"Paid 750,000 Won in Advance but Refund Refused"… Crab Restaurant Responds "Caused Disturbance by Arriving Early"

Reservation at 19:30... Arrived at 18:21

At a snow crab restaurant in Ulsan, a customer prepaid 750,000 won but was denied entry due to 'no available seats' and was unable to get a refund. The story spread widely, and the restaurant owner posted a rebuttal explaining the situation, bringing the controversy to a new phase.

According to an online community on the 7th, Mr. A went on a trip to Geoje Island last month to celebrate his mother-in-law's 70th birthday. He reserved and visited a snow crab restaurant in Ulsan. The restaurant allowed customers to select live crabs on the first floor, pay, and then pay separately for table setting on the upper floor to eat.

Snow crab reference photo. [Photo by Pixabay]

Mr. A said, "I selected and prepaid for the snow crab and went upstairs, but all seats were full," adding, "Not knowing when a seat would be available, I requested to cancel the card payment to go to another restaurant." The restaurant said that since the live crab had already been killed, a refund was impossible. They offered to prepare a seat in the hall so we could eat there or take out.

Mr. A stated, "The restaurant admitted some fault for not properly checking the upstairs situation at the time of payment but insisted they did not want to incur any loss and repeatedly said the card cancellation was impossible, demanding that we, the customers, understand." He added, "Feeling it was hopeless, I sought help from the police."

The police stated that since it was not a criminal case, they could not intervene. The restaurant ultimately did not cancel the payment, and Mr. A's family moved to another restaurant to eat.

Mr. A expressed frustration, saying, "If the restaurant cannot keep its promise to customers, the store should bear the loss. It is beyond my understanding that they expect innocent customers to just accept it."

The restaurant responded in the comments of the post, saying, "The 7:30 PM reservation customer arrived at 6:21 PM," and "Even after payment, we informed them that the room was not ready and they had to wait, but they insisted on a refund and spread false stories online, causing serious business disruption to our main store."

The author added, "We have filed a complaint with the Ulsan Police Agency for defamation, some intentional no-shows, and intentional business obstruction," and "We prepared the reserved room for 7 PM. We are reviewing CCTV footage showing the customer causing a disturbance before leaving."

They appealed, "Please stop throwing stones recklessly at innocent self-employed business owners based on only one side of the story."

Netizens reacted to the post with comments such as, "If they arrived early and there was no room, shouldn't they have been told not to pay first?", "Why catch crabs if there are no rooms? The owner is at fault," and "Instead of blaming the customer for arriving an hour early, they should have informed them there was no room and asked whether they wanted to wait, eat in the hall, or get a refund."

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