even though in a decade when personal character outwins fashion trends or rather fads since the Millennium, Korea is a pretty mono-tone country . i.e., people male or female pretty much have same daily routines and share similar hobbies . add one accent to the Internet age where small-scale one-man (or woman) on-line shopping malls have opened up work-at-home late-into-the-night jobs shifting working hours AND younger ladies becoming outright fashionable-looking with minimum spending money thanks to steep competition among on-line clothing stores .
and once upon a time .. traffic was almost in halt only during going to and coming from work in the Captital of Seoul – namely 8 ~ 9 am and 7 ~ 9 pm but no more so, for now it is almost a city-wide garage all-day-long . timed with severe recession and oil prices people are more opting to take mass transit like subways and buses .
one practice still holds true though : mass nation-wide migration takes place in the order of :
- Korean ThanksGiving of ChuSeok,
- Lunar New Years in February,
- Korean Summer Vacation Season of July 25th ~ August 15th,
and due to Holidays this year it will be Saturday July 25th to Sunday August 16th. though this has more to do with business practices in Korea where most professions are inter-twined supplying parts (of a to-be-finished product) as well as the good ol’tradition of “serving” buyers with alcohol and sex, in that order (read on local news for Park, Yeon Cha bribery scandal AND Jang, Ja Yeon sex scandal). although the numbers have scattered a bit during all of the above major holidays because people especially drivers could not handle the annual dread, you will notice a vast difference when the time comes . for example downtown Seoul is an empty pleasure of almost ghost-town proportions and this year the HyunDai Conglomerate-run industrial city of UlSan will be literally “empty” for all go on vacation during above dates especially since it contains anniversary of labour unions .
OK now the main story that competition is ever-fierce among cell phone carriers (telecommunications company mainly SKT, KTF/KT and LGT) that each are luring carrier-switch with substantial discounts on buying a new or now rarely offering a free cell phone . and come vacation season when many are away from home in an unfamiliar map the carriers are each offering convenient product support should something happen to your that very mucho beaucoup important device : the cell phone -_- even when it dumps into water .
I should add onstart that product support for SamSung and LG is a pleasure for they have support centers usually next to their showrooms in major “Ku” (divided parts in a larger city further divided into “Dong”) in larger cities . in case of Sky and Ever they usually share support centers in few major electronic districts in major cities only as well as Sony where the option reduce dramatically . and product support in South Korea is called A/S as in “after service” pronounced by the initials . I should also add that SamSung and LG are famous for their lenient attitude in NOT charging for repairs unless the product is very old or you did extra-ordinary bad things to your device . we are talking about electronic products here and not wear-and-tear on apparel nor furnitures .
- SKT is offering a “Rainbow AS Service” where they will discount up to 80% on repair if you bring it to their support center,
- KTF/KT will come to your location and rent you one when your cell phone goes kaput or even if you lose one as part of their “Good Time Visit” Service,
- LGT is offering a similar “Angel Service” where they will come and get your device to be repaired and rents an alternate phone for up to a year ! depending upon your usage history VIP and Gold members get to use it 6 months for free and after that W100 per day while Silver and General members get the first 3 months for W100 a day and W200 there-after Tel.019-1004 or 1544-0010,
as you can imagine from their English menus on-site, LGT LG Telecom has more English-friendly service adhering to their perceived niche-market targeting the many English teachers who reside in South Korea . understandably so because local usage is the least compared to other carriers but if you need it go ahead, but even on SKT or KTF/KT you will be able to get ample service in English should you go to one of their rather few directly-run branches in major locations especially in the Capital of Seoul – mentioned in detail on my ‘Korean Cell Phone Page’.
I should also add that since this Spring KTF is offering a unique international option of Japan Number or China Number, where you can have a Japanese or Chinese local cell phone number piggy-backed onto your cell phone in South Korea . for an additional montly fee of roughly W5,000 you can even receive calls from that country and use it once you are there will lower rates than roaming a Korea-only cell phone .
