"When I signed up, I said that I was a company of Meijim (002621.SZ), and when it closed down, I said that it had nothing to do with Meijim." Since mid-2021, after Penguin English announced the closure of the parent group, the discussion of the difficulty of refunding fees and defending rights has continued. On the social side, a parent, Zhang Ying, told the first financial reporter that Penguin English had different words and deeds before and after the announcement of its closure, and has now filed a lawsuit against Penguin English.
After the "double reduction" policy, online education institutions went bankrupt and went bankrupt, and consumers complained about the difficulty of refunding tuition fees from time to time.
According to the big data of the massive dispute cases of 86 online education platforms across the country accepted by the domestic online consumer dispute mediation platform "Dianfubao" in 2021, the E-commerce Research Center of Netease Economics and Social Services "2021 China Online Education Consumer Complaint Data and Typical Case Report" ” shows that in 2021, the proportion of refund problems in online education user complaint data will exceed 60%, and persistent ailments such as online fraud, overlord terms, after-sales service, and false promotions will harass users.
Among them, the refund problem will rank first in the national online education user complaint type ranking in 2021, accounting for 62.86%.
No refund
On December 18, 2021, on a Saturday morning, Li You took the children to the Penguin Family English class on the third floor of Times E-park in Panyu District. ” message, and then parents received text messages.
"Two unidentified people came from the Penguin Family English Office on the third floor of Times E-park in Panyu District, saying that they were helping parents to confirm class hours and would not handle refunds. The classrooms in the past were disorganized, and children's books were littered everywhere. Pull into the class transfer group, and if you enter the group, you will only transfer the class, and will not refund the fee. In the group, I told the parents to negotiate with other institutions about the transfer of courses, but the parents and the institution found out after understanding that it was only an experience class, and there was no positive feedback. tens of thousands of tuition fees will be deducted." Li Min told reporters that there are basically no English-related institutions among the institutions that can accept Penguin English College through negotiation. There are not many options for parents.
"For example, an average parent needs to refund about 20,000 yuan, and after switching institutions, only 10 lessons can be arranged, and the 10,000 yuan is gone. In this case, transfer to two institutions and have 10 lessons in each place. Classes use up the remaining class hours, there is no continuity, and the children can’t learn anything.”
According to the reporter's understanding, Li Min signed up for his child Penguin English in July 2021, and arranged the class time in October. Due to the problem of class scheduling, he did not attend two or three classes until November.
"There are no more students in the future, so the time for class has not been arranged."
Li Min said that according to rough statistics, there are more than 300 children of Penguin Family English in Panyu campus alone, and the amount involved exceeds 10 million.
Penguin Family English has four campuses in Guangzhou, involving an amount of over 40 million yuan.
In addition, in other cities across the country, such as Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places, there are also parents who have nowhere to complain, and the statistics amount exceeds billions of yuan.
Another parent, Wang Qing, told reporters that the issue of Penguin English's refund has not been resolved, and there is no official statement in the follow-up, and the parent group cannot find the real person in charge of the company. "It's like the world has disappeared." Wang The payment records provided by Qing to the reporter show that she paid 20,976 yuan to Guangzhou Qili Education Information Consulting Co., Ltd. on March 14, 2021, and purchased more than 100 classes, but actually only attended more than ten classes. It was declared closed down.
Wang Qing appealed or reported the case to 12315, the Public Security Bureau and other parties, but no response was received.
On December 21, 2021, the teacher who taught Wang Qing's child sent a WeChat message saying: "Because the previous WeChat account was bound with a work machine, I couldn't notify everyone at the first time. Formally forced to sign a separation agreement."
The responsible party becomes a fan
Li Min believes that many parents also choose to study at Penguin Family English because of Meijim, and even transfer Meijim's class hours and fees to Penguin Family English.
The publicity of Penguin Family English is also "under the Meijim Group".
"But no one responded to our request to transfer to Megim."
When the reporter visited Penguin English Panyu campus in early March, he found that the campus had been transferred, and the store was currently undergoing improvement work in the later stage of decoration.
A recording of a conversation between a suspected Penguin English teaching and training institution and an employee provided by the parent shows that the "headquarters" suggested that the teacher should use the phrase "has left or cannot handle" to respond to the parent's inquiries.
In addition, the above-mentioned recording Penguin English mentioned, "At present, it is true that there is no ability to provide income compensation to employees, and there is no ability to do so. As for the refund, "the current two campuses may (fund gap) be between 4 million and 500 million. Between 10,000 and 10,000 yuan, a school district has to pay nearly 2 million to 3 million yuan to parents, which is very difficult.”
From the perspective of equity relationship, all shareholders of Penguin Family English are related to Meijim.
According to the 2021 semi-annual report of Dalian Meijim Education Technology Co., Ltd., these Penguin Family English Training Centers in Guangzhou Wu Wei and Luo Xianghong-related Shanghai Pinggu Culture Communication Co., Ltd. are all owned by Meijim’s directors, supervisors and senior managers. enterprise.
According to public information, Penguin Family English is a global English training institution for children aged 2 to 12. It is headquartered in Beijing and uses teaching materials launched by LINGUAPHONE, an old British language training institution, and Oxford University Press.
Penguin Family English has more than 100 training centers in China, covering 14 provinces and more than 30 cities.
On December 9, 2021, Meijim issued an announcement saying that it has recently paid attention to the media report that "the listed company Meijim's affiliated education and training institutions are still encouraged to continue classes before the closure of the dispute over refunding fees", and the company clarified that it has not conveyed benefits to the general manager's company. .
The announcement shows that in 2018, Qixing Future (Tianjin) Education Consulting Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Meijim, completed the acquisition of 100% equity of Tianjin Meijim Education Technology Co., Ltd., and Tianjin Meijim held the relevant assets of the early education brand "Mejim".
The counterparties of the acquisition are five natural persons, Huo Xiaoxin, Liu Junjun, Liu Yi, Wang Yan, and Wang Shenbei, who held 100% equity of Penguin Family Management Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd. at the time of acquisition, and Penguin Family Management Consulting (Beijing) The limited liability company holds the assets related to the "Penguin English" brand.
The announcement stated that after completing the acquisition of the assets related to the business of Meijim, the listed company only holds the relevant assets of "Mejim".
The listed company, Tianjin Meijiem and its subsidiaries have not acquired the relevant assets of "Penguin English", and there is no equity relationship with the relevant assets of "Penguin English".
There is no equity relationship between Meijim, Tianjin Meijim and other subsidiaries of the listed company and the related assets of the company's director and general manager, Mr. Liu Junjun, "Penguin English".
The listed company, Tianjin Meijiem and other subsidiaries of the listed company do not have the situation of "backing up Penguin English", and there is no business cooperation arrangement for Penguin English drainage, publicity, etc.
As of press time, many parents interviewed told reporters that they have not yet received a response from the person in charge or given a specific solution.