China News Service, January 29th. Today, the China Consumers Association published on its official website "The Viewpoint of the China Consumers Association: Strongly Condemn and Oppose the Bad Business Practices of "Promotions Before Running". In the article, the China Consumers Association warns Related companies and operators who are still engaged in sales promotion before they run away may be suspected of fraud.
The article said that since 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, all industries have been relatively severely impacted. Many companies have reduced revenue, reduced passenger flow, and reduced profits. News from time to time reported about education and training, sports and fitness institutions. The report of closing the shop.
According to statistics from the China Consumers Association, there has been a significant increase in pre-paid consumer disputes involving housekeeping, fitness, education and training since the epidemic.
Faced with the results of relevant institutions voluntarily shutting down or having to stop operations, consumers are helpless but unable to recover.
What's worse is that some unscrupulous companies are still engaged in sales promotion before they run away. 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.
In September 2020, the well-known rugby training organization Stone Touchdown was reported to be financially difficult, and campuses in multiple cities were suspended. Related incidents were followed and reported by CCTV Finance Channel.
Many consumers said in interviews that just one month before the institution's suspension of classes, course consultants were strongly recommending courses and suggesting parents to renew.
Recently, the online education platform "Xue Bajun" was reported to have difficulties in operation and face bankruptcy and bankruptcy, which cast a shadow over the online education and training industry. The Consumers Association of China and some provinces and cities received a large number of consumer calls and feedbacks. For help.
Many consumers said that the company had already encountered operating difficulties in July and August, but during the "Double 11" period, it still hyped up the normal collection and sale of lessons. Many consumers bluntly said that "paying tens of thousands of dollars, their children But a lesson hasn’t been attended yet.”
The article points out that business operations are experiencing difficulties, and it is excusable to raise funds through multiple channels, but deliberately concealing business status and continuously advertising to attract consumers to return funds is obviously not advisable.
According to the analysis of public opinion monitoring by the China Consumers Association, a scam of "charging a gym card" has even appeared in the field of sports and fitness in recent years.
The general routine is that the business group rents a venue in advance, claiming to open a gym, and deliberately lengthens the renovation period and delays the equipment entry time during the decoration; at the same time, hire temporary or part-time personnel to distribute flyers and solicit customers to pre-pay to recharge the card. ; When consumers want to go to the gym, they find that the venue is still being renovated, but the gym owner has already taken the money and disappeared. Not only did consumers lose money, but the temporary employees also became victims.
In addition, the China Consumers Association is warning relevant companies and operators:
1. Integrity management is one of the basic obligations of an enterprise.
According to the "Consumer Rights Protection Law", business operators should abide by social ethics, operate with integrity, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers when providing goods or services to consumers.
There are many ways to make money, and steadfast service must be the safest way, and it is also the most recognized behavior by consumers.
In trading activities, relevant companies should truthfully disclose information such as product and service information, prices, and relevant precautions, and must not set unfair or unreasonable trading conditions, and must not set unreasonable refund rules.
2. Enterprises should respond to consumers' queries with practical actions.
The essence of service is to strive to respond to consumers' reasonable demands. Properly handling consumer complaints and responding to consumer inquiries and queries are also important manifestations of response services.
Consumers have the right to supervise goods and services. When consumers raise questions about faculty arrangements, time adjustments, operational stability, fee refunds, etc., companies are necessary and obliged to respond in a timely and truthful manner, rather than repeatedly He prevaricates and delays, and even removes consumers indifferently.
3. Enterprises and operators should consciously assume social responsibilities.
Although the epidemic has set a test for business operations, it has also increasingly demonstrated the ability and resilience of high-quality companies in their operations and management.
Those enterprises and operators that take the initiative to assume social responsibility consciously build solid brands based on consumer demands, accumulate a good reputation, prevent and resolve various business risks, and are bound to be more favored by consumers.
If you only want to deceive consumers, or even transfer business risks and bankruptcy costs to consumers, it will damage not only the image and credibility of the industry, but also directly hurt the rights and confidence of consumers, and will eventually "lift the stone." Smashed his own foot".
4. The company is still engaged in sales promotion before it runs off, and may be suspected of fraud.
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 have been suspected of contract fraud and false propaganda. The fact of running away with money has a bad influence on society and should be strongly condemned.
Relevant competent authorities should severely crack down on it, and strengthen the restraint and punishment of fraud and bad business practices through measures such as enterprise establishment review, fund account supervision, credit review, criticism interviews, and criminal responsibility, so as to effectively protect consumers Security of funds and legal rights.
For companies and business operations that have been suspected of fraud, consumers can directly report the case to the local public security organs and protect their rights through legal means.
The China Consumer Association reminds consumers that in the process of selecting relevant training courses and paying fees and accepting services: First, be sure to pay attention to whether there are abnormal behaviors in the operation of related companies. When there is a change of store name or boss, low-price repeated promotions, and defaults You need to be vigilant in situations such as employee wages.
The second is to pay proper attention to relevant publicity information released by authoritative departments. Local market supervision departments and consumer association organizations are currently implementing a complaint information publicity system. For example, the Market Supervision Bureau of Beijing’s Haidian District, Chaoyang District, and Dongcheng District has repeatedly complained about winning education. Issue prompts and reminders to consumers.
The third is to pay attention to choosing appropriate consumer payment methods. Credit methods such as “training loans” and “campus loans” are currently quite popular. Consumers’ choice of credit payment can relieve certain expenditure pressure, but when the operator encounters difficulties or even runs away, or When consumers want to end the course early, the refund procedure for withdrawal may be more troublesome.
Of course, this also reminds consumers to make reasonable arrangements and consider long-term plans for their own learning, fitness and other plans and large expenditures.
The fourth is to carefully judge and select various types of prepaid consumption, consume rationally, and protect rights according to law, and promptly report to the relevant departments for false propaganda, inconsistency in quality and price, refusal to perform responsibilities, and runaway from payment by some operators. Make complaints and reports, actively exercise supervision powers in accordance with the law, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.