BYJU's meets NCPCR officials, rejects student database buying allegation in media report

Edtech major BYJU's on Friday said it has filed a comprehensive response to the notice by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) that alleged the company is buying phone numbers of children and their parents and threatening them to buy its courses.

In a meeting with NCPCR officials, the BYJU's representatives said that the commission issued a summon on the basis of a single report that "makes sweeping generalisations based on unnamed sources which comprise an infinitesimal fraction of its large user base".

The NCPCR had summoned BYJU's CEO Byju Raveendran to appear in person on December 23 in this regard.

NCPCR Priyank Kanoongo told Moneycontrol that: "BYJU’s has agreed to conduct an affordability test of parents before selling courses and loans to them. They have agreed that they will not be selling courses to families having monthly income of less than Rs 25,000. Other than that, they have agreed to refund the full course fees to parents who would have failed the affordability test but were sold courses and loans."

"As the Commission has come across a news article wherein it has been pointed out that the sales team of BYJU's is indulging in malpractices to lure parents to buy their courses for their children. It has also been mentioned in the news report that some customers have also claimed that they were exploited and deceived, and had put their savings and futures in jeopardy," the NCPCR had said in a statement.

BYJU'S was represented before the commission by Pravin Prakash, one of its founding partners. He underscored that BYJU’s is a responsible corporate citizen that only has the best interest of its students at its core, said the company. 

The edtech major with over 150 million registered learners said that "it's not possible for it to verify the authenticity of the article because the said media house has refused to share either the data points it referred to, or the sampling methods it used to select those data points".

Regarding its refund policy, BYJU’S stated that it has robust written refund policy for all products and services. "At every purchase touch point, the customer is informed about the terms of the refund policy. It also stated that 98.5% of the refund requests that are submitted to it through official channels are processed within 48 hours. It also highlighted that its Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70, which is an independently measured metric of user satisfaction, is the highest in its industry," said BYJU's.

The company also said that the question of "mis-selling" does not arise because its sales professionals do not have the authority to close the sale of a product at the point of sale.

"By design, every sale is un-approved until it is verified by a triple-layered audit mechanism that reaches out to the interested customer through SMS, audio and video calls. The completion of a sale happens at the central level," according to BYJU's response.

"BYJU’S does not encourage, order or incentivize its sales staff and/or managers to pursue customers who are uninterested in or unable to pay for its products. A reputed international consulting firm in an independently conducted rigorous survey unequivocally confirmed this recently."

BYJU'S said it does not encourage, order or incentivise its sales staff and/or managers to pursue customers who are uninterested in or unable to pay for its products.

On the question of financing, BYJU'S clarified that it does not directly offer loans to its users.

BYJU's also informed NCPCR that it has already provided free courseware to more than 55 lakh children from underprivileged families through its Education For All, the social initiative arm.

BYJU’s added that the sales personnel have been encouraged and enabled to recommend every parent, who wants to learn from BYJU’S but cannot afford it, to the EFA team, which works with 175+ NGOs to make learning equitable and accessible for everyone. Thousands of such students have been transferred to EFA under this initiative.