[Economic Observation] How to solve the "old difficulty" problem of prepaid consumption?
In recent years, prepaid consumption issues such as "easy to apply for a card and difficult to return" have attracted much attention.
In February of this year, the China Consumers Association announced the acceptance of complaints in 2020, showing that "card application" consumption is still a hot spot for complaints.
The reporter learned from the Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Bureau that the city is studying the introduction of local legislation on the management of single-purpose prepaid cards. The "Regulations on the Administration of Single-purpose Prepaid Cards in Beijing (Draft for Comment)" has begun to solicit public opinions; Chaoyang, Fengtai and other districts are taking the lead First try, a series of more effective problem-solving methods have been explored.
In the fields of fitness, housekeeping, beauty salons, education and training, the problems of "easy to apply for a card and difficult to withdraw" have been plagued by consumers.
In addition, merchants’ capital chains are broken, and payment runs off the road, causing consumers to "cannot consume with a card" frequently.
To make matters worse, some companies are still engaged in promotional activities before they run away. Consumers who do not know the inside story are not only unable to accept related services as agreed, but the money they pay is also in vain.
Chen Jian, director of the Complaints Department of the China Consumers Association, previously told reporters that many businesses attract consumers through eye-catching discounts, exaggerated and exaggerated price differences.
Therefore, many consumers' card application is the result of merchants' inducement, which is impulse consumption.
In order to prevent refund disputes caused by impulsive consumption, at the end of March and early June this year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, the Market Supervision Administration, and the Bureau of Commerce successively launched the "Beijing Sports and Fitness Field Prepaid Service Contract" model text and the "Beijing "Prepaid Service Contract for the Hairdressing and Beauty Industry" model texts, two model texts focus on the pain points in the field of prepaid services, and pre-regulate the contract, especially the launch of the "7-day cooling-off period", which gives many consumers the "right to regret" ".
Prepaid consumption makes it easy for consumers to fall into the embarrassing situation of difficulty in refunding fees and defending their rights. The reason is that the relevant departments mostly intervene after the fact, and the intervention methods and effects are limited. If the merchant runs away or runs out of money, the relevant department There is no alternative.
To this end, at the beginning of this year, the Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau launched the "Chaoyang Precunbao" fund supervision platform. Under this supervision model, merchants collect prepaid funds through the "Chaoyang Precunbao" platform and rely on banks for fund supervision.
Regardless of how much the consumer deposits, the merchant can only freely control the amount of the consumer's actual consumption. The remaining money is placed in the bank account. The merchant cannot arbitrarily control, and the bank cannot arbitrarily control it. This will reduce corporate malice to a certain extent. There is a risk of money running away, and consumers do not have to worry about merchants embezzling prepaid funds for other purposes.
Li Zhenxian, deputy head of the Enterprise Credit Section of the Market Supervision Bureau of Beijing Chaoyang District, said that at the beginning of the platform’s establishment, only 48 companies entered the platform. So far, more than 440 companies have entered, covering education and training, sports and fitness, hairdressing and beauty, and catering. , Supermarket retail, washing and dyeing industries.
It is worth mentioning that in the field of prepaid consumption, not only is it difficult to refund large amounts of prepaid fees, but also the issue of refund disputes for small amounts of prepaid consumption with a small total amount and high consumption frequency is more prominent.
To this end, the Fengtai District of Beijing has piloted the "small prepaid deposit payment in advance" system and implemented a prepaid deposit system in key commercial complexes.
Commercial complexes, based on their own circumstances, voluntarily sign relevant contracts with prepaid companies, and collect corresponding deposits from relevant entities.
When consumers encounter small prepayment disputes or prepayment "small balance" refund disputes, and the operator deliberately delays processing or unreasonably refuses to pay, the complex management party can make the first payment in accordance with the relevant contract.
A small prepaid card affects the people's livelihood.
To solve the "old difficulty" problem of prepaid consumption, localities may wish to learn from Beijing's experience.
Yang Zhaokui