[Epoch Times September 10, 2021]News of the bankruptcy of “Wall Street English”, a well-known chain training organization in mainland China, has been reported. The institution owes 1.2 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), among which a large number of trainees have paid tuition fees to the training institution in the form of prepayment or loan, making the trainees feel quite helpless.
According to a report by CCTV Finance on September 9th, Wall Street English owes 1.2 billion yuan in tuition. Can the student’s tuition be refunded? There is no response from Wall Street English. All of its 39 learning centers in 11 cities on the mainland have ceased operations.
According to the search results of “Tianyan Check” on China’s credit investigation platform, Wall Street English Training Center (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was listed as an abnormal operation by the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Administration for “the registered residence or business place cannot be contacted”; The company was also included in the list of abnormal business operations for the same reason.
In January this year, the 23-year-old white-collar Ronaldinho bought a one-year training course on Wall Street English for 22,600 yuan. At that time, under the introduction of a sales consultant, she completed the payment through a loan through the application “Du Xiaoman”. Two months later, under the strong recommendation of the sales consultant, Ronaldinho purchased a one-year training course with a renewal fee of 20,500 yuan. This time, the payment was completed by applying for a credit card.
Ronaldinho recalled that the entire process of applying for the card was unexpectedly fast. What she did not expect was that she could easily obtain a loan of 25,000 yuan with a monthly income of only 5,000 yuan, which also meant that Ronaldinho would only pay for the loan repayment every month. 3,000 yuan.
Even college students who have no income and lack the ability to repay will become the sales target of Wall Street English. Xiao Xiang bought a one-year course at Beijing Xihuan Plaza Center in November last year for 18,000 yuan, of which nearly 15,000 yuan was a loan payment, and he had to repay more than 1,000 yuan a month.
Since the usual living expenses are only 2,000 yuan, Xiaoxiang can’t afford to spend it at all. However, she has no time to think about the future. The credit card staff has appeared for the first time. Knowing that Xiaoxiang is still a student, there is no proof of income, even a credit card. Before I got it, I opened the loan line directly on the app and completed the payment process on the spot. According to Xiao Xiang, his situation is not alone.
With the closure of Wall Street English stores, these students are facing the dilemma of not being able to refund their tuition fees but having to repay their loans to avoid negative impact on personal credit. Although some trainees tried to apply for a loan refund to a lending institution, many institutions stated that if they wanted to cancel the loan contract, Wall Street English had to refund to the financial institution first and apply to cancel the loan contract of the trainee. When Ronaldinho called the Wall Street English hotline again, the phone could no longer be reached.
According to incomplete statistics, as of August 14, more than 6,000 trainees involved a total of approximately RMB 480 million in contract value, of which the highest purchase contract amount was as high as RMB 1.518 million.
Closed and closed overnight, the students of Wall Street English felt helpless. Many students continued to report their experiences in local police stations, online courts, and consumer hotlines, seeking solutions to refund the tuition fees.
According to reports, Zhao Zhanzhu, deputy director of Beijing Yunjia Law Firm, said that even if Wall Street English enters bankruptcy liquidation in the future, it will first pay taxes owed to the country and then pay the wages owed to employees. Under normal circumstances, consumers, as creditors, can obtain a very low repayment rate, and may not even be able to repay them at all.
On September 10, a commentator from the “Jimu News” of the “Chutian Metropolis Daily” pointed out that pre-collecting tuition is a common routine of training institutions, and Wall Street English is even better. There is no bottom line to pay for students’ pockets in the name of selling courses. And questioned where the huge tuition fees he collected went to?
Wall Street English is an international adult English training brand. Since entering the Chinese market in 2000, learning centers have been opened in 11 cities in China. It positions its customers as mid-to-high-end groups, offers high prices for courses, and used to have an average annual income growth rate of more than 40%.
Editor in charge: Fang Xiao#
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