"Difficulties in prepaid consumption refunds" included in the "Monthly Question" key supervision
Solve the problem of easy card application and difficult card withdrawal
On the "Chaoyang Pre-deposit treasure", Ms. Wang bought a 500 yuan haircutting card. The advance payment did not go into the merchant's pocket, but into the bank's fund supervision account. Even if the merchant ran away, she couldn't lose her money. .
This year, the “difficulty in refunding prepaid consumption fees” was included in the “Monthly Questions” to be dealt with as soon as the lawsuit is received, and the Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the city is studying the introduction of local legislation on the management of single-purpose prepaid cards. The Municipal Regulations on the Administration of Single-Purpose Prepaid Cards (Draft for Solicitation of Comments) have begun to solicit public opinions; Chaoyang, Fengtai and other urban areas have tried first, starting with "active governance, handling first without litigation", and found a series of more effective solutions Methods to enhance consumers’ sense of gain, happiness, and security.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily combed through the methods of managing the "difficulties in prepaid consumption refunds" in various districts and found that compared with post-mortem supervision and immediate handling of litigation, all districts regard pre-regulation and handling before litigation as the focus and starting point of governance work. , There are also the most practical tricks explored here.
In January of this year, the "Chaoyang Pre-cunbao" WeChat applet led by the Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau was officially launched. Merchants connected prepaid products to the "Chaoyang Pre-cunbao" platform, and the bank made 100% of the prepaid funds transferred through the platform. Supervision effectively reduces the risk of enterprises maliciously collecting money and running away, and effectively protects the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, forming a capital supervision model with sunrise characteristics.
Fengtai District Market Supervision Bureau promotes the information disclosure system of prepaid operators.
Nowadays, when walking into large shopping malls in Fengtai District, and at the door of merchants that offer card service, consumers will see a public notice that says "Prepaid business entity publicity information", the name of the company, the lease period of the business premises, and "join". The “chain” and “direct management” business models, complaint calls and other information are clear at a glance. Consumers can also scan the “two-dimensional code” to quickly learn about corporate credit information and other information, so they can choose prepaid consumption carefully.
The Fengtai District Market Supervision Bureau is also implementing a pre-paid margin system on a pilot basis for 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 management of the complex can make the first payment in accordance with the relevant contract.
The solution to the "difficulty of prepaid consumption refunds" is not a matter of several departments. Only when the competent departments of various industries twist together and broaden mediation channels to promote social governance can achieve practical results.
At the municipal level, more than a dozen departments including the Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, the Municipal Bureau of Commerce, the Municipal Financial Supervision Bureau, the Municipal Education Commission, the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the Municipal Sports Bureau, the Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau, and the Municipal Transportation Commission have organized special work classes to strengthen Problem-oriented, carry out industry governance, and focus on improving the regulatory system.
It is understood that Fengtai District, in conjunction with the competent departments of various industries, relies on the special class of "rectification of prepaid consumption problems", in accordance with the basic principle of "who approves, who supervises, who is in charge, who supervises", strengthens industry management, and earnestly implements the existing Industry regulations, the Fengtai District Market Supervision Bureau has also explored a "funnel" model for resolving prepaid consumer disputes, and gradually established a group of operators, commercial complexes, industry authorities, and judicial departments to resolve group demands caused by prepayment issues. The four-level mediation mechanism, based on the amount and number of consumer disputes, provides hierarchical diversion and gradual resolution to improve the efficiency of conflict resolution.
Chaoyang District has introduced a diversified mediation work model to effectively resolve disputes concerning claims for refunds in accordance with the law.
The first is the introduction of administrative mediation. In accordance with the provisions of the "Beijing Administrative Mediation Measures", the supervisory departments of various industries in Chaoyang District arrange for special personnel to undertake administrative mediation work.
The second is to use industry associations, social organizations and other industry-based and professional mediation forces to carry out reimbursement dispute resolution work.
At the same time, industry regulatory authorities are encouraged to participate in the resolution of refund disputes through the use of awards on behalf of investment and government purchase of services.
Finally, the introduction of judicial and multiple mediation, relying on the "No Litigation Chaoyang" platform developed by the Chaoyang District Court, each member unit incorporates prepaid consumer work orders into a legally-handled way to promote the formation of a grassroots social governance pattern of co-construction, co-governance, and sharing .
Grassroots practice
Chaoyang
Established a pre-paid supervision platform "Chaoyang Precunbao"
At the beginning of this year, the Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau and the Agricultural Bank of China 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, and the remaining money is placed in the bank account, the merchant cannot arbitrarily control, and the bank cannot arbitrarily control, which will reduce the maliciousness of the enterprise 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.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily found that from January to mid-June, the number of merchants on the platform had increased to more than 440, an increase of nearly 10 times in five months, and the type of industry has also changed from the original Hairdressing, car washing, education expanded to children's entertainment, sports, catering and other industries.
Li Zhenxian, deputy head of the Enterprise Credit Construction and Management Section of the Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau, revealed that the "Regulations on the Administration of Single-Purpose Prepaid Cards in Beijing" (draft for comments) that are currently seeking comments include content related to the depository of prepaid funds. This exploration of China takes a step forward and provides valuable experience for the implementation of the regulations.
A reporter from the Beiqing Daily logged into the "Chaoyang Pre-cunbao" and saw that the merchants who settled in were divided into 6 categories, with the most haircut merchants.
A company called Sicoo No.1 Store has sold 20 haircut cards.
After clicking the "Buy Now" button, the refund rules that consumers care about most are clearly listed. Consumers refunding money due to their own reasons, if all of them have not been used, can refund the full actual paid amount at any time.
Li Zhenxian introduced that the launch of the "Chaoyang Pre-cunbao" fund supervision platform has changed to a certain extent the long process and poor effect of the previous supervisory authorities’ handling of prepaid refund disputes, and has strengthened the pre-paid consumer sector's pre-regulation. The fund regulator, once the business runs off or has business problems, can protect the interests of consumers as the first payee to the greatest extent.
"The prepaid money cannot be put in the pockets of the merchants. Why should the merchants enter the platform? What is the picture?" Li Zhenxian said that at first they also thought it would be a resistance, but in the actual promotion, law enforcement officers found some industry leaders Companies attach great importance to their credibility and hope to join the supervision platform, which can ensure that more customers can be retained in the store.
The manager of the Mubei skin care modeling three-room store Qi told a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily that the chaos in the prepaid field does exist. As operators, they also hope to gain the trust of consumers. One of the prerequisites for trust is the safety of funds. The store is the first batch to join the "Chaoyang Pre-cunbao". The fund supervision platform is to protect consumers, and in fact, it is also a guarantee for the reputation of the merchants on the platform.
"In the next step, in order to encourage more companies to join Chaoyang Precunbao, we plan to cooperate with some towns and villages and business districts to prepare a whitelist publicity system so that businesses joining the'Chaoyang Precunbao' can be used by more consumers. See and choose these stores to consume with confidence. At the same time, we are cooperating with Meituan to provide traffic support to merchants who can integrate more card applications into the platform." Li Zhenxian said.
Fengtai
Introduced a small prepaid margin payment system in advance
Li Bin, Chief of Consumer Protection Section of Fengtai District Market Supervision Bureau, in handling the complaint of prepaid consumption refunds, found that not only is it difficult to refund large amounts of prepaid fees, but also that the total amount is small and the consumption frequency is high for small prepaid consumption refund disputes. More prominent.
The Fengtai District Market Supervision Bureau began to explore solutions in 2019.
After many attempts and demonstrations, at the beginning of this year, they used the small prepaid consumption rebate problem as a "small cut", through the first large-scale commercial complex pilot projects such as the opening of Fumao, the first Longhu Beijing Lizetian Street, and Juranzhijia. Introduced the "Small Prepaid Margin First Compensation" system to solve the problem of difficult refunds for small prepaid consumption.
At the end of 2019, consumer Ms. Zhao bought a 500 yuan stored-value card at a restaurant that opened Fumao Shopping Center for the first time. When the epidemic eased, she went to spend again and found that the restaurant had closed down due to poor management.
"When I think about it, there are more than 100 yuan left in the card, so I admit it is unlucky. Who made us run this card with a recharge at the time!" Ms. Zhao did not expect it, In less than a week, she received a call from the mall property, asking her to return the balance in the card.
What is going on here?
It turned out that some catering companies in Fengtai's first Fumao Shopping Center were temporarily closed. Consumers who received the news for a while called the 12345 hotline to request a coordinated refund.
The platform received a total of 21 refund requests in two weeks in April this year, which attracted the attention of Fengtai District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau. Time to discuss the first property owner of Fumao Shopping Center.
In the case that the property owner is unable to contact the merchants, the "small prepaid deposit payment in advance" system that is being piloted here comes into play.
Liu Yang, deputy director of the East Tiejiangying Market Supervision Office, said that under the advice and guidance of the office in the early stage, the property owner has added a "membership deposit guarantee" clause to the merchant’s entry contract, requiring the merchant to pay 100,000 yuan in two installments. The deposit will be kept by the property owner and used for refunds for stored-value members under special circumstances.
After the incident of centralized complaint occurred, after coordination by market supervision, the property owner took out the "security deposit" paid when the restaurant settled in, verified the 21 consumers who called the 12345 hotline to request a refund one by one, and properly resolved their demands.
The matter is not over yet, and only the prepaid cards that complained to consumers have been refunded, what about the rest of the consumers who have not made a phone call?
The East Tiejiangying Market Supervision Office cooperated with the property owner and found a recharge card in Paolu restaurant to handle the ledger. About 55 member information was registered on it. After the property owner contacted and verified by phone one by one, it finally handled all 55 consumers. The prepaid card was refunded, and this time, a total of nearly 20,000 yuan in economic losses were recovered for consumers.
And Ms. Zhao is one of these 55 consumers.
Li Bin said that the "small prepaid deposit payment in advance" system has opened up a new path to solve the problem of "difficult refunds for small prepaid consumption".
In the second half of this year, they intend to promote this system to more shopping malls and shopping centers, so that in addition to catering and beauty salons, other industries engaged in prepaid services can also join it, providing consumers with more protection.
Shijingshan
The Political and Legal Affairs Commission takes the lead in building a pre-paid credit supervision and service platform
The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned from Shijingshan District that the Shijingshan District Committee’s Political and Legal Committee is actively exploring the prepaid consumer supervision service “Shijingshan Model” of “party committee leadership, government responsibility, social coordination, public participation, legal protection, and scientific and technological support”. Risks and standardization of market economic order played a positive role.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Political and Legal Committee of the Shijingshan District Committee, the service platform currently consists of 14 industry departments and 9 streets as member units.
On the one hand, banks are introduced to establish a margin system to achieve a breakthrough in capital supervision of certain industries to the entire industry.
Adopt special deposit account management for advance funds, and freeze part of advance funds according to a floating ratio, strengthen fund supervision in the operation process, and ensure the safe and reasonable use of funds.
On the other hand, insurance companies are introduced to establish a guarantee mechanism to achieve a breakthrough from a single type of insurance to a comprehensive type of insurance.
The Politics and Law Committee of the Shijingshan District Party Committee took the lead in communicating with insurance companies in the jurisdiction to establish a "prepaid consumer credit supervision and service platform comprehensive insurance", with the district consumer association as the insured person of the insurance contract.
At the same time, it assists in the promotion of combined protection of a series of insurance types such as merchant performance insurance and consumers' voluntary purchase of property protection insurance. In the event that a merchant "runs" midway, the insurance company will settle the consumer's claim, thereby establishing the largest risk hedging mechanism.
In addition, the Politics and Law Committee of Shijingshan District Committee also communicated with the district’s 12345 citizen service hotline and the platform for "Dispute Resolution in Stone Time", and communicated with the “Information Platform of the Shijingshan District Committee Stability Maintenance Command Center” led by the District Committee’s Political and Law Committee to develop risks Analyze and analyze models to create a comprehensive perception of prepaid risks in the entire region.
According to reports, since the launch of Shijingshan's "prepaid credit supervision and service platform" in September 2020, 509 merchants have settled in, providing local practices that can be replicated and promoted in order to effectively solve the social problems of prepaid consumption.
Text/Reporter Liu Jing
Industry regulations
Sports fitness and hairdressing and beauty industry
Prepaid service pushes 7-day cooling-off period
At the end of March and early June of this year, the Municipal Sports Bureau, the Municipal Market Supervision Administration, and the Municipal Bureau of Commerce successively launched the "Beijing Sports and Fitness Field Prepaid Service Contract" and the "Beijing Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Prepaid Service Contract" model texts. , The two demonstration texts focus on the pain points in the prepaid service field, and pre-regulate them from the contract. In particular, the introduction of the 7-day cooling-off period has given many consumers the opportunity to regret.
The model text of the "Beijing Prepaid Service Contract in the Field of Sports and Fitness" implemented on March 31 this year stipulates that in order to prevent refund disputes caused by impulsive consumption, a 7-day cooling-off period is set up.
Consumers have a 7-day cooling-off period starting from the day after signing this contract. During the cooling-off period, they have the right to unconditionally terminate this contract if they use fitness services without opening a card. After the business unit confirms the consumer refund application, All prepaid expenses will be refunded at one time within 15 working days.
At the same time, the service content has been further refined in terms of the service content promised by the business unit.
In terms of notification of important matters, if a fitness place is a leased place, the business unit should clearly inform consumers of the lease period of the fitness place and other information.
In addition to the "7-day cooling-off period", the model text of the "Beijing Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Prepaid Service Contract" also includes performance guarantee measures such as operator’s commitment, fund depository special account, performance guarantee insurance, bank guarantee, etc., allowing prepayment Consumption has one more guarantee.
The contract is applicable to the prepaid service transactions of hairdressing, beauty and manicure between business units that provide consumers with various project services of hairdressing, beauty and nail art.
The prepaid card can be a registered card or an unregistered card.
It is stipulated in the contract that there is no validity period for the registered card; if the validity period of the bearer card is not less than 3 years, and there is still the remaining amount and number of times in the card after the validity period expires, the business unit shall provide supporting services such as activation and card replacement .
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily noted that the prepaid service contract for the hairdressing and beauty industry also clarified the obligation of notification of important matters such as information on the lease period of the business premises of the business unit, adjustment of business hours, suspension of business, closure of business, transfer or cancellation.
For example, if the business unit suspends business for more than 24 hours on non-scheduled holidays or consumers go through the service suspension procedures as agreed, the validity period of the bearer card will be extended accordingly.
In order to let consumers know it well, it is clear in the contract model text that the beauty salon should clearly inform consumers of the lease period of its business premises, and the start and end times are accurate to the day.
The contract also stipulates that, in addition to force majeure, if the business unit suspends business for more than 30 days and closes business due to the business unit's reasons, and the consumer requests to terminate the contract, the business unit shall refund the prepaid balance in a lump sum after deducting the amount of consumption; Party A does not require cancellation In the case of a contract, the validity period shall be extended accordingly or the two parties shall negotiate a solution separately.
Currently, the two contract model texts are being actively promoted and used throughout the city.
This edition (except for signature) / our reporter Wang Wei
Photographer/Reporter Yuan Yi