Recently, a well-known rugby training organization in Beijing, the Stone Touchdown, suddenly reported that it was closed. A few weeks ago, this training school had just resumed teaching after the epidemic and was even recruiting new students.

　　What makes parents more anxious is that many of them paid tens of thousands of yuan in tuition in advance.

Can the training institution refund the tuition fees that may be as high as tens of millions of dollars to the parents?

　　1

　　Beijing: Large-scale suspension of the Stone Touchdown

　　Enrollment is still charging at the end of August

　　Mr. Xiong, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing, has registered for children to learn rugby at the Beijing Jushi Touchdown Rugby Training Institute in 2016. He has been learning rugby for four years.

　　After January this year, affected by the epidemic, all campuses of the training institution have suspended classes, and his campus has not resumed classes so far.

In August, the institution's Chaoyang Park campus began to resume training, which gave him hope of resuming classes.

However, just this week, in the WeChat group of his team, a message sent by the coach made him panic instantly.

　　Mr. Xiong said: "The coach said I'm sorry, but it has been determined that the Aosen North Park campus cannot be opened. If there is no money to open it, the Chaoyang Park campus may not be able to persist."

　　In November last year, Mr. Xiong had just prepaid more than 20,000 yuan in tuition for two years, and he hadn't even attended a class. The news of the suspension made him unacceptable.

　　Just like Mr. Xiong, the parents of many members of the Beijing-controlled campus of Jushi Touchdown were informed this week that they could not continue to attend classes.

Faced with this unexpected situation, parents were caught off guard, because just last weekend, the Beijing Chaoyang Park campus was still training and recruiting new students.

　　It is understood that Stone Touchdown was established in 2012 and is one of the earliest youth American football training institutions in China. Stone Touchdown adopts two modes of direct operation and franchise. Currently, the campus has covered 14 cities across the country including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hangzhou.

This time, all the directly operated campuses in Beijing have experienced the crisis of school suspension.

　　At present, members’ parents have formed multiple rights protection groups, and the number has now exceeded 2,000.

The remaining tuition fees for these parents are as little as a few thousand yuan and as much as 50,000 yuan. According to the current number of rights defenders, the amount involved exceeds 10 million yuan.

　　Mr. Shen, the parent of a member of the Beijing Jushi Touchdown Rugby Academy: The tuition just renewed at the end of last year was 28,200 yuan for two years, and a rugby equipment deposit of 3,000 yuan, and they had pre-collected 3,000 yuan for this year’s competition at the end of last year. It should be around 34,000 yuan.

　　What makes it difficult for parents to accept is not only the economic loss, but also the worry that the enthusiasm of the children will be frustrated. Many parents have not even told the cruel fact of the children who are looking forward to the resumption of classes.

　　2

　　Resumption of classes only one month

　　Boulder Touchdown Training Ground

　　The sudden suspension of classes caught parents by surprise, but in fact, it was not only the parents and students who suffered.

The reporter learned from the investigation that after January this year, many coaches and employees of Stone Touchdown suffered wage arrears. Now most of the coaches have resigned and the office of Stone Touchdown has been empty.

　　Many parents said that the Stone Touchdown Chaoyang Park campus resumed classes on August 8. There were still people taking part in the training just last weekend. The reporter learned that Stone Touchdown also took classes here for more than four years. Is the site still renewing the lease?

With questions, the reporter came to the site management office of Chaoyang Park.

　　The staff of Beijing Chaoyang Park Venue Management Office stated that the contract had been terminated and the agreement expired on February 28. Last month, it took a month to pay the temporary fee. It took another week without renewing the lease.

　　Afterwards, the reporter went to the office address of Stone Touchdown in Chaoyang District, Beijing. This joint office site accommodates multiple companies at the same time. In the office area of ​​Stone Touchdown, you can see their logos hanging in a conspicuous position.

　　However, the empty desks and the closed office doors all show that there is no one working here, and through the glass you can see that some items have not been removed. The whiteboard on the wall says January to August, before The sales performance of the old membership renewal of the three employees exceeded RMB 500,000.

The front desk staff of a joint office area in Beijing said that the contract expired in February this year.

　　Since then, reporters have tried to call the official customer service number of Stone Touchdown many times, but they are in a state of being unable to get through or unanswered.

　　Many parents said that now they can only contact the coaches and consultants who sold them directly before, but currently, most of them have left their jobs.

The reporter also contacted several of them. A former sales consultant of the Beijing Jushi Touchdown Rugby Academy said that social security has been suspended since January this year, and wages have not been paid since January.

　　3

　　Attract parents and employees to be shareholders

　　Stone touchdown or disguised circle money

　　Public information shows that Stone Touchdown has received two consecutive rounds of 10 million yuan financing in 2017, becoming a star startup company in this field.

　　This large-scale training institution suddenly suspended classes, and the dilemma of funding shortages. What began?

　　Many parents said that at the end of last year, Stone Touchdown had focused on renewing old members at a very favorable price. Some old members' courses were renewed for another two years before they even finished one year.

　　In addition to allowing members to renew in advance at a low price, Stone Touchdown also launched a founding member activity in mid-2018. Members can pay 50,000 yuan to get a five-year course, in addition to receiving bonuses from the campus.

　　According to reports, in addition to recruiting members to buy shares, the company also encourages employees to invest thousands to tens of thousands of yuan in the company to participate in the company's internal investment dividends.

　　Former coach of Beijing Jushi Touchdown Rugby Academy: There are a lot of employees, and there may be more than 100,000 or 200,000 yuan in the company.

At the time, it was said that there was a dividend, but this year there has been no dividend.

　　In fact, the suspension of classes in directly operated campuses in Beijing is not the first time that Stone Touchdown has fallen into such a crisis.

At the end of last year, the two campuses of this institution in Shanghai took measures to close the shop. Since then, hundreds of thousands of arrears of many students have not been refunded.

　　On the Qicha website, there are dozens of risk warnings about "Big Stone Touchdown", and the company has been listed as "operational abnormality" in October 2019.

　　Lawyer Chang Yi of JunZeJun Law Firm: The institution continues to recruit students and collects high tuition fees even when it is clearly aware of serious business difficulties and is about to close. Consumers can report to the public security agency. Sanctions against illegal and criminal acts are carried out through criminal means.

　　Experts believe that since the outbreak of the epidemic this year, institutions with operational problems quickly exposed the crisis.

For consumers, it is necessary to keep good evidence such as contracts, receipts, payment records, etc., and take litigation, arbitration and other means to protect their rights when necessary.

　　Lawyer Chang Yi of JunZeJun Law Firm: A company like this kind of capital chain that has been broken may no longer have any property that can be executed. In this case, how to make the shareholders hiding behind the company bear joint and several compensation to consumers Liability is a direction that can be worked hard in litigation.

　　4

　　Stone touchdown responded "not dead"

　　No mention of refund and resumption

　　Regarding the doubts about the company’s departure, Jushi Touchdown released a message on its WeChat official account saying that "Jushi is not dead". However, the company does not have any questions about whether parents are concerned about whether they can refund fees or continue classes. Responded.

　　In recent years, there have been constant news of training institutions to suspend classes and run away. In order to prevent this from happening, the General Office of the State Council clearly stipulated in the "Opinions on Regulating the Development of Off-campus Training Institutions" issued in August 2018 that off-campus training institutions should not be used once. Sexually charged fees that span more than 3 months.

　　But at present, many training institutions still require members to pay a large amount of tuition in advance. Consumers should pay special attention when recharging and renewing, and be careful to fall into the trap of low-cost fees.