'No-Show for 40 Portions at Meat Restaurant' Jeongseon County Office "Reached Agreement with Affected Business Owner"

"Workshop Contractor's Mistake Leads to Reservation Cancellation Omission"

Gangwon Province Jeongseon County Office, which was criticized for a 'no-show' incident where 40 people made a reservation at a Seoul barbecue restaurant but did not show up without any notice, apologized to the affected restaurant owner and reached a settlement.

On the 31st of last month, a post titled "Response to the Jeongseon County Office Officials' No-Show of 40 Portions at a Barbecue Restaurant" was uploaded on the Jeongseon County Office website's free bulletin board. The author, identified as Mr. A, a person involved in the Jeongseon County Office workshop, explained that the reason for the '40 portions no-show' incident was due to a mistake by the consulting company entrusted with the overall workshop schedule, which failed to cancel the reservation.

A restaurant in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, where a public official from Jeongseon-gun Office in Gangwon was a no-show for 40 servings [Image source: Online community 'Apeunikka Sajangida' capture]

According to Mr. A, 27 officials from the county office’s construction department held a 2-day, 1-night workshop in Seoul on the 28th and 29th of last month. The county office outsourced tasks such as securing instructors, accommodation, and transportation to an educational consulting company. The barbecue restaurant that suffered the no-show was one of several restaurants arbitrarily selected by the consulting company about 20 days prior.

Mr. A stated, "Without knowing these facts, since the dinner expenses for our workshop officials are covered out of pocket, we informed the company that the dinner location was decided as a certain ○○ restaurant." He added, "After receiving a complaint about the 'barbecue restaurant reservation no-show' from the county office duty room, we investigated the situation and found that the root cause was the consulting company’s mistake in failing to cancel the reservation."

Mr. A further explained, "Although the reservation name was marked as 'Jeongseon County Office officials,' regardless of who made the reservation, public institutions and their members bear unlimited responsibility in terms of trustworthiness. During the mediation process to resolve this, there were disagreements over the amount and other details, but ultimately the educational consulting company admitted all mistakes." He concluded, "A settlement with the barbecue restaurant owner was reached on October 30."

Initially, Mr. A wrote, "We deeply regret the responsibility and will continue to do so until this matter is resolved," and requested, "Please refrain from spreading unverified or inaccurate information and avoid amplifying this issue." However, this statement was later deleted.

This no-show controversy became public when Mr. B, who runs a barbecue restaurant in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, posted his grievance on the self-employed community 'Apeunikka Sajangida' on the 28th of last month. Mr. B said, "We accepted a group reservation for 40 government officials and prepared accordingly, but on the day of the reservation, after completing all preparations, when we called the reserver, they denied remembering it. When we played the recorded phone call from the reservation time, they finally apologized, saying, 'Sorry, why did I confirm this?'" He added, "Our restaurant mostly operates on reservations, so we didn’t make confirmation calls, but this situation caused us to lose a day’s business. Since they are government officials who usually make reservations, we didn’t expect this to happen." The reserver was identified as an employee of the consulting company.

Mr. B reportedly contacted the Jeongseon County Office for compensation but was told that compensation was difficult, which further fueled public outrage. After a flood of criticism from netizens on the county office’s website, the office acknowledged its inadequate response and belatedly apologized, stating, "We will compensate the owner as they wish."