Authorities receives 282 complaints involving HK$2.49m as tutor hub shuts

The Customs and Consumer Council, as of Monday, have received 63 complaints about prepaid tuition fees, after the closure of the tutoring group Brilliant Education, with the amount involved totaling HK$2.49 million.

Chong Lung-ng, the chief of the complaints and advice division of the consumer watchdog, said on a radio program in the morning that the largest single complaint involves more than HK$50,000 in tuition fees.

He added that it might breach the Trade Descriptions Ordinance if Brilliant Education collected payments from parents, knowing it would likely be unable to provide services.

The Council would try to reach the person in charge of the tutoring group to request the fulfillment of their contractual obligations or refund the tuition fees, Chong continued.

Separately, Customs has received 219 complaints involving HK$1.83 million in prepaid tuition fees regarding the incident.

Lawmaker Edward Leung Hei said he received requests for help from ten parents, saying that a person claiming to be the manager of Brilliant Education proposed to inject funds into the tutorial school.

Leung urged the authorities to arrest the person in charge to prevent him from continuing to solicit money from parents for different reasons.

Brilliant Education announced all its five branches closed last Saturday, leaving more than 500 victims demanding refunds of about HK$1 million in tutorial fees.

Some parents said they had been persuaded to prepay the fees weeks before the closure.