Will a fee of over a thousand yuan be deducted for just one day of visiting? The citizen roast that the charge was too overbearing, and he found housekeeping through "swan to home"

After more than two months, Ms. Xu, a citizen, still has not reached an agreement with the "Swan Home" platform regarding the refund matter: for her, she has not found a suitable day shift aunt at home yet, and she has even wasted nearly 4000 yuan in service fees. However, on the other hand, a service contract issued by the platform shows that deducting all service fees does not seem to be a problem.

In recent years, with the continuous development of the "Internet plus" model, the domestic service industry is gradually shifting to online. The "one-stop" service process of selecting addresses, filtering requirements, and recommending consultants seems to be time-saving and worry free, which makes a large number of consumers willing to pay a "service fee" to the platform. Collecting money to assist may seem reliable, but the experiences of many consumers suggest that this "helping to find an aunt" service is almost a step by step pitfall.

Once you come to your doorstep, the service fee platform is bound to win

"My request is for my aunt to work during the day. In addition to cleaning, the key is to be responsible for cooking dinner." In July of this year, Ms. Xu began searching for service personnel on various government platforms. Due to having children at home, she specifically requested that the indoor environment be clean and the food be light and healthy. As a well-known Internet housekeeping service platform, "Swan to Home" was first included by Ms. Xu into one of the channels for selecting aunts.

And the subsequent service did not disappoint Ms. Xu either. After repeatedly confirming the employment needs with Ms. Xu, the customer service consultant screened and sent several resumes of aunties. After careful examination, one of Aunt Sun made Ms. Xu "moved". "Good aunties have tight schedules." After completing the online interview quickly, Ms. Xu signed the service contract under the consultant's persuasion. "At that time, I paid two amounts of money at once: the platform's annual service fee was nearly 4000 yuan, plus the auntie's first month's salary."

However, after the aunt completed her first household registration service, everything went smoothly as if it had come to an end. "On the same day, my aunt told me that she couldn't come in the future because the service time I requested didn't match her current idle schedule. However, whether it was in the early communication or during the interview, I had repeatedly confirmed the employment time. Isn't this a waste of energy?" In dissatisfaction and disappointment, Ms. Xu requested a refund of the service fee to the consultant, but the consultant immediately sent a screenshot of the contract: after the domestic service personnel completed the first household registration service, the platform would deduct 1500 yuan of the "first matching service fee". ". The consultant also stated that if refunded now, the user would suffer significant losses and suggested that Ms. Xu continue to provide service, while also helping to find a suitable aunt as soon as possible.

The loss of a thousand yuan for nothing was obviously not worth it, and with the consultant's repeated guarantees, Ms. Xu had to temporarily give up the refund with suspicion. However, after the process of matching the aunt was restarted, Ms. Xu and others only had endless dissatisfaction. "This time, the consultant ignored my needs and kept persuading me to accept the aunt labeled as' elderly care service 'on my resume. After multiple rounds of tugging and tugging, Ms. Xu finally welcomed the second aunt who went to the household. However, 14 days later, the aunt still chose to' go to the household '. In addition, she had taken multiple leave during her service period, which made Ms. Xu insist on terminating the service relationship with' Swan Home '.".

"Surprisingly, I can't even refund a penny this time!" The consultant informed Ms. Xu again that according to the contract, since Aunt has been registered for 14 natural days, if I apply for a refund at this time, all the service fees that Ms. Xu had previously paid will not be refunded. "Can we only continue to cooperate with this platform?"

Unequal clause "support" platform refuses to refund

During Ms. Xu's communication with the consultant, "Swan Arrived Home" twice refused refunds, and the four words "according to the contract" also appeared to be well founded. So, what kind of contract is this?

Through the social media platform of Ms. Zhao, a netizen from Liaoning, the reporter also saw this service contract. In July of this year, a similar experience to Ms. Xu was almost also staged at the home of Ms. Zhao, a resident of Liaoning. The well matched aunt repeatedly changed the time of household registration, and the cleaning service after the registration was not satisfactory. After settling the salary of Auntie's household registration, Ms. Zhao and her husband applied to the platform to terminate the service contract, but also received a response stating that the first matching fee cannot be refunded.

According to the cost breakdown, Ms. Zhao paid a one-year service fee to the platform, including a first matching service fee of 700 yuan and an after-sales support service fee of 1980 yuan. According to Article 2 of the contract, "Party B's Service Content", the first matching service refers to the recruitment of domestic service personnel who meet the needs of users by the domestic service platform, and the provision of information on domestic service personnel with a single intention for Party A's preliminary selection; After sales support services require the domestic service platform to continuously meet the employment needs of users and recruit suitable domestic staff for free during the service period.

If the service relationship needs to be terminated in advance, the contract also stipulates the refund rules: only if the first domestic service personnel hired by the user do not meet the registration conditions before the actual registration date or unilaterally terminate the employment contract, the platform can refund the entire service fee. On this basis, only when none of the housekeeping personnel recommended by the platform have completed 14 natural days of household registration, can the remaining amount be refunded after deducting the first service fee.

The relevant provisions on refund rules in the "Swan to Home" service contract.

"It is not difficult to see from this that 'Swan to Home' has set an extremely low threshold for collecting service fees for itself." Ms. Zhao analyzed to reporters, on the one hand, according to the existing contract provisions, only one household service personnel need to complete one day of household registration service. Regardless of whether the service is satisfactory and sustainable, the platform can include the initial recruitment service fee in its pocket. In addition, the 14 day period is not long, and the refund ratio is only agreed upon based on 14 days, which greatly deprives consumers of freedom; On the other hand, there is no provision in the contract regarding the service effectiveness of the platform. Even if the service continues, the platform's obligation is only to assist users in matching for free, and the time spent is not mentioned at all. "For consumers, signing such a contract can bring very little protection."

Consumers should try to use standardized "tripartite contracts" as much as possible

In fact, in response to the current popular "service intermediary" model, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, and the Shanghai Family Service Industry Association have jointly formulated the "Shanghai Household Service Contract Demonstration Text". "Different from traditional labor relations, the domestic service relationship established based on service intermediaries is actually a tripartite relationship. Therefore, what needs to be signed should also be a tripartite contract based on the employer, domestic service agency, and domestic service staff." Sun Mei'e, President of the Shanghai Family Service Industry Association, introduced, "In this demonstration text we have developed, there are clear provisions for the rights, obligations, and breach of contract responsibilities of the three parties."

The relevant provisions on early termination of contracts in the demonstration text.

The reporter noticed that compared to the format contract provided by "Swan to Home", the various agreements in the demonstration text are clearly more balanced. For example, in the relevant provisions on breach of contract liability, the model text elaborates on the method of early termination of the contract and stipulates the amount of liquidated damages to be paid. "We suggest that consumers can try to use demonstration texts to sign contracts with domestic service platforms. If there are any matters not covered, they can also be signed as supplementary agreements after consultation among the three parties," said Sun Mei'e.

"Efficiency, convenience and wide range of choices are indeed the advantages of domestic service after it goes online. However, with the rapid development of the industry and more and more enterprises entering the office, users are also advised to query relevant information through the Shanghai Comprehensive Domestic Service Management Platform before reaching a service relationship." Sun Mei'e also reminded consumers that at present, Shanghai requires Internet domestic service intermediary platforms and domestic service personnel to go through the filing and registration process, and citizens can only query and trace relevant information through the "household staff credit" in the "apply with". "In addition, when signing service contracts, consumers must also carefully read the relevant terms to avoid unnecessary disputes as far as possible."

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