Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wylies99]

Korail won�t tell English site users about discounts
2010-04-26 16:01
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/lifestyle/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20100426000492

You could be paying 60 percent more for your rail tickets if you use KTX�s English language website, but administrators say they have no intention of letting users know this.

The site allows foreign users to buy tickets, but the discounts available on the Korean language site vanish when the English language option is selected. The site gives no notice that discounts are available for certain tickets, people and groups.

Loren Hazlett booked four tickets from Busan to Seoul, unaware that there was a discount available for seats facing each other. �The option wasn�t available on the English website anyway, so I thought absolutely nothing of it and booked the four tickets for 190,000 won,� he said.

He later found out he could reserve the facing seats for just 119,000 won by checking the Korean language part of the site. There are also discounts for large groups, discount card holders, reservations made significantly in advance and other reductions.

�I ended up having to register on the Korean website -- which would be very difficult for someone not knowing Korean -- and got the discount there,� said Hazlett.

�I was upset that the option wasn�t available on the English website, but even more upset at the lack of concern on the part of the KTX representatives,� he said. �We called many times and spoke with several people, all of whom seemed to shrug their shoulders and told us, �Sorry, that�s just the way the website is.��

KTX representative Dan Nam-su said foreign customers could get discounts on the Korean site or at train stations, but confirmed there was no such option on the English language site.

�When we developed the homepage in the English version, there were some problems in data processing so we could not make the English version in detail,� he said, explaining that issues with foreign credit cards also made service provision difficult.

�We assumed that most rail customers are domestic travelers. We admit that we�ve lacked the promotion for foreigners who might use Korail on the website or at the station,� said Dan.

However, Dan said the company had no intention of notifying users of the English-language site of the discounts available elsewhere.

�When we decide to improve the website in the future, we would consider putting up an announcement on the site,� he said.

By Paul Kerry ([email protected])

[lichtarbeiter]

Korea, Sparkling.

[djsmnc]

Now that's some Pulitzer prize winning stuff there

[v88]

[djsmnc]

[air76]

To a point this is BS....but you've also got to realize that there are plenty of discounts available in our home countries that you wouldn't be able to get unless you used the local web page and could navigate in English.

If the promotions were not available to foreigners full stop then this would be clearly wrong...but not having the promotions available in English is called discriminatory pricing (bad name, I know, but a normal business practice.)

The skiing analogy is irrelevant...there are oodles of products and services here where you can only get the discount in Korean, but how many ski resorts at home only advertise all of their specials in English? Hmm...maybe ALL of them? Again, if a foreigner tries to get the discount through the Korean channels and they say "no waygooks" then this is wrong, but should they also be advertising in Chinese and Vietnamese and every other language spoken by foreigners here? That would be asinine.

[fustiancorduroy]

Virtually all English-language versions of Korean websites have more limited content than their Korean counterparts. This is also the case with virtually all of the discount cards and other discount services available in most stores and such. English is not an official language in this country, so you can't expect equal service if you don't understand the local language. Cases like this just show why you should learn the language of the country that you are living in.

[v88]

[Dragoon]

[Zilong]

Korea is under no obligation to provide English language services. But it is smart business to do so. Very few people learn Korean and English is the defacto global lingua franca.

If they're serious about this Sparkling Hub of Miracles song and dance, they should offer commensurate services, especially a government service like Korail. Offering a discount in English would be easy as pie as long as the customer had a Korean card, I think they're full of ddong.

[Senior]

Korail receives massive govt subsidies. Hamstringing foreigners goes against govt policy. Therefore there is no justification for this.

[fustiancorduroy]

[wylies99]

[Adventurer]

This is an example of one of the following:

1)Buying tickets while being white

2)Buying tickets while being black

3)Buying tickets while being a Filipino

4)Buying a ticket while being a foreigner


In North America, you could sue KORAIL for discrimination. I don't think foreign teachers are allowed to sue. Are they? However, in some countries they do have rates for foreigners and for locals. Those are obvious in those countries. However, English teachers are residents, not tourists. What about the fact that locals in say Jordan or Egypt pay lower fees for some sites than tourists? I can understand that, maybe, since those countries are poor countries. Korea is not a poor country. That said, I don't blame all Koreans for this anymore than I blame Walmart for promotion discrimination against female employees. The difference is we have clear recourse in the courts. Not here.



Can foreigners sue KORAIL and launch a class-action suit against it?
That would be interesting if it ever happened. As far as they are hamstringing people who don't learn Korean, that's ridiculous. Most people will not rapidly learn an L2, whether it's Korean, French, or German. Saying otherwise, entails ignorance regarding language learning. You can, perhaps, with intense language learning, figure out buying tickets on-line. I will grant that. You only need a limited about semantic knowledge to parse enough from the text that you get discounts. Offering different discounts based on the ability to read reminds me of old voting laws in the Deep South. It's the use of language to discriminate. Discounts are for Koreans; they are not for the
feriners (foreigners).

It's not the way to promote tourism and good-will, IMHO.

[Steelrails]

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't native Chinese speakers outnumber native English speakers in Korea? And I do believe that Chinese speakers globally number the same as English speakers or even outnumber them.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Hindi is spoken by more people here than English.

Ahhhh but who cares about those people after all they have it better in life than us, plus they aren't real people like us, what's important is that WE get our webpage in our language. In fact even though there are less of us, ours should come first.

Do you notice all those other foreigners complaining a storm, no they just buck up and learn the language and deal with it. They don't expect life to stop and start at their convenience.

Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic are spoken by nearly as many people as English. You don't see them wailing up a storm because they don't have a language menu everywhere. Heck even the French don't do that.

At some point it starts to be the person in the country's responsibility, not the responsibility of the country to ensure proper communication.

As for suing over this, no one forces you to buy a ticket. Koreans can still pay full price. Foreigners can still get the discount if they know Korean or have a Korean friend purchase the ticket, no grounds for a lawsuit.

But yes this problem should be rectified ASAP so as to boost use of KORAIL. It should be a relatively simple problem to fix, although there can be some hassle with the whole on-line payment thing. At the very least English speakers with domestic Korean cards should be able to get everything.