Reader Ms. Zhong recently wrote to reflect that she held a card coupon of a well-known food chain brand, and when she called to order, the customer service hotline was unanswered, and she could not successfully redeem the card by placing an order through the official WeChat. But she found that the brand was still making big promotions on its official WeChat account, attracting consumers to buy card coupons. "Isn't this a blatant attempt to deceive consumers?" Ms. Zhong believes that the company's current operating conditions are doubtful, but it is still engaged in promotional activities, and once the company runs away, the rights and interests of consumers will not be protected.
Recently, the brand operation management team issued a note saying that the company's business activities are indeed facing difficulties, but the brand has completed the replacement of personnel at the management decision-making level, and the production line supply chain has gradually completed the upgrade, and will gradually resume distribution services. However, according to the reporter's understanding, the brand has been exposed by the media to be abnormal in operation, the actual controller is suspected of missing contact, and its parent company and the actual controller have also been listed as dishonest executors. Local market supervision departments and consumer association organizations have also received a large number of consumer complaints.
What happened to Ms. Chung is not an isolated case. According to the statistics of the China Consumer Association, for some time, prepaid consumer disputes in the domestic, fitness, medical beauty, hairdressing, chain food and other industries have increased significantly, and some unscrupulous enterprises have even increased their promotional efforts before they are ready to run, attracting consumers with extremely low prices and great discounts, and consumers who do not understand the inside situation often fall into the trap.
"The difficulties in business operations and multi-channel fundraising and collection of funds were originally excusable, but the marketing method of deliberately concealing business conditions and continuously placing promotional advertisements to lure consumers into withdrawing funds has violated the law." Tang Zhe, a relevant person in charge of the Supervision Department of the China Consumer Association, said that to engage in promotion before running away is actually the unwillingness of enterprises to bear market risks and the cost of failure of poor management, and try to transfer the losses of operators to consumers who do not understand the truth.
During the investigation, the reporter found that this practice of "pre-run promotion" also spawned a new scam. For example, in the field of sports and fitness, some business gangs rent venues to claim to open gyms, but when renovating, they deliberately lengthen the decoration cycle and delay the time of equipment entry, at the same time, they hire personnel to distribute a large number of leaflets and solicit customers to prepaid recharge cards. When consumers want to go to the gym, they find that the venue is still being renovated, but in fact, the business gang has already rolled up the money and run away.
In this regard, Lu Yun, director of the Consumer Rights and Interests Legal Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, said that there are usually two types of prepaid consumption risks, the most common is that the enterprise terminates the operation due to the break of the capital chain due to poor management, the enterprise does not notify the consumers who have paid the advance payment in advance and makes proper arrangements, does not provide or does not provide goods and services in accordance with the agreement and cannot be contacted; and the other type is that the enterprise has the purpose of illegal possession in the early stage of operation or at the beginning of the relevant marketing, and some open stores for the purpose of encircling money. Attract consumers to pay for the card and then close the door and run, and some know that their own management is not good, thinking of making another profit before closing the store. Industry insiders said that relevant enterprises have been suspected of contract fraud when they know that there are major risks and it is difficult to resume normal operations.
"The relevant departments shall pursue the responsibility of the legal representative and the actual controller, and if it constitutes fraud, the parties concerned shall be investigated for criminal liability in accordance with law." Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, said.
Mr. Zhou, a reader in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, suggested that the competent authorities should increase the restraint and punishment of fraudulent acts and bad business practices through means such as enterprise start-up review, capital account supervision, credit review, criticism interview, and criminal liability.
The China Consumer Association has also recently issued a consumption reminder: when prepaid consumption, it is necessary to pay attention to whether there is abnormal behavior in the operation of the enterprise, and when there is a change of store name or boss, repeated promotions at low prices, and arrears of employee wages, it is necessary to be vigilant. For enterprises and business activities suspected of fraud, consumers can report the case to the local public security organs and protect their legitimate rights and interests through legal means. At present, the market supervision departments and consumer association organizations in many places are implementing the complaint information publicity system, and they should pay attention to the relevant information released by the authoritative departments in a timely manner.
(Source: People's Daily)