Toy rental service has become a hot and difficult point of consumer complaints

Little children's toys of good quality often cost more than hundreds of thousands of dollars, and they are 'out of the cold' after playing for a few times, which gave birth to the sudden emergence of the toy rental industry. This is a good thing, but the reporter learned from the city's 12315 command center that in the past month, toy rental services have become a hot and difficult point for consumers to complain.

Renting toys saves time and trouble. However, when refunding toys to ask for a deposit, some businesses use various excuses to push back, causing consumers to spend a lot of time. There are even some unscrupulous merchants who refuse to run away, causing consumers to suffer losses. In this regard, the industry and commerce department reminds consumers that when handling toy rental services, they must carefully check the business qualifications of the business, agree in detail when signing the contract, and save relevant consumption credentials for future rights protection.

The toy rental market is booming

On the afternoon of December 22, reporters in a toy rental center located on Ping’an North Street saw a dazzling array of children’s toys of various sizes, from assembling building blocks. There are everything from toys to wooden horses and cars that can accommodate children. Ms. Qian, who came to rent toys, told reporters that she often came here to rent toys. This time she rented an assembled slide with swing toys for her nephew. 'This kind of large toy is still cost-effective to rent, the purchase price is too high, and the child's big toy is useless.' Ms. Qian said.

The so-called toy rental is a consumption method that pays a deposit, rents the toys that children like, and returns them when they don’t want to play. In this way, it can alleviate the consumption pressure of parents constantly buying new toys, and there is no need to worry about the disposal of obsolete toys.

The reporter learned that there are currently two main models for toy rental stores in provincial capitals. One is community stores in living quarters, and the other is O2O toy rental that uses Internet platforms to open stores. The threshold for both models is not high. According to industry insiders, the investment amount for opening a toy rental shop is about 30,000 to 60,000 yuan, which is much lower than investing in other industries. In particular, O2O toy leasing has developed rapidly and has become an emerging trend that has become popular in the past two years.