Jan.4 (NBD) -- Beijing-based car-sharing company EZZY, which closed down 70 days ago, left its customers struggling to get back their 2000 yuan (300 U.S. dollars) deposit from the platform.

EZZY is known for its luxury automobile fleet including BMW and Audi electric cars. The company takes 2,000 yuan from regular users as a deposit and charges them 1.5 yuan (0.23 U.S. dollar) per minute for usage. 

EZZY users facing problems to get a refund

The company released a filing on October 25, 2017 that it suspended services and proceeded liquidation.

An EZZY user told NBD that he had applied for a refund even before the company shut down, yet did't receive any so far.

An anonymous former employee of EZZY told NBD that, unpaid wages and compensations for employees and deposits for users totaled 5 million yuan (768,722 U.S. dollars).

NBD noticed that EZZY terminated the labor relation with its employees on October 23, 2017, promising to offer certain compensations.

NBD visited the workplace of the liquidation team the company formed itself on Tuesday, but found no one there.

Will EZZY have the ability to clear its overdue payments?

A former employee of EZZY said to NBD that Dameng Technology, the owner of EZZY had debt to collect and such money could be used to pay the employees and users.

But neither Dameng Technology nor the liquidation team answered the phone, hence no confirmation of the employee's story.

However, even if the money is in position, to protect employees' right, it should first go to employees, then the users, a lawyer said to NBD.

Credit-based car-sharing encouraged

The difficulty of deposit refunding has been a hot issue for discussion. According to the 12315 consumer complaints analysis released in November 2017, car-sharing companies have become the leading targets of consumer complaints.

In August 2017, Ministry of Transport of China issued a guideline to encourage renters to lease their cars based on users' credit status instead of deposits.

NBD learned that some car-sharing enterprises has already started credit-based leasing

Tan Yi, chief operating officer of Beijing-based car-sharing Gofun, told NBD that his company is working with a third payment platform. A person with a credit rate of over 720 on the third-party platform can rent a car without paying deposit.

However, deposit is very effective in disciplining users. The company has experimented for some time, providing their cars without deposits, but only to find some cars damaged or get a ticket, added Tan.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn