Samsung sucks

Went to Gwangju today, to sort out the camera thing. I got a call from the technician on Tuesday afternoon, after going to Gwangju to take the camera to the A/S centre, and show them the problem I had. He said that he checked the camera, and said that there is nothing wrong with it. So, he asked for me to come in again and to check the problem, and for him to see the video file himself.

So, I went to Gwangju, with my notebook and showed the problem. Basically, it was 40 minutes of me talking in Korean, him talking in Korean and my trying to understand. Him indirectly saying that I am a liar, by saying there is no fault with the camera, the light level was too low when i recorded the video (you can see the problem easier when the light level is low), and things were getting pretty frustrating for both of us. He just wanted me out of there, and I wanted something to be done.

So, I dropped the ultimate question: If my camera doesn't have a problem, why does the video that I recorded have the distortion lines? Then I got the look, which I think is almost a genetic thing in Korea, which I normally get from my students when they play dumb. Yes, for people who have been in Korea and have taught English, YOU KNOW THE LOOK. Its the "dumb look" that students give you, when they don't want to work, study, and generally want to be lazy. I saw that look, on the technician. So, I followed it up with "When the problem first happened, I was annoyed. It happened again, so I was more annoyed. If I take the camera, and it happens again, I will be too annoyed.", using hand gestured so show how just annoying (자쯩난 기분) would be.

His looked changed from the dumb look, to the "I don't want to make the foreigner angry" look. This is the look that I was trying to get for 40 minutes. Because, I knew that if I wasn't able to get satisfaction, I would have to use this technique. Anyway, he said to me that he can replace it, and asked me where I bought it from. Luckily, the place that I bought it from, was only one subway stop away. So, he called the place, printed out some kind of special receipt, and said to take it to the place, and they will exchange it. Something that should have taken 5 - 10 minutes, took 40 minutes, because I was being treated like a dumb foreigner.

One of the basic rules of customer service: The customer is always right. I have a problem with a camera, you don't call the customer a liar by saying that you couldn't find a fault. If a malfunction happens, there is a fault, end of story. You fix it, replace it, or refund it. Due to Samsung's refund policy, you get a refund at the 4th time the same fault happens, of the 5th time of different faults to the same product. In my opinion, it's 2 or 3 times too many.


Anyway, with that sorted, I went to the place I bought it, and got it exchanged. That place, at Sangmu Station, is just across from an Adidas shop that I know, in Sejung Outlet. I resisted the urge to check out the Adidas and Nike stores.

With the camera sorted out, I was taking photos and video all the time, to see if the fault would re-occur, but it hasn't yet, which is good. To the left is a picture of my latest hat. For me, its still strange how Korean fashion has random English words and sentence on it, but it is so hard to find clothes with Korean on it.

The picture below, from a book that I was teaching my youngest class, reminded me that I need to get back to the gym. I know its late now, but I will try to go there tomorrow, and Friday. I've got a long weekend, so I wanna go to the gym tomorrow and Friday, because the next day that I can go is next Tuesday.