The enthusiasm for off-campus training gradually cooled under the "double reduction" policy. The reporter's investigation found that -
Education and training institutions quietly closed their shops and left "mess"
Last weekend, it was unusual for the domestic education and training industry.
According to a report from Xinhua News Agency on July 24, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council have recently issued the "Opinions on Further Reducing the Burden of Compulsory Education Students' Homework and Off-campus Training" (hereinafter referred to as "double reduction" opinions).
The official implementation of the "double reduction" opinion, and the serious rectification of the education and training industry is a foregone conclusion.
Under the heavy blow, the reporter found that some education and training institutions have been shut down or exited early, and the training fever has begun to cool down.
However, some educational and training institutions that have grown wildly for many years are unwilling to deal with the aftermath, leaving parents and students feeling helpless because of the difficulty in refunding fees and finding people.
In the past few days, many citizens have reported to this newspaper and the 12345 citizen service hotline that they have encountered difficulties in refunding fees.
data
The 12345 hotline received more than 4,000 complaints in 27 days
Among the difficulties in refunds for prepaid consumption, the issue of refunds for training institutions is particularly prominent.
The reporter combed through the statistics of the 12345 hotline and found that from July 1 to July 27, the citizens reported more than 4,000 requests for refunds from training institutions.
Among them, after the "double reduction" measures were introduced, only from noon on July 25th to 27th, there were 1084 requests for refunds from training institutions.
Many of the citizens reported that the originally normal training institutions suddenly closed down, some of them changed their registered addresses many times, and some claimed to have encountered business difficulties. Later, they could not even contact the relevant person in charge, making refunds even more difficult.
Most of the reasons why citizens apply for refunds are not in line with expectations.
Many citizens reported that the training institutions are suspected of false propaganda.
Some subject training institutions stated that they could greatly improve their academic performance. Some training institutions’ classroom quality and teacher qualifications are quite different from those previously advertised, and some adult certificate training institutions claimed that “exemption must be passed” or “examination must be passed.” Refund"……
However, even if a training institution can still be found, consumers who want to apply for a refund still face a series of troubles: some training institutions have asked for compensation for liquidated damages; some have to deduct the handling fee; some training institutions originally said that it would be several working days The internal money can be credited to the account, but the actual situation is often not refunded after a few months.
The reporter learned that most of these requests are sent to the territorial market supervision bureaus, education committees and other functional departments for coordination and disposal.
Others failed to coordinate, and relevant departments suggested that citizens take judicial procedures to defend their rights.
Encounter 1
Training institutions frequently change address "peek-a-boo"
Mr. Zhang’s child is attending elementary school. He has enrolled in an English training institution in Dongcheng District for three consecutive years. In December of last year, he paid another year of tuition in advance.
At the end of June this year, the teacher of the training institution told him that the training would be suspended because of something and the class would start in two weeks.
However, two weeks later, Mr. Zhang did not receive the notice of class resumption. When he arrived at the location of the training institution, he found that the training institution had moved away.
The person in charge of the institution once replied that it is not possible to teach offline at the original address at this stage, and they are contacting the new address. Please continue to wait.
While waiting, other parents began to take online courses one after another. Mr. Zhang wanted to coordinate the refund, but found that things were much more complicated than he thought.
By dialing 12345, Mr. Zhang knew that the company had moved to Fengtai District, and the staff in Dongcheng District suggested that it be transferred to the territorial education administrative department for processing.
However, after receiving a reply from the relevant staff in Fengtai District, Mr. Zhang learned that the company had moved to Miyun District again, and he is currently waiting for a reply from the relevant department staff in Miyun District.
"Because the principle of territorial management is involved, the coordination of refunds has to be slowed down. I really didn't expect that the training class would have played'peek-a-boo' across districts through frequent address changes!"
Coincidentally, citizen Ms. Zhang also had the same experience.
She signed up for an adult education institution in Chaoyang District last year. Because she hadn't arranged the exam for a long time, she couldn't contact the relevant person in charge, so she dialed 12345 to request a coordination refund.
However, the functional department of Chaoyang District informed her that the registration place of the institution had been transferred to Daxing District. After verification, Daxing District told her that the institution had moved to Chaoyang District again. After going round and round, the institution has now moved to Haidian District.
"In the past two days, the person in charge of the organization finally contacted me and said that only half of the fee can be refunded. Although I am not reconciled, I can only accept it because I still have a lot to do and I am not willing to spend myself on refunding the fee. Energy."
Encounter 2
If you don’t have a "transfer" for a class, you will have to pay another fee
Talking about the original intention of choosing Beijing Liyou Education Consulting Co., Ltd. at that time, citizen Ms. Guo said that the establishment of the institution is not short, and it has a certain reputation.
Moreover, the instructors are basically all-subject teachers, which is an important reason why many parents recognize this.
In January this year, Ms. Guo renewed the one-time fee for 100 class hours, which cost a total of more than 20,000 yuan.
A few days ago, the institution suddenly closed its shop, and there were more than 10,000 yuan left in class fees. Ms. Guo became anxious.
After hearing the news, parents who had the same experience as Ms. Guo formed a WeChat group. One of the parents reported that he had just signed up and paid the fee on July 13, and he had not had time for a class. I received the news that the store was closed on July 17, "I don't understand why they still sell classes before closing?" Ms. Guo said, as far as she knows, some parents even paid a one-time fee of more than 100,000 yuan. .
Another parent, Ms. Chen, said that after the training institution closed, a staff member set up a parent WeChat group, claiming that the aftermath treatment method was to introduce the parents to other training institutions. However, because the new institution did not recognize the original payment, Parents need to pay additional tuition fees to the new institution before their children can continue learning.
Obviously, this proposal could not be approved by the parents, and the WeChat group was also dissolved.
Today, parents have been unable to contact the relevant person in charge.
"I paid so much money before, but now no one is discussing the refund issue with us. We hope that the relevant person in charge can come forward to explain and give a reasonable solution." The reporter could not contact according to the contact information provided by the parents. Relevant personnel of the agency.
Encounter 3
The tuition fee was not refunded, but I waited for the notice of closing the shop
Whether it is subject education and training, or a variety of early training classes, the education and training industry is mostly a prepaid consumption model.
Once the parents propose a refund, there are not many that can be properly resolved.
"Haigulong" in the Blue Harbor business district is an early education training institution for preschoolers. Ms. Li signed up for her children in September 2018 and bought a one-year class package.
Because I felt that the course was not bad, in December of that year, Ms. Li bought a one-year lesson pack again, and the two times together cost a total of more than 30,000 yuan.
In September 2019, when the first year's class time package was about to expire, the training institution suspended classes for three months due to the large taste of the store decoration.
Later, catching up with the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the store has not been able to resume classes for a long time.
"During this period, I applied to them for a refund, but they rejected it on the grounds of the epidemic." Ms. Li waited until October 2020 before the store officially resumed teaching.
Although the application for a refund was made again, the store staff also rejected it and told Ms. Li that there were only more than 10 lessons left in the first year of class time package, and there was not much money to be refunded. It is recommended that Ms. Li finish the course.
Ms. Li could only agree to let the child continue to take the remaining courses, and applied to the store many times for the refund of the second-year class package.
Until March of this year, a person in charge agreed to refund the fee, but said that it would take three months to go through the corresponding procedures.
When Ms. Li communicated with the store staff again in early June, the staff inquired and said that refunds would not start until the end of July.
No way, Ms. Li had to wait.
It was not until the beginning of July that other parents talked about it that Ms. Li learned that the store had been completely closed.
On July 24, the reporter came to the "Haigulong" Blue Harbor Store, only to see that the door was closed and two locks were put on, and the store was completely dark and empty.
The disinfection records at the door show that the last disinfection was on June 30.
A notice issued by Blue Harbor was also posted on the gate. It stated that “Haigulong” owed its rent and other contractual payments and failed to communicate effectively on contract performance and re-operation until the store closed on July 1. For merchants’ business issues, our company hopes that the person in charge of “Haigulong” will come forward to communicate with us as soon as possible, negotiate the way to deal with follow-up matters, and give a reasonable account of the rights and interests of customers."
A parent provided reporters with a screenshot posted by a store staff member in the WeChat group, and admitted that the company was experiencing serious capital turnover problems.
Another relevant person in charge also claimed in the group that the current company's revenue and expenditure cannot be maintained.
"For the losses caused by parents, the company and shareholders hope to compensate in various ways in the future." However, so far, there has been no substantial progress in refunding fees. "We can't contact the relevant person in charge at all, and the parents' WeChat account is also They were all blocked and deleted." Ms. Li said helplessly.
Cause Analysis
Three factors make it difficult to refund fees
Through in-depth investigation and analysis, the reporter learned that the main reasons for the difficulty of prepaid consumption refunds are the irregular signing of contracts, the use of prepaid fees for financial operations by some training institutions, and the low cost of business violations.
At present, some merchant contracts are relatively standardized and clearly stipulate the refund method, for example, after deducting a certain handling fee, the refund will be based on the consumption of the course; but it may not be consistent with consumers' expectations, and disputes may also arise.
Some merchants do not have a contract or there is no refund clause in the contract, including the merchant’s promotional slogans and online page advertisements. Although similar to the effectiveness of the contract, it lacks direct evidence and is more likely to cause disputes.
Some citizens have reported that some training institutions will use prepayments for financial capital operations, resulting in insufficient funds on the books, and it is not so easy for consumers to want refunds.
For some institutions that went bankrupt, it was very likely that there was a problem with the operation of their funds.
In addition, some training institutions will induce consumers to go to the platform to apply for loans when they pay fees. Because they are connected to multiple platforms, it will be particularly difficult if they want to refund the fees.
Another prominent reason for the difficulty of refunding fees is that some businesses do not greet them and simply close their doors and close business, causing consumers to have no way to refund fees.
Some citizens have reported that some training institutions are closed here and they can continue to operate in other places.
Beijing Horizon Youshu Data Technology Co., Ltd. has carried out a special study on prepaid consumption. Fu Yanhua, general manager of the government governance department, said that judicial procedures are the ultimate remedy for the problem of refunds caused by business closures, but consumers often Unfamiliar with the judicial process, lack of energy to litigate, or not worthy to hire a lawyer, and other reasons to give up, resulting in some refund problems.
How to effectively restrain relevant agencies through effective law enforcement and judicial relief is also worthy of consideration and improvement.
In response to the current difficulty of refunding fees for education and training institutions, the reporter learned that prepaid consumer service platforms have been piloted in some areas to strengthen the supervision of merchant funds. This model has been gradually promoted.
At present, discipline training institutions have gradually been standardized, and non-disciplinary training institutions need to further strengthen supervision, especially the review of their advertisements and contracts.
The introduction of the "double reduction" opinion sounded the bell to standardize off-campus training institutions and received widespread attention from the society.
Fu Yanhua reminded that the introduction of relevant policies can increase the supervision of teaching and auxiliary training institutions, but there should be further detailed policies to solve the problem of refunds that may be caused by formulating specific implementation rules to ensure a smooth transition.
Related pilot
Improve closed-loop supervision
Multi-location online fund supervision platform
According to media reports, the Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau and the Agricultural Bank of China launched the "Chaoyang Pre-cunbao" fund supervision platform. Under this supervision model, merchants collect prepaid funds through the platform and rely on banks for fund supervision.
No matter how much the consumer has deposited in advance, the merchant can only freely control the amount of the consumer's actual consumption.
This will reduce to a certain extent the risk of companies maliciously collecting money and running away, and consumers do not have to worry about merchants embezzling prepaid funds for other purposes.
Relevant departments in Shijingshan District have jointly developed the "prepaid consumer credit supervision and service platform". Consumers can log in to the WeChat "prepaid treasure" applet, enter the name of the business in the search box, or scan the QR code of the merchant at the store to query Merchant information, prepaid consumption, refund or rights protection complaints.
The platform implements a system of access verification and filing and untrustworthy entry prohibition. The credit of merchants can be seen on the platform. It can realize the closed-loop supervision of "prepaid consumption" inquiries beforehand, traces during the event, and rights protection afterwards.
Zhu Tao, an associate researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also believes that prepaid consumer service platforms can increase the risk management and control of prepaid refunds that may be generated by training institutions through third-party custody or payment of reserves. This model is worthwhile Promoted.
Zhu Tao said that this is equivalent to a public supervision platform, which can truly manage the money and prevent the difficulty of refunding fees.
Zhu Tao believes that the content and objectives of the "double reduction" opinions issued this time are very clear, and the key lies in how the policy is implemented.
In order to solve the problem of refunding fees for training institutions, relevant law enforcement agencies should strengthen supervision and ensure that law enforcement is in place.
Zhu Tao also said that the supervision of training institutions is an aspect of the entire education reform, and more policies should be introduced in the future to improve the market guidance mechanism.
Intern reporter Sun Yanan