Product Switching Scams Continue
Netizens Say "It's Ridiculous, All I Can Do Is Laugh"
At a seafood market in Incheon, a consumer purchased live blue crabs but claimed that upon checking at home, they were swapped for dead crabs without legs, sparking controversy.
On the 21st, an online community, Bobae Dream, posted a message titled "Review of Buying Blue Crabs at Ttaengttaeng Port" along with photos. The author, Mr. A, who stated he lives in Incheon, said, "Since I was there, I thought I would buy a few blue crabs to boil for the kids," adding, "When I got home and checked, the condition was as shown in the photos," attaching pictures.
On the 21st, an online community called BobaeDream posted a thread titled "Review of Buying Flower Crabs at Ddaengddaeng Port" along with photos. In the photos shared by Mr. A, all nine dead male crabs had either lost one leg each or had only one leg remaining. [Photo by Online Community 'BobaeDream']
In the photos added by Mr. A, all nine dead blue crabs had either one leg missing or only one leg remaining. Mr. A expressed frustration, saying, "Do blue crab legs fall off after about an hour on ice?" and "By the way, there were no legs inside the icebox either." He added, "The other box, although I don't have photos, was not much different. It just makes me laugh."
Mr. A said he usually used a different place instead of Ttaengttaeng Port. He explained his visit by saying, "For some reason, I wanted to check it out today. I thought maybe things had changed, so I went."
He continued, "The grilled fish at the entrance was better in price, composition, and taste compared to other areas, so I was proud thinking Ttaengttaeng Port had finally changed," but after being swapped from live blue crabs to dead crabs without legs, he explained the reason for writing the post was "to widely inform others and reduce damage."
On the 21st, a post titled "Review of Purchasing Flower Crabs at Ddaengddaeng Port" along with photos was uploaded on the online community BobaeDream. [Photo by Online Community 'BobaeDream']
Netizens who read the story responded with comments such as, "It's ridiculous, I can only laugh," "When packaging or eating at the store, you should watch the selection and packaging or processing of seafood," "This is a more malicious method than scale cheating," "Avoiding scale cheating is not everything," and "Did they cut off the legs so the 'rice thief' can't escape?"
Despite Self-Reflection Voices, Complaints About 'Product Swapping' Continue
Last March, a controversy arose at a public seafood wholesale market in Daejeon where it was alleged that a merchant arbitrarily swapped the snow crab selected by a customer. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. [Photo by Yonhap News]
Complaints about seafood product swapping and overcharging have been steadily occurring, and although merchants themselves have voiced self-reflection, the damage continues unabated.
In March, a controversy arose at a public seafood wholesale market in Daejeon where a merchant allegedly swapped the snow crabs chosen by a customer without permission. Among two snow crabs selected by the customer, one had eight legs, but both steamed crabs served had ten legs, indicating they were different crabs.
The merchant explained that they tried to fill missing legs with frozen snow crab legs, but since the condition was poor, they replaced them with intact live snow crabs. Later, as complaints continued, the Daejeon city government announced that it would impose business suspension penalties for seafood swapping or scale manipulation and took a tough stance.
Last year, Boryeong City in Chungnam, while focusing on attracting tourists by declaring 2022 as the Year of Visiting Boryeong ahead of the 2022 Boryeong Marine Mud Expo, also faced criticism over some merchants’ overcharging and product swapping practices.
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