Recently, the new culture newspaper received many complaints from readers about the problems encountered in "refund of fees" As for merchants, consumers often refuse to return their cards and refund their fees on the grounds that there are "no refund for studying more than 1 month" and "no refund for membership cards once they are sold" in the agreement or internal regulations. In this regard, consumers question that this is the overlord clause.
Case 1
Consumer:
The refund request for the fitness card "not opened" was rejected.
Ms. Tang, a citizen of Changchun, lives near Dongling South Street. At the end of last year, she learned that there would be a fitness club nearby. Because she is close to home, she set up a "Gold Card" in this fitness club that was not opened at that time, and spent 1500 yuan. When I first applied for the card, the fitness club was being renovated and not finished yet.
"After the renovation of the fitness club was completed, I went to it several times and found that the decoration inside was very strong, so I thought about returning the card." Ms. Tang said, "I didn't open this card, and it was useless to open it once, but I communicated with the club about returning the card, and the other party didn't agree."
Ms. Tang believes that it is unreasonable for the fitness club to disagree with her practice of returning the card and refunding the fee without opening the card.
Fitness club:
The agreement stipulates that the card will not be returned due to membership reasons.
On June 5438+08, the new culture reporter contacted Nanguan branch of Changchun witters Fitness Club where Ms. Tang handled the card. Manager Mr. Qin said that when consumers apply for membership cards, the club will show the membership agreement. There is a clear stipulation in the agreement: "When members buy membership cards, please think carefully. Once the membership card is sold, the club does not accept card refund or refund due to membership reasons. "
Regarding the consumer's questioning, Mr. Qin said that he would communicate with the boss and make a further reply.
Case 2
Consumer:
There is no "discount" for the remaining tuition fees in the middle of calligraphy class.
The child of Mr. Huang, a citizen of Changchun, signed up for a calligraphy class at Changchun Guangming Art School last year. At the time of payment, Mr. Huang didn't have too much sex at one time. "It turned out to be the cost of doing eight classes ten times at a time. Later, I paid more than 3 thousand at a time. Later, I changed the hard pen into a soft pen and paid more than 1000 yuan. " According to Mr. Huang, calligraphy class is the charging standard for each class in 70 yuan, and the reason why I pay several thousand yuan at a time is because I intend to let my children study for a long time. However, due to my own work, I have to travel frequently and can't take care of my children's calligraphy class, so I want to discuss the refund with the school.
"The other party said at the beginning that according to financial regulations, it is impossible to refund." Teacher Huang said, "According to the regulations of the school, if you apply for a refund within 1 month after payment, you will get a 10% discount; If it exceeds 1 month, it is not supported to apply for a refund. " He discussed it with the school many times, and later he got a partial refund, "15% discount", that is to say, the original unused tuition fee of more than 3,000 yuan was discounted by more than 2,600 yuan.
Art school staff:
Before signing up for payment and filling out the form, students have been informed of the refund regulations in advance.
According to the contact information provided by Mr. Huang, on 17, the new culture reporter contacted Ms. Jia, a staff member of Changchun Guangming Art School.
According to reports, the reason why there is a discount refund or no refund is due to two considerations.
First, after students sign up to pay fees, they need to arrange classes for them and arrange the teacher's class time. Once a student quits midway, it will involve human and material costs such as rescheduling classes again;
Secondly, it is also a kind of supervision for students' continuous learning.
In addition, the person stressed that before the parents of students sign up for payment and fill in the form, there are tips and notices about the corresponding refund regulations.
Opinions of consumer associations
Non-refundable advance payment suspected overlord clause
The new culture reporter noticed that in the above-mentioned fitness clubs and art schools, there are agreements or internal regulations on the refund of student card fees, such as "once the membership card is sold, the card will not be refunded and the membership fee will not be refunded" and "no refund is allowed after 1 month", etc., all of which are standard terms (that is, the terms drawn up by both parties in advance for reuse and not negotiated with each other when signing the contract).
"Payment before consumption belongs to the nature of advance payment. According to the relevant regulations, the compensation caused by consumers' breach of contract can only be limited to filling the losses of merchants, and not returning the advance payment is essentially suspected of overlord clause. Zhong Ping, secretary general of Changchun Consumers Association, said that according to the relevant provisions of the Law on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests, operators are not allowed to exclude or restrict consumers' rights, reduce or exempt operators' responsibilities, increase consumers' responsibilities and other unfair and unreasonable provisions by means of format clauses, notices, statements and shop notices, and they are not allowed to use format clauses and technical means to force transactions. Format terms, notices, statements, shop notices, etc. If it contains the contents listed in the preceding paragraph, its contents are invalid.
Zhong Ping believes that if the consumer breaches the contract, then the operator can ask the consumer to bear the corresponding liability for breach of contract, and the liability for breach of contract depends on whether there is an agreement between the two parties. If no agreement can be reached, it shall be settled through consultation. In the case, health clubs, training institutions, etc. Formulating standard terms and regulations on how long it is not required to refund fees limits consumers' rights and aggravates consumers' responsibilities. After all, operators no longer need to fulfill their future teaching and service obligations, so this clause that aggravates consumer responsibility is suspected of overlord clause.