Korean Job Discussion Forums

[michaelambling]

My new apartment has a built in water filter that can be serviced by a company. So we called the company and had the technician come in to make sure that it works. The company said that setup is free and we have to pay 20,000 won a month.

Well, the technician comes, replaces the filter, and says we have to pay 80,000 won for installation. My wife shrugs and accepts it, but I say that we don't have the money and will have to do a transfer later. He looks annoyed, but writes down a bank account and says that it has to be transferred today or tomorrow. I ask for an invoice, but he says it's not necessary. I roll my eyes.

He leaves, and my wife says we have to go pay for it. I tell her no--we will wait until the company calls us and tells us we owe the money. It's been about two weeks and--surprise surprise--there's been no call.

[Benicio]

Wonder how many people he gets with that scam?

I bet quite a lot.

People everywhere are gullible about things like this. It's like car repairs back home- they count on you not knowing what the heck needs to be done, so they can really overcharge.

I'm not saying that women are more gullible, but they are usually targeted by guys like this because they believe women are easy marks for scamming. They are more likely to try the scam on a woman than on a man.

Just question every little charge, ask for an itemized bill with signature.

[Yesterday]

Good to see you changed it...

I read a group of "Korean engineers" used their own money to install computers and supply books to a school in Seoul where the students are all North Korean refugees (young children some of them orphaned) - so "not trusting Korean engineers" as your title really annoyed me.

[michaelambling]

[Xuanzang]

The correct term is technician or service guy.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[michaelambling]

[crossmr]

[michaelambling]

[agoodmouse]

My landlord tried to rip me off, saying my air conditioning fan broke and needed to be replaced at the top of my villa. My sponsor said okay, and asked for a receipt. He got angry and hung up the phone on her. He called back later saying he'd replace my fan for free because I'm an American. He had wanted to charge me 500,000. He was quite generous to replace my fan for no cost.

[Goon-Yang]

[i]

When I moved into a newly built apartment last year, shady characters would show up to install crap for outrageous prices. The apartment managers warned about it, but my sister-in-law allowed one to come in and install some kind of bypass for the garbage disposal (80,000 won discount price, usually 100,000) which would mean no filter changes in the future. She believed him, had him install. Turned out, he put some kind of plastic hose bridge between 2 pipes that did nothing except divert some water earlier than other water to the sewer. He got his cash and split. She learned her lesson and quit answering the door. But these guys prey on gullible people and make a killing in newly built places. His cost was a little work and a 500 won piece of tube.

[moosehead]

you folks think K has a monopoly on shady characters??

well, lemmee tell you somethin'

back in the day'

in nyc there was a scam going on where these paper companies would make deliveries of boxes of copier paper to law firms, then leave the invoice with the receptionist or front desk secretary, someone who would just sign for it and not worry too much - until word got around that it was a scam - these companies were delivering paper and getting paid for it but they weren't the companies being ordered from at all!! not only that, of course they were padding the bills for more paper than what was actually delivered (unordered).

[Greekfreak]

Recently some problems have developed with our apartment that fall under the 'shoddy construction' category. Fine. But the biggest problem since January has been our AC.

The freon leaked out and turned our AirCon into a glorifed fan and ice cube tray. No problem, it's winter. Cue four months later to April--not hot yet, but summer will be a busy time for repair guys, so can we get this fixed? Sure, the landlady says. Guy comes in, puts in some more freon, and two weeks later, the same thing happens.

Guy comes in, fixes it again, and after he leaves, the sensor for the remote control doesn't seem to work.

Guy comes back a few days later to replace that, then four days later, our good friend Mr. Freon takes a powder.

My landlady tells me over the phone while I'm tearing a verbal yard out of her arse, that it costs 100g's per visit when they fix your air con (none of which comes out of my pocket, mind you). I told her she could have spent the money on a new aircon and saved us both a lot of hassle.

I wonder how much is planned obsolecence+devious faulty repair work to ensure return visits?

[hogwonguy1979]

also be aware of moving companies who quote you one price then on moving day double or triple the cost for some lame reason. We used one of those packing services and they initially quoted me 180k for a short move. come moving day the tell me 680,000. tell them bull they said 180k even got my ta to tell me it was 680k. they wouldnt show me a copy of the estimated they did because they told me "it's in korean you wouldnt understand it" yeah i should have kept a copy of the estimate but they wouldnt give me it

got the sgc involved they called the company where they changed the story 2x saying the told me 680k and that i called my wife for her to ok it and i told her 680k, i told them that was bull then they said it was one of the favorable moving days and thats why the rate went up

bottom line is if you are moving DEMAND a written estimate and make sure you keep a copy