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since august this year, many complaints about refunds and rights protection related to qinhan hutong have appeared online.

according to the daily economic news, wang shuangqiang, the founder of qinhan hutong, said in an interview with reporters that more than 90 stores of the brand are now temporarily closed.

qinhan hutong is a well-known educational institution with 22 years of operation, focusing on traditional cultural courses such as chinese studies, calligraphy, chinese painting, and guzheng. this time, many campuses across the country were reported to be closed on a large scale.students and parents from shanghai, beijing, guangzhou, shenzhen and other places have complained and demanded a refund from qinhan hutong, with the amount involved possibly exceeding 10 million yuan。

many stores in shenzhen closed

students have no way to get a refund

recently, according to a report by southern metropolis daily, qinhan hutong was reported to have closed many stores across the country, and many branches of qinhan hutong in shenzhen were also affected and closed.

some parents of students told reporters that the unused lesson packages were worth tens of thousands of yuan, while other parents told reporters that no contract was signed after purchasing the lesson packages this year, and qinhan hutong only provided receipts.

ms. liu is one of the parents of students in qinhan hutong. in april 2023, she spent 14,800 yuan to buy a course at the qiaoxiang branch in qinhan hutong, shenzhen. in an interview with reporters, she said, "i signed up for their bamboo flute class at the time. i bought 88 class hours. each class lasted for an hour and a half, so he would deduct two class hours each time, so it would cost more than 300 yuan for one class."

the interviewee provided a screenshot of the course package, with the total tuition fee exceeding ten thousand yuan.

source: southern metropolis daily

in other words, if calculated by the number of times, ms. liu bought 44 lessons at once. if calculated by the frequency of one lesson per week, it would take nearly a year to complete all the lessons. ms. liu told reporters that so far, there are still more than 30 lessons that have not been used.

among the parents of qiaoxiang branch, there are many parents who attend classes regularly in qinhan hutong.they have great trust in the institution and will buy more than 100 or 200 lessons at a time. some parents even buy 1,000 lessons at a time.。

ms. xu is one of the parents who bought a relatively large package of lessons. she told the reporter that because she has two children at home, "i thought that i could use up all the lessons anyway, and the family package is for both adults and children, so we can go even if the children don't go." therefore, ms. xu bought the qinhan hutong family vip package for 63,420 yuan in may last year, which includes 720 lessons, and there are still 484 lessons that have not been used.

some employees said their wages have been in arrears for several months.

ms. zhang, a parent of a student at the meilin branch, told reporters that the qinhan hutong meilin branch had organized a seventh anniversary garden party on august 25, so she did not expect qinhan hutong to close so soon.

screenshot of the qinhan hutong anniversary garden party invitation registration

source: southern metropolis daily

all this happened not without any warning. ms. zhong is a teacher at the qiaoxiang pavilion in qinhan hutong. she told reporters that her salary for july and august this year had not been paid, but the closure of the store happened very suddenly. ms. zhong told reporters, "on sunday, we were still discussing renewal with sales staff and parents. on monday, rumors began to spread. on tuesday, we were suddenly asked to notify parents to go to the front desk to get a refund."

earlier, the reporter called the shanghai headquarters of qinhan hutong about this matter, and the staff confirmed to the reporter thatexcept for a small number of employees, most employees have not received their salaries for july and august, and their social security has not been paid normally.the staff member also said that the company had delayed the payment of wages in april and may this year.

once published a statement to refute rumors of bankruptcy

on august 26, qinhan hutong released "a letter to qinhan hutong students and parents" through its official wechat account, personally refuting rumors of the institution's closure.

qinhan hutong claimed on august 26 that since last year, the company has encountered huge challenges in its operations. senior executives of the company have resigned one after another. the founder led the core team to check the company's assets day and night, actively took measures such as mortgage loans and equity financing, successfully withstood the high pressure of capital turnover several times, and quickly restored the timely payment of employees' wages. in the first half of this year, there was no arrears in taxes and social security.

the article also stated that in mid-august this year, some employees posted "bankruptcy" comments on social media, which quickly turned into widespread panic due to the previous delay in salary payment, and the normal operation of various campuses was seriously disrupted. in response, the founder and the core team immediately set up an emergency operation team to communicate and deal with the situation, and are still working hard to advance the work.

but,currently, this tweet has been deleted.。

some franchise stores "changed their names to save themselves"

after the sudden closure of more than 90 directly-operated stores due to tight capital chains, some franchise stores in qinhan hutong were also "unable to sit still". according to the daily economic news, a number of qinhan hutong franchise stores recently began to change their names to "save themselves".

"we just received the news today that a new investor has taken over, so we have changed the name now." on september 2, when the reporter called the former branch in qinhan hutong, shenzhen as a consumer, the staff who answered the phone said this.

the reporter learned from the interview that three qinhan hutong stores in the area have changed their names. the practice of changing the store names overnight also surprised the mall.

except for shenzhen, qinhan hutong's seven stores in chongqing are all franchise stores. this time, due to the impact of the headquarters closing more than 90 direct stores, they are considering changing their names. "qinhan hutong's business in chongqing is still ok, but once the headquarters went bankrupt, all parents saw the public opinion and did not give us any time to respond... we are all victims, and now we can only actively save ourselves." a staff member of a qinhan hutong franchise store in chongqing told reporters that several local stores are now greatly affected and may change their names in the future.

the franchise store suddenly changed its name. did the headquarters know about it? "it may be that our joint-venture store changed its brand." on september 2, the reporter interviewed wang shuangqiang, the founder of qinhan hutong. he did not give further explanation, but said, "we are making a new announcement overnight and reporting (the situation) to the local governments."

rapidly expanding head office

according to china newsweek, qinhan hutong was founded in 2002 by wang shuangqiang, who was born in 1976 in linfen, shanxi. in 2009, wang shuangqiang opened the first chinese studies center in qinhan hutong in shanghai and found the industry model.

industry media duozhi.com reported that from 2014 to 2017, qinhan hutong entered a state of rapid growth, opening more than 60 new branches, mainly concentrated in beijing, shanghai, guangzhou and shenzhen. at the end of 2017, qinhan hutong received 18 million yuan in angel round financing from listed company anhui new media. but then the expansion of qinhan hutong slowed down.

by 2019, qinhan hutong had opened more than 70 directly-operated campuses. each campus had an average annual revenue of 7 million yuan, and the overall annual revenue had exceeded 400 million yuan. at the beginning of that year, qinhan hutong received another 100 million yuan in series a investment. at that time, in an interview with an industry media, wang shuangqiang revealed that 2019 was the coaching period and the ipo was expected to be around 2023.

in march 2020, qinhan hutong announced the completion of a rmb 150 million series b financing round, led by mingde heritage. in the middle of that year, qinhan hutong announced the launch of its open business, "cautiously establishing cooperative branches in the sinking market."

in recent years, qinhan hutong has once again demonstrated its ability to expand rapidly. this year, qinhan hutong disclosed that it has opened nearly 200 chinese culture halls. but wang shuangqiang's vision does not stop there. the official article of qinhan hutong mentioned that the organization is committed to becoming a cultural technology platform company integrating culture, education, tourism, and health care.

according to the daily economic news, wang shuangqiang revealed thatqinhan hutong's national revenue in 2023 was more than 600 million yuan, but now the store is suddenly closed. the core reason is the uncertainty caused by unpaid wages and public opinion.the company currently has more than 2,000 employees.

the ministry of education has issued a document to regulate the charging of training institutions

how can consumers protect their rights?

in 2022, the ministry of education and 13 other departments issued the "opinions on standardizing non-subject extracurricular training for primary and secondary school students" (hereinafter referred to as the "opinions"), which made systematic arrangements for issues such as prepayment and refund of non-subject extracurricular training.

the opinion points out that it is necessary to strengthen the management of fees charged by non-academic training institutions.training institutions are required not to collect fees in one lump sum or in disguised forms such as recharges or re-cards for a period of more than three months or 60 class hours, and the fees shall not exceed rmb 5,000.。

how can consumers protect their rights?

1. during the period when the court and the liquidation group accept the declaration and liquidation verification of the training institution's liabilities in accordance with the law, the creditor's rights shall be declared and registered in a timely manner;

2. request the local consumer protection association to intervene in accordance with the consumer rights protection law to help terminate the contract, recover the refund, etc.;

3. before entering the bankruptcy liquidation stage, according to the contract agreement and legal provisions, file a contract dispute lawsuit based on the other party's expected failure to perform, and request to terminate the contract and recover the money.

as for educational training institutions, if they cannot perform according to the original contract, they should take the initiative to bear the liability for breach of contract and actively negotiate with consumers to seek solutions. if the two parties cannot reach an agreement, they should fulfill their refund obligations in accordance with article 53 of the consumer protection law, promptly and properly solve problems and resolve conflicts, and jointly create a good off-campus training consumption environment.