SMEs demand compensation from KT

Members of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise hold a press conference in front of a KT building in Seoul, Friday, to urge the company to provide proper compensation to small business owners who saw losses due to network blackout from fire at the firm’s communication center, Nov. 24. / Yonhap

By Jung Hae-myoung

Small business owners in Seoul are calling for compensation from KT for the losses they suffered due to a communications blackout, following a fire at the telecom company's underground network cable center, Nov. 24.

More than 150 small business owners from affected districts ― northwestern parts of Seoul as well as Goyang in Gyeonggi Province ― gathered near the KT building in Ahyeon-dong, Seoul, Friday. They said they had suffered sales losses of 30 percent to 50 percent compared to normal weekend activities, backed by data collected by the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME).

“There are still some shops that are disconnected. In an economic downturn, KT has made small business owners' situation worse,” Choi Seung-jae, the president of the KFME, said at a press conference. The conference was held in front of a tent the group set up near the KT building to receive complaints from affected business owners.

“Even if the system is restored, people assume they cannot use credit or debit cards and visit other places,” he said. “It is hard for small business owners to get their customers back,” he added.

The KFME received sales reports from restaurants near Hongik University to compare sales amounts. One restaurant selling fried rice used to have consistent sales of 1.7 million won ($1,500) per day, but this dropped to 498,000 won on the day of the network blackout.

An owner of a pork grill restaurant in Chungjeongno, surnamed Hong, said the situation was worse than just losing customers, because of the buildup of surplus supplies.

“We order ingredients considering the average number of customers per week. Fewer customers mean we are left with unused ingredients which we can't use later,” Hong told The Korea Times.

Another restaurant owner, who wished to remain anonymous, complained that she could not receive any group reservations because he phone line was still disconnected.

“My shop is located right below a big company building, so we take a lot of group reservations from company staff, but after the disconnection, we lost a whole bundle of customers,” she said.

Kim, an internet cafe owner in Yongsan, said she could not get any proper response from the KT staff when she asked when the internet connection was going to be restored at the time of the incident. Even though it has been reconnected, she is still anxious.

“I am still worried, because I don't know how to get all the regular customers back,” she said.

KT said Thursday it will reimburse six months of fees for wire telephone customers, and three months of fees for wireless customers. However, it did not say how it would compensate small business owners.

The KFME says its members will launch a boycott if KT does not compensate them properly and apologize to them sincerely.