Zhongxin Jingwei client, August 17 (Zhao Jiaran) "Mr. Tong Dawei, the Acadsoc course endorsed by you and your wife Guan Yue is about to fail, and no one cares about applying for a refund, you are a spokesperson, is it convenient to explain what the situation is?" Recently, actor Tong Dawei's Weibo comment area is now leaving such a message.
Source: Screenshot of Weibo
It is understood that Tong Dawei, who has established the "national father" because of his participation in film and television works such as "Tiger Mother and Cat Father" and "Little Shede", jointly endorsed the English training institution Acasso with his wife Guan Yue, and his endorsement poster is still displayed on the home page of the "Akaso Official Micro" Weibo.
Recently, a number of netizens commented on their Weibo comments that Acasso English can not be scheduled for classes, can not contact customer service, the official website telephone and public number are not replied, the application for refund is not responded, so they asked the spokesperson for help, there is a comment that "I believe that Tong Dawei is the name of the talent newspaper."
According to the official website, Acadsoc was founded in 2011 and is an online English education platform under Shenzhen Acasso Information Co., Ltd., with course types including parent-child English, adult English, IELTS TOEFL, etc. As of 2021, Acasso employs approximately 16,000 people worldwide. In 2021, Acadsoc completed c5 rounds of financing, with a total of nearly 1 billion yuan in series C financing.
Shen Yan, the mother of the baby, told the client that she signed up for more than 700 Acadsoc online foreign teacher courses for her children, and now there are more than 600 classes left, and the price of the unscheduled courses exceeds 10,000 yuan. "I signed up for an online course for foreign teachers in the Philippines, and it was out of the child's interest that he was able to improve his English in class. Before, every time I was through manual customer service on the system to help with the class, customer service replied very promptly, but in recent days suddenly did not reply, I found that something was wrong. ”
Consumer Wu Qian encountered difficulties when booking classes on the official account. "I used to make appointments on the public account, but in the past two days, I suddenly found that I couldn't make an appointment, and the names of the teachers and class hours could not be displayed." I couldn't find a refund channel on the app and the official account, and I and some other consumers wanted to call the customer service phone to apply for a refund, but they couldn't get through. There are student consultants who send a group message saying that there are very few customer service personnel at present, so it is difficult to contact. ”
Screenshot of the Acadsoc about the lesson platform provided by the interviewee
Zhongxin Jingwei client interviewed a number of consumers to learn that the recent Acadsoc adult English and children's English courses have been difficult to meet the class, the phenomenon of refund difficulties, some consumers through financial institutions to pay tuition fees in installments, is still repaying.
On the 17th, the client of Zhongxin Jingwei repeatedly called the official hotline of Acadsoc and found that the manual customer service could not be connected, prompting "the call is concentrated, and the agent is busy". On the afternoon of the 17th, some consumers reflected that the course selection system could choose courses and said that they had already chosen classes; but some consumers reflected that the appointment system could not be opened.
On the evening of the 17th, Acadsoc's official public account "Acadsoc Information" released a letter from founder Wang Zhibin to all users, saying that the company has made business adjustments, organizational structure changes and personnel optimization in response to the "double reduction opinion" requirements, and the company is still in normal operation.
Screenshot of Acadsoc Information Public Account
The article said that due to business adjustments, the company has carried out personnel optimization, and can currently make normal appointments and classes. The existing hotline congestion, background information surge and other situations, for some users of the refund application company is increasing customer service staff processing.
In July 2021, the "double reduction" policy for the compulsory education stage was implemented, which clearly required: "The employment of foreign personnel in China must comply with the relevant provisions of the state, and it is strictly forbidden to hire foreign personnel abroad to carry out training activities." This means that foreign teachers are not allowed to teach students in the compulsory education stage.
For the course content involving overseas foreign teachers, the relevant staff of Acadsoc told the client that all of Acadsoc's previous courses were taught by overseas professors. "At present, our overseas foreign teachers maintain the normal classes of paid users and will no longer sell new courses; in the future, the content of the courses will be mainly in adult English." The person said.
Regarding the issue of whether the spokesperson of the training institution is unable to provide services, Li Min, a senior partner of Shanghai Hansheng Law Firm, said in an interview with the client of Zhongxin Jingwei that in general, the spokesperson does not need to compensate. "The spokesperson is more as an image publicity, unless the spokesperson violates his commitment, or endorses a brand without relevant qualifications, he does not need to bear legal responsibility or compensation." (Zhongxin Jingwei app)
(At the request of the interviewee, Shen Yan and Wu Qian are pseudonyms)
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