Korean Job Discussion Forums

[KumaraKitty]

I recently won some tickets unexpectedly to a major event from a local media outlet. As the event approached I tried repeatedly to get more details via e-mail and messages but they failed to respond. They had a general message on their site stating that all even tickets could be claimed at the actual event by giving your name and phone number. They had taken this info from me when I won and spoken to myself and my husband, so I assumed it was all good.
When the day of the event arrived, I canceled classes, arranged childcare and traveled 2 hours to the event. Upon arrival I was informed that not only were there no tickets for me, but the event planners had informed the media outlet in advance that they were NOT giving them tickets!
I called the media outlet, spoke to a woman who gave me another number to call. Called that number, they didn't speak English and said they would find someone but suddenly hung up on me. When I called again, as soon as they heard my voice they hung up again. Third time, same reaction, they hung up.
I called the original number again, spoke to a different woman who had no idea what I had told the other woman. She took my name and number and asked could I wait 2 hours for a different manager to call me. I said no, the event would be over then! So she had someone call me back within 5min. This man then gave me ANOTHER number to call, and said to try contacting them. I called that number and spoke to another clueless woman.
At this point I had been waiting in the cold and phoning for 45minutes and was losing my cool. As I tried to relay to this new woman what was happening, the man I had JUST spoken to cut in! He then berated me for being impatient saying he was trying to call all the managers for me and that he had told me to wait! I said no, you just gave me this number and told me to call it so I did! He then began yelling at me and as I tried to figure out WTF was happening he HUNG UP ON ME!!!
I called back, 2 more times, and there was no answer. I then called my husband, who is Korean, and asked him to call the same number and speak to the man who had just hung up on me. He called and in the utmost polite Korean explained the situation. The man responded by denying they had ever given out tickets to any events, that I had been abusive( I had not been abusive but I was emotional and in tears which makes many men uncomfortable), and that he refused to deal with me. My husband called me, confirmed the details regarding when and how I won, called the man again. At this point he refused to talk to my husband and said he would pass my information to his manager as all they were going to do was argue and he didn't want to talk to us anymore.
I've waited for the manager to get in contact with me, I have sent e-mails and messages and so far nothing.
I admit I was not going to attend the event but had arranged for someone else to use the tickets, but I did still cancel classes, travel 2 hours and lose out my own time and money for this.
At this point I am trying to keep things calm, but honestly, I was in tears at how they treated me. The event staff were surprised that the media outlet had sent anyone, they had told them far in advance of the lack of tickets apparently. I had also begun messaging a month in advance for confirmation and failed to get any sort of response.
My question is now how to proceed? Do I name names, spread the word that they don't honor their word? This isn't the only thing I have won and not received from them, but the other was minor so I let it slide.
Suggestions?
Cheers!

[redaxe]

tl;dr. paragraphs please!

[schwa]

I'd stop entering contests.

[KumaraKitty]

Sorry about the lack of paragraphs, I had a curious toddler trying to help me type! I just typed as fast as I could so I could get my question out. Hope it is better now!
Schwa, thank you for your advice, it was excellent.

[sarbonn]

Personally, I'd just forget about it and never entertain that company again.

If you're that tied to doing something about it, you can try to send them a letter, explaining your situation, or you can try shaming them, but for all I know, they might end up suing you for embarrassing their company and damaging their name. Things can get really strange in Korea over these types of things.

In the end, it was a freebie that didn't come through for you, so you have to analyze how much effort you want to put into trying to force some type of ramifications out of it. For me, it wouldn't be worth it. For someone else, it might be.

I somewhat doubt they're going to give you anything in compensation, nor are they really going to think anything other than that you might be some troublemaker that they don't want to deal with. Their actions towards you have already shown they have no respect for you or your situation; expect to be disappointed a lot when dealing with them because they've already shown their colors.

[djsmnc]

Man, I wish I could have foreigners pay a small fee to have my girl take care of this stuff. She wins out every time by calling businesses out on their stupidity. Hell, she's even toppled hagwons.

I have to agree with the above posters, though. Chalk it off as a wasted evening and move on, especially if you have no evidence of winning. We all have this kind of stuff happen sometime or another.

[KumaraKitty]

I still haven't heard from them, and it bothers me since they are trying to become the premiere English language station here in Korea. For the record, it was TBS eFM.
I won GreenDay tickets from their show "MTown". THEY called me regarding the tickets when I won them, I hadn't even realized that I had entered a contest by sending in a message!
I have a 20month old son, I work evenings, and I had to rearrange my schedule and organize childcare for the event. I think this is what bothers me the most, that they don't even have the courtesy to apologize or contact me regarding this despite phone calls, emails and board messages.
I have a friend who I talked to about this and she worked with TBS eFM last year. She said they were extremely disorganized, and they often gave out event tickets for concerts and plays that they did not have. They advertise it to listeners, award tickets and then try to get them from the event planners. I guess in this case when they were told no tickets were available they decided not to notify me. Considering that they had my name, phone number and I have been on the air twice and invited to the studio you would have thought SOMEONE could have replied or told me not waste my time!!
I know that if I get a Korean friend to get online with this, I'll probably get more of a response. My husband grew up in Texas and is not that computer savvy. He barely knows how to e-mail!

Cheers!