In what seems to be Xiaomi’s modus operandi in light of bad news, they initially deny and then stall while gauging the fallout instead of being forthright.

In this case, Xiaomi claimed that the problem was that the Chinese testing body had not actually tested genuine Xiaomi units, but fakes. They went on to say that the market is flooded with Xiaomi fakes which are substandard and hurting the image of the firm. Chinese consumers, however, were not convinced.

 (Chinese character for deceit)

Here are translations of what Chinese had to say about Xiaomi’s response:

‘Xiaomi, you mean to say that the government is so dumb that they tested over 200 fake Xiaomi units? If it is true, then are there any real Xiaomi products on the market?’

‘This is a typical reply from Xiaomi. They never take responsibility for their products. When their phones catch fire, it must have been a knockoff. Your Xiaomi breaks and you try to return it and they say it was a fake, refuse to take it back.’

‘Hey Xiaomi, I am willing to buy 500 units and send them to the government to be tested. How many do you think will actually have 5200mAh?’

‘Any time a Xiaomi product has a problem Lei Jun blames it on the fakes. Are there any real Xiaomi products?’

‘I think Xiaomi is right. After all, nobody can buy so many Xiaomi products, they are always sold out.’

The theme running through all these complaints is how Xiaomi refuses to take ownership of their problems and passes the buck. This is the same thing that they did when confronted with the fact that their phones had been stealing user data and covertly shipping it off to Beijing. They initially denied it, then said they would check into the problem and in the end issued a lukewarm response.

It is alarming that such a young company as Xiaomi could have so many quality and security issues in such a short period of time. It could be nothing more than growing pains, but then again who knows. Absent transparency from Lei Jun and company, we are left to wonder.