Blue whale finance learned from the weekly complaint soaring list on the black cat complaint platform that the payment institution of Beijing Cuiwei Tower Co.Ltd(603123) ( Beijing Cuiwei Tower Co.Ltd(603123) . SH), Beijing Haike RONGTONG Payment Service Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Haike RONGTONG”) was recently sued to No. 4 in the weekly complaint soaring list in the field of financial payment due to a large number of consumer complaints alleging “false publicity and fraudulent POS deposit”.
A large number of complaints show that when Haike RONGTONG promotes POS machines to users, it promises that consumers can receive a company card swiping machine for free without any additional cost during the period. As a result, consumers were forced to charge deposits ranging from 199 yuan to 399 yuan when activating POS machines. Many consumers said that Haike RONGTONG either shirked or refused to refund the deposit, so it was extremely difficult to recover the loss.
Some users who had previously purchased the old version of POS machine said that they received a call from a salesman claiming to be Haike RONGTONG, who declared to consumers that the old machine needs to be upgraded, and the company will replace the new POS machine with the lowest handling fee for consumers. The products can be delivered to consumers by express and can be used only by activation. The result is the same as the above situation. Consumers are also forced to deduct a deposit of nearly 400 yuan when activated. There were also complaints that the POS machine sent was paid on arrival, and the deposit was forcibly withheld at the same time.
Under the same circumstances, there were consumer reactions. Some personnel of Haike financing party “pretended to be” other third-party payment platforms “remit the world” and replaced the new China payment of “China payment” products to induce consumers to handle POS machines. Later, the platform also refused to return the claim deposit.
Coincidentally, as early as may last year, Rongxin payment, a business platform of Haike RONGTONG, was collectively complained by anonymous consumers on the black cat complaint platform. At that time, there were more than 140 collective complaints. The same script and the same “VIP fee” and deposit were withheld from consumers. The difference is that at that time, Haike RONGTONG pretended to be ” Lakala Payment Co.Ltd(300773) “. Later, consumers added that the deposit and VIP fees had not been returned.
It is worth noting that in the past 30 days, only the black cat complaint platform, the number of consumer complaints against Haike RONGTONG reached 1852, with an average of 61 new complaints per day.
In response to the above situation, blue whale finance called the staff of Haike financing party as a consumer according to the complaint information of consumers. It first claimed to be a staff member of Haike RONGTONG headquarters, rather than a payment agent. According to its introduction, the company’s previous POS machines had a series of problems such as code skipping and merchant skipping, and the old machines were raised. Now the company has launched activities to mail (replace) a new POS machine to consumers free of charge.
In terms of cost, the staff member stressed that the cost of the new POS machine product and express delivery cost shall be borne by Haike financing party. Blue whale finance asked whether there would be additional fees such as deposit, and the answer was “no additional fees”.
In terms of products, Lanjing finance and economics noticed that consumers generally complained about the “new POS machine” of Haike RONGTONG, which forcibly withheld the deposit, and its relevant information was not publicized on the official website of Haike RONGTONG.
In this regard, the staff of the above-mentioned Haike financing party said that the name of the product is “Haike financing”, which is displayed as “traditional POS” on the official website. Blue whale finance and its repeated confirmation that it recognizes the product as the following product on the official website.
The facts are different.
Immediately, the staff member of Haike financing added blue whale finance wechat as “UnionPay POS customer service” and said that “(because) POS machines are under the supervision of UnionPay (and use this identity)”. At the same time, it sent the introduction diagram of the new POS machine to blue whale finance.
Subsequently, blue whale finance reconfirmed with wechat in the form of text whether the use of the POS would incur additional costs. The staff member changed his words and said: “there is a first brush of 399 yuan. To meet the requirement of brushing 10000 water within three months, it will be directly returned to the consumer bank card in the third month”. It explained that the fee was incurred when UnionPay asked the payment institution (deduct a first brush fee), because UnionPay had to review it for 90 days. The first brush fee is not deducted by Haike RONGTONG, but by UnionPay.
For the above remarks made by the financial staff of China UnionPay, contact the official staff of China UnionPay. UnionPay said that the company has not had the situation described by the staff of Haike financing (withholding the deposit of the user’s POS machine), which is done by the acquirer. UnionPay is only used as a channel for inter-bank transfer. “We don’t have a business like deposit withholding.” Its affirmation.
Interestingly, Haike RONGTONG still has a strategic cooperative relationship with China UnionPay. Its common partners include the official website of the official website disclosure, and its common partners include ‘ Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited(600600) 36\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\disclosure, and its common partners, which is disclosed on its official website. Its common partners include the official website disclosure of its official website. Its common partners include China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) 0036\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\, Ping An Bank Co.Ltd(000001) , Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) , Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) , China Minsheng Banking Corp.Ltd(600016) , Agricultural Bank Of China Limited(601288) , wechat, JD finance Alipay.
According to the official website of Haike RONGTONG and tianyancha information, Haike RONGTONG was established in April 2001. It is a holding subsidiary of Beijing Cuiwei Tower Co.Ltd(603123) and its legal person is Meng Lixin. The registered capital of the company is 255.8 million yuan. Its business is mainly for small, medium-sized and micro merchants. Its business type is bank card acquiring nationwide.
On the official website, Haike RONGTONG showed 15 products, including 6 POS machines and the above-mentioned new products.
A few days ago, some financial enthusiasts wrote an article specifically for consumers who were forced to deduct the deposit of POS machines by Haike finance to disclose some methods of getting the deposit back.
According to the article, there are many Haike financing products. The reason is not the improvement of function and performance, but just the change of different institutions. Each new product of Haike RONGTONG wants to enter the market quickly, either under the banner of low rate or promoting free gimmicks. Among them, the promotion form takes e-marketing as the main channel.
In the process of telemarketing, the customer service of Haike RONGTONG usually calls consumers in the official name, and may lure consumers into deception by means of low rate, free and other routines. Finally, when the machine is sent out, some will charge fees in the form of express delivery, and the deposit of 299 yuan, 399 yuan or 599 yuan will be deducted when the machine is activated.
All the situations mentioned above are confirmed one by one in the content of consumer complaints. In addition, as for the way of telemarketing, it is mentioned in the article that a team specially undertakes such business. The process is to recruit customer service first, and then brainwash with the words of “helping others use products with low rates and other preferential policies”.
In recent years, the relevant regulatory authorities have carried out e-marketing and e-marketing POS; Posing as UnionPay and bank staff to carry out marketing fraud; Posing as an “official” and taking “rate adjustment” and “product upgrading” as an excuse, they severely crack down on illegal machine cutting and other acts, and have zero tolerance for arbitrary withholding of deposit.
In the environment of market and industry compliance, Haike RONGTONG went the opposite way and stepped on the regulatory red line blatantly.
In this regard, Liu Jing, a partner lawyer of Beijing Yingke (Shanghai) law firm, said: online sales and e-sales POS machines not only violate the regulatory rules of the industry, but also involve criminal crimes if there is fraud or illegal access to citizen information. The Supreme People’s court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued documents in 2016 and 2021, which made it clear that those who use telecommunications network technology to commit fraud and meet the conditions for conviction will be punished as fraud. Once the crime of fraud is established, the suspect will face up to ten years in prison or life imprisonment, and be fined or confiscated. In addition, those who use the illegally obtained personal information of citizens to commit the crime of telecommunications network fraud, which constitutes several crimes, shall be punished in accordance with the law.
The people’s Bank of China issued the notice on strengthening payment and settlement management and preventing new types of violations and crimes in telecommunications networks in 2019, which stipulates that in case of new types of violations and crimes in telecommunications networks, the responsibility implementation of banks and Payment institutions shall be checked. Banks and Payment institutions that violate relevant systems and the provisions of this Circular shall be punished in accordance with relevant provisions; If the circumstances are serious, the people’s Bank of China shall impose punishment in accordance with Article 46 of the law of the people’s Republic of China on the people’s Bank of China, and may take regulatory measures to suspend the opening of new accounts and the handling of payment business for one to six months. Liu Jing said that Haike RONGTONG was to blame for such a large number of complaints.
In addition, since 2017, Haike RONGTONG has received a total of 14 penalties from branches of the central bank, with a total amount of 2.232 million yuan.
According to the financial report of Beijing Cuiwei Tower Co.Ltd(603123) q3, the operating revenue of its third-party payment business in the first three quarters decreased by 20.99% year-on-year to 1.716 billion yuan. Third party payment business refers to Haike financing business Beijing Cuiwei Tower Co.Ltd(603123) 2021 semi annual report shows that the revenue of third-party payment is 1.128 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.4%. In recent years, the gross profit margin of Haike financing has also shown a downward trend as a whole.
In 2020, Beijing Cuiwei Tower Co.Ltd(603123) completed the acquisition of 98.3% equity of Haike RONGTONG, with a transaction price of 1.945 billion yuan. Based on this calculation, the overall valuation of Haike RONGTONG is about 2 billion yuan, a decrease of 1 billion according to the valuation in 2015. In recent years, Haike RONGTONG has gradually stripped off the previously involved small loans, Internet financial services, factoring, leasing and other financial businesses, or one of the reasons for the decline in its valuation.
Before the transaction, the indirect controller of Haike RONGTONG was Haidian state owned assets supervision and administration center, and the actual controller was Haidian District State owned assets supervision and Administration Commission. According to the profit forecast compensation agreement, all counterparties of the transaction promise that the net profit deducted from non parent company by Haike financing in 2020, 2021 and 2022 will not be less than 175 million yuan, 208 million yuan and 240 million yuan respectively. Otherwise, it is necessary to compensate Beijing Cuiwei Tower Co.Ltd(603123) for it.
