Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rawiri]

so here it is, i have an older canadian lady for a roomate ( we have seperate studio rooms) and after we somehow built up a 700 000 won oil bill over november, our boss turned off our oil and hot water and gave us some pretty kick ass heaters to keep us toasty. Anyways, we obviously overused them during december as the bill came to 610 000 won ( this is between two studio apartments). of course initially i was a bit shocked at the size of the bill, and disputed it with my boss but after the power company came in and we had everything checked out it seems that the bill legitimately is ours and obviously we had just been cranking the heat up way too much.

so...............i managed to come to this conclusion and told my boss i would pay half, but alas my dear roommate cant quite fathom the concept that we were using our heaters too much over this time frame and is adamant that she wont pay any more than 60 000won, which leaves me to make up the rest, i.e 550 000.

im really p i s s e d off at my roomate about this but after trying several times to explain to her that we are responsible for the bill ive given up trying, my boss is reluctant to pay me until we get it sorted so i thought WTF and just told him i would make the rest up. coincidentally this happens to bet the month that i borrowed a bit of money off some buddys to feed my boozing habit, and also lost a drinking competition which i have to make good on, so that 1 900 000 aint gonna amount to SFA this month for good ole me.

p.s i happen to know she's over here without a degree, should i take my revenge by narking? (dobbing her in).

[FUBAR]

Why won't the boss just split the bill in half and deduct it from each of your pay? Explain to your boss, that is the only fair way to get the bill paid. That should help you avoid the burdensome bill.

As for ratting out the roomate, you know that it will come back to haunt you at some point. Guess it just depends on how much you value your friendship with her and other expats in your area/city. For 500k, I think that i would be rattting her out if I wasnt close with her. Just make sure you clear the apartment of any valuables prior to doing this.

[wylde]

my boiler (gas)(edit- the boiler is on a timer so it may not be a good guide), tv, puter is on constantly. i have 30 minute HOT showers everyday - sometimes 2 or 3, depending on the day. the most i have paid for the lot is 135,000 for 1 month.. there is something wrong somewhere..
maybe not but, i can't see how it could be that expensive.

anyway, she is a lame ass for not coughing up her share, even if you both have been had. slap her around a little but don't put her in bro.. thats mighty mean stuff..
tell her... maybe... that you know she is working without a visa and you won't wear this charge and threaten to put her in.. maybe she'll cough up then.

good luck

edit... fubars idea sounds good - about the boss.

[Blue Flower]

that sucks. don't pay her share. do as fubar said. she sounds like a bitch, and doesn't deserve any sympathy. god. just nasty. theres no way in hell you should have to pay the entire bill yourself.

[wylde]

if i understand correctly... the bill is for both units so, if you don't pay her share too you will lose out.

[rawiri]

yeah well we work in seperate places owned by brother/sister combo, i tried to explain to my boss that i would pay half, but because she wont pay any more than 60 grand my boss asked me yesterday "what are you going to do about it?, i cant pay you until its sorted out".

incidentally how many brain cells does it take to figure out that during the colder months you should expect to pay more for your power, this si her reasoning, "i'm not paying anymore for electricity than what i have paid since ive been here" uuuuhhhh duuuuuhhhhhh the temperatures only dropped about 15 degrees since she started!!!!!.

this isnt the first little money dispute weve had either, im really fricken temted to rat her out, but im too nice a guy for that i think, although she better not keep this shit up.

fubar-if i ratted her out no one would know, shes a little older and doesnt know any of my buddys, as much as she pisses me off i do feel a bit sorry for her as she hasnt really found her social niche over here. theres only so many sat nights you can stay in watching tv aye.

[Gwangjuboy]

[wylde]

you're clean.. tell her you will do it if she doesn't cough up. if i get into any other trouble i will rat you out too so ya better just say good things about me from now on

[rapier]

Always a woman, to have no idea of their wasteful expenses, and expect a man to foot the bill.
Reminds me of when i shared an appartment briefly with my sister...she sent the phone bill into the stratosphere by chatting about "nothing in particular" to her mates all day long, and then expected me to pay half of the heart stopping charges...
BUST her!! threaten to spill the beans on her lack of a degree... whatever it takes to make her shape up.

[Mr. Pink]

How on earth can your bill be 610,000 won? Seriously...during the month of August last year I had my AIR CON on about 18hrs a day EVERYDAY. Plus I had on the lights/computer/TV etc The computer was on 24/7 too.

Total bill: 500,000 won. I happily paid it as it was one of the best vacations I ever had - chillin in my chilly aircon'd room!


There is no way on earth I would pay 550,000 if I didn't use all the power that bill entails.

I'd tell your boss to split it in half, or you can say "I am only paying 60,000, as that is what the regular charge is..." He can't with hold your pay on a bill. The two are completely unrelated.

As for that chick that is smoking drugs. I am a nice guy, but if the situation didn't get resolved, I would tell her flat out: pay your 1/2 of the bills or I call immigration on your ass. If she refused, she'd learn about 60,000 won electric bills from her bank account frozen+her fines+having to leave the country asap. Yeah it is a bad thing to do, but why should YOU BE THE VICTIM???

(Just make sure your room has good locks and all your stuff is SECURE!)

[katydid]

What the hell is it with this "always a woman" shit?
FUBAR has the best idea yet. Get your boss to pay her part of the bill out of her salary if she won't readily do it herself.
DO NOT go to Immigration on her. If you want to use the fact that you know she is here illegally as a way to influence her to pay on her own, that's OK, but don't rat her out. No one likes a tattle tale.

[hellofaniceguy]

Two sides to every story; now let's get the roommates version. Not that I am doubting the original poster but maybe the roommate feels that she didn't want all that heat but had no choice seeing that they are sharing an apartment and they don't have seperate electrical meters.

[shawner88]

Man, where are you guys living? The most my heating bill has been is 45,000 won and I have it on all the time. My power bill is usually 10-15,000 won.

I live in a brand new 12 pyong studio though and the system seems pretty efficient.

[Ilsanman]

I am a huge heat and electricity *beep*....I have paid maximum 32,000 for gas and 10,000 for electricity. I would move now. They say everything is working fine but that is total BS, either that, or it is running on a totally power inefficient system.

Also, yes rat her out. If she is a nice person and a good teacher, she deserves to stay, but if she's gonna be a lying cheating bitch, you can easily rid yourself of her.

If she works at the same school as you, you might also get investigated, but then again, you have nothing to hide, right? Also, if she gets da boot, you might have to teach a bunch of extra classes to cover her classes until they hire someone new.

[J.B. Clamence]

So she doesn't work at your school, but she works at your boss' sister's school? Can't your boss get his sister to take her share out of her salary? That would seem more fair than expecting you to deal with it. This woman sounds like a real pain. Rat the *beep* out. If she made me pay 250,000 won for her, I totally would.