Korean Job Discussion Forums

beekeeper3000 · Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

So I just went to Techno Mart and bought myself a used cell phone. It's nothing fancy, although it does have a camera. Not too beat up and it seems to work ok. But I have a sinking feeling I signed away my soul when I signed their "contract." The lady at SK Telecom who helped me to get a phone number let me know that the amount of minutes you can get for W10,000 is only 25 minutes!! My friend tells me SK Telecom is the most expensive service. Ok, fine. But back home I could get 600 minutes and free nights and weekends for $40 a month. In Seoul that translates to roughly a sh*t ton of money.

Jeonnam Jinx · Joined: 06 Oct 2005 Location: Jeonnam

Yeah, SK Telecom *is* the most expensive.

I would suggest, (although I notice you weren't asking for unsolicited advice) that if you cannot speak Korean, to get a friend of co-worker to go with you to one of their service centers. You can get rid of some extra charges like call-waiting, call display, and "saving call logs when the phone is turned off" and other fringes. I would bet they signed you up for lots of EXTRA features.

As well, if you plan on calling the same people repeatedly, you can get a "couple" deal where you can get discounts off the numbers of the two or three people you call the most often.

That being said, you don't have to pay 30,000 won a month in installments for a year to pay for a new phone, so congrats there.

blunder1983 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005

My phone will no longer let me dial out or send texts. Can recieve both though. Any suggestions why? My school hooked me up with it, and I thought they were paying the contract but my coteacher thinks something is wrong with the handset. How do i tell if its a prepay or not?

freebeerandchicken · Joined: 02 May 2005 Location: Seoul

i'm no expert... but, its probably a pre-pay and you are probably out of base minutes. you gotta go and buy another 10,000 worth of base minutes, then get yourself a calling card that is for cell phones and for local (korean) calls. program the # for your phone card into your cell, and then only use that. it will be a toll free # which won't kill your base minutes.. so you'll only be using your base minutes for text messages, which are super cheap.

i got my phone card in haebongchon (near the us army base).. its called HANARO Speed Link. Recharge Card. 11,000 Won.

Hope that helps!

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

beekeeper3000 · Joined: 13 Jun 2005 Location: Seoul, South Korea

Yeah, so i suppose the unasked question in my original post was, "is this a normal price range." after speaking with some korean coworkers today and showing them the copy of the "contract" (which i had to specifically ask for) they noticed that there is no time limit specified. i am going back to techno mart tomorrow and asking for a contract phone with a more reasonable price range. my korean coworker even wrote me a note! god, i feel like i'm 9 years old sometimes.... anyway, the note also asks for an LG or KTF phone, which are apparently much cheaper.

man, i gots to learn me some korean.

blunder1983 · Joined: 12 Apr 2005

Turns out they cocked up my standing order and I've never paid for a phone bill. They took 4 months to actually cancel my account though, which is pretty amazing.

Thankfully I dont use my phone much so my bill is only 90k in total for the four month period, I used more than that a month in England.