Xinhuanet, Beijing, March 24. The epidemic has pressed the fast-forward button for online education. However, while off-campus training institutions have achieved "prosperity" development, they have also repeatedly received complaints from consumers due to difficulties in refunding fees and false propaganda. "Difficulties" ranks first in the number of complaints, accounting for nearly 60%.
There are already rules to solve the management problems of education and training institutions. In August 2018, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Regulating the Development of Off-campus Training Institutions" requiring that off-campus training institutions not charge fees that span more than 3 months at a time.
In June 2020, the "Out-of-school Training Service Contract for Primary and Secondary School Students (Model Text)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Education and the State Administration for Market Regulation also reiterated and clarified that online training institutions charge according to class hours, and each subject shall not charge more than 60 class hours at a time. cost.
A few days ago, the Office of the Educational Supervision Committee of the State Council issued a reminder of the risks of off-campus training. Parents are requested to choose a qualified formal training institution and do not pay a one-time training fee for more than 3 months or 60 class hours.
However, in actual operation, some training institutions are unqualified and unlicensed to carry out training activities. For profit considerations, some training institutions will use various methods to encourage consumers to buy and store lessons, so as to recharge discounts and buy more. Send more and other methods to induce consumers to pay overdue and high training fees at one time, and even induce consumers to buy a large number of courses through loans.
However, once a consumer wants a refund or encounters operational difficulties caused by a break in the funding chain of a training institution, the previous refund promise is often difficult to fulfill.
Among them, it is even more difficult for consumers who purchase courses through loans to protect their rights. They still have to continue to repay their loans after suspending classes, and even under pressure to repay their loans, they can only compromise their own interests and refund fees.
Consumers complained that they were deducted 10,000 yuan for only nine classes due to the pressure of repaying their loans.
According to the official WeChat account of the Consumers Association of Fengtai District, Beijing, "Consume Rest assured in Fengtai", issues such as refunds for education and training in 2020 are very prominent.
Among them, from January 1 to November 20, 2020, Beijing Jushi.com Education Technology Co., Ltd. received the most complaints. A total of 847 complaints were received. Education and training companies such as Jushi.com have contracts with a large number of consumers. Refund disputes.
Such examples have been seen frequently in the newspapers in the past two years.
For example, the 2020 CCTV "3·15" party exposed the false promises of Hexue.com, leaving consumers in a dilemma that it is easy to pay and return.
In addition, 51Talk has also been exposed by the media as having multiple refund routines and high liquidated damages.
The emergence of various refund problems reflects on the one hand the prevailing operation and management problems of off-campus training institutions, and on the other hand, it also reflects the weak awareness of consumer rights.
In order to protect the rights and interests of consumers, and further strictly regulate the school-running behavior of subject-based off-campus training institutions, many districts in Beijing are currently reviewing off-campus training institutions. For training institutions "difficult to refund fees", Haidian District and Fengtai District have made relevant regulations. Haidian District Training institutions have been required to set up fund "supervisors", and Fengtai District has required prepaid funds to be included in supervision.
Practices similar to Haidian District and Fengtai District may alleviate the problem of "difficulty in refunding fees" to a certain extent, but to fundamentally regulate the behavior of off-campus training institutions, on the one hand, relevant departments need to further strengthen supervision, on the other hand, it also needs to be as soon as possible. Improve laws and regulations related to education and training, clarify the entry threshold of education and training institutions, and ensure that the development of the education and training industry has laws and regulations to follow.
When signing a course contract, consumers should fully understand the dispute handling methods of the relevant training institutions, and the relevant details should be agreed in the contract in advance, so that the education and training institutions can be inspected through the process of clarifying the rights and responsibilities, and the phenomenon of "scratching the edge" can be reduced. , It also helps to reduce the time and energy consumed in protecting rights after the event.