Thousands of local SK-II cosmetics users were denied refunds after the U.S. consumer products giant Procter & Gamble Co. announced Friday that all business surrounding the brand had been "temporarily halted."

Customer service personnel manning the brand's two free 24-hour hotlines, which replaced SK-II's refund center and authorized sales counters, told the Shenzhen Daily over the weekend that they had been told to stop receiving new refund requests.

"Customers who submitted refund applications before last Thursday will have their money back as that was stated in the refund agreement," a clerk, who declined to be named, said.

However, the clerk told the newspaper that local customers could no longer submit any refund applications after Friday until further notice from the company's Guangzhou-based headquarters.

"You can call our hotline again next Tuesday or Wednesday to see whether there is any new policy," he said.

The clerk also insisted that refunds had been available only for nine problematic products, and not for all the 12 products listed by the Shanghai quality supervision authorities.

Procter & Gamble published a notice in major Shenzhen newspapers Friday and Saturday, saying that sales of SK-II cosmetics had been temporarily suspended on the Chinese mainland after authorities discovered 12 products contained substances that could trigger allergies.

"While SK-II believes all its products are safe, SK-II is taking this action until its compliance with regulations pertaining to trace levels of chromium and neodymium in cosmetic products in China is fully clarified," the statement said.

The brand's 198 authorized counters nationwide were closed on the same day, due to violence at the company's Shanghai office and authorized retail counters in Wuhan, Harbin and Shanghai.

The notice said all refund requests would have to be made through the brand's two free 24-hour hotlines.

The national quality watchdog said last Monday that the country will halt imports of SK-II products if excessive traces of heavy metals are detected again in the future, while the Shanghai health authorities added three more items to the list Thursday, including a facial cleanser, a wrinkle treatment mask and whitening lotion.

Shanghai media reported that a group of consumers smashed a glass door and broke into the Procter & Gamble branch office Friday, hours after the company said it would stop selling its Japanese-made SK-II line.

On Wednesday, a crowd of about 400 infuriated customers gathered at a main shopping avenue in Shanghai over the brand's refund policy and slow processing.

Zhang Qunxiang, a public relations officer for Procter & Gamble, said it was too early to estimate the cost of refunds in China.

In South Korea, several top department stores halted sales of eight SK-II cosmetics Thursday following the country's food and drug administration's investigation into the products.

However, on Friday, Singapore health authorities gave the all-clear for SK-II, saying that the slight traces of the possibly harmful metals found in six products they had tested were impurities and would not pose safety risks for users.

Editor: Yan