Samsung’s annual general meeting of shareholders held Friday was a representative scene of Koreans’ love-hate relationship with the country’s biggest conglomerate, despite the absence of its Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.

Shareholders from young students to the elderly, who came from various parts of the country, lashed out at the board of directors during the two-hour session held at Samsung Electronics’ Seocho head office in southern Seoul.

For instance, a middle-aged man issued a complaint to CEO Kim Hyun-suk about the difference in the prices of TVs sold in the US and Korea.

“I wanted to buy the MU8000, a 65-inch 4K UHD TV, but it was too expensive in Korea compared to the US,” he said. “So I ended up buying the MU6300, the lower class with less-than-expected specifications. I hope the company can fix the problem.”

However, he also praised the firm, saying, “Samsung is hated by many in our country, but Samsung is not a company to be treated that way. If you travel to other countries, you will know Samsung is the world’s best.”

Some harshly criticized a power cut incident at Samsung’s newest memory chip plant in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, two weeks ago.

Samsung’s chipmaking unit head Kim Ki-nam said that the accident incurred about 50 billion won ($46.2 million) worth of losses and apologized to shareholders. 

A younger shareholder seemingly in his 20s raised concerns about Samsung’s falling market share in the Chinese smartphone market.

In response to his question about Samsung’s China strategy, the chief of smartphones Koh Dong-jin promised to recover its leadership in the country.

“We started restructuring our China staff and renewed distribution strategies last year, but we need more time,” Koh said. “But we are starting to see some improvement with the latest flagship phones. Please be patient. We will not make the same mistake twice.”

An elderly man who lives in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, welcomed the company’s decision on a stock split, saying that there are an increasing number of Samsung shareholders in his hometown.

“There are many people holding Samsung shares in Dangjin, and we love Samsung very much,” he said. “And more and more people will buy the shares.”

Compared to last year’s meeting, there were noticeably more female shareholders in their 20s.

Including unregistered shareholders, around 700 shareholders attended the meeting, according to Samsung.

“After the stock split, a larger number of shareholders across generations are likely to show up at the meeting next year,” a Samsung official said.

Some of the feedback given at the session were relatively trivial, or more directly related to daily consumers.

A woman in her 50s complained about the performance of the latest stick vacuum cleaner Power Gun by Samsung.

“As a Samsung shareholder, I proudly purchased the Power Gun over LG’s, but the performance is so disappointing,” she said. “It is difficult to vacuum dusts in deep corners because of the design.”

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)