Korea remains a tough place for foreigners

Despite the increasing number of foreigners living in Korea, the country still hasn`t opened up to them that much, according to a report released by the state-run consumer rights agency.

The number of foreigners who stayed in Korea for 90 days or longer stood at 536,000 last year, increasing 3.6-fold from the year 2000. Foreigners now account for more than 1 percent of the population.

The Korea Consumer Protection Board said its survey showed that some 42 percent of the expatriates found that they were not satisfied with sales and service practices in Korea.

"Many foreigners new to Korea said they have been overcharged (for products or services)," said Kim Hyun-joo, a CPB researcher who authored the report. "Some were forced to buy things that turned out to be different from what they heard and such cases happen mainly because of a disregard for foreigners."

<**1>Foreigners were often forced to buy food because they tasted it at a sampling booth, Kim said. "Many had to pay one or two years` housing rents in advance because they were foreigners."

Three different groups of foreigners - those who came here to work, students/trainees and immigrants - rated their consumer satisfaction 2.76, 2.55 and 2.47, respectively, out of 4 full points.

Japanese people were the least satisfied with 2.42 points while North and South Americans gave the highest 2.86 points.

The language barrier (35.9 percent) was the No. 1 reason for dissatisfaction, followed by the lack of consideration for foreigners (28.3 percent), lack of finances (22 percent), and cultural differences (16.6 percent).

Many foreigners seem to have felt a "lack of consideration" because Koreans often express adverse feelings towards them and the country lacks social systems that support them, according to the CPB.

Some 41 percent of the 554 foreigners surveyed said they have had unsatisfactory purchasing experiences. Mobile phone service (48.7 percent) was the biggest troublemaker, followed by clothing and shoes (26.3 percent), medical service (15 percent), electronics (14.5 percent), public transportation (12.7 percent), food (12.7 percent), credit card service (12.3 percent), internet service (11.8 percent) and real estate service (9.5 percent).

Lack of information on products and services (42.1 percent) including insufficient guidelines in English or other foreign languages was the major cause of unsatisfactory purchasing experiences. Product quality, reliability problems (37 percent) and higher prices (33 percent) came next.

Expatriates often have to borrow friends` names or deposit money when purchasing mobile phones. Some complained that they are required to deposit money to get a credit card here and cards issued abroad can`t be used to make online reservations for movie tickets.

As for medical services, foreigners pointed out that language problems can lead to accidents and they are often not informed about fees before receiving medical treatment.

Alien registration numbers don`t always work in online shopping malls, they said.

Only 15.3 percent of the respondents said they were fluent in Korean. Some 37.5 percent said they can handle simple conversations while the rest said they can`t. The expats wished public officers, taxi drivers, and bank and medical staff spoke better English.

When problems or damages occurred, more than half of the foreigners didn`t take any action. Some 33.3 percent requested resolution from the company or salesperson while only 11.3 percent filed a complaint to consumer protection organizations or administrative agencies that support foreigners. More than 40 percent of those who did nothing didn`t know where to file a complaint. 26 percent weren`t sure if the problem could be solved while 22.8 percent picked the language barrier as the reason for the difficulty.

(sophie@heraldm.com)







By Kim So-hyun