Who is cheated by the promise of "no refund" in the public examination training

　　Hu Xinhong

　　The enthusiasm for public examinations continues to heat up, and the total number of applicants for the 2023 national examinations has exceeded 2.5 million.

At the same time, Offcn Education, the leader among civil service examination and training companies, is getting colder and colder.

This listed company, which has the largest market share in the public examination training market, is mired in the quagmire of arrears of refunds for the agreed courses.

Search for Offcn Education on Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other social platforms, and the Offcn Education branches in Shandong, Hubei, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Guangdong and other provinces all have the problem of arrears of refunds for the "no refund" class, and the students are anxious Discuss the method of refund.

(Qianjiang Evening News, December 1st)

　　Under the upsurge of civil service examinations, various public examination training courses have emerged as the times require.

In 2018, the "Research on the Reform and Improvement of the Examination and Recruitment System for Civil Servants in the National Taxation System" carried out by the State Administration of Taxation showed that among the newly recruited civil servants in the National Taxation System from 2015 to 2017, as many as 80% of them had participated in various written examinations and interviews. .

Faced with this huge market, various training institutions tried their best to attract students. In particular, the "no refund" agreement class launched by Offcn Education around 2010 was regarded as a "genius invention" by industry insiders.

　　According to this model, candidates sign an agreement with the training institution before the training, and if they fail the exam, the training institution needs to refund the candidate's training fee.

"No refund" not only provides students with great help and confidence, but also does not need to bear any losses. Although the fee is more expensive than the ordinary class of "pay with one hand and attend classes with one hand", many students still flock to it.

　　On the one hand, the agreement class has brought a lot of cash flow to the training institution, and its revenue once accounted for nearly 80% of the total income of Offcn Education; Absorbed funds for external investment or purchase of wealth management products.

According to reports, from 2018 to 2020, Offcn Education's wealth management income alone accounted for about 10% of the net profit attributable to the parent.

Offcn Education, which has a good plan, has been booming for a while, earning a lot of money.

　　There is no such thing as a free lunch.

"But refund" seems to be a win-win move, but this kind of speculative method has planted the factor of "thunderstorm" in the future.

Once the refund rate rises or the return on foreign investment falls, this "chicken and egg" marketing model will easily lose its balance.

　　Sure enough, after 2020, due to the drastic changes in external factors such as recruitment and competition, the sudden increase in refund rates, the stagnation of real estate projects, and the disadvantages of student loan projects began to explode concentratedly. Offcn Education finally tasted the bitterness of its own brewing. Alcohol is trapped in a vicious circle.

Other training institutions that have followed up under pressure have also suffered the same test.

　　The public examination is popular, but the public examination training institutions are cold, who is cheated by "no refund"?

There is no medicine for regret in the world. Of course, the promise made at the beginning must be refunded according to the agreement.

Facing the students defending their rights, Sun Wei, the vice president of Offcn Education, said that he promised to refund every amount of money, but he couldn't get a full refund in time like before, and was already actively raising funds.

Protecting the rights and interests of students in accordance with the law is of course a top priority. At the same time, it is necessary to effectively break the marketing routine of "no guarantee and refund" in order to prevent repeating the same mistakes.

　　learn from mistakes.

On the one hand, trainees should not be fooled by the "fame" of the training institution, and blindly believe in the so-called "no refund".

On the other hand, regulatory authorities should also actively perform their duties and innovate regulatory models.

In order to thoroughly implement the "double reduction", the Ministry of Education and the State Administration of Market Supervision and other six departments issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of Pre-fee Fees for Off-campus Training Institutions" last year, requiring all localities to adopt bank custody or risk deposit methods in light of their actual conditions. Pre-fee supervision has brought good news to some parents who encounter "refund difficulties".

We may wish to learn from the issue of the supervision of fees for civil servant examination and training.

　　In addition, the public examination training industry must learn more lessons and get rid of the mentality of eager for quick success and instant benefits. Don't always try to seize the market in a short time, expand the scale, and raise funds and go public by "not taking the usual path". Standardized and orderly development is the right way.

(Beijing Youth Daily)