17% of Massage Chair Rental Service Users Experience 'Quality and After-Sales Service Issues'

Korea Consumer Agency, Results of Investigation on 4 Companies

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] About 2 out of 10 consumers who used massage chair rental services experienced damages such as poor quality or inadequate after-sales service (A/S).

On the 9th, the Korea Consumer Agency conducted an online survey from September 7 to 17 targeting 900 people who had experience using massage chair rental services from four companies: Bodyfriend, HuTech Industry, LG Electronics, and SK Magic. The results showed that 17.0% of respondents reported experiencing consumer damages during the service usage process.

The damage experience rates by company were SK Magic 29.3%, LG Electronics 19.3%, HuTech Industry 15.7%, and Bodyfriend 11.0%. Regarding types of damages (multiple responses allowed), 'poor quality/defects' accounted for the highest at 45.1%, followed by 'poor A/S' at 43.1%, 'insufficient user manual information' at 36.6%, and 'difficulty in mid-term contract termination' at 21.6%.

The main reason for choosing the rental service provider was 'excellent massage chair performance' at 41.7%, followed by 'reasonable monthly rental fee' at 13.6%, and 'massage chair design' at 10.0%. The reason for using rental services instead of purchasing the massage chair outright was 'the lump-sum purchase price is expensive' at 49.8%. 'Free A/S during the rental period' accounted for 17.3%, and 'additional discount benefits' for 16.1%.

Regarding service satisfaction, the overall satisfaction score for the four companies was an average of 3.65 out of 5 points, generally evaluated as favorable. By company, LG Electronics scored 3.76, SK Magic 3.66, Bodyfriend 3.65, and HuTech Industry 3.59. By category, 'service product satisfaction,' which evaluates core services such as price and installation/moving, scored the highest at 3.84. 'Service quality satisfaction,' which evaluates the overall service provision process, scored 3.78, and 'service experience satisfaction,' which asks about the frequency of positive and negative emotions during the service experience, scored 3.59.