Korean Job Discussion Forums

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Forty-eight people were yesterday indicted on charges of bribery and other irregularities linked to the wholly-owned local subsidiary of U.S. Computer giant IBM Corp. and its joint venture LG IBM.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200401/kt2004010416120110220.htm

Your boss has decided to buy you a new computer. You must choose a company or get fired. If the computer is assembled by your friend in Yongsan, you will get fired. (Your boss is really very funny.) The boss wants to see one of these company logos on the computer and the paperwork. Which company would you choose?

Hyunju
http://www.hyunju.com/main/product/desktop.asp
Hyunju (English)
http://www.hyunju.com/main/english/product/desktop.asp

LG IBM
http://www.lgibm.co.kr/webapp/commerce/command/ExecMacro/product/slimpc_x700.d2w/report

Samsung
http://www.sec.co.kr/PCS.svl?CMD=ProductMain_001&COMM_001=0000100001&CMD=Index_desktop&obsType=30&dispNoMall=001002001

Trigem
http://www.trigem.com/tgproduct/desktop/slimpc.asp

Dell Korea
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx?c=kr&id=desktops_kr&l=ko&s=bsd

HP Korea
http://h50025.www5.hp.com/hpcom/kr_kr/14_31_67_533summary.html

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Dell in a heartbeat. My former TV station bought over 60 computers from Dell, and only had problems with two. They fixed it quickly. Not a bad record, I'd say.

Alex Buffa · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: South Korea

You forgot to add "none of the above"

I would never buy a package computer here...but my personal choice would be

Asus p4p800 board
PIV 2.8C chip
ATI Radeon 9800pro graphics
Soundblaster platinum sound
19" TFT screen
Zalman 350W power supply (super silent)
RAID array for striping 2 HD's together for ultra fast writing
Surround Speakers (Eastern)
DVD-RW and CDRW writers
and 1 gig of RAM

You can't buy that here unless you buy it all in parts and it's not cheap, but after you hook it all together..your system is powerful to last you years. I know since I built it for myself.

The package deals here are horrible. They offer a good quality cpu, but the rest of the parts are very low end. More junk than parts really...stick with quality and avoid the package deals..they are for suckers who don't know anything about quality.

Alex

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Derrek,
Did your former TV station buy from Dell (Korea) or Dell (U.S.)?

Alex Buffa wrote,
"The package deals here are horrible."

You may be right. I have seen some very bad systems. Some companies' systems are presented as "cutting edge" even though they are more than six months old.

However, I guess you do want to be employed.

The BOSS said,
"You must choose a company or get fired. If the computer is assembled by your friend in Yongsan, you will get fired."

But, thank you for your input.

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

I don't think it matters all that much. Same parts. Same assembly instructions. Same quality control. Sure, could be a little different, but better than most outfits, I'd guess.

dominic · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Location: Seoul

It does matter, it matters alot, most computers bought here cant be fixed in north america, some computers bought in the US cant be fixed in Canada and the other way around. I just bought a notebook and it sure as hell wasnt a korean one, and everyone here told me that I couldnt get english windows which I thought was rediculous, so all of the korean companies lost the sale and amazon.com got the sale, even sony.com wouldnt send me one, dell and ibm had the same story because I was paying with credit card since it was over the net, but none of these US companies would take a canadian card go figure, so they lost the sale too. Amazon.com is my #1 shopping site

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Dominic,

You're talking about warranty now -- not something we orignally discussed, since the computers in question were to be purchased (and I assume, used, in Korea).

Why not have XP Professional installed with the computers instead? You can choose your language then, and even switch between, as I understand it, although I may be wrong. XP Professional is a better OS for business anyway.

Am curious if you imported your computer here, and if so, was a duty fee added to the import? They are allowed to charge up to 60% on electronics imports, according to Korean law, although the number may be more specific for computers. I haven't checked in a few months.

I know it's not possible in this situation, but i'd sure love to build a bunch of computers for my school (or at least do the custom ordering).

dominic · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Location: Seoul

that's a lot of duty are you sure thats right? Anyways I was very smart and sneaky about it. I ordered one of those brand new 17" toshiba notebooks with the huge harddrives fron amazon and one of my friends who's in the army went to the US for vacation and i had the computer sent to his parents house, got free shipping too, and he's bringing it back to seoul like it's his own business computer on the plane, so no taxes no duty, no bullsh*t korean laws to deal with. The other thing you said...I wasnt talking about warrenty, only the fact that all the korean companies including sony korea told me that i would have to buy english windows xp and i said no way because i guess it's 300,000 or something rediculous, i got it free with the notebook i bought. anyways tell me what u think about my korean duty evasian

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Yes, the rate hike on importing electronics is 20 to 60 percent. Totally nuts, eh?? It's all a big racquet in Korea because of the way they have to funnel imports through a korean parent company (Lotte, Samsung, LG, etc.). Once they tax the daylights out of the imports, they also jack up their own local prices.

This is how Korea keeps so many Room Salons in business.

The way you brought your laptop in is the best way. I brought my new DVD burner in that way, but brought it in my carry-on luggage.

I do know that sometimes if you have something shipped to an outside-of-seoul address (small city or town) it is less likely to get opened and checked by customs. This comes from a Korean friend who buy stuff from ebay in the USA and has it shipped to her parents in a small city 2 hours from here. When she shipped stuff to her location in Seoul, she usually got assessed a tax.

panthermodern · Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Location: Taxronto

I bought a TG desktop system 2 years ago and I must say I have been very happy with it.

Especially the flat screen monitor.

I have only upgraded the video card 32M to 128M and there is nothing it can seem to do as well as other systems that are more recent then the original package.

So, I voted TG because I have one and I have had zero problems.

I did by a Samsung system 5 years ago and I was happy execpt the boards were all "old" and I could not upgrade my video card.

Damn good monitor however.

Mr. Pink · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: China

FYI Dell Korea and Dell USA are the SAME computers. All computers for Dell are assembled in the USA. If you buy a Dell system you PAY for the shipping charges from USA to Korea.

The warrenty is WORLD WIDE. You can get it fixed in just about any country.

You want to know what makes the computer Korean? A cheapass Keyboard with Korean letters and Windows XP Pro/home KOREAN VERSION. Yup that is it.

I have had quite a bit experience dealing with Dell Korea, Dell Canada and Dell USA.

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Textbook case of corruption
The bribery case involving IBM Korea is a textbook case of corruption Korean style. IBM Korea and its joint venture LG IBM offered bribes to procurement officials or colluded with other firms to win computer contracts worth 66 billion won (about $50 million) over an extended period. IBM Korea has operated in Korea for 37 years, long enough for any businessmen, either expatriate or local, to learn the corporate and bureaucratic culture in this country and to acquire enough knowledge about the tradition of "no bribe, no order."

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/01/07/200401070019.asp