Dramafever, a video streaming website owned by Warner Bros, announced on Tuesday that it would shut down.
The app, which had about 8 million subscribers, allowed people to access Korean, Japanese, and Chinese dramas on demand.
Speaking to BuzzFeed News, former subscriber Caitlin Conner, a 22-year-old assistant restaurant manager, said she found out from a tweet that Dramafever had shut down.
Wtf I just renewed my premium subscription to DramaFever ): https://t.co/10wsuH5XfK
She said she immediately checked her emails and only saw a promotional email from the company on Oct. 5. She said: "Last month I renewed my year-long subscription, about $53."
@Koreasmin, a subscriber who paid for the yearly membership, said she has found the ordeal distressing.
so if dramafever is shutting down do i get a refund bc i pay the annual rate
They said: "I'm really disappointed that the site is shut down seeing as how it's one of the few reliable platforms that provided almost all of the Korean shows and dramas I enjoyed.
"I never would have imagined this happening to such a good platform."
Shania, 21, from Queensland, Australia, told BuzzFeed News her subscription was supposed to end around May 15, 2019.
I've seen people saying they've gotten subscription cancellation emails from @dramafever. I haven't gotten one yet. How many other people haven't got one yet either? It would have been great if we had received some notice. So all your customers weren't blindsided.
She said when she saw the statement on the website, she thought it was a joke.
"So I went on Twitter to go to their twitter page, to find out what was happening, but I saw that it didn’t exist anymore," she said.
"Then I saw tweets from other people and a few news articles. I was shocked.
I’ve been a member since 2012 and I’ve been paying for a yearly subscription since 2013.
"There are people who have been a member longer than I have, paying or not, and the fact that we weren’t notified before the site was shut down is just unbelievable.
"Of course I’m upset that the site has been shut down, but I’m even more upset that none of us were notified beforehand. How hard could it have been to have sent an email, or to even have a banner or a popup on the home page when you go on to the site, to let us know?"
At the time of speaking to BuzzFeed News, she hadn't received any official correspondence regarding her subscription.
"All of us have been left in the dark," she added.
Gabby Lockhart, 20, from Chicago, told BuzzFeed News that she is extremely upset about the site shutting down.
is dramafever gonna refund me my monthly subscription since it didn’t even last the rest of this month
She said she also found out through a screenshot on Twitter and like others, she went to have look herself and saw the same message.
Lockhart said: "I’m extremely upset about the site shutting down because it was the only place I went to watch k-dramas/c-dramas and etc. Also wondering what they’re going to do about refunding us who’ve paid our monthly or yearly fees."
Some people have received emails to say their subscription has been cancelled.
Got this email from Dramafever. No, I didn't ask for that 😭
@Cherylfornia Yeah I haven’t gotten an email yet. This is such crap, I haven’t finished watching so many shows exclusively on DramaFever! https://t.co/JuzxKglu44
But since then, people have received a statement that says refunds will be processed as applicable.
so this is the "more details" email they mentioned? lol OKAY dramafever
A spokesperson for Warner Bros told BuzzFeed News customers will receive an email about their refunds over the coming days.
They added: “Today, Warner Bros. Digital Networks will be closing its DramaFever OTT service due to business reasons and in light of the rapidly changing marketplace for K-drama content, a staple of the service’s programming.
"Warner Bros. Digital Labs, which encompasses more than two-thirds of the DramaFever workforce, will continue operating, serving as the tech engine behind many of WBDN’s operations."