Chinanews client, Beijing, January 29 (Reporter Xie Yiguan) Since 2020, some industries have been greatly affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic. Off-campus education and training institutions such as Web English, Stone Touchdown, and Excellent Education have successively appeared due to Business closure due to poor management.

　　Relevant institutions voluntarily close their doors and cease operations or have to stop operations, consumers are helpless and powerless.

But the worst thing is that some unscrupulous companies are still using prepayments and other methods to make money for promotions. Consumers who don't know the inside story are not only unable to accept related services as agreed, but most of the money paid is also in vain.

Data map: RMB.

Zhang Yunshe

　　Statistics from the China Consumers Association show that pre-paid consumer disputes involving housekeeping, fitness, education and training have increased significantly since the epidemic.

　　For example, in September 2020, the well-known rugby training organization Stone Touchdown was reported to be financially difficult, and campuses in multiple cities were widely suspended. Many consumers said in interviews that one month before the suspension of the institution, there were still The course consultant strongly recommends courses and advises parents to renew.

　　Recently, the online education platform "Xue Bajun" also reported operational difficulties and bankruptcy.

Some consumers said that the company had already encountered operating difficulties in July and August, but during the "Double 11" period, they still hyped up the normal collection and sale of lessons, and some consumers said bluntly, "After paying tens of thousands of dollars, their children I haven't attended a class yet".

　　“There are difficulties in business operations. Multi-channel fundraising is forgiven. However, deliberately concealing business status and continuously advertising to attract consumers to return funds. Such a marketing method is obviously undesirable.” China Consumers Association pointed out that only Thinking of deceiving consumers, and even passing on business risks and bankruptcy costs to consumers, it hurts not only the image and credibility of the industry, but also directly hurt the rights and confidence of consumers. Eventually, they will "lift a stone and hit themselves." Feet".

　　According to the China Consumers Association, “Relevant training institutions continue to promote, recruit students, and charge high fees when they know that there are major risks and it is difficult to resume normal operations. In addition to infringing on consumers’ right to know, they are likely to be involved in contracts. Fraud."

　　In addition, under the prepaid model, there has been a scam of "gym card charging" in the field of sports and fitness in recent years.

The business group rented a venue in advance and claimed to open a gym. During the decoration, it intentionally extended the decoration cycle and delayed the equipment entry time. At the same time, it hired temporary personnel or part-time personnel to distribute flyers and solicit customers to pre-paid and recharge cards.

When consumers wanted to go to the gym, they found that the venue was still under renovation, but the gym owner had already taken the money and went missing. Not only did consumers lose money, but the temporary employees also became victims.

Data map: A citizen exercises in the gym.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu

　　"The business gang premeditatedly collected the money and ran away under the guise of opening a gym. This is a criminal law fraud." Yan Bing, director of Beijing Yuntong Law Firm, told a reporter from Chinanews.com.

　　But Yan Bing also said, “Gyms are basically small and micro enterprises, and it is difficult to find people whether they close down or run away.” This virtually increases the difficulty of protecting consumers' rights.

　　It is worth mentioning that the prepaid model is often accompanied by "training loans."

Training courses generally have long periods and high costs. In order to save costs, consumers usually pay for months or even years. Some consumers will use installment payments to relieve pressure. If they don’t pay attention, they will fall into "routine loans". may.

Because some consumers have applied for training loans, after the merchants ran away, on the one hand they could not receive training services, on the other hand they had to continue to repay the loans.

　　"This also reminds consumers that in the process of selecting relevant training courses and paying fees to receive services, they must pay attention to whether relevant companies have abnormal operations in their operations, pay appropriate attention to relevant publicity information issued by authoritative departments, and pay attention to choosing appropriate consumption. Payment methods, carefully judge and choose various types of prepaid consumption." China Consumers Association said.

　　At present, many places have begun to reduce the financial risk of training institutions.

For example, Beijing piloted a prepaid consumer credit supervision platform, focusing on solving the problem of pre-charging supervision of training institutions. Recently, it announced the first batch of 51 off-campus training institutions under supervision; Qingdao North District took the lead in Qingdao to pilot training for off-campus training institutions Fund supervision, a total of 16 demonstration units signed contracts to be included in the supervision platform.

　　The China Consumers Association also called on the relevant competent authorities to severely crack down on them, and increase the restraint and punishment of frauds and bad business practices through measures such as enterprise start-up review, fund account supervision, credit review, criticism interviews, and criminal responsibility. Strengthen, effectively protect the safety of consumers' funds and legal rights and interests.

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