Hi!

This happened yesterday in Barcelona, the store I went is located in a shopping mall called Gran Vía 2.

I was so disgusted about their behaviour, but if you check out other reviews, there are many people that has been affected, not only myself. They hace been doind this for long and it makes me feel so sick.

I received the emails from this subscriptions and I can read “You have electronically sign our contract” and I didn’t sign anything at all, I just paid by card and didn’t give them my bank account, only my email.

This situation is so sad & it makes me feel
so angry. The phone is cool but they cannot do this type of bad practices 🙁

buy online,
and please do call costumer service and report this matter.
this really effect xiaomi name big time.

How do we report this to Xiaomi ?

I think that’s not an official Xiaomi store. In Portugal is the same, stores that use the Xiaomi name even though they are not oficial.

spain first..coz if you call global,it will take time and cunfusing to them to get connected to spain branch.
this happen in my area to and yup because of this my friend hate xiaomi.

I will try to find how to contact them then and see if they are aware of this situation

The make a deal with the brand and while the shop is not directly under their umbrella I find it difficult that they do agree with this kind of practices.

Hola! Me extrañó muchísimo que nos pidieran la cuenta y estaban insisitiendo exagerado para que se la diéramos. He mirado en otra Xiaomi Store de Barcelona, situada en el centro comercial La Maquinista, y cuando me meto en reseñas en google veo que pasa lo mismo, un monton de gente quejandose porque les meten suscripciones sin haberse enterado, es que esto es muy fuerte.. Estuve investigando y en Granada, y más sitios ha pasado lo mismo así que no creo que sea un suceso aislado.. Es muy triste

Here in Sweden we don’t have this problem.

Hmmm… Muy triste viniendo de una compañía que se promociona como una compañía que busca la satisfacción del cliente y que se supone que ganan dinero con los anuncios de MIUI… Te recomiendo que la próxima vez compres de Aliexpress, está muy bien y los precios son generalmente mucho más bajos que en las tienda Xiaomi y viene con garantía. Una pena que esto pase sinceramente :/

Si si, yo estoy de acuerdo, segurísimo que trabajan a comisión o tienes bonus por cumplir objetivos y por eso quieren vender este tipo de cosas. Yo no estoy en contra de que ofrezcan servicios, pero que lo digan claramente y que lo expliquen, no que se callen y mientan porque a nosotros en ningún momento nos explicaron nada, simplemente decian “la cuenta bamcaria es para que se active el seguro gratis del telefono que te dura un mes”. Y yo le preguntaba qué pasaba después y simplemente decian que nada, que dolo dura un mes y despues ya esta, pero fueron tan irrespetuosos y mentirosos como para no decir la verdad, y bien que la sabían

It’s just the title, that’s why I explain everything in the text. I don’t mean to place them all under the same umbrella.

The Mi store in Croatia doesn’t do that. File a complaint for sure.

Wow wild topic

You can’t state xiaomi stores are scammers like that, based on one experience.

I purchased my phone in Portugal, Mistoreportugal, and they asked me if i WANTED a free 30 day trial insurance, to which I said yes, then before the trial ended i called back to cancel it. Eventually they convinced me to stay since it was a good service and i decided I wanted it (again).

Possibily some stores are not as transparent as this one was and for sure I wouldn’t have kept it if they enforced me it but here they were pretty clear.

So here is the thing.There is NO OFFICIAL Xiaomi store.They are what they call themselves “Authorised Reseller”.So they may ask that to register your purchases to Xiaomi.But of fucking course it’s not their any right to ask for THAT much personal info.

Por suerte, vivimos en un país civilizado. Consulta a Protección de Datos, te orientarán si quieres denunciar. https://sedeagpd.gob.es/sede-electronica-web/vistas/infoSede/detallePreguntaFAQ.jsf?idPregunta=FAQ%2F00000

(Luckily, we live in a civilized country. Ask the Data Protection Agency, they will guide you if you want to make a report).

Thats strange, i walked into the closest to official authorized reseller Mi Store in london and bought various bits and had no issues related to info being asked for minus an email. I wish i did go for the Note 8T when i was there instead of the Note 7 online (a year ago i went there too) but still no issues with info being grabbed

Exactly, that’s what I thought. But i’m not against stores offering services, but explain them to the consumers with 100% transparency. I was so shocked because they never talked to me about those subscriptions to those companies, that have nothing to do with Xiaomi, I was so shocked that they were such a liars.

Thanks for the heads up

Hey, Portuguese person here. When I bought my Xiami phone they did indeed ask me for some information, including my bank account number, but it seems to have only been for the insurance.

The only emails I got were from the insurance and I have never noticed any unusual debits to my account. The only thing I had to keep in mind was to call the insurance directly to downgrade my insurance to a cheaper plan when the free month was up.

I think contacting customer support or Xiaomi directly would be a good idea, it’s very weird to me that they would sign you up for other stuff.

I bought a Mi Band on sale at a small Mi Zone kiosk at a local shopping center (before it all closed, in I think February?). I asked for it, looked at it, paid and the only reason they wanted my email was for the receipt (our government mandates receipts, either printed or electronic). I gave it to them since it makes it easier to not lose it in case I need to RMA it. No shady sale attempts or anything.

I live in Taiwan and frequently use the XiaoMi stores here, never had any problems or bad customer experience. Sucks this happened to you but hopefully its isolated to just this store.

That’s the person working there trying to pull scams, not Xiaomi. Hopefully they will be taken care of.

I’d check the EU Data Protection Regulation because this really seems like a big no no on their part.
I bought stuff here in Portugal (bracelet and humidity sensor) in a mi store and was not asked for any additional info.

Report them to Xiaomi!

Fuck pccomponentes My amazfit broke and they didn’t want to take it in warranty because they said it was my fault (Spoiler: It wasn’t) even after amazfit told me it was a factory defect.

Authorised Mi Store in Singapore, never had an issue like this.

Hi! I’ve already done that, they have many reviews like mine, other people have been scammed as well 🙁

Pide la hoja de reclamaciones.

Same problem with the same shop. Unsuscribed when I reached home.

They need to be reported, this cannot be legal 🙁

Honestly, I don’t want other people to be suffering this experience.

Op needs to see this

Sirve bastante, te aconsejo encarecidamente hacer una.

Si no te dan una, puedes llamar a la policía. Tienen que darte una.

“Insurance upsell” at the cash register used to be pretty common in the UK too.

If you bought any electrical goods in a big box store they would always launch a sales pitch on insurance (with varying degrees of implied necessity) when you came to pay.

Not had it happen in a while now but it used to all the time.

I f*cking don’t understand why a company that seems to have products with a good quality/price ratio (writing from a mi9T) needs to do this..

Chinese companies really need to learn some trivial customer psychology..

I’m really mad at the store I bought it in particular. It’s super true that the devices are cool, but it’s not possible that Xiaomi let’s these stores do these type of illegal practices, like I don’t understand at all 🙁

Deberías pedir la hoja de reclamaciones, no le tengas miedo, yo lo he hecho varias veces y no te ponen pegas porque no pueden, como te pongan cualquier impedimento, puedes llamar a la policía y les meten un puro gordo.

En la hoja de reclamaciones sólo cuentas lo que ha pasado, de forma objetiva, te dan una copia y llega a consumo donde harán una resolución que te comunicarán por correo.

No tienes nada que perder ni vas a estar en riesgo, tienes derechos como consumidor.

A mi me han dado la razón cuando he puesto una reclamación, como lo gestionen luego con el establecimiento ya no es asunto mío, yo lo hago para que no engañen a otras personas de la misma forma que nos lo has comunicado, te lo agradezco.

/u/iwannalearncoding I’m sorry to say but when I lived in Barcelona, I usually went to that same store, located in Gran Via 2 mall, and the experience was absolutely nothing like OP is saying. I purchased devices, home appliances and lots of stuff there, it was my go-to Mi store in Barcelona, and when I got a Mi 9T last year, they, of course, tried to sell me the assurance, but it was optional. They had flyers laying all around and gave me one, asked me to think about it and come back in less than 1 week if I wanted to contract it. This kind of technique is the same I’ve seen for example in completely unrelated tech stores in this same city, such as FNAC Las Arenas, where they tried to convince me to get an assurance for my headphones.

I personally feel like you are making a mountain out of molehill, perhaps you didn’t pay enough attention to what they were offering you at first and accepted unknowingly, or maybe it was the other way around, maybe the storefront guy wasn’t being clear enough and asked you something vague about wanting to get an assurance and upon agreeing, he then kept going with the regular process for it, but I’m quite confident that, at some point, a yes/no question was asked regarding you wanting to get an assurance for the device, because that’s exactly how I got treated the several other times I bought electronics in that same store in specific, and in Barcelona in general.

One last important thing to note, is that all Mi stores in Spain aren’t directly managed by Xiaomi themselves, not even Xiaomi/Mi Spain. For example, Mi Store located in Gran Via 2 is actually managed by BALMORE ATLANTIC, S.L.U. (You can check this in your receipt btw), just like La Maquinista’s, Finestrelles’ & Splau’s stores, whereas other stores like the ones in Granollers and Tarragona are managed by MY TECH RETAIL DISTRIBUTION, SL., and so on and so forth. So, although they use official branding and are licensed by Xiaomi to do business, the ones you should target while putting up a claim are those companies, not Xiaomi. I hope this helps you out.

edit: grammar/spelling

As I said, I’ve never heard or seen a single Xiaomi store scam anyone outside of your account. So it seems like an issue with that store or laws that have to do with your particular country than it is an issue with Xiaomi.

Well, first off your GMaps review had something going on, because it’s now deleted and can’t be accessed with the link you provided. Second, I’ve been reading the reviews, just like you asked me, and most of the 1 star ones have something in common, a signature. If you sign a contract, no matter the first month is free or not, it is the consumers responsibility to know what they are being signed up for (yes, I know they are now using the employees phones to do this operation, and it should not be that way, should happen with a physically signed contract. But a signature, although digital, is definitely required). Your situation is particular because you have stated no contracts were signed, but you were told so, and that’s unlawful, but for the rest of the comments they do all have in common having signed the contracts, so although you use them to echo your issue, they were not the same as your particular experience.

When I say “pay attention”, I don’t mean to diminish your problem or situation, what I’m saying is that this is a common practice, not just at Xiaomi stores, and that it is under the consumer’s responsibility to know what they are being signed up for, and if not enough information or clarity is provided, to ask the storefront person that’s managing the transaction or straight up reject it. That’s exactly where they get us all. I am a consumer just like you, I also had to grow eyes on the back of my head in order not to fall to these. Perhaps I just got lucky the more-than-I-can-count times I was offered gadget insurance in a tech store in Barcelona, I don’t know anymore.

Also, do keep in mind the last paragraph of my original answer, these stores are not Xiaomi, they are 3rd parties which happen to have license to have a big chunky logo and sell a certain range of products, but they are absolutely free to sell you whatever else they want, may it be accessories or insurances like these.

I do hope your problem escalates and gets echoed as much as possible, and these stores get their license to be called Mi Stores revoked.

. You are not alone, check the “spam” tag at the reviews, currently there are 31 reporting the same issues or worse.

. I can’t believe that this is a Xiaomi policy, it’s probably related to employee/store commissions and misbehavior (at best).

. I agree, the title/topic is misleading, as I wrote before in a comment:

“. I can’t believe that this is a Xiaomi policy, it’s probably related to employee/store commissions and misbehavior (at best).”

En el texto especifico que esto me ha psado en una tienda en particular. Simplemente el titular es general.

I bought my Mi Band 4 in the same store and it shocks me that they have such shitty practices.

Thank goodness I bought my RN7 in MediaMarkt and not there

EDIT: Regarding the free warranty/insurance stuff, iirc they also asked me if I wanted it. They didn’t ask me any personal info (luckily) before rejecting it.

I bought phone from quite a helpful salesman at FNAC in Porto a few weeks ago. He offered me insurance, told me he uses it himself, but wasn’t pushy or deceptive like the OP.

most of the Xiaomi stores you see around the world are only distributors, not directly connected with Xiaomi. So, any management dealt with that store is not a liability of Xiaomi. It’s like they buy from Xiaomi, then re-sell it.

In this sub they are too many fanboys…

If you’re experiencing some problems with a xiaomi device, you can’t even describe the problem without being downvoted.. I’m actually glad the post itself is somehow upvoted.. I bet that you this post would have gather more votes (I mean it would have been more visible – I don’t care the points and it’s what it matters to make things change).

Anyway thanks for having shared this bad experience..

I took a look at the reviews of that place (and can understand all of them, am glad that my Spanish is good enough) and found that many experienced the same thing and they replied mostly by “Sorry for the bad experience. Please contact us at [email protected]“. I went to bymitu.com and found out that they’re an authorised reseller of Xiaomi Spain. Maybe you can also try contacting them (although I have a hunch that this is just their standard business practice) in addition to Xiaomi Spain.

True, I’ve seen a lot of unofficial stores put up a giant Mi logo and sell exclusively Xiaomi products.

Same thing happened to me. Xiaomi store in Madrid, Parquesur mall. Shady shady dealings, I had to specifically ask them why they wanted my bank account number, three times, until they told me about the insurance cost, and then I had to make them cancel everything and told them I thought it was shameful and a shady dirty practice. I left very angry. Even if the phone I took was good and it’s working fine, I left with a tainted impression of the whole brand.

I had the same EXACT experience on a store hundreds of kilometers away, in Madrid.

En burbuja?

I was scammed in a similar way by an unofficial Movistar store in Buenos Aires. They claimed to be an official service, and then proceeded to sign me up for services I didn’t ask, when I was trying to do something else.
I had to go to a proper Movistar store to undo what they did. And had to pay a cancellation fee.
It’s very likely to be an unofficial reseller masking as a proper one.

I’m sure you’re right but, as I said, he was polite, helpful and wasn’t pushy. He told me the price and invited me to take it or leave it.

I dropped the phone and cracked the screen within 3 weeks so, in hindsight, would have been better taking it.