116 foreign teachers’ refunds were deducted and transferred, only 2 sessions of Vipkid could be refunded: business difficulties
Ms. Wang’s account balance shows a total of 116 lessons remaining
Recently, Ms. Wang from Shanghai contacted the surging quality report complaint platform (https://tousu.thepaper.cn) and reported that the spoken language lessons she purchased for her own children on the Vipkid platform were affected by the "double reduction" policy, and 116 lessons remained. I did not consume the class hours, but was told by the staff when refunding the fees that only 5 classes can be refunded, and it can only be “half-refunded and half-turned”.
Ms. Wang said that she has spent nearly 50,000 yuan on the platform since 2018. Now she can only refund the time fee of 2 lessons for 116 lessons. This makes her unacceptable. She believes that Vipkid's refund calculation method is "Overlord Clause" ".
The two parties have not reached an agreement on the refund plan since the negotiation in early October.
In response, the relevant person in charge of Vipkid only replied to The Paper that the education and training industry is difficult to operate, and refunds are being operated in installments and batches.
The staff of the platform replied to Ms. Wang that if she “half-refund and half-transfer” the 5 refundable lessons, the platform can guarantee that the refund amount for 2 lessons will be credited to the account within 3 days.
The staff said that the refund needs to be "half-refund and half-turn", and Ms. Wang can receive the refund amount for 2 classes
Consumer complaints:
Ms. Wang introduced that she initially purchased one-on-one oral English lessons for her children on the Vipkid platform in September 2018. Since the children's lessons are effective, she has continued to consume them so far.
Ms. Wang said that in order to promote users to purchase lessons, the platform adopts a "buy-and-gift" model, that is, when purchasing a certain lesson package, users can receive the corresponding number of lesson hours, of which the free lesson can be used as a regular lesson.
In addition, users can also get free lessons by sharing in Moments, or redeeming points in the mall.
Ms. Wang said that according to this "buy-and-gift" model, the price allocated to each lesson is more cost-effective, which is one of the main reasons why she has continued to consume so far.
The purchase screenshots provided by Ms. Wang show that she has purchased courses 5 times and spent a total of 48,922 yuan.
According to The Paper's statistics, she has purchased 336 regular lessons in four years and received 141 free lessons.
Ms. Wang said that when she first heard about the impact of the "double reduction" policy on the education and training industry in September, out of trust in the Vipkid platform, she did not care too much.
At the beginning of October, due to concerns that the teaching and training institutions might not be able to refund the fees, Ms. Wang took the initiative to ask the staff about the arrangements for follow-up courses.
She said that the staff told her that due to the policy, foreign teachers cannot teach one-to-one in the future, but users can change the courses to AI teaching or one-to-many teaching by domestic teachers.
Ms. Wang refused to change the course, saying that if the original course content cannot be fulfilled, the fee will be refunded.
To Ms. Wang's surprise, the staff calculated that although there were 116 lessons remaining in the account, only 5 lessons were refundable.
Ms. Wang told The Paper that Vipkid's refund calculation method eliminated all the "gifts" she had received in the past four years, which she believed was the "Overlord Clause."
She said that although it is a "gift class" in name, it is only a promotional method. The platform promised to have the same effect as the "zheng class" at the time of purchase. Most of the "donated lessons" obtained are used to offset the remaining lesson hours.
In addition, what made Ms. Wang even more angry was that she claimed that she could not refund all of the remaining 5 lessons.
Vipkid’s refund rules require “half-refund and half-transfer”. Ms. Wang was told by the staff that she had to convert 3 of the lessons to other courses to apply for a refund. In other words, Ms. Wang can only receive a maximum of 2 class hours The amount of the refund.
The staff urged Ms. Wang to apply for a refund in accordance with the "half-refund and half-transfer" method
Corporate response:
From December 22nd to 27th, The Paper repeatedly contacted the Vipkid platform about this matter.
The relevant person in charge of the Vipkid platform replied to The Paper that the education and training industry is difficult to operate and refunds are being operated in installments and batches, and did not respond more on the handling plan of the matter.
On December 27, Ms. Wang reported to The Paper that at present, the staff of the platform are constantly urging her to say that if the refundable 5 lessons are "half-refunded and half-turned", the platform can guarantee the refund of 2 lessons. The amount will arrive in the account within 3 days; if the refund application is delayed, the refund cannot be guaranteed.
"The money is getting smaller and smaller. Do you want to wait slowly?"
The two parties have not yet reached an agreement.
Intern Wang Mochu surging news reporter Lv Xinwen