Rotten Apples in Company Seollal Gifts Spark Controversy Over Unethical Business Practices

Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, there have been reports of receiving apples for holiday gifts with significantly poor quality. Photo by Online Community.

Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, there have been reports of receiving apples for holiday gifts with significantly poor quality. Photo by Online Community.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-ju] Ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, suspicions have been raised that some deliberately sent low-quality products, knowing that recipients would not complain about holiday gifts, following reports of receiving apples of significantly poor quality as holiday gifts.

On the 10th, an online community post titled "The company in chaos after receiving holiday gifts" was uploaded. The post included KakaoTalk conversations among company employees.

Looking into the conversations, there were many complaints such as "I gave them to my parents' home, but there were so many defective ones that half were thrown away. It's worse than not giving anything," and "I sent them to my family home, but it's too much. It's not even a joke... I almost posted this on the company bulletin board but held back."

Another employee said, "Please send photos of anyone who has issues with the apples. If there are many problems, I will file a complaint with headquarters," and added, "The company has sent complaints to the vendor who sold the apple gift sets."

The employees also shared photos of apples that appeared to be spoiled via KakaoTalk.

One employee asked, "Can the apples sent as Lunar New Year gifts be exchanged?" and attached photos of severely browned apples, saying, "We appreciate the thought from the company, but these are inedible."

Netizens who saw the post responded with comments such as "It looks like they sent apples meant for disposal," "Isn't this a malicious vendor?" and "During Chuseok, it's common to find fallen fruit included in gift boxes," criticizing the company that sent the defective apples.

Netizens suspect, "It's not just one or two people, and since it's a holiday gift that can't be checked immediately, it seems they deliberately sent items in poor condition."

One netizen said, "This happens a lot during holidays. People don't tell the gift giver 'the fruit was all rotten,' so the vendors take advantage of that."

There have been ongoing reports of fresh food in holiday gift sets being delivered spoiled.

Examples include cases where melons received as holiday gifts were moldy, and abalone ordered as gifts were significantly smaller than advertised.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.