Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cangel]

I'm a newbie here in Korea. Gotta nice brand new apartment. In fact, my school has 3 of the 4 apartments on the floor. Anyway, got our first gas bills the other day. I used 63 cubic meters of gas and the bill was W172,000. Another coworker, not living in the same apartment (he's married) used 79 cubic meters and paid just W53,000. Hmm, big discrepancy-what gives? Turns out he's hooked up to the city gas and we are using a private company until we can be hooked up to city gas. OK, but why is our rate per cubic meter almost 4 times higher? Oh, private company can charge whatever they want-evidently. Anyone else run into this sort of shady operation? Anything I can do? I feel like I just got punked-as in the prison use of the word�

[ajgeddes]

Wow, my gas bill was 14,000 won last month.

[Scotticus]

Back at Uni, one of my apartments would have 300+ dollar gas bills in the dead of winter. Korea feels like paradise after the American utilities I was paying before.

[KumaraKitty]

I pay 5$ a month at our Villa in Bucheon. No clue why yours is so high, never heard about "private" gas before, neither has my Husband(He's Kyopo). Is it possible that your bill was for several months, from the previous tenant? You did say you were the Newbie.

[kigolo1881]

How long have you been living in that apt?
Sounds very fishy to me, I believe they told you that fairy tale of a private gas company to make you pay for the roll over costs from the previous tenant.

Tell your school secretary/admin person to request a summary of the previous bills and see what the monthly average is. Then according to how long you have lived there, pay the average amount.

In my building, everytime I get a bill it lists the previous usages for the past 12 months in a small bar chart.

During the coldest winter months, my bills are in the high 90K's, right now it's in the mid 40K's and in the summer it was in the 10K's.

[cangel]

It's a new building. I am (we are) the 1st occupant. The previous usage on the bill says 0. The property manager says we will be hooked up to the city gas line (but when) soon. Right now our gas comes out of 3 big tanks behind the building. The private gas company MICR, when contacted via phone, stated that they are aware that their rates are 4 times higher than the city gas rates. Basically I (we) am screwed. Oh, and my bill was the smallest of the 3 teachers living there...

[kigolo1881]

dude, that's even worse!
Think about it, there are 4 apts, all of you are the first renters, its just YOUR apt. that's hooked up to the 'expensive' gas, while the other 3 are magically connected to cheap gas?
Do You also happen to be the only foreigner, the others are Korean AND their bill seem reasonable?
Just be more skeptical about your situation.

[cangel]

You misunderstood. Sorry if I was confusing. I work for a uni. The uni found this brand new apartment-12 units. There are 3 foreign teachers living on the 2nd floor of this apartment-myself included. My bill was the smallest of the 3. The others were over W200,000 and W300,000 for 1 month. Mine was only W172,000.

[skdragon]

Sounds about right if you are hooked up to LPG, and therefore using a private company over 'city gas'.

The workplace I am at has 'apartments' that are hooked up to LPG, and the winter bill is around w400,000 a month!!! Last month they were paying about W135,000 to w235,000 on up. These figures are in line with the amount you have been charged.

[poet13]

My apartment building is on cans too. Last month I got a bill for 186,000 won. So from the 20th of last month through now, I haven't turned the heat on. No hot water, no hot floor. Only for cooking twice a day. This month the bill was 87,000. F-ing ridiculous.

[red_dragon_canuck]

Wow you people either use a lot of gas to cook or the privately owned gas companies are making a killing off you waygooks. I live in an officetel and don't really cook all that much and I just paid my gas bill for last month and it was a whopping 1930 won. I live in Ilsan Northwest of Seoul about a 1 hour subway trip.

[wylies99]