The Consumers' Foundation yesterday urged people interested in summer study abroad programs to avoid disputes by examining contracts before signing up.
Foundation chairman Cheng Hung-jen (
"Overseas study consulting firms are supposed to ... give consumers at least five days to review the details of the contract before signing it," Cheng said. "However, of the 26 companies that we checked, only seven do so."
Even among companies that comply with the regulation, "contracts provided by three of the seven companies were incomplete," he said.
The incomplete contracts lacked necessary items such as the firm's registration date and number, details of fees, a refund policy and insurance information, Cheng said.
"The most shocking thing is that some of the companies even asked consumers to pay before allowing them to read the contract," he said.
Cheng did not specify which companies fell into the "worst case" category.
Merica, a consulting company listed as "unwilling to provide a contract" in the Consumers' Foundation report, rebutted the accusation but admitted that it would not allow students to take the contract home and did not provide a five-day review period.
"We think that [making the decision] is something that can be done in one day," said a Merica spokesperson, surnamed Lin.
Chinese Youth Integrated Educational Consulting Services, another consulting firm tagged as "unwilling to provide a contract," said that it complied with all regulations.
"But we may not be aware of some new regulations; we certainly will make sure that we follow all regulations from now on," said a company spokesperson, surnamed Wu.
Cheng urged concerned consumers to seek outside assistance if necessary.
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