A Korean-American entertainment company has come under fire from fans for organizing a video call event with the South Korean idol group TAN.
Fans from around the world, including Korea, the United States, and South America, have accused KorUS Entertainment of fraud, alleging that the organizers did not honor the promised video call times with the idols. Disgruntled fans have taken to social media platforms like TikTok and X to express their dissatisfaction.
KorUS Entertainment, based in New York City, organized the TAN video call event on June 27. This event was intended to give fans an opportunity to pay for a one-on-one chat with the idol group members.
The company promoted the event on their Instagram and X accounts, selling tickets ranging from $50 to $500. These tickets included TAN autographs, albums, video calls with the seven members, and one-on-one member-fan video calls, with video call passes sold in 90-second time slots.
However, on the day of the event, the organizers did not start the video calls until midnight, despite the event being scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Furthermore, they did not guarantee fans the amount of time they had paid for.
“I bought a ticket for 21 minutes of video calling for 3 million won (roughly $2,200),” said Gawa Kim, a victim, “but I was only able to call for 3 minutes and 20 seconds (200 seconds). The organizers also told me that I could only make 10 seconds of video calls at a time, so I had to wait for two minutes each time.”
“The organizers didn’t even inform on X about the change until right before the event started. They only allowed us to video call for 3 minutes and 20 seconds, and refunded us only 2.05 million won out of the 3 million won. The organizers did not keep their end of the bargain, and they should refund 100% of the money.”
Kim noted that the TAN video call event was one of the idol group’s last fan events, which is why fans from all over the world, including Korea, the United States, and Taiwan, participated.
Fans on TikTok have been sharing posts and videos expressing their disappointment with the event organizers. Jessica Pacheco posted a video on TikTok saying, “Fans paid a ridiculous amount of money because they thought it was the last official activity before the group disbanded,” and that “they didn’t notify the refund process.”
In response to the backlash, the organizers issued individual refunds. However, some fans are demanding full refunds from PayPal and other payment gateways, claiming that the refunds should be the entire amount they paid.
BY HYOUNGJAE KIM, HOONSIK WOO [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
