About Closing Down of the ‘Wax in the City’ / 由美容院的倒闭所想起的。。。

Wax in the City 是一间连锁Spa Salon，最近倒闭了，引起了一阵轩然大波。其原因是由于业者在这之前还诱导顾客交完全部配套的钱，并拒绝退还；同时律师和消协的代表也纷纷发表电视讲话说顾客不该傻傻地一次就交清全部配套的钱，交钱之前要彻底查清它的经营状况。叫我说这简直就是屁话。首先，不交清钱没有一家美容院会给你做配套，再说了，我们消费者去那里调查？要查也得政府去查呀，政府应该设立网页，并对所有业者进行分级，把他们的经营状况在网上公布，这样消费者才有处可查嘛。或者政府也可以出台政策禁止他们提前收钱，每次做好后再付款。最奇怪的是有些顾客是分期付款的，当有些顾客发现倒闭后，通知银行叫他们停止分期付款，银行经答复说根据法律不能停，哪有那么奇怪的法律？明明可以减少顾客损失的，却偏偏不要做。实际上是政府管理存在严重的漏洞，却还要指责消费者不够聪明，真是岂有此理。
今天报纸登出来了，政府说他们改进了，首先，给五天的冷静期。其次，不得强行推销Package，第三，要提供明细账单条款，要让顾客明白他们到底买了什么。第四，提高专业素质，等等。我觉得这些并不是实质问题，最重要的是应禁止美容院提前收费，做一次收一次就好啦，为什么还要搞到那么麻烦？

Wax in the City is a spa salon in Singapore that recently closed down. Commotion broke out among those customers who could not be given a refund for payments made in advance of a full course of 10 sessions. Now lawyers and representatives from the Consumers Association have spoken out in a TV interview, saying that the customer should think twice, and should not easily agree to sign this kind of agreement without first carrying out a thorough check on their background. I think this is quite absurd. I believe that the government should come out with some new safeguards to strengthen the existing regulations which protect our customers, rather then we having to check for ourselves. We have to pay the full fee up front when we sign up for a package. This is the normal practice in Singapore. Where can we perform a search of the known information for any one given company? It’s simply nowhere. Government should monitor their business closely and setup a website to grade them. Otherwise all we can get from the internet is just them bluffing about how good they are. How on earth could we have known that they were going to be closing down soon? Or simply come out with a new policy that prevents businesses from collecting all of the money in one upfront payment. It should be paid each time after the session. The strangest thing is some customers pay by installment. Since they have closed down, the bank should have been advised to cease making regular deductions from the customers’ account! Hence, minimizing the losses incurred. But the bank has answered that by law they are bound to continue the transaction. Isn’t the law is very stupid? The Government having failed to manage the situation very well, now puts the blame on the consumers.