Korean Job Discussion Forums

[agbonlahor i love you]

ok, so my mate lives in annyang and he's been using the heating quite a lot in the winter - but his bill for 2 months is 1303510w!! he recons that some other teachers around there have been stung for the same amount. was wondering if anyone had heard of simlar stories with the officetels in that area. Also, i was wondering if there is any particular plan of action he can take to make a complaint/alert the authorities to investigae something which as far as i see it; daylight robbery!

here's the breakdown he sent me and the responses he got from the office tel people. please let me know what you think. any advice would be greatly appreciated - apart from the obious! find a new place to live!!

cheers


1303510 two months total
1329330 is what i owe now due to late payment.

bill breaks down as follows. december 615,380. jan 675,820 plus 25,820 late payment.

jan bill breaks down as follows

managment fee 74130 + 4072
cleaning 1137
elevator 1134 + 5,283
gas 468,930 + 1668
electric 11,477 + 15,570 + 7699
hot water 11840 + 1290
water 18,290 + 2120
misc: 572 + 1106 - 10,390 +17,060

tax 59,887

i got the dec gas bill at end of jan and by then it was all too late. i had the thermostat on about 23 which is high i'll be honest but this apartment is freezing. its freezing now the floor is like ice. they said that because this apartment has massive windows covering the front side and because the apartment is isolated at the end of the building behind the elevators away from the other apartments is why its so cold. they said i need to insulate windows and side wall with rugs and thick blankets and 2 use a spaceheater. when they came up to check the boiler they told me that i had to put the heater on as it was too cold in my apartment and this would brake the heating system.....WTF??? at this time the heater was on but wasnt on high. The manager said that the rent on this apartment is prob less than others because the heating bill in the winter will be higher. This is my 3rd officetel have always left it on a thermostat and only had bills of 150 in the past.

[warren pease]

It's not like they can change the numbers in the gas meter.

Just pay the bill.

[ChilgokBlackHole]

[itaewonguy]

you have been charged double because you went over your quota!
its a new law that took effect a couple years ago. even if you go over your quota by 1 kilowatt. they charge you double your fee! its crazy I know..

[jonpurdy]

Yes, maybe he went over his quota. But I can't even imagine a situation where it'd go up to 600,000 won per month. I pay like 60,000 in my 14 pyong officetel.

Perhaps there is a gas leak or something. My parent's house in Canada is way bigger and still pays much less than that, and it's way colder, too.

I'd get a Korean to have them investigate. If a problem is found, have them negotiate for the apartment to pay a large portion of that.

Good luck.

[mayorgc]

Dang, that must have been a lotta gas.

I think gas rates escalate, they aren't uniform. So if you use X amount of gas in december, you pay 100,000 won. But if you go over a certain level and use 2x amount of gas, you don't pay 200,000 won, you pay 300,000 won.

[djsmnc]

[jmuns]

did the management tell him to cover the windows and insulate the walls before or after this bill came. if he asked about his apartment anytime in dec and they told him to insulate and get a space heater, and instead he just turned the heat up higher, well then thats his own fault. also, if it was that cold why would you leave the heat up that high still? the floor is like ice and the heat is at 23? obviously its not working at all. some part of this story is not entirely true, and he wants you to sympathize with him for being an idiot.

[seonsengnimble]

It sounds like he kept the heat on mostly to keep the boiler working. In my first apartment here, I never used the heat because my downstairs neighbor had his heat turned up so high that I never needed it. In the middle of winter, my boiler broke, and water sprayed everywhere. I was later told that I need to keep the heater turned on so that the pipes don't freeze and crack.

From this story, it doesn't sound like the tenant had any choice in the matter.

[Bramble]

[Gnawbert]

My December bill was 425,000. My January bill was 475,000. Don't know what my February bill is yet. Last year we used the ondol ALL THE TIME and it was nowhere near as expensive. This year we only turn it on at night and manage to rack up 400k a month. I can only guess it varies from building to building.

[agbonlahor i love you]

cheers for the response guys - i sent him a link for this thread and this was his response:

'one guy said i was lying and was an idiot!!!
tell him that i was told to insulate at the end of jan by then it was too late. and that when the heating is on the apartment is ok but when the heating is off the place is freezing . it was in feb that i only had the heating on for a few hours a day and it was freezing with ice floor and management came up to check the heating and told me i needed to turn it on as it was too cold (it was on 10). Plus the another girl in the building with an apartment at the end like mine had a similar bill but it a little less and she had been warned that the bills were expensive b4 moving in.

n yes i did have the thermostat on all the time like i have done in my last two officetels and like many other people i know did over the winter n they had bills of 280 per mnth.

[Manuel_the_Bandito]

Heating's expensive in this country. In case you didn't know it has to import all its fuel.

Is your friend a native English teacher? I sure hope not or that he only teaches kindy if that's in any way indicative of his English skills.

[UknowsI]

Unless it's because of a gas leak, it's just because of poorly constructed buildings. My university gets astronomical heating bills because 1/3 of the building is covered by 3 mm thick uninsulated single-layer glass, and in addition there is a bit of a draft. Their solution? Installing a thermometer were it indicates that the correct temperature of the building is 18 degrees.

[agbonlahor i love you]

Is your friend a native English teacher? I sure hope not or that he only teaches kindy if that's in any way indicative of his English skills.[/quote]

god your a muppet - why do you feel the need to criticize his english skills when it was just a quick response to a thread. nob.