Friday, September 11, 2009

TVXQ fans, who are currently participating in a boycott against all SM Entertainment goods, have filed a request for Compensation of Losses to the Korean Consumer Agency for the indefinite postponement of the ‘SM TOWN LIVE 09′ concert that was supposed to happen on August 16th.

TVXQ fans went to the Korean Consumer Agency building in Seoul Seocho-gu to submit the request in person. 1249 fans who booked concert tickets online participated in the request.

Not only did TVXQ fans participate, but fans of other SM Entertainment singers such as SHINee, Super Junior and Girls’ Generation joined in as well.

One representative of DNBN, who led this request to the Korean Consumer Agency, criticized SME by saying, “TVXQ stated numerous times that they would attend this concert to keep their promise with their fans, and SM Entertainment also stated that the concert would go through as planned regardless of the exclusive contract dispute. However, one week before the concert date, SM Entertainment indefinitely postponed the concert absurdly claiming that the singers would not be able to show their unity and friendship because of what was happening with the trial.”

The fans are demanding that SM Entertainment release an official apology and return at least 10% of the ticket price as compensation for the “Physical and emotional pain the fans suffered through due to things such as the lost ticket cost, time and anticipation for the concert.”

TVXQ fans said, “This is not only a problem between fans and an entertainment agency, this is also a problem between consumers and a company,” and “We are not doing this just because we want our money back, we are doing this because we as consumers cannot sit idly by while a company comes and strips us of our rights.”

They also showed their disappointment and discontent by stating, “We consumers, who were the ones who lost money because SM Entertainment basically canceled the concert after all bookings for tickets were completed, at least tried to strike up talks with their side, but SM Entertainment completely ignored all of our attempts.”

TVXQ fans sent SM Entertainment a certification of contents on the 2nd that requested compensation for the canceling of the concert and was sent by those under the name ‘SM Concert Victims’.

They stated, “This is not the first time SM Entertainment has postponed a summer concert. In 2006, the agency postponed the ‘SM SUMMER TOWN FESTIVAL’, not because of problems with ticketing or funding, but because they wanted to ‘bring a higher quality performance’ and because of bad weather conditions,” and “Because SM Entertainment has been toying with its consumers, it is now time to put an end to this vicious practice.”

The Korean Consumer Agency worker who accepted to look over the request stated that, “We will be inspecting this case in the ‘50 complaints or more’ section,” and “When a staff is designated to oversee the process, we will investigate the happening closely and will settle on a just settlement for the victims of the situation.”

One representative stated, “We do not receive complaints at such a large scale usually so we cannot predict how long this process will take,” and “But compensation and consequences will be decided after SM Entertainment proves to the Korean Consumer Agency that they had no choice but to cancel the concert.”

SM Entertainment released an official statement on their website last month stating, “We are very sorry for disappointing the fans who have waiting a long time for this concert,” and indefinitely postponed the ‘SM TOWN LIVE ‘09′ and set up refund methods.