Chapter 481: Now That's a Good Thing!

In this day and age, for many young people, a television is actually just a piece of furniture.

The group of people who watch TV is just that—a group; the reason a TV is still placed in a new home is purely for the sake of appearances.

Zhou Yi bought this TV at the same time as his computer, but while the computer is turned on every day, the TV hasn't been turned on once since he bought it.

The Company has indeed been affected, but as far as the current situation goes, the impact hasn't been particularly significant.

The profits of the internet department have indeed dropped quite a bit, but for Zhou Yi, it doesn't matter at all.

He doesn't need to make money through the Company, and the Company's current cash flow is extremely massive.

However, since it has been affected after all, Zhou Yi has already instructed the Legal Department to prepare to get to work.

Defaming an individual is Defamation, and damaging someone else's commercial reputation by fabricating and spreading false facts is a criminal act.

And this is a Public Prosecution Case!

Many people say that large companies are above hiring an Internet Water Army; those who say this may have never truly dealt with large companies.

You don't even need to deal with large companies; back then, the sensational commercial disparagement case involving two major milk enterprises saw quite a few people arrested.

That was an extremely classic case of commercial disparagement carried out step-by-step through an Internet Water Army; many people probably don't know it by that description, but many surely remember the phrase "deep-sea fish oil fraud."

Therefore, regarding those so-called boycotts online, although he doesn't care, it doesn't mean you can just say whatever you want online.

Looking at it now, it seems there is no act of fabricating facts, so there is no rush; let the bullets fly for a while.

Thinking this to himself, Zhou Yi turned on the TV, preparing to take a look at this TV he had bought but never turned on.

It seems to be a big brand, what was it called? Haili?

The TV turned on normally with no issues, and then...

"Who can tell me what the hell this is? A promotional ad for Jianbao?"

Zhou Yi looked at the advertisement appearing on the TV with a look of astonishment; do TVs now have Boot Advertisements?

Thanks to his previous persistence with those platforms, Zhou Yi is now extremely sensitive to advertisements.

He vaguely remembers that those splash screen advertisements on mobile apps must be set to be skippable.

Although... the companies behind those mobile apps set the skip button to be very small, often causing you to misclick when you try to tap skip.

But they do have that feature.

However, looking at the ad on the TV, there was no skip button.

Looking closely at the ad duration, thirty seconds; when it reached the last five seconds, a prompt appeared saying it could be skipped...

Five seconds, they really know how to play the game.

If you ask if he is angry now, he isn't; it's only thirty seconds, and Zhou Yi feels that ordinary people wouldn't be bothered either.

It's mainly that he feels this thing is a bit wrong.

Or rather, having hung around with Lawyer Fang too much, he is extremely sensitive to the boundaries of rights and obligations.

An advertisement, if you force it upon me without my consent, then I will definitely feel uncomfortable.

He opened his phone and searched online; opinions online were divided, with some saying that as long as you contact the relevant Customer Service Department, you can have the service turned off.

But others said that even if you contact customer service, there is no way to turn it off, and Zhou Yi even dug up relevant cases.

The Consumer Protection Committee of a major province in the south once carried out rectifications regarding this incident, and it is said that the rectification effect at the time seemed quite good.

As a result, half a year later, there were reports saying that the Smart TV Boot Advertisement had made a comeback...

This feels remarkably similar to the Big Data Price Discrimination from back then.

At the time, companies like Ah Huang and Xiao Lan had specifically sworn that they would absolutely not engage in Big Data Price Discrimination...

Facts have proven that in the face of making money, what enterprises said in the past can all be treated as bullshit.

However, since some people say that contacting the customer service can turn off this ad, how about... trusting them one more time?

Sigh, it really is a case of "customer service abuses me a thousand times, yet I treat customer service like my first love."

Most importantly, if you don't exhaust all relief measures, there is no way to trigger a System Task.

Sometimes, when you really think about it, even someone like Zhou Yi has to think carefully before being persistent about such things; what can ordinary users do?

Although we have the Consumer Rights Protection Law, in the end, in some areas, the gap in status between consumers and merchants is still too large.

He took out his phone and started looking for customer service; after searching for a long time, he finally found the customer service number for this brand.

Zhou Yi vaguely remembers that this TV wasn't bought online, but was bought together during the Company's last bulk purchase.

Of course, this was using Zhou Yi's own money; in this regard, Zhou Mouren is still very careful.

He can be persistent whenever he wants, sending this person in today and that person in tomorrow; that is all his freedom.

But, he must also be watched by others.

This is what Lawyer Fang said back then: rights and obligations are always a unity of opposites; if you want to be persistent, then you must be prepared to be the target of others' persistence.

Still using his backup phone number, he quickly dialed the call; like other customer service lines, it required transferring for a long time before finding a human agent.

"Hello, I am Haili after-sales customer service, employee number 9527, how can I help you?"

The voice sounded quite nice, so Zhou Yi said: "My TV has a boot advertisement; please turn this off for me."

In Haidong Province, Qing City, in a large Customer Service Department, Zhang Jing, the agent with number 9527, listened to the voice on the phone without the slightest surprise.

Just like the advertisements on many platforms, TV Boot Advertisements are also a very, very large profit point!

Don't think that it's just an advertisement, how much money can it make?

You only need to know that whenever consumers react very strongly, but the Manufacturer refuses to change it no matter what, then there is no need to think—it must be highly profitable.

Profitable to the point where they believe they don't need to pay any attention to consumers.

Even if this is a Tort, even if it is illegal.

Otherwise, there are people willing to do business that leads to the executioner's blade, but no one does business that loses money; this is an unchanging truth.

There had indeed been rectification orders issued by the Consumer Protection Committee of a certain province before, but the Consumer Protection Committee is, after all, just a Consumer Protection Committee and does not have any substantive power.

With such huge profits, they certainly cannot give it up.

The Company now receives so many similar calls that it has long since established a set of clear scripts.

"Sir, please state your TV model."

Zhou Yi quickly stated the TV model; he always comes prepared when calling customer service.

"May I ask how to address you?"

"My surname is Huo, Huo Pengfei!"

Zhang Jing said: "Alright, Mr. Huo, let me explain this to you: this boot advertisement actually belongs to content filling."

"Because our Smart TV needs time to boot up and buffer content, if there were no advertisements, you wouldn't be able to see any programs during this time anyway."

"So, for the time being, we use advertisements to fill it, which actually allows you to browse a bit while you wait..."

Listening to the nonsensical explanation from the other side, Zhou Yi did not feel surprised.

The attitude of customer service is generally good, you don't need to worry about that, even if it is outsourced customer service.

However, they simply will not solve the problem.

You say you want to buy a melon, and they say that as a melon seller, it is impossible to sell you an unripe one...

It is the same here; Zhou Yi says he wants to turn off the advertisements, and the other side explains a whole lot about why these advertisements exist.

But standing from the consumer's position, we just want you to turn this off, why are you spouting nonsense!

"Please wait a moment, I want to turn off the boot advertisement. I would rather look at your trademark while booting up than watch an advertisement. Is that clear?" Zhou Yi said directly.

Zhang Jing maintained a smile on her end: "Mr. Huo, I understand what you mean, but according to our Company's current regulations, only some older models have the function to turn off advertisements, and it is quite troublesome to implement."

"I think you can just wait a moment; after all, it is only thirty seconds, and you can skip it in the last five seconds..."

Zhou Yi had to interrupt the other party again: "So you mean to say that there is no way for me to turn off the boot advertisement on this TV, right?"

"Do you know that you have already infringed upon my rights by doing this?"

Zhang Jing curled her lips; another one talking about the law.

But honestly, ever since that A Yi on the internet started posting those videos about being serious, many people now start by talking about the law when they call customer service.

Saying that you have infringed on this or that.

In Zhang Jing's view, this is just laughable; if you want to talk about the law, just go to the Court to talk about it, why bother contacting customer service.

However, she still said: "Mr. Huo, you can't really call this infringement. Look at those apps on mobile phones; they all have splash screen advertisements. If you put it that way, then they are all infringing, aren't they?"

"That is not the logic..."

"So I will confirm one last time, you are certain that you will not allow it to be turned off, right?" Zhou Yi finally lost his patience and asked directly.

"This requires our staff to judge based on the model. Why don't you wait a moment, and we will notify you once we have a result."

Zhou Yi did not speak again and hung up directly. In the past, I believed the nonsense of those customer service agents, and every time I waited, there was no result in the end.

But for now, I can only wait.

On Zhang Jing's side, she felt a bit helpless listening to the dial tone on the phone, but she still reported it according to the regulations.

Anyway, whether this kind of thing can be solved depends on the situation.

If the fuss is made too big, maybe it really gets turned off; if it's just calling customer service to complain, then let them complain.

Isn't that the purpose of customer service?

In this regard, big companies and small shops are the same: distribution according to the level of disturbance.

The black brother really went in. Domestic prisons are not like those abroad; those criminals abroad can even exercise in prison.

Don't even think about that domestically, but I reckon the black brother can learn a good skill in tailoring; many people nowadays don't know how to be treading the sewing machine!

A few days passed in a flash.

The video about the black brother had already been produced.

Sitting in front of the computer, Zhou Yi began his voiceover.

"Hello everyone, my audience lords, I am your old friend A Yi. It is another forced counterattack. Actually, I really don't like sending people to prison, but there are always people who fly up like moths to a flame, and I have no choice."

"The cause of the matter is very simple. Look here, I was eating, and the foreigner behind me was squeezing me in all sorts of ways..."

Zhou Yi mainly talked about the situation where the conflict occurred, letting everyone understand that his Lawsuit against Han Juan, as well as those who committed Defamation and Insult against him online, all had reasons.

It is not that he, Zhou Yi, likes to shout and yell; people just don't listen when spoken to nicely.

"Look, they didn't listen, and this woman even said that if I felt squeezed, I should go to a place nearby that wasn't crowded, because the other party was a foreigner."

"So we started arguing, and then my camera was pulled down and taken away by the other party."

After the conflict video ended, it was the recordings of Chen Li and Zhou Yi each contacting the other to demand the return of the camera.

It was also presented in the form of Stick Figure Animation.

This was also to let everyone know that before the Criminal Private Prosecution, he, Zhou Yi, had already given countless opportunities.

Of course, the focus of this video was not here, but further on, regarding the Lawsuit against those people on the internet.

"There were more than fifty people in total against whom I filed a Criminal Private Prosecution. Among them, the families of about forty people either came to Jingzhou to apologize or apologized over the phone. Their attitude was sincere, so I withdrew the lawsuits."

"As for those who apologized in the void on the internet, sorry, there were actually quite a few people before I filed the Lawsuit, but they chose to apologize after seeing the Lawyer's Letter, so I did not pursue their responsibility."

"So, everyone, in such a situation, must I accept the apology? If I don't accept it, am I too cruel?"

Although he said he didn't care about these words, the necessary explanation still had to be given. Those who were sent in were all those who deserved to be sent in.

As for the game behind the verdict of the black brother, Zhou Yi did not say; experts on the internet had already analyzed it long ago.

That brother's matter, actually, from the moment the other party's *** intervened, it was no longer a simple legal issue, so there was really nothing to say.

Checked front and back, no problems, click upload!

Soon, the audience lords of Zhou Mouren on the internet saw this update.

"Wake up, ** has long forgotten!"

Yuan Jie held her forehead and started watching. The video title was as flamboyant as ever, and the commentary voice in the video was as kidney-deficient and weak as ever.

The attention attracted by this video was not as great as before.

There is no help for it; once everyone has scolded you, they basically won't want to listen to your explanation anymore.

But fortunately, Zhou Mouren still has many loyal viewers, so those who had previously called Zhou Yi cruel were all tagged.

"@June Flying Snow, come out and take a beating. Why aren't you saying anything now? Didn't you say A Yi was too cruel? He gave so many opportunities and just wanted a hollow apology; if you had just made a phone call, you wouldn't have ended up inside!"

"I just feel that many people now think apologies and forgiveness are a matter of course, but in this world, where is there anything that is a matter of course?"

Those who were tagged were naturally unconvinced and stood up to fire back; they didn't dare scold A Yi, but they dared to lash out at you!

And so it became a chaotic mess again, but under these circumstances, the buzz was there.

At the very least, it let many people know that A Yi is not what they said he was, and boycotting Tenda doesn't seem necessary.

Meanwhile, in Jingzhou, in a Small Residential District, Xu Yufeng was replying with great proficiency; she is that "June Flying Snow" on the internet.

She was also the first to stand up and say she wanted to boycott Tenda!

In this world, there is no such thing as an event without a cause; for Xu Yufeng, Zhou Yi is her enemy.

She just wants Tenda to go bankrupt!

Some people might feel that if you admit defeat and move away, then it seems like it's over.

But in reality, for someone who holds a grudge, they might remember a small matter for a lifetime, let alone for Xu Yufeng, who had originally lost so much face in the Small Residential District that she could no longer stay there.

Of course, the reason she dared to say this was because of one thing: when Zhou Yi got serious with her back then, he didn't use legal means in the true sense.

He made her submit through the power of money.

So she didn't personally experience the feeling of being "criminally liable," and because of that, she wanted to make Zhou Yi go bankrupt to see what he could do when he had no money.

Looking at the news on the internet right now, Xu Yufeng cursed there: "Why haven't they gone bankrupt yet? I just don't believe it!"

Especially seeing no reaction from the other side made Xu Yufeng feel that everything she had done was in vain.

At home, her daughter-in-law still said nothing, but she felt that her mother-in-law had already become obsessed.

…………

Zhou Mouren, of course, did not know he was being kept in mind by this old acquaintance, but even if he knew, it wouldn't matter.

In the two years he has been getting serious, he has offended countless people; let alone someone wanting him to go bankrupt, even if someone wanted his life, it would be normal.

Getting serious is a matter of offending people.

The focus now is still this Boot Advertisement.

He was strolling around the Company, and Zhou Yi already felt that this Customer Service Department had no news again, but just at this moment, he received a call from the other side.

"Mr. Huo, regarding this, after our staff's inquiry, your current model's system version does not support turning off the Boot Advertisement for the time being."

"Of course, please don't misunderstand; it is only temporarily unsupported. With the System Update, it will be able to be turned off in the future."

System Update... Zhou Yi rolled his eyes; he had also seen some complaints on the internet during this period.

Many people were saying that it definitely wasn't there when they bought it, but since it's a Smart TV, it must be forced to update.

And after the update, this Boot Advertisement appeared...

If they had simply said when buying the TV that this thing comes with a Boot Advertisement, then that would be fine.

Not being able to turn it off is pure nonsense!

"So it still can't be turned off, right? Then can I assume that you are still committing a Tort after I have notified you?" Zhou Yi said.

"Mr. Huo, it's really not like that. How about this, we will have a higher-level customer service representative call you back later to explain..."

As soon as these words came out, Zhou Yi thought of the high-level supervisor he had encountered before; problems that could be solved could basically be solved by the first customer service representative.

If they couldn't be solved, then even some high-level customer service supervisor was just nonsense.

"I want a solution, not an explanation. Forget it, since that is your plan, then I can only take the legal route to solve the problem."

Under normal circumstances, the customer service of many companies would take this sentence seriously, but it would only be taken seriously.

Because there are too few people who really choose to file a Lawsuit; there might be only one in many users, which doesn't count for anything in the company's basic foundation.

So Zhang Jing only recorded and reported it according to the procedure; she was also just customer service and had no authority to handle it.

Although the Litigation against these big companies is increasing now because of Zhou Yi's seriousness, for big companies, the basic foundation has not moved.

After all, there are few people who get serious, and relative to this part of the profit, it doesn't count for anything.

Zhou Yi hung up the phone, and about an hour later, the so-called high-level customer service supervisor called.

It was the same rhetoric: this model version cannot be cancelled for the time being and needs to wait for a subsequent System Update.

Of course, whether it will be cancelled after the update is unclear.

Inside the Haili headquarters, high-level customer service supervisor Zuo Anmei was trying hard to explain.

In fact, some brand TVs now have no Boot Advertisement because many people are disgusted by it.

And those with advertisements remain firm; the bottom line for the Customer Service Department is that unless the other party's attitude is really particularly tough and they won't give up until it's cancelled, otherwise it is always temporarily impossible to cancel.

Of course there is a way to cancel; every TV has an independent serial number. As long as this number is included in the list, there is no problem if the advertisement is not pushed to this TV during the push.

This is also the current mainstream practice.

Zuo Anmei was also probing the other party during this exchange, wanting to know the other party's thoughts.

However, to her surprise, the man named Huo Pengfei on the other side did not have any emotional output after listening to her words.

It was completely different from those who would scold in various ways when calling customer service.

"Okay, I understand, then that's it, thank you for your explanation."

After speaking, the phone hung up, and Zuo Anmei sat at her workstation with a confused face. What kind of reaction is this? Was it solved or not?

But looking at the situation, it seems he accepted the explanation...

So she didn't do anything else; even if there is a Lawsuit, it won't be a big deal, and they can just cancel it through Mediation at that time.

Normal people wouldn't get serious about this issue.

She didn't know that Zhou Mouren had already seen what he wanted.

The system interface displayed the long-lost three sentences.

Option 1: Forget it, forget it, it's only thirty seconds, no need to be so serious about this; I can spend all day scrolling through short videos.

Option 2: This is too bullying! Go directly to their door, be serious with them face-to-face, and make them accept your education in person!

Option 3: In a civilized society, use legal means to make the other party accept education.

It's back, all the feelings are back!

Grandpa System, it finally returned when it saw that he was living such a miserable life.

There is no need to hesitate; Zhou Yi still intends to make a living in Jingzhou, so he must choose Option 3.

"I choose Option 3!"

"Event initiated!"

Event Name: Boot Advertisement cannot be turned off, and the Manufacturer makes excuses with various reasons.

Event Goal: Through various legal means, make the TV Manufacturer receive education.

Current Event Progress: 0%

Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment when he saw the event goal; TV Manufacturer, this scope is quite large, but the one that had a conflict with him is Haili...

Forget it, since Grandpa System has such a requirement, he will just complete it; why bother with the rest.

The Virtual Account funds have arrived, so the question is, how to handle this matter.

Zhou Yi thought for a while and went to the Legal Department; inside the Legal Department, Wang Daoren was leading a newcomer to provide consultation.

The workhorses of the Tengda Legal Department are truly satisfied this time.

It's just that Liu Kang's eye sockets are a bit dark right now.

Who said Tengda doesn't work overtime? Damn it, this overtime work is truly killing people!

Of course, this is indeed voluntary overtime; those cases are ones he basically couldn't come into contact with when he was at the law firm.

Because they don't make money.

But here, these cases can be seen everywhere, and one really wants to do them upon seeing them...

This is another requirement for Tengda to recruit legal staff: one must truly like this industry.

In this state, Liu Kang really feels pain and happiness at the same time.

Wang Daoren had just finished the consultation when he saw Zhou Yi, and he quickly stood up and asked: "General Manager Zhou, is there anything you need?"

"Me? I do have a matter here. Lao Huo isn't here, so you help me brainstorm first."

Soon, Zhou Yi explained the situation.

Wang Daoren immediately patted his chest and said: "General Manager Zhou, you can leave this case to me; I will file the Lawsuit, and I guarantee we can win it!"

"And we might even be able to claim some Tort damages."

Although it certainly won't be much, if it's there, it must be claimed.

Zhou Yi waved his hand and said: "I know this lawsuit can be won, but... winning it doesn't hurt or itch for the TV Manufacturer."

"Besides, what's the use of just me winning? This problem still can't be solved."

If you want to be serious, you have to be serious to the end; if you know this matter is unreasonable, then you must solve it from the root!

This... Wang Daoren didn't quite know what to say; besides filing a lawsuit, what other way is there?

"General Manager Zhou, it seems there is no better way; I thought about the Criminal Case aspect, but it's just a TV advertisement, there's no way to send the TV Manufacturer in..."

Liu Kang next to him was sweating; is this the way the Tengda Legal Department solves problems?

Zhou Yi shook his head and said: "What are you talking about? This is a civil dispute, how did we get to sending people in? Am I that kind of person?"

"Forget it, asking you is like asking nothing."

I'm worried that no one will fight such a lawsuit? Even if you lead a dog up there it would... well, that wouldn't work, but letting Zhou Xinran go would definitely be no problem.

Soon, he dialed Fang Dazhuang's phone, and after it connected, he waited five seconds as usual before hanging up.

Nothing to say; same time, same Lao Difang, same... old friend.

Time reached the afternoon; inside the Old Place Cafe, Fang Dazhuang walked in, holding an umbrella as it was raining outside.

He casually placed the umbrella in the corner, followed the old rule of drinking coffee first; after the coffee with vinegar went down, he then said: "What's wrong? What's the matter this time? Didn't that black man get sent in?"

Zhou Yi was just about to speak when he suddenly asked: "Where is Xinran?"

"She took a case, it's a bit troublesome, she's probably miserable right now; are you concerned about her?"

"How could that be? Let's talk about business; I recently encountered this problem..."

After telling Fang Dazhuang about the matter, Zhou Yi said with some distress: "Tell me, Lawyer Fang, what should I do? Winning the lawsuit is useless."

"Even if I buy a pile of TVs, the result of the lawsuit would just be returning the goods, and it wouldn't cause any impact."

Fang Dazhuang smiled upon hearing this: "I thought it was something big; it's just this."

"Let me ask you, whose TV is it?"

"It's mine!"

"The TV is yours, so you're saying that advertisements are played on your TV, yet you don't get a share of the money?"

Fang Dazhuang chuckled and said: "You sued that Yuefu Residential Quarter before, so you should know that the advertising fees in those elevators also belong to you owners."

"So, for the TV's Boot Advertisement, do you think you should have a share?"

"This is a good thing, a money-making thing; why would you want to turn it off?"

…………

It's normal that you can't see the chapter comments; those who understand, understand. Don't ask, it's all the same.

A big chapter of seven thousand words, asking for monthly tickets! Thanks to Feimaowuyu, and the brothers for their tips, thank you.

Regarding this issue, I happened to buy a Smart TV in the first half of this year, so I conducted a special experiment. Some brands have absolutely none, some brands can be canceled if you find customer service and have a tougher attitude—that is the method of reporting the serial number—while some brands cannot be canceled at all. In short, it's a mixed bag.

(End of chapter)