Korean Job Discussion Forums

Icewontolla · Joined: 08 Dec 2010

What is normal in South Korea? I have a very small little apartment and my bill for two months is in the area of 900,000 won. This would be absurd in the states. I only put the floor heat on when I was home at night in the winter. My boss says they upped the rates in korea or something but my fellow teacher says he doesn't believe it. His korean girlfriend says his 500,000 bill is insane. Thoughts?

highstreet · Joined: 13 Nov 2010

Gas is pretty expensive, but not 900,000WON expensive. I'd call or have someone call them to check the meter.

Gas is tiered, so when you go over a certain amount, the price goes up substantially.

I used mine for maybe 3-4 hours a day and mine was 73,000 for Feb. I live in a officetel, so my rates are higher than villas iirc.

Oldschoolskater · Joined: 06 Jan 2012

1/4 of your income a month....that's crazy

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Something isn't right. You'd better call:

Gas company
Your landlord

You need to figure out why you bill is so high.

Adventurer · Joined: 28 Jan 2006

A huge bill would be like 200,000 won, IMHO, and that's with you leaving on the heat for a while in a two-bedroom apartment that's bigger than most places. So your bill is extremely out-of-line. It's one thing if that's a combined bill of something else that the boss wants the foreigner to pay.
A friend of mine dealt with a racist boss who wanted to make a foreigner pay a similar huge bill that was clearly not his. That same boss also told my friend that he hates Americans, so no surprise there.

Icewontolla · Joined: 08 Dec 2010

Our boss seems nice enough we've been here almost a year now. There have been a few off things but nothing like this before. Yeah I wouldn't say we abuse our heat at all but our heating also sucks and takes forever to heat up, but that's shoddy construction on their part. When I first moved in our drain backed up and the landlady tried to make me pay for it saying it was my cats hair even though they were pulling chunks of concrete out of the drain. I didn't pay that obviously though lol.

The thing that does piss me off as she tried to pass it off with "oh fees went up in korea" or "oh i pay the same". Well yeah but you have a huge house my apartment is the size of your closet. And they went up by 500%? Just making shit up on the fly.

I don't know what exactly is going on but we explained all of this and she said she was going to check. Wish me luck lol.

motiontodismiss · Joined: 18 Dec 2011

Someone must be stealing your gas....or there's a huge leak somewhere.

ontheway · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 8:14 am Post subject: Re: Heating bill

Troglodyte · Joined: 06 Dec 2009

Do you have the actual bill from the gas (or other) company? If so, show it to a Korean friend, along with one from a couple months ago before the giant leap in price. See if the new one is any different. Maybe the landlady is trying to trick you into paying for someone else's bill.

If you have gas, I'm not sure how someone could easily steal it. They COULD steal it but it would involve modifying the gas pipes which would be extremely obvious if someone from the gas company checked it out. If you have oil then I suppose that it may be a lot easier for someone to steal it.

900,000 is really steep. I don't really see how you could run it that high with only a 2 room apartment.

Icewontolla · Joined: 08 Dec 2010

It's electric and a studio apartment. A small one. Now they're saying they'll come and look to see if we've left things plugged in because the landlord says we use energy all day. Yes we leave a few things plugged in but we did the same all summer and there was no high price, only during the winter when we had to turn the floor heat on, and we turned it off before we went to work each day. It was also never a sauna in my room, I don't even like it that hot.

First she said it's because we live higher up (only 3 floors), then said the government increased the rates, then said because we live in a newer town, then said everyone pays it (obviously no one else does), now they're trying to put the blame on us leaving a plugged in laptop on as if that would account for 500,000 and only in the colder months.

Getting a little angry.

ontheway · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 8:22 am Post subject:

Troglodyte · Joined: 06 Dec 2009

Wow. I don't think I've ever seen a Korean apartment that didn't have gas or oil for heating. Using electricity to heat a water boiler is ok if you're just using it to watch your hands or the dishes. But even using it to take a shower every day is going to be significantly more expensive than using gas or oil. Ondols are nice and comfortable to use but really inefficient for space heating, especially if you're not home most of the day.

You should check out the electric bills for your neighbor. See what they're paying. If they aren't paying as much as you, consider that someone might be stealing your electricity (which is very easy to do).

If your boss really wants to stick to the story that 900,000 Won is normal for a heating bill, then tell her that you want to move apartments to some place with gas (or at least oil). Do you really want to give up a third of your salary just for heating? For that much money, you could sleep at the spa every night. Just go home for a change of clothes and to eat.