Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, August 14th. Title: A short message 20 yuan, a courier 80 yuan, printing a page for more than 10 yuan … … Have you spent all this money on getting a visa?
Xinhua News Agency reporters Wang Moling, Yang Yang, He Xiyue and He Xinrong.
In summer, many people choose to travel abroad to relax in the summer. However, the experience of handling visas in some visa centers has made them very angry. The prices of many services are four or five times higher than the market price; After the appointment, you still have to queue for four or five hours, but you can pay four or five hundred "queue-jumping fees". A family of three is required to pay three courier fees when sending materials for the same project … … Xinhua News Agency reporters learned that some visa centers in Beijing and Shanghai have deviated from the original intention of "simplifying visa procedures and improving service efficiency".
Fees are arbitrary, expensive, and you have to suffer if you don’t spend money.
"It feels like pits everywhere!" Last week, Miss Dong and her family encountered "willful" charges when they applied for a visa in Beijing.
Temporary request for additional translation documents, charging high translation fees. "The staff of the visa center asked me to submit a translation of the real estate license and proposed to charge a translation fee for 110 yuan/Page." Miss Dong told the reporter that she thought the charge was too expensive and offered to translate it herself. The staff said that it is ok to translate by yourself, and it is necessary to re-number the business. Miss Dong thought about the queue time of several hours before, so she had to pay for it.
Be unreasonably asked to pay 3 high mailing fees. "The distance of one stop subway, the visa center asks for the courier fee 80 yuan, even if the online errands service is used, the price is four or five times higher." Miss Dong said that what made her even more angry was that her family of three handled the same business and delivered the materials together using the same delivery address, but they were told that they had to pay three courier fees.
Miss Dong also told reporters that it was originally a short message reminding service for visa centers to avoid customers who take their own documents, and the price was as high as 20 yuan. If you don’t hand it in, you may make a trip or even more trips in vain when you pick it up.
Miss Dong’s experience is by no means a case. Ms. Shi, a resident of Beijing, found that she still had to wait in line for four or five hours after making an online reservation at the visa center in advance. At this time, some staff members repeatedly persuaded her to spend four or five hundred yuan on the spot to buy VIP services, which can avoid queuing. Ms. Shi found that the staff did not provide official invoices after collecting fees.
A number of interviewees told reporters that they felt that these visa centers only had money in their hearts.
"Coax", "bluff" and "hard": "three axes"
The reporter saw on the optional service fee table provided by a visa center in Beijing: SMS notification to 20 yuan, express delivery to 80 yuan, printing 10 yuan/page, photo 40 yuan, VIP service to 390 yuan, super quick signing of 8421 yuan … … Many people told reporters that these "sky-high" services are called "optional", but they often "have to choose". The reporter found that there is a fixed routine for staff to fool customers into saving money.
— — "coax" first. The reporter saw in the multi-site visa center that the staff would sell VIP services with paid queues to customers from the moment they entered the door. The price of a service is usually around 300-600 yuan. The reporter learned from some staff that most of the people who come to apply for visa business are customers with acceptable economic conditions, and they don’t feel much pain about the cost of tens of dollars and hundreds of dollars. So I repeatedly instilled the so-called concept of "spending money to buy convenience" to fool customers into paying more for services.
— — "Tiger" again. "If you don’t follow what I said, the visa is likely to fail." This sentence has become a "mantra" to "control" customers’ money, which is very effective. Miss Dong told reporters that it was this sentence that frightened her when she considered submitting the materials directly without paying high translation fees. Almost all the respondents said that they had heard this sentence when they were unwilling to pay according to the instructions of the staff.
— — Finally "hard". Some staff members tend to be tough on customers who don’t listen and can’t bluff. When Ms. Luo from Shanghai applied for a German visa for herself and her son at the visa center, she was asked by the staff to make an extra copy of the proof of financial resources. But before that, she had found out in official website that it was unnecessary. But at the insistence of the staff, Ms. Luo can only copy more than 20 pages of relevant materials. Some staff members will find some "troubles" for customers who don’t want to spend money, such as making them queue up again for business or waiting for a long time.
The reporter learned from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism that in 2018, the number of China citizens traveling abroad has reached 149.72 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.7%. Lou Jiajun, a professor at the School of Tourism Management of East China Normal University, said that in the face of such a large population and huge market, it is increasingly important to regulate the arbitrary charges of visa centers.
Experts say it is illegal for visa centers to charge fees arbitrarily.
The reporter learned that many consumers have complained to the 12358 price supervision platform about the "willful" charges of the visa center, but they got a reply saying: "The price of services such as express delivery belongs to the market-adjusted price, and operators can set their own prices according to the production and operation costs and market supply and demand." Is this statement true?
"The visa center is a service organization between the handler and the embassy or consulate, mainly engaged in business consultation, material collection and preliminary examination, and visa retrieval." Yang Jinsong, a scholar in china tourism academy, said that embassies and consulates in many countries will authorize a third-party agency to assist in visa processing, and this agency will also find a cooperative enterprise in China to set up visa centers in the corresponding cities.
The reporter learned that at present, visa outsourcing services in embassies and consulates in China are mainly concentrated in VFS Global, TLS contact and BLS.
Experts remind that the nature of market-oriented enterprises does not mean that visa centers have the right to "willfully" charge. Qiu Baochang, an expert from the Expert Committee of the China Consumers Association, believes that the visa center has an exclusive property because of its authorized relationship with embassies and consulates of specific countries, which actually forms a market dominance monopoly position. "It is illegal to use this monopoly position to implement high fees and arbitrary charges, which has violated the relevant provisions of Article 17 of the Anti-monopoly Law." Qiu Baochang suggested that market supervision departments and anti-monopoly law enforcement departments should promptly investigate and deal with relevant illegal acts.
Chen Yinjiang, Deputy Secretary-General of China Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association, believes that embassies and consulates, as clients, should also strengthen management, regularly assess the clients who are responsible for the actual operation of visa centers, and terminate their business entrustment relationship in time if there are acts that harm the rights and interests of visa applicants, such as unreasonable charges or unreasonable trading conditions.
Yang Jinsong believes that the evaluation of the handlers should affect the assessment of the qualifications and performance of visa centers, thus forming the pressure to improve their services.
In response to some netizens’ reports that some European countries have extra charges in visa centers in China. The Department of Consular Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that it is learning about the situation and exchanging opinions and opinions with the relevant country, embassies and consulates in China. "We hope that embassies and consulates in China, the country concerned, will effectively guarantee the normal visa application order and facilitate bilateral personnel exchanges."
