[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] “Musinsa is giving out a 100,000 won coupon. What’s the deal?” “Run to Musinsa right now. They’re giving out a 100,000 won coupon.” “I applied the 100,000 won coupon to the product I wanted and got it for 3,000 won!” “Are they shooting the entire nation with the false advertising of mixed-use rates? Musinsa is the best.”

Musinsa is being criticized by consumers for issuing 100,000 won discount coupons to consumers and then canceling them later. Customers who purchased products using the coupons were unable to hide their shock at the sudden cancellation and protested to Musinsa. Musinsa decided to compensate the customers who experienced the inconvenience with 10% discount coupons.

At around 1:00 AM on the 6th, some consumers who went to purchase products at Musinsa found out that they could use a 100,000 won coupon, and this fact spread like wildfire as they posted it on various social media platforms. As a result, a huge number of consumers accessed Musinsa and applied the 100,000 won coupon to purchase products at a low price.

Even on this occasion, netizens created and shared a list of products that could be purchased with shopping subsidies. As a result, the Musinsa server went down at around 2 AM due to a surge in users accessing the site.

However, after about an hour, posts started popping up saying that Musinsa was retrieving unused shopping subsidies and randomly canceling payments for products purchased using shopping subsidies.

The 100,000 won coupon that was issued in error was a coupon that was supposed to be issued to only 20 people through a raffle to commemorate the holding of 'Seoulcon 2024 Platform by Musinsa', but it appears that it was issued to all customers due to a system error. 

Customers who experienced withdrawal of subsidies and cancellation of payments raised their voices in dissatisfaction, saying, “Shouldn’t they be paying compensation?”, “Are they just handling this without an apology?”, and “Shouldn’t they at least be giving us a deposit?”

A Musinsa official said, "The coupon issuance issue was due to a system error that was incorrectly applied. We will issue a 10% compensation coupon for customers who experienced inconvenience," and "We have individually sent a text message with an apology and coupon retrieval instructions to the affected customers, and we will do our best to improve the system to prevent similar issues from recurring in the future."

Meanwhile, Musinsa, which has become the 'Korean fashion dinosaur' with annual sales exceeding 4 trillion won, is suffering from an incredible number of accidents. This accident adds another dark history.

The controversies surrounding Musinsa include the 'Megal' poster controversy, the delivery box containing mice, the issuance of sexist coupons, the unauthorized use of celebrity photos, the counterfeit controversy, and the Coupang Play entertainment program SNL Korea's remark on the 'smell of Musinsa', as well as the drug suspicions surrounding actor Yoo Ah-in, the model for the brand. 

Two years ago, suspicions of drug use against Musinsa's representative model Yoo Ah-in surfaced. Musinsa had been using Yoo Ah-in as a representative model, not just through a simple model contract, but by investing a large sum of money to build the company's image, so Yoo Ah-in's drug suspicions also carried the risk of Musinsa having a negative image added to it. 

In addition, the image was damaged as a meme with a negative meaning called 'smells like a gentleman' became popular in domestic communities. It started when Joo Hyun-young said to Zico, who was dressed up as a male new employee, "You smell like a gentleman." on the MZ Office episode of Coupang Play's entertainment program 'SNL Korea'. 

This scene led to a flood of questions in fashion-related communities, such as “Will my clothes smell like a gentleman?”, and there was a movement to censor safe fashion and a negative perception of the gentleman brand image. 

Also, Fear of God 'Essential' T-shirts were sold in counterfeit form, causing controversy. The Essential T-shirts sold at Musinsa Boutique were judged to be counterfeit by Naver Cream. Musinsa ended the sale of the product and compensated the buyers with 200% of the product price, but it is still difficult to say that consumer trust has been completely restored.

In addition to the 'fake' controversy, there has also been controversy over the 'Megal' poster, the 'gender discrimination' controversy of issuing coupons only to female customers, the controversy over the delivery box containing mice or dead mice, and the unauthorized use of celebrity photos distributed by media outlets. 

In particular, the controversy over the 'Megal' controversy by applying a hand shape that resembles a pair of tongs, which was triggered by gender conflict, to the poster, and the controversy over issuing discount coupons only to female members, were criticized by male consumers as they undermined the foundation of Musinsa, which grew with the full support of men. In response, Cho Man-ho, the CEO of Musinsa, personally issued a statement and apologized for the 'gender-discriminatory coupon issuance' controversy.