My iPhone?
I have a shiny, new iPhone sitting on my desk, still cradled in its box. A complimentary case is parked right next to it, package unopened. The reason being that I don’t yet know if I get to keep it.
After all of the rumors, confusion, and misinformation around about foreigners buying iPhones in Korea (some of which I wrote about here), it turned out that my particular problem was quite simple. After having been told, I thought, by one shop that KT was in the middle of upgrading their system and no foreigners would be able to buy a new iPhone until Feb. 1st, I read on a blog post somewhere that a guy had just gotten one early in the last week of January. He also went on to mention that the policy had apparently changed again. As an F-4 visa holder, he was supposed to have been eligible for the 24-month payment plan, but found he was forced to pay for the whole thing up front, thereby losing the subsidy. He hinted that this was true for all F-series visa holders (and I can’t, unfortunately, find the post now to link to it). A bit miffed, I stopped at a different shop later that day en route to one of my classes to inquire.
The first thing I wanted to know was whether or not foreigners could, at that time, buy an iPhone. When that was answered in the affirmative, I then wanted to know if I was eligible for the 24-month plan. That came back in the negative. I asked if this was a new policy of KT, that all foreigners were required to pay upfront, regardless of visa status. The clerk had no idea, but gave me a KT customer support number to call and find out. Not trusting my Korean enough to discuss a topic like this over the phone, I handed the number off to my brother-in-law when I got home that evening.
After running around in circles for several minutes with the customer service rep, he was referred to an insurance company. That was a bit of a surprise. It turns out that every time someone signs up for a 24-month plan with any telecom in Korea, that plan is insured. I don’t know the details of the insurance, or which company it is. Furthermore, there are limits on how many simultaneous active payment plans any individual can have. For Koreans, this is three or four. For foreigners, it’s two. If you are at the limit, you have to pay the full amount upfront for any cell phone service plan you want to purchase. Only after you have paid off one of the 24-month plans can you sign up for another.
Eureka! I finally understood my problem. Back in August, I lost my Samsung Haptic 2 cell phone and bought a new Samsung Amoled. Both were on 24-month plans, and I’d only had the Haptic 2 for just over 8 months when I lost it. So I was unable to sign up for a 24-month iPhone plan because I was already paying for two plans, the maximum for a foreigner. Given that the iPhone plan I wanted (called the iPremium, which includes 800 minutes of phone time, 300 text messages, and 3GB of data transfer) is quite pricey, one of the two plans needed to be paid off. Given that there was only 300,000 won (just under $300US) remaining on the Haptic 2, over 400,000 won less than the Amoled, it was a no-brainer.
So, today, I had a little time between exercise with the trainer and my scaling appointment with a local dentist. So I headed on over to a cell phone agent I’d dealt with a few times before. He’s one of the multi-telecom agents that works with SK, KT, and LG. I explained the situation, paid off my Haptic (which was with SK), did all the necessary paperwork to sign up with with KT (exclusive iPhone dealer) and transfer my phone number from my Amoled (also with SK). Then I paid the 30,000 won service fee all new telecom customers have to pay (if I later get another phone with KT, I won’t need to pay that fee), and all was ready to go. The agent said it would take a while to process, as KT was pretty overloaded these days. So he put everything in a bag and asked me to give him a call later to see if everything was set up. At that point, I’d be able to hook up with iTunes and start making phone calls.
Two hours later, after I had left the dentist’s office and was on my way to teach my evening class, I was still getting messages and phone calls on my Amoled. Not a good sign. Two hours later still, the Amoled was still working. On my way home, I dropped by the shop to find out what was going on. For whatever reason (time of month, normal procedure, or whatnot), the payment I made on the old Haptic 2 hadn’t yet registered with the insurance database. So I was still precluded from signing up for the 24-month plan. The agent had called around and learned that all should be well tomorrow. So, he would try to get me in the system again and I should give a call to find out if all went well.
At this moment, it’s just after 6 am the next day (I am such a slow typist, I’ve been working on this post for over 20 minutes). The iPhone is sitting there, powered off, beckoning me. Will it still be in my possession at the end of the day? Will it be functioning? I really don’t know. My fingers are crossed, but I’m not counting on it. I’m really expecting that there will be another hitch and that I’ll have to wait longer. I should find out in about six or seven hours, before or after I hit the gym. Wish me luck 