Wedding provider’s clients petition after owner skips town

The families of 14 couples who paid tens of thousands of yuan to a high-end wedding service provider in Huangpu district petitioned the government Thursday to help them recover their deposits after the company's Japanese owner abandoned his business.

The families went to the municipal government's petition office to complain about the unexpected closure of the business, Blunebold Iuno, and the disruption it has caused in their lives, said a client surnamed Chen, who was representing the couples.

"I had booked a ceremony for June 1. All of my relatives and friends are flying here from Beijing to attend," said Song Kaifeng, a groom who joined the petition.

None of the clients were aware of a problem with the business at the SML Center shopping mall until the mall's management posted a notice Wednesday that a Blunebold Iuno employee had complained that the owner left Shanghai with a list of the clients and their money. The mall posted the notice in the elevators and at the store's entrance, where it was photographed and circulated on the microblogosphere.

"The employees and the contracted caterers gathered at the store Tuesday evening," said He Changgong, a press officer for the SML Center. "The store owner had not paid them for a long time."

Blunebold Iuno had also failed to pay its rent for the past two months, leaving the mall's management out between 100,000 yuan ($16,311) and 200,000 yuan, He said. The business charged couples between 40,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan for each wedding and seemed to have a thriving business. "They usually held two or three events each day, and business was particularly good during weekends and holidays," she told the Global Times.

Blunebold Iuno is wholly owned by a Japanese company and there is very little authorities can do since the owner returned to his country, said an official surnamed Zhang with the Huangpu District Administration of Industry and Commerce.

Song said he could not believe that the owner could so easily abscond with the clients' money. He accused the owner of ruining one of the most important events of the couples' lives.

The mall started receiving complaints from clients on Wednesday evening. At least 20 couples had gone to the mall's management office to complain by Thursday night, He said.

Police told complaining clients that the business's computer systems had records of 55 couples who had put down deposits for wedding services, according to a client surnamed Jiang.

"Many clients have paid the store a very high deposit," Song told the Global Times. "Some have paid 90 percent of the total price and others have paid the entire amount."

Zhang suggested that customers never pay a deposit of more than 20 percent of a service's total cost.

There may be more clients who have lost out. One employee discovered that client information had been deleted from the business's computer system, He said.

Police have not opened a case on the incident because they have yet to determine if a crime occurred, said Zhu Liang, a Huangpu police press officer.