(Photo: CGTN)

In the early hours of Monday morning, hundreds of people lined up at the Beijing headquarters of Ofo, China's bike-sharing pioneer, to demand refunds on their deposit in person. 

They are part of the nine million people who have requested deposit refunds from ofo. 

Early adopters of the app paid a 99-yuan deposit, and later users paid a deposit of 199 yuan, before they could start renting the company's yellow-colored bikes. 

According to ofo's policy, riders could request a refund of their deposit at any time using the app and are promised their money within 15 working days. However, many frustrated users showed up at ofo's office in person after failing to get their money back after the waiting period. 

Since Monday, the company began receiving customers from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., most of whom were users requesting the refunds, Beijing Youth Daily reported. 

Instead of getting the money back immediately, those who showed up were asked to write down their information, with promises of receiving their refund in a couple days, reported The Paper. 

"Due to the large number of the company's users, it is possible that the demand of deposits refund could increase drastically," the company said in a statement on its Twitter-like social media platform, Weibo, on Monday evening. "We will process the applications in chronological order."

"I never got through to the customer service," commented @Lougemiao under the statement.

"One of the most favorite bike-sharing companies was ofo. Really hope they could find ways to come back to the market!" said @Xinxinguxinpingsen.

Only several days ago, the company sparked outrage for "giving international customers privilege." On December 13, a netizen named with @zjt93 posted a screenshot on social media and said he got his money back within one day by writing an email to the company, pretending to be an international customer from the U.S. 

Unexpectedly, the company quickly replied to him with an apology letter and gave him back the money within one day. The screenshot led to criticism that ofo was putting its international customers first. 

The incident led to a flood of users requesting their own refunds.