Promises are difficult to keep, revealing a crisis of trust among customers in the door and window equipment industry.

In recent years, the domestic door and window industry has entered a period of transformation along with the iteration of the home decoration and commercial decoration markets. The upstream door and window equipment manufacturing sector has expanded rapidly under the demand, with a large number of small and medium-sized manufacturers entering the market. Industry competition has shifted from technology competition to the packaging of marketing rhetoric. "Promise-based marketing" has become the core means for many manufacturers to seize orders, but the underlying crisis of trust is gradually fermenting and has become a prominent problem restricting the healthy development of the industry.

According to feedback from several door and window manufacturing professionals, the most obvious exaggeration lies in the promises made during the pre-sales stage. Manufacturers' marketing personnel often make enticing claims: a certain CNC cutting equipment can "achieve a daily production capacity of 500 square meters," "the precision error is controlled within 0.1 millimeters," and "the core components are imported brands," even promising a "full refund if the production capacity does not meet the standard within six months." However, after the equipment arrives at the factory, the actual daily production capacity is only 50% to 60% of the advertised value, and the precision error often exceeds 0.3 millimeters. This leads to frequent problems such as large gaps and deformation during subsequent door and window assembly. The manufacturers then refuse to honor the refund promise, citing "the lack of skilled worker operation standards." Furthermore, the core components are actually from a niche domestic brand, which is seriously inconsistent with the advertised claims.

During the sales and after-sales stages, promises are often "reduced" or "skipped." Most manufacturers include vague clauses in their contracts: "Lifetime free repair" only covers labor costs, while consumables are charged at "20% above cost," far exceeding the market average; "24-hour on-site service" often becomes a mere promise on paper, with actual response times frequently ranging from 3 to 7 days, and no one responding during holidays; even worse, when equipment malfunctions due to non-human factors, manufacturers refuse warranty coverage on grounds of "improper use" or "inadequate maintenance," shifting all responsibility to the customer. One door and window factory contacted the manufacturer after its equipment's main shaft broke; the manufacturer initially demanded a so-called "abnormal operation video," then refused compensation on the grounds of "failure to perform regular maintenance as required," while the so-called "maintenance standards" were merely an unpublished paper list with no substantive oversight mechanism.

The crisis of trust stems from a confluence of factors within the industry. On one hand, the low barriers to entry in the window and door equipment industry allow many small and medium-sized manufacturers lacking core technologies to seize market share through low prices and exaggerated promises, willing to overdraw their credit for short-term gains. On the other hand, most window and door processing practitioners have limited knowledge of the professional parameters of the equipment, making them easily misled by marketing rhetoric. When seeking redress, they also face difficulties in providing evidence and high costs, often leading them to compromise. Furthermore, industry regulations are insufficient in their constraints on marketing promises. Existing quality standards mostly focus on the core performance of the equipment, lacking clear definitions regarding the execution of promises such as "capacity targets" and "after-sales service," leaving customers with no legal basis for seeking redress.

The rampant practice of failing to deliver on promises not only causes customers financial losses such as rework and work stoppages, but also leads to a continuous deterioration of the industry's reputation. Many customers, having learned their lesson, prefer to pay higher prices for recommendations from acquaintances rather than try unfamiliar brands, indirectly driving up transaction costs in the industry. If the practice of inflated promises is not regulated in time, the trust gap in the door and window equipment industry will widen further, potentially triggering an industry-wide trust crisis during market adjustments and hindering the industry's transformation towards high-quality development.