Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

A catering SaaS system service provider serving more than 400,000 catering enterprises with an annual turnover of 700 billion yuan is falling into a crisis of trust.

Recently, one after another, merchants reported that their funds could not be withdrawn from the catering system service provider's "clattering" system. Previously, their withdrawal time was "T+1," but now they have to wait 20 or 30 days or more.

In response, the official confirmed the fact that the "cash withdrawal cycle was extended." The customer service said that the main reason was that the payment system server was being upgraded recently, and some business operations had become manual operations, so there was a "delay."

However, a person familiar with the matter disclosed to Sina Technology that the system upgrade is only external caliber, the actual situation is due to the lack of funds for the acquisition of a project before, and then introduced a fund as a borrower loan acquisition, but due to the sudden thunder of the fund to buy back funds, finally led to a fund gap.

It is also worth noting that there is no payment license, but rather cooperation with a third-party Ainong Post with a payment license. Some analysis believes that Huala and Ainong Post belong to affiliated companies, and the possibility of misappropriation of customer funds by both cannot be ruled out. However, this claim has not been confirmed.

In response to this phenomenon, a number of lawyers told Sina Science and Technology that if there is unauthorized misappropriation, it violates the provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Payment Services by Non-financial Institutions, which is a violation of the regulations, and will repay the principal and pay corresponding interest to the defaulting merchants, and will also be subject to corresponding administrative penalties.

"I can't mention it now. I want to eat people's lives! "In the past 30 days, dozens of merchants have complained that they have encountered the problem of" difficulty in withdrawing cash from the cash register system." Among them, the earliest complaint appeared on December 9, involving 3474 yuan. In the subsequent complaint cases, the number of complaints involved and the density of complaints increased significantly.

Among them, the highest case involved a total amount of 1,253,600 yuan. According to the complaint merchant, since the beginning of December, the company has been unable to withdraw cash after collecting money with clattering software. The clattering aspect has owed more than one million yuan to several subordinate companies of the company group, but the communication with clattering customer service for many times has not been handled, and the delay has seriously affected the normal operation of the company, resulting in the inability to pay the employees of the stores, and the purchase of settlement funds from suppliers has also been affected.

Other complaint merchants are outspoken, there are "private occupation of company property" and other behaviors.

So, what is the main reason why merchants encounter the problem of "cash withdrawal difficulty"?

In communication with Sina Science and Technology, the official customer service staff gave the comment that "system upgrade leads to default." If urgent withdrawal can apply for registration, but how long after registration can arrive, the above-mentioned personnel failed to give a specific time.

"It's really hard to imagine that as a catering SaaS enterprise, when the cloud has become popular in the Internet enterprise business system, they chose to settle cash for 400,000 merchants manually because of the upgrade of the server system, and the company's system has not been upgraded for more than a month. "IT technicians questioned.

In this person's view, if the customer service staff's rhetoric is not a temporary excuse for the company's cash flow problems, it at least proves that "the business system of this catering SaaS enterprise is really enough to span. "

System upgrade or embezzlement? A person close to the crash said,"The crash occurred in arrears merchant transaction funds, Or with the company encountered creditors debt caused cash flow tension." "This points out another possibility for the problem of" cash withdrawal difficulty "on the clattering platform_" Because of the debt collection, a large amount of funds are urgently needed to repay debts, and part of the platform merchant funds may be used for business turnover. "

According to the person familiar with the matter, as an independent third-party catering SaaS enterprise, there is no "payment business license," and it carries out payment business through cooperation with third-party payment company Ainong Post Station. However, from the perspective of equity relationship, the relationship between Huala and Ainong Post Station is very complicated at present, and there are related transactions of funds.

According to the data of Sky Eye Inspection, the main unit of the crash is "Beijing Multi-point Information Technology Co., Ltd.," and the company's Series A investor "Beijing Gezhipu Technology Co., Ltd." is actually an enterprise in which Wan Yingyan, the legal representative of Ainong Post Station, participates in the shareholding. In terms of shareholding ratio, Beijing Gezhipu Technology Co., Ltd. holds 30.44% equity of Beijing Multipoint Information Technology Co., Ltd., which is the largest single shareholder at present.

"Previously, there was a shortage of funds when buying a project. At that time, a fund first increased capital to Gutai Technology, which was served as legal person and chairman by Wan Yingyan, the legal person of Ainong Post Station. Later, Gutai Technology lent money to Huala for acquisition. However, due to the sudden thunder of the fund, it was required to buy back the capital increase, which directly led to the urgent repayment of debts. "

After inquiry, Beijing Ainong Post Technology Service Co., Ltd. has received three fines in the payment city since 2018. In July 2022 and February 2019, Ainong Post Station was punished by the Business Management Department of the People's Bank of China. The main illegal acts included illegal transfer of funds with different names. The penalty amount is as high as 7.16 million yuan.

In addition, in October 2022, Ainong Post Station was punished by the Beijing Foreign Exchange Management Department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The main illegal acts were: transferring domestic foreign exchange abroad in violation of regulations. The penalty amount is 1.725 million yuan.

As recently as July 2022, it was punished by the People's Bank of China for illegal operation. The frequent financial over-compliance behavior of Ainong Post Station inevitably prevented the outside world from questioning the compliance of capital transactions between it and affiliated companies.

Who will bear the loss of the merchant? In view of the above situation, Zhao Occupation, a researcher at the Intellectual Property Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, pointed out that there is no payment license, but cooperation with a third-party Ainong Post Station with payment license. Therefore, the funds from consumers to catering customers should be in the special deposit account for reserve funds opened by Ainong Post Station in the bank. Under normal circumstances, it is impossible to misappropriate the funds of catering customers. Even if they are misappropriated, they should usually be done by Ainong Post Station. However, considering that Huala and Ainong Post Station belong to affiliated companies, it is not excluded that they misappropriate the funds of catering customers.

"If misappropriation occurs, it violates the provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions and belongs to violations. "Zhao Occupation believes that the normal withdrawal period promised to merchants by clattering is T+1, which is the contractual obligation of the service provider to merchants. If it fails to support withdrawal according to the promised period, it first constitutes a breach of contract. Consumers can file a lawsuit according to law, demanding clattering to return the withdrawal amount and compensate for the corresponding losses.

In addition, Zhao Rulin, a partner lawyer of Beijing Guozui Law Firm, also said that according to Article 3 of the Measures for the Administration of Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions issued by the People's Bank of China, non-financial institutions providing payment services shall obtain the Payment Business License in accordance with the provisions of these Measures and become payment institutions. Payment institutions shall be subject to the supervision and management of the People's Bank of China according to law. Without the approval of the People's Bank of China, no non-financial institution or individual shall engage in payment business or in disguised form. He suggested that merchants carry out civil litigation to protect their rights."Merchants can determine the time of default according to the service agreement signed with Huala, and finally calculate their own losses and the liability for breach of contract that Huala should bear, according to which they can file a lawsuit for breach of contract with the court. In addition, merchants can also calculate the amount of their losses and the corresponding interest losses, and file a tort lawsuit with the people's court. "

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