-What you see above is the only evidence I have of the latest railroading I've suffered in Korea. I try my best to avoid the ripoffs but there's something in me that either won't let me mistrust all Koreans for the dishonesty of the many who have performed their corporate sodomy on my aching ass then kicked me to the curb just for being nice enough to trust them, or subconsciously I set myself up to take these butt reamings because they give me something to blog about.
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Either way, I was only a tiny bit upset when I went to the bank machine to withdraw money for this long weekend and found my account to be down a couple hundred bucks. These things happen while you're in Korea. It's an occupational hazard. NEVER expect to get the full amount stipulated in your contract because if the people you work for don't cook up some sort of scheme to withhold at least SOME of the money they promised in your contract, they just don't feel like they are being good businesspeople.
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You've gotta roll with this or it'll drive you crazy when they do things like pay you a ridiculously low hourly rate for the first month of your contract because you only worked 28 days of the month; or make you sign an 11 month contract so they don't have to pay severance and still have the gaul to include a phrase in your contract stating that you get a month's severance pay for every 12 months worked; or sometimes they don't even try to be clever, they just don't pay you what you earned. Despite the many and varied screw jobs I've been the victim of over here, or perhaps BECAUSE of them, I no longer get that upset when Koreans rip me off. Maybe that's bad, eh? I'm desensitized.
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The 184,332 won deduction from my bank account was stolen by my former cable internet provider, Hanaro Telecom in Mokpo. It wasn't a con job that I'm unfamiliar with either. It's a business tactic that I think should be illegal and I think I may have posted about it before. The lengthy contract. It might as well be called "The Wire."
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When I was working in downtown Vancouver I joined a gym that cost me $29.95 a month. I ended up leaving the job I was working at, (King George International College), because the Korean owners screwed me. Sigh. So I quit going to the gym. But they told me I was "locked into" a 2-year contract. I looked at what I had signed and even in the little tiny writing there was nothing about 2 years. The guy who showed me around the gym NEVER said anything about 2 years. The onus is on the customer to ask about the length of time he/she is expected to continue buying the product I suppose. And in this way it is absolutely unfair and people should be protected from it. But they aren't. I got nailed by the same scam with my cell phone provider too. It was a bit different. They DID tell me about the length of time I was in the agreement for, then made it absolutely impossible for me to cancel the service. This was 5 years ago I think. My cell phone is STILL in storage in Victoria and probably still functional. I'd hate to see THAT bill! They both got collectors after me and I'm not sure which but one of them actually got a warrant for my arrest sent to my brother. Assholes. I will never pay them.
The Set-Up
But in Korea things are different. A foreigner really has no way to fight against crap like this. I got the cable internet myself because if you remember Mokpo National University gets things taken care of for their foreign teachers but with glacial speed. I am hopelessly addicted to internet so after waiting a couple days for the U. to hook me up, I asked David Morris where he got his and he drew me a map. I went down the next day. A lady who spoke minimal English sat me down, gave me a coffee and went through her spiel. VERY fast internet for an unusually low price. I was paying about 50 bucks a month in Yang Ju before I moved to Mokpo. The deal with Hanaro was much cheaper. I think 20 bucks cheaper!
The Hook
She took me over to a TV that was hooked up to the cable TV service that I would get free along with the internet. It was really high-tech! You could call up a menu on the screen with all sorts of different categories like movies, comedy, news, specials and SPORTS! Then it would list all kinds of events past, prestent or future. Some of them needed extra pay, usually 500 won or about 60 cents. There was pause, rewind, fast forward, things were automatically recorded so if sports take place at 3 am, (which they do here), I could watch them at a more convenient time. And the olympics were just around the corner. The equivalent of Korean Teevo plus internet all at a cheaper rate than usual. I was hooked.
The Tale
The lady sat me down again and mentioned a few of the names of past teachers at Mokpo U. who she had dealt with. I recognized a couple of them as teachers who were still working there. Then she got down to the contract. It was a three-year deal. I told her I wasn't interested but she insisted that I could break the contract at any time with no penalty. I remember spending a lot of time trying to communicate to her that I couldn't understand the purpose of the contract if I could break it penalty-free at any time. Her English was conveniently insufficient to answer my questions about this. She ensured me that many past Mokpo U. teachers were happy with the service. I HAD asked David if it was good and he had had no troubles. So, desperate for internet, I signed. My big mistake was selecting the automatic payment option. The company just took the monthly payments directly out of my bank account. A convenience that turned out to be not so convenient.
The Sting
Everything got hooked up soon after signing. There were a few big bumps in the road though. I immediately noticed that I could no longer use all of the programs that I had been using in Yang Ju with LG Telecom cable internet. I called Hanaro to get a technician to my house to check it out. The guy they sent knew less about computers than I do, (and that's next to nothing). He didn't get the programs working and left my computer permanently messed up. Worse than before he came. A LOT worse. Also after a few days of monkeying with the "Teevo" I realized it was crap. Nothing new was ever recorded. It was the same junk on the harddrive of the cable box I had. So I got them to disconnect that while they were at it. But for 6 months, apart from not being able to use Yahoo programs, I have to say the internet was pretty good.
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Then I decided to move to Gwangju for the job I have now. I called the lady who had signed me to the Hanaro contract and she gave me the number of some other people to call. Those other people spoke much better English. Unfortunately they were able to communicate to me that there would be a 200-dollar penalty for breaking the contract.And you know, I hardly even argued. I never raised my voice and I think I even thanked the guy before hanging up.
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Hanaro Telecom is just one of those companies that makes me wonder if things will EVER change here in Korea. They always talk about being a global economy and they make all kinds of empty gestures to ensure their overseas trading partners that they are complying with international business standards such as sending thousands of accountants back to accounting school to "learn" the international accounting techniques. My experience in the Korean "education" system tells me those accountants learned nothing, they just finished the course. And those techniques probably will not be implemented anyway. But when a big wig from a prospective super-client comes to inspect the company he/she is thinking of doing business with they will be informed that all the accountants finished the course. The "set-up."
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Recently, though, I have seen a ray of sunshine in the business environment of Korea. This is a tremendously NON-letigious society. Nobody sues for anything. Often when there's an accident the parties involved settle things at the site. But there has been a class action lawsuit filed against Hanaro Telecom for giving clients' information to other dirty Korean companies who use stolen, confidential information to spam people with ads about their products. I have had my phone for like 5 years and I had only received spam from ONE company until I signed with Hanaro. Now I get it all the time. Sometimes at 3 am. It doesn't matter to these companies when they spam you. The inconceivable thing is, there have got to be people responding! Right? Otherwise they wouldn't do it.
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Anyway, I sure hope Hanaro gets what it deserves. I heard there's a possibiliy of every Hanaro client getting a million won. That's over a thousand bucks! THAT would be a nad shot! And I hope the companies Hanaro gives people's numbers to get their just deserts too. But my experience with Korean business tells me that Hanaro will just pay a pile of cash to the lawyers who are launching this class action lawsuit and it'll be dropped.
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If not, I'd sure like to know how I can get in on this lawsuit payout! There's really no way for a foreigner to find out things like that. If I got a million won it would really only be 800,000 since they've already stung me for 200,000 but it's the thought that counts.
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I know some of you are probably thinking, "Why didn't you just cancel your account and start a new one so Hanaro wouldn't be able to take the money out of your account?" Well having lived in Korea for as long as I have, I certainly DID think of that! However, since this recent backlash against foreigners rules have been changed at Korean banks that don't allow foreigners to withdraw cash using their bank cards overseas. My bank card was acquired before this racist rule was implemented so it works in Thailand and the Philippines. If I were to start a new account I'd get a card that doesn't function overseas. To keep from dealing with any credit card company, (who are the WORST offenders when it comes to business ethics), is worth a couple hundred bucks to me.
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I don't even want to mention the 201,300 won deduction above the Hanaro theft. You see, I have no receipt for that and I ALWAYS keep my bank machine receipts in my wallet. There have been several incidents like this as well. Some quite recently. I was in I Tae Won and a girl I know there told me to make sure nobody sees my PIN number at a bank machine cuz there had been a rash of recent bank machine thefts. I have no idea how a person would do this but money is the mother of all invention isn't it? Necessity? Nice euphamism Ben! I figure somebody DID see my PIN number that weekend in I Tae Won cuz there were a couple entries in my bank book that I forgot. But somehow I manage to forget a LOT of things when I'm in I Tae Won. It's like the Vegas of Korea in that way.
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I hope some day Koreans all go abroad and get ass burgled by other "cleptocracies" over here in Asia and realize how these con artist business practices make the victims feel. Maybe then things will genuinely change here. But in my eyes while countries like Indonesia, The Philippines, Viet Nam, Cambodia etc. are con men wearing rags in a dirty alley playing the shell game or Three Card with foolish passers-by, Korea is a guy dressed in an Armani suit on an 8 lane super-thoroughfare playing the shell game or three-card with foolish passers-by. I have SO much less respect for the Korean because they don't need to do it. But they still do. I hope Korea finds some way to stop it before the global economy punishes them for it. But my experience in Korea tells me it'll be a hard part of their culture to change.
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