Nowadays, barber shops can be found everywhere in the streets, but it is not easy to find a "Mr. Tony" who satisfies you. Ms. Xu was lucky to find "Teacher Tony" who satisfied her, but she also encountered a bad thing.
Brief facts of the case
Ms. Xu got a haircut in a hairdressing and styling shop, and was very satisfied with the haircutting skills of a "Tony teacher" in the shop, so she applied for a membership card under the recommendation of the teacher and recharged 20,000 yuan, and then Ms. Xu would make an appointment with the barber every time she came to the barbershop. Once when Ms. Xu came to get a haircut, she found that the barber was not there, and the barber shop owner told Ms. Xu that she had something to do and would personally cut Ms. Xu's hair, and said that she was doing activities in the store now, and recharging 15,000 yuan could upgrade to a five-star membership and give away 2,000 yuan, and every haircut after that could be discounted by 20%. Ms. Xu was suspicious of the recharge, when she came to get a haircut again, she found that "Teacher Tony" was still not there, and the boss said that she had gone to participate in the training, Ms. Xu said that when the barber came back to get a haircut, the boss saw this and said that "Teacher Tony" had left the company. Ms. Xu felt deceived and insisted on returning the card. The owner of the barbershop claimed that according to the rules of membership use, customers need to pay 80% of the opening amount as liquidated damages for returning the membership card. After inquiry, Ms. Xu still has 17,607 yuan in the membership card that has not been consumed. The negotiation between the two parties failed, and the lawsuit was filed to the Huairou Court.
Court rulings
The Huairou court held that, according to the evidence in the case, Ms. Xu and the barber shop had formed a de facto service contract relationship, which was an expression of the true intentions of both parties, did not violate the mandatory provisions of laws and regulations, and was legal and valid. During the performance of the contract, Ms. Xu requested a refund of the unused fees because the barber shop was dissatisfied with the service provided by the barber shop, and the service contract was not suitable for compulsory performance, so the barber shop should refund Ms. Xu the prepaid card fee that Ms. Xu had not consumed. Barbershop claimed that it was required to pay liquidated damages of 80% of the card opening amount according to the membership rules, but it did not provide evidence to prove that the two parties had reached an agreement on the matter. Regarding the amount to be refunded, according to the screenshot of the member submitted by Ms. Xu, the court determined that it was 17,607 yuan. In the end, the Huairou court ordered the barber shop to return Ms. Xu's unconsumed advance payment of 17,607 yuan.
Kyo small mallet tips
According to Article 53 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, where business operators provide goods or services in the form of advance payment, they shall provide them in accordance with the agreement. Where the agreement is not provided, the agreement shall be performed or the advance payment shall be returned in accordance with the consumer's requirements, and the interest on the advance payment and the reasonable expenses that the consumer must pay shall be borne by the consumer.
Prepaid consumption is more common in service industries such as beauty, fitness, education and training, and the resulting prepaid consumption disputes occur frequently. Due to factors such as the lack of supervision, prepaid consumption often has problems such as inconsistent publicity promises with reality, chaotic charges and even inability to return cards, and merchants are prone to service shrinkage, operators relocate and run away, and store closures and other situations. Therefore, when consumers protect their rights, there will be difficulties such as insufficient evidence, difficulty in service, long trial period, and inadequate enforcement.
Consumers are reminded to carefully consider factors such as the business situation of the merchant, the amount of the prepayment and the rules for returning the card when making prepaid consumption, and to enhance the awareness of evidence in the process of prepaid consumption, and retain the corresponding evidence in a timely manner, so as to smoothly protect their rights and reduce property losses in the future. Operators should always be based on good faith, improve service and product quality, and use good services to retain consumers and win a good reputation.
The picture comes from the Internet
Contributed by: Huairou Court
Editor: Liang Hanwei and Xiao Fei
Review: Zhang Lei