Comments on: Not ALL Customer Service in Korea Sucks

By: Teh

Teh — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 00:44:17 +0000

I faced very bad customer service & very poor support in Malaysia. I am wondering if anybody here has email address of Samsung mobile support of Korea. I wish to complain to them. Thank you.

By: jtb-in-texas

jtb-in-texas — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:28:24 +0000

I’ve only ever had bad service from the guys who, I guess jealously, commented on my larger than Korean-standard abdomen…

But then, my wife does most of the talking…

By: Defender

Defender — Tue, 26 Apr 2005 01:30:58 +0000

Yes, there is good customer service here, and it’s more common than most expats think, but apparently NOT in the “handi-phone” world. What I’d like to know is WHERE you got the excellent service. The last time I was in Korea, around the turn of the millenium, I had no problems getting a “regular” wireless phone. I come back this year and virtually everywhere I go down here in Songtan, not only do they allow us big-nosed foreign devils to only get the prepaid crap, they want a photocopy of ID, which I refuse to provide. My fluency in Korean, which usually turns almost all my dealings with merchants into positive ones, didn’t help me one bit. I finally got my ex-girlfriend to get a prepaid one for me; that seems to be the only way I could get a cell phone around here without having my drivers license picture show up on every fake ID in Songtan.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 01:20:34 +0000

The foriegner angle aside, service in the USA isn’t too far behind the bad sales rep you dealt with. The few times I order something that involves a real person (not online) the clerk is granting me the honor of doing, you know, their job. I’m not getting an audience with the pope, but the clerk thinks otherwise.

What’s really bad is the crappy restaurant service - I’ve stopped frequenting most of the decent pubs in the area because the waitresses have become inexcusable.

By: McSnack

McSnack — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 14:41:29 +0000

Jeff — If you’ve got the time, it might feel nice to write a short letter commending this employee’s professionalism and get it to his supervisor or magager. Who knows, maybe he’ll get a promotion or a raise out of it?

By: jodi

jodi — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 22:49:34 +0000

*grrr* that makes me angry. i mean, i’m glad for you but i was told straight out that they don’t do buy-backs with foreigners (but then again, that was SK telecom). i even had one of my uncles go in to reason with them but nope, wouldn’t do it. *sigh* oh well…

By: Neil

Neil — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 20:50:40 +0000

Amazing karma with that second exchange. Sounds like the first dolt couldn’t care less about her job while the second guy was thinking long-term. I know Seoul can be bad sometimes for foreigners trying to deal with customer service, I can’t imagine Busan.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 02:38:52 +0000

Glad to hear you met a kind, professional businessman. As a Korean myself, I feel ashamed when I hear about foreigners being treated like shit. I’ve always looked at the motherland in high aspects and pride since they have great entertainment, gaming, and technological industry, but hearing about ignorant bastards like the first guy just makes it look like some cheap third world nation. Hopefully they were all just the old people, not the younger generations.

By: Blinger

Blinger — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 22:45:59 +0000

It’s too bad the twit in the first exchange will never read your blog. I just bought a new phone myself about 2 weeks ago, and even with my limited Korean I had a good experience similar to yours. It happens, but it is sad that when it happens it is remarkable.