China Times (www.chinatimes.net.cn) reporter Fu Bixiao reported in Beijing
"I wanted to learn English to enrich myself, but I didn't expect to be in debt!"
"Promised a lot of things that can't be done, just to cheat money!"
"The course consultant asked me to defend my rights, and a few days later I found out that he had also left his job and was going through labor arbitration..."
Recently, Wall Street English, a once-glorious training institution, has been mired in rumors of bankruptcy. Among the students who asked for a refund of tuition fees, many paid Wall Street English tuition fees through loans, some were education consumer loans through financial institutions that cooperated with Wall Street English, and some were swiped bank credit cards. The cost of the course is as low as tens of thousands, as much as hundreds of thousands, and the students are mainly young people, and the income is limited, so a loan is not easy for them.
Regarding the situation reflected by the trainees, the reporter of China Times sent a letter to interview Wall Street English, but as of press time, there was no reply. Reporters also called Wall Street English's official website, but showed that "there is no such business number." ”
Induce loan processing
Yu Xin told the China Times that the purpose of her registration for Wall Street English was to improve her academic qualifications. Because the weak English foundation was a major obstacle in her post-secondary education process, she chose Wall Street English and purchased more than 40,000 yuan of courses when she first signed up.
At that time, Yu Xin had just worked in Shanghai for two years and could not pay the full amount, so the staff of Wall Street English recommended a loan to her. The loan came from a consumer finance company, Yu Xin paid a 10% down payment, the remaining 90% of the tuition fee installments, and the monthly repayment was roughly more than 2,000 yuan.
However, regarding the annualized interest rate and risk of the loan, no one clearly informed Yu Xin.
Wall Street English courses are expensive, and the official website shows that its courses are divided into VVIP courses, VIP courses, exclusive luxury courses, online luxury courses, etc. Our reporter learned from Wall Street English students that the course fee is as low as 20,000 or 30,000, and more than 100,000, and offline courses are more expensive than online. In addition, offline VIP courses are not only smaller than the number of students in ordinary courses, but also organize high-end activities such as "yacht clubs".
The course time is generally relatively long, and the reporter found through interviews with many students that the course time of the students has tens of months, and many students have invested a lot of money after several years of course learning.
A student told reporters that if the course is not completed, but the time is up, Wall Street English will not be refunded, and if you want to finish the course, you can only spend money to buy time.
Moreover, many of wall Street English students are young people who have just started working shortly after graduation. For young students, tens of thousands of yuan of tuition is a big expense, so Wall Street English's course consultants will recommend that they use loans to pay.
Marketing is the highlight of Wall Street English.
Some Wall Street English students told the "China Times" reporter that they had seen wall Street English propaganda that the founder of a well-known Internet company was studying VIP courses in Wall Street English, and some students listened to the course consultants say that Alibaba employees would go to Wall Street English for training.
A student recalled the original registration process, Wall Street English sales staff chatted with her for one night, she decided to pay, but after two days of class she wanted to apply for a refund, dragged on until now has not been refunded.
Another practitioner said that wall Street English's marketing was "bombing in turn, kidnapping brainwashing, four or five people taking turns to fight and not letting me go."
However, not all students have encountered this situation, and some students said that there are differences in the way Wall Street English is sold in different regions.
Hu Lin, who signed up for Wall Street English in Nanjing, has done a total of 3 loans, one is a loan of 44820 yuan from a consumer finance company, and two are financial credit products of an Internet company, the amounts are 42300 yuan and 34740 yuan, respectively, and some of the tuition fees are paid by credit card, with a total tuition fee of more than 120,000 yuan. When Hu Lin renewed the fee for the third time, he also chose a 1-on-1 VIP course, and it took about 6 years to complete all the courses.
Hu Lin believes that when the loan is paid, the Wall Street English staff is obviously inducing him to take out a loan, and did not tell him the risk of handling the loan. "I had no concept of installment payments at the time, and then I learned that if I didn't get credit, I was finished." He said this to this reporter.
Hu Lin's first loan was not even applied for, and then the Wall Street English learning consultant operated in his own mobile phone to successfully handle Hu Lin's loan.
(Screenshot of the loan page provided by Hu Lin)
"I was thinking of learning something to enrich myself, but I didn't expect to be in debt." Hu Lin sighed. At present, Hu Lin has sued Wall Street English and is waiting for a trial.
The loan will continue to be repaid
Although Yu Xin has not yet obtained an undergraduate degree certificate, she still recognizes the quality of Wall Street English's courses, and the learning effect is not satisfactory because she has interrupted her own learning. During that time, because of family troubles, Yu Xin did not insist on going to Wall Street English for classes, and then she left Shanghai and returned to her hometown in Jiangsu, which did not have a Wall Street English store.
So she followed the advice of the course consultant and moved to online classes, but she never got the account password for the online course.
"A few days ago, the course consultant suddenly sent me a message, telling me that I was going to defend my rights, to sue, or to find 315. I was very confused about how to suddenly defend my rights, and that's when I learned that Wall Street English was yellow. How can such a large training institution be said to have fallen? I was really blindfolded. But I still have ten days to have a baby, and I can't go to Shanghai to defend my rights. Yu Xin said to reporters.
When Yu Xin contacted the Wall Street English course consultant again, the course consultant said that he had also been forced to leave his job and was now going through labor arbitration procedures.
A number of trainees told reporters that they received an email from Wall Street English, which said: "We will formally communicate with you in the coming days about the company and your learning." ”
(Screenshot of the notification provided by Wall Street English students)
"I don't think this email is a formal notice, it is a lonely notice." Some students said so. The students said they had not received any formal notice from Wall Street English until now.
Hu Lin later left Nanjing for work reasons, and then when the epidemic broke out, he never went to Wall Street English again. He enrolled in a total of 18 levels of courses, only 4 of which he took.
According to the official website of Wall Street English, students have the right to apply for tuition refunds if they meet the relevant circumstances.
But in practice, it is not easy to really get a refund.
When Hu Lin said he wanted a refund, Wall Street English began to resign. "But the loan is also not repaid, I am afraid of generating a bad credit record."
Refund is not completely unfeasible, a student who applied for a refund last year told reporters that he just repaid the loan this month, and the refund agreement also agreed to go through the whole process at the end of August, "And look forward to finally getting a refund, how just in August the thunder, really hope the greater the disappointment!" ”
Zhang He, who just renewed his contract in June this year, angrily said that he was deceived by Wall Street English.
Zhang He had previously enrolled in a one-year course at the Nanfengcheng campus in Shanghai, which was supposed to expire in October this year. "In June, Wall Street English asked me to renew my contract, saying that it was an online class, but I could enjoy the treatment of offline classes, and wrote me a note to make a guarantee."
Zhang He thought that the cost was still appropriate, so he renewed the course for one year, the cost was 15900 yuan, and he used his credit card to pay in installments, a total of 12 installments.
Shortly after the renewal, at the end of July, the Nanfeng City campus said that it would be closed due to the epidemic and arranged for Zhang He to transfer to the Global Harbor campus. By the beginning of August, Zhang He went to the Global Harbor Campus, and the Global Harbor Campus had also been closed.
At that time, the course consultant who signed the contract with Zhang He also left, and Zhang He could not find a docking person for Wall Street English, and he had not recently received a formal notice from Wall Street English.
"I think it's fraud! If you just do performance, I understand, but promised a lot of things that are impossible to do, that is, to cheat money. Zhang He said this to this reporter, he chose to call the police.
A lawyer told the "China Times" reporter that the courses of the instant training institutions cannot be completed, the loans handled by the trainees in financial institutions are still to be repaid, and whether the tuition fees can be returned depends on the ability of Wall Street English to refund. Another lawyer also told reporters that at present, the rights protection of Wall Street English students should still be handled in accordance with the terms of the corresponding contract.
Cases of partners in the thunder scene of financial institutions such as consumer finance companies are not uncommon, and there are lessons from the past in the field of education and training. How to strengthen the screening and supervision of partners, properly deal with problems after problems, and avoid repeating the same mistakes is a problem that the whole industry needs to face.
(At the request of the interviewee, the names of the people appearing in the article are pseudonyms)