A total of 42 residents filed complaints with the Consumer Council (CC) about a yoga centre that is suspected of having violated consumer rights, a CC statement said yesterday.
According to the statement, the residents told the Consumer Council that the yoga centre would officially close down for good next Tuesday, and the centre’s staff told the residents that they would not refund the lesson fees they paid. The Consumer Council suspect that the case is harming consumers’ rights and immediately scheduled an appointment with the person in charge of the yoga centre to work out a solution. However, the statement said that the centre has yet to reply to the request.
The incident came to light when a resident called a current affairs phone-in programme hosted by Ou Mun Tin Toi, the Chinese-language radio channel of public broadcaster TDM, and complained about the centre.
It was not mentioned in the TDM report where the centre was located.
According to TDM, there were still residents who went to the yoga centre for classes yesterday, but at the reception a notice was displayed, saying that the centre is closed and urging members to collect their personal belongings from the centre’s lockers before next Tuesday. TDM said that the notice did not mention refunding the class fees.
TDM said that when reporters asked the centre’s staff about the refund process, an employee said that if members want to file a complaint they should first fill-in a form, adding that some of the members had already reported the case to the police.
TDM pointed out that one of the members said that they found out that the centre was closing down last week, but the person in charge of the centre did not mention any refunds. The member told TDM that the centre told members last year that they were going to increase the price of classes this year, adding that many members paid their lesson fees by the end of last year. The member pointed out that she had renewed her classes for two years and lost about 10,000 patacas.
