A store is in debt of hundreds of thousands to save itself, but the owner of a dry cleaning chain brand in Shanghai runs away? Prepaid cards cannot be refunded if they are no longer used.
As the season changes, many citizens find that many Kappa Laundry stores in Shanghai are closed and no longer open for business when they come to deliver laundry. Many consumers are faced with the situation where their prepaid cards have nowhere to use and cannot be returned. The reporter learned from the franchisees that the headquarters of Shanghai Kabo Laundry Co., Ltd. has left and all its directly-operated stores have been closed.
Mr. Peng, who lives in Yangpu District, said that he had previously applied for a prepaid card at the RT-Mart store on Huangxing Road of Shanghai Carbo Laundry Co., Ltd. and recharged it with an amount of several hundred yuan. Generally, if you recharge 500 yuan, you can get a 12% discount. Recharge up to 5,800 yuan and get a 35% discount.
In October last year, when he went to the store to make a purchase, he found that it was under renovation and did not pay attention to its operating conditions. When I went there again in March this year, I found that the store had removed its sign and was no longer in operation. The prepaid card Mr. Peng held showed that it could be used in all chain stores in Shanghai, so he consulted the stores on Jiangpu Road and Fushun Road, but was told that the original prepaid card could not be used. Similarly, after Mr. Gu, a citizen, recharged several hundred yuan at the Jiangpu Road store in 2022, he was told when he used it this year that the headquarters had closed down, and the balance could not be checked on the card, so it could not be used. He needed to apply for a new prepaid card.
On April 8, the reporter came to the address of Kabo laundry store on Jiangpu Road. The signboard and advertisement at the door have not changed, except that the words "directly operated" in "Carbo Laundry Official Directly Operated Store" are covered with tape.
Ms. Fu, the merchant, told reporters that she and her husband were originally clothing delivery employees of Kabo Laundry Outsourcing. They purchased the store in their own names in May 2021. The Jiangpu Road store is no longer a direct operation. Before taking over, they knew that the Kabo headquarters could no longer sustain itself and could not pay employees' wages.
Ms. Fu did not have a formal franchise contract, but only signed a "Store Facilities and Equipment Transfer Agreement" with Kabo. It was stipulated that after she paid 100,000 yuan, the decoration and equipment in the store would belong to her. At the same time, Kabo will cancel the store's original business license, and all responsibilities of the original pre-charged membership will be borne by Ms. Fu.
Ms. Fu said that the prepaid card that was originally recharged did not pass through her hands, so she could not refund the consumer. However, in order to maintain the customer base, she has recognized the balances of consumers who have opened cards at the store in recent years. The specific identification method is that the consumer's card information can be queried on the internal membership system of Kabo, and the card-issuing store is located on Jiangpu Road, and the value of the card balance will be transferred to the store's new system. "They range from a few hundred to a few thousand, which is equivalent to us giving money to consumers to launder it."
In the store, most consumers no longer hold Kabo Laundry’s prepaid cards. Ms. Fu took out a machine-printed receipt. The bottom showed "No Discount Card", which represented the original Capita membership. "The year before last, there was a customer who had 2,000 yuan in his card, and he has been washing it until now." Ms. Fu still believes that such customers will come back even if they use up their money. "Although we haven't made any money, we just want to retain customer resources and don't want to cause a stalemate." ”
The word "direct" has been erased from the official directly-operated store of Kabo Laundry.
Why can’t some consumers’ prepaid cards be used in stores? Ms. Fu explained that for membership cards that are more than 5 years old, the information cannot be retrieved in the Kabo system, and the balance value cannot be confirmed, so the store cannot accept it. She also added that Kabo’s membership system was shut down 2 years ago, and it found technicians and funded the restart of the system. "I renewed the original system for three years. Most of the store's customers will wash it at least once and register the card balance information into the new system. But I can't keep paying for maintenance. One day I will have to shut it down. Dropped."
The headquarters is operating abnormally, and the whereabouts of prepaid card fees are a mystery
The official website of Kabo Laundry was last updated in September 2022. According to reports, Kabo Laundry was founded in 2002. It claims to use dry cleaning technology imported from Germany and has been continuously rated as "Shanghai Famous Trademark". There are at least 1,000 franchise stores and more than 40 direct stores in major cities in China. Currently, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System shows that Shanghai Carbo Laundry Co., Ltd. has been listed on the list of operating irregularities and a person subject to enforcement for breach of trust for failing to publish its annual report for two consecutive years.
Shanghai Kabo Laundry Co., Ltd. was included in the list of operating abnormalities.
Ms. Fu from the Jiangpu Road store remembers that in the early years, Kabo had good development momentum. Its customer base included schools, governments and other institutions, and 80% of them were recharge users. The couple worked as outsourced employees for seven or eight years, earning a monthly salary of three to four thousand yuan. In 2020, they were told that the company was having operational difficulties and could not settle wages on time. "At that time, we thought that the boss was encountering difficulties, so we wanted to help and support him to tide over the difficulties." However, after a year of salary arrears, Kabo still collapsed. She went to the headquarters to ask for her salary to no avail. The other party could only transfer the closed direct-operated stores to her. So, how much is the recharge amount for this direct-operated store? Ms. Fu said it was 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. "We were just rushing to put it on the shelves. If we didn't want anything, there would be no stores and no wages."
Neither the official hotline nor the franchise hotline of Kabo Laundry can be dialed. However, after the reporter dialed a consultation phone number displayed in the pop-up window on the official website, the person who answered the call claimed to be a franchisee of the Kabo Laundry Registration Online Platform. He said that the prepaid card of Kabo Laundry could be used between direct-operated stores and franchise stores, because the headquarters can regularly transfer the settlement to the franchise stores. But now the boss has run away, all directly-operated stores have closed, and he has also defaulted on money owed to franchisees.
He explained that the labor, rent and factory laundry costs of directly operated stores are relatively high, and their ability to resist risks is weak. Franchise stores are owned by individual small business owners, and some adopt the model of front store and back factory. The owner can run it by himself and still be able to sustain it, such as opening an online laundry pickup and delivery service. When the brand collapsed, franchisees could only fight on their own and establish their own systems, so they all required consumers to apply for new cards. "It's rare for ordinary people to litigate for hundreds or thousands of dollars."
Recently, Shanghai's single-purpose prepaid consumption card management and implementation measures are soliciting public opinions. According to the "Measures", if the balance of funds received in advance by an operator exceeds 200,000 yuan, it will be included in the general risk warning, and the operator shall manage 40% of the balance of funds received in advance in a special deposit account. However, the reporter did not find the access information of the Kabo laundry prepaid card on the Shanghai single-purpose card collaborative supervision service platform, which means that there is a certain lack of supervision and it will be difficult to know the whereabouts of the funds. The reporter also learned from relevant departments that at present, the Kabo Laundry headquarters has entered into the process of revoking its business license.
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