Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chachee99]

I see cell phones advertised at LG Telecom, KTF, and SK stores for 10,000 - 50,000 won. However when I go to buy the phone they gives me outrageous quotes like 200,000 won for a model that says 10,000 won on the advertisement. Why is that?

I even have a LG telecom account and price of the phones are extortion. Are those advertised prices for phones only for Koreans?

[nomad-ish]

i went to an SK telecom booth and paid only about 65,000W by bargaining with them. it's not a great price, but decent enough

[rhinocharge64]

Got mine on promtion at a cost of 40,000 won. It was from a LG shop!! Can't understand why you can't purchase one on promtion.

[RJjr]

My ex-milf got me one for 20,000 won, and it may be a total piece of shit in the eyes of most, but it does all I need it to do. I love that I don't even have to have minutes to receive booty call texts.

[rumdiary]

[CentralCali]

[rhinocharge64]

No contract for me and I pay my bill when they call me which is about every 2/3 months. And I didn't cosign anything, this is very strangee.

[ceesgetdegrees]

Really retarded isn't it. It's so funny that the real people who rip korea off in terms of bailing on bills, credit cards etc. are korean people, yet foreigners get the brunt of it. Farmers in suits man, farmers in suits.

I have about 8 cell phone shops within 5 minutes walk of my apartu. 6 wouldn't give me a phone at all "no pollenaar" and 2 are willing to charge me 250 000 plus top up money for a phone. Freaks.

[peppermint]

[lsrupert]

Last year I signed a contract for my cellphone with no cosigner. They needed to see my bankbook to verify that I actually had an account in the city, but other than that, no problems! SK did this for me.

[diver]

I've had an account with both LG 2002-2006 and KTF 2006-present without a co-signer. Just needed a credit card. It is possible. This is Korea, so you might have to try a different shop since the rules change from place to place.

[IncognitoHFX]

Maybe the Koreans sign yearly contracts that drop their fees like the Western system. I'm not sure about this, but it's possible. Most of us are here for a short time so allowing us to sign a contract might end up in them losing money.

An even with the high fees here, it still beats back home where you have to sign a three-year contract to get a $400 phone for $200, and when you cancel your contract you have to pay a $400 ETF ($200 in the US). I worked for Nextel and I can tell you that cellular providers excel at ripping people off (text messaging specifically).

[moosehead]

SK will give you a contract; just take your phone to them and someone who speaks K because probably there won't be anyone there who speaks E

[Smee]

Yeah, I don't understand any of that. I signed an LG contract in August, 2005, and got an Anycall phone with it. This fall I needed to replace my phone, and as I hardly use it, I just wanted a cheap, barebones model. Well, the ones that cost what I wanted to spend couldn't be sold to me b/c unless I put down a security deposit. I guess they were phones by companies that required a deposit for foreigners. That didn't make any sense to me as I wasn't changing my number or the terms of my agreement (which has been ongoing since August, 2005). I wasn't about to put down a deposit because I had been a responsible, paying customer for over 2 years. I ended up having to get a decent model, but one I'm not all too crazy about.

[Bryan]

Ebay

^Looks like you can buy decent unlocked Korean phones online. Those ones are touchscreen for $120. Look around and don't buy phones from the actual mobile phone companies, they're a rip off in any country you go to.