The head office decided to terminate the franchise contract with the Alpha Stationery franchise in Dongtan, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, which sparked controversy after selling two table tennis paddles without price tags to a middle school student for 140,000 won and refusing a refund request.
According to the related industry on the 8th, Alpha Stationery's head office began procedures to terminate the franchise contract with the franchise at the center of the controversy. The store was said to be eligible for immediate termination because more than 10 years had passed since signing the franchise agreement. The head office is carrying out procedures to end the contract, including sending a content-certified letter.
The controversy began after it became known that a first-year middle school student bought two table tennis paddles without price tags at the store for 140,000 won.
The student selected table tennis paddles, table tennis balls, and ballpoint pens and paid by card, but reportedly did not know the price of the paddles at the time. The price for the two paddles was 140,000 won in total.
After checking the card approval text, the parents checked the price of the same product online and visited the store about 20 minutes after payment to request a refund.
However, the store owner reportedly refused the refund, saying the bottom of the receipt stated that "sports goods are not eligible for exchange or return."
The paddles in question were also found not to be products supplied by Alpha Stationery's head office. A separate check reportedly found the consumer price of the product to be around 25,000 won.
The student's parents argued that the child was not informed at the time of purchase that sports goods were nonrefundable and that there were no price tags on the paddles in the store.
The parents then asked Alpha Stationery's head office to mediate. At the time, the head office conveyed that it was difficult for it to forcibly intervene in a franchise's product sales prices, but, judging the sales price to be quite high, it reportedly recommended a refund to the store.
As the controversy spread, the head office was said to have decided to terminate the franchise contract with the store to prevent damage from spreading to other franchises.