Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cubanlord]

Ok.....bare with me as this is a somewhat long story:

Back in Feb. 2004, my wife came back to Florida from Korea. I didn't want to go to Korea because I had just started a great and lucrative career. She gave it a shot (being back home and all); just wasn't happy. So anyways....March comes rolling around and she gets her severance pay. Great. We are still waiting for the PENSION to come in. April...May...WTF?!?!?! We make a phone call to one of her Korean friends in the states. They call the pension office. The pension office then says..."oh...we sent you some of the money" Um....where is it?!?!??!

As many of you already know, dealing with something like this from literally HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Regardless, there was nothing much we could do.

WELL GUESS WHAT!?!??!?! GUESS WHO CAME BACK TO KOREA? My wife. This time I was with her (Aug. 2004). I decided to give the teaching thing a whirl (since I had a degree for it and wanted to cheer my wife up) For some reason, it had slipped my mind about the pension. Then 2 weeks ago....BAM! READING someone's thread about pension reminded me I had some work to do. Finishing the brunt of the summer camps, we finally called today (with the help of our good Korean Friend). Upon being described the situation, the person at the office (over the phone) told our Korean friend, "She's a foreigner and has already left the country. She'll forget about it".

Wow....I told our Korean friend to tell them they had best get on the ball unless they want me in their office (I am a fair dude....but don't try to F#$% with me and my wife). Our friend called them back and informed them...."she is back and with her husband this time). She said the dude dropped the phone and when he picked it up....he said, "I will call you back with the information in a few minutes". In about 2 minutes...we had all of the information we needed.

Bottom line was: we are back in Korea, thus cannot get the money. We have to wait until we leave again. Man....let me tell you....the first time my wife was here (by herself) she kept (for the most part) to herself. i.e. didn't make many Korean friends, etc. Since we have been here, we have made a lot of "influential" friends. I hope to God these numbnuts don't try the same crap again. They REALLLLLYYYY don't want that kind of problem.

Arghhh....sorry for the rant. I am just upset (glad for the money still being there; upset for the shadyness). The moral of the story, becareful when leaving. I know many of you are leaving soon. Just an FYI. BECAREFUL!!!!!

[Jake E. Lee]

Thanks for sharing that. I have been burned by a korean employer and treated like crap by some (un)civil servants so when I finished my previous contract and the hogwon gave me a one way ticket home, I wasted no time in getting my paperwork done to collect my pension. When I gave them my bank book (it was a korean bank) they asked how I was going to collect it. I told them that I had a korean aunt who was going to wire me the money. That was good enough for them. I got my pension in just under three weeks.
p.s. may be it helped when I gave the guy a can of apple soda for his troubles.

[Homer]

+ +

[taegu girl]

When you get ready to leave the second time, make a trip to the pension office showing your tickets with a date when you are going to leave and fill in the paperwork. Take a Korean friend with you to help with it just in case their English is not good. I seriously had NO PROBLEMS getting my pension money back (but then again my hubby is Korean and went with me to file the paperwork, maybe that made the difference) and the woman even called us in the USA to reconfirm the account # and where to send it to. It was her first time to do the transaction and she followed up to make sure it was done properly. This office was either in Bundang or the office closest to that area since that was my last location in korea even though it was for a very short time.

[pegpig]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[cubanlord]

hahaha. reading it afterwards...I must say...it is somewhat amusing (can you tell I was upset and in the heat of the topic)? Let's be realistic though. I know I am NOT THE ONLY ONE that has "connections" in very important places. Meaning, if something were to happen....I could use my "connections" to take care of the problem. That is where the phrase came from. No...I am not going to walk in and start brawling with them. hahahahaha . I can see where someone would get that impression from the post.

Anyways....sorry if you guys misunderstood it.

[cubanlord]

hahaha. reading it afterwards...I must say...it is somewhat amusing (can you tell I was upset and in the heat of the topic)? Let's be realistic though. I know I am NOT THE ONLY ONE that has "connections" in very important places. Meaning, if something were to happen....I could use my "connections" to take care of the problem. That is where the phrase came from. No...I am not going to walk in and start brawling with them. hahahahaha . I can see where someone would get that impression from the post.

Anyways....sorry if you guys misunderstood it.

[pegpig]

[TheUrbanMyth]