你能否分辨真正的实木家具?

At present, a lot of furniture retailers claim that their goods are made of solid wood, but the products are labeled with different names, like pure solid wood, complete solid wood, and solid wood veneer furniture. Can you tell the difference between these seemingly obscure labels?

"I can't tell. I only listen to the seller's introduction."

"I don't know how to go about selecting good solid wood furniture. I buy the one which they promote."

"I've no idea, because they look so real, I can't tell which one is solid wood and which one is not. The only choice is to listen to the seller."

Customers are unable to tell the difference, while some sellers are unable to provide consistent explanations.

"It's a piece of solid wood furniture, but it can't be called pure solid wood furniture, because there are high density fiberboards inside."

But why does a solid wood table made from American Alder contain high density fiberboards? Shortly afterwards, the seller corrected herself saying "no fiberboards were used to create this product; crumbled wood was used instead."

So, which part of the table is made from the so-called crumbled wood? The seller points it out to us.

"Right in the middle. It's covered by a layer of solid wood board."

Regardless of whether fiberboard or crumbled wood was used to make this table, it has been put in the middle layer of the product, out of sight from the customer. According to the seller, the solid wood board is only two millimeters thick.

Therefore, only the four legs and a layer on top are made of American alder; the materials for the other parts cannot be confirmed.

Industry insiders say furniture made from crumbled wood sells for the same amount of money as pure solid wood furniture, despite crumbled wood being a very cheap material. Some furniture companies add internal layers inside solid wood furniture, making it very hard for the average customer to tell the difference.

According to official standards, solid wood furniture can be categorized into three groups based on the amount of the solid wood present and the techniques used; namely, pure solid wood furniture, solid wood furniture and solid wood veneer furniture. The table in question is a veneered product, which should not be labeled as solid wood furniture, nor should it be sold at such a high price.

Some might say that customers can easily find out the materials from the labels on the products. However, a quick visit to a furniture market reveals that many product labels are conspicuously absent, while those labels that do exist lack most of the important information. Qiu Baochang is a lawyer working with the China customer Association.

"The merchandise label is very important to the customers. The furniture companies should respect the customers' right to knowledge; therefore, the information about the company name and address, material used and birthplace of the product should all be included. What's more, the price should be clearly marked."

Besides advocating clear product labels, Mr. Qiu suggests that the materials used should also be included in the contract when the customers decide to buy a product. Therefore, when disputes arise, customers will have a proper basis upon which to protect their rights.

For CRI, I'm Wang Jing.