(Yicai Global) Dec. 18 -- Ofo, once a star of China's sharing economy, now faces a deposit refund crisis. Many users who've abandoned the bicycle service said nearly 10 million people were waiting for refunds, with some even joking it is the "longest queue" of their lives.

Since this morning, Ofo customers have started posting their waiting number on social media. There were seven million in line at about 10 a.m., which rose to 9.3 million at noon. And the figure has continued to grow rapidly. Ofo has more than 200 million users, according to public data.

In recent months, many of the bike-sharing pioneer's users have found it extremely difficult to get their deposit back or even reach the company's customer service department.

The firm told customers to wait 15 working days after applying for a refund, but some complain they could not get their money back even after waiting a month. Hundreds gathered outside Ofo's headquarters in Beijing yesterday to submit refund requests. The firm extended the worktime for applications to 10 p.m. from 6 p.m.

Officially called Bikelock Technology, Ofo must refund at least CNY920 million (USD133.4 million) to customers, or CNY99 per user. But the total jumps to CNY1.9 billion (USD275.5 million) if each single deposit is CNY199, since Ofo hiked the amount by CNY100 in June last year.

Ofo's background system will collect and verify information of the users who have applied for refund online, the firm said yesterday. They will be added to the refund queue after verification is completed, it said, adding that users who were present at its headquarters will join the queue with those who applied online, so that all applications are processed in chronological order.

Editor: Bivash Mukherjee