When we talk about
phone use leading to traffic incidents, this is
not typically what we mean. It seems a gentleman in Korea -- we'll simply call him "Kim," since that's the only name we have for him -- got just a little upset when his shiny new Samsung handset still wasn't working after sixteen calls and two in-store visits to carrier SK Telecom. What really set the dude off, though, was a SKT employee suggesting that the phone be replaced with a different model when the original was out of stock (what nerve!). Next thing you know, Kim's chilling outside SK Telecom headquarters, filled with rage -- and, oh yeah, a 4,000 pound Mercedes with "Delinquent SK" scrawled across it. Them's fightin' words, of course, and SKT tried to get him to skedaddle. The attempt backfired, though, when Kim skedaddled right through the building's revolving doors. Lesson to carriers: do everything in your power to replace your customers' defective phones after a maximum of fifteen support calls. Lesson to customers: if you aim for the glass instead of the door, you can probably make it into the building without as much damage to the front end.
posted Apr 11th 2007 9:15PM
That's just awesome! we should do this more often, people.
Hope they don't jail him.
Reminds me of that guy who drove in a car to a dealership LOL.
This man is my hero.
This man is a god. Not thee God. Just a god.
Yours was the best comment of all LOL!
i cant tell you HOW BAD I WANTED TO DO THE SAME THING AT SPRINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant tell the story, otherwise I'll be p.o.'ed again, but these people working behind the counters with the smart-ass attitudes and poor-ass customer service really have NO IDEA how close they come to being assaulted. I'm just one person that readily admits, I honestly thought of driving my car through the front door of SPRINT... hell, i've got good insurance & want a phone that works & comes with an owner's manual. One year later...STILL CANT GET AN OWNERS MANUAL FROM SPRINT
Yaaaaaaay KIM! I bet if they would've been up front with him on the first call, he wouldn't have been so...uh...Agitated!
After he was arrested, police found out that it was not Mr.Kim's Car.
It was Rental Car.
In korea, all import cars are more expensive because of tax.
Mercdes S500 is about $200,000 in Korea..
My Hero!
Hey maybe if I do this then Cingular will actually treat me with respect! Now if only I didn't spend so much on my phone bill then I could afford a car. Seriously, this guy is my hero too. I think people need to start making more physical threats ("I'll kill you mother") than bs ones ("I'll call the BBB") towards companies who treat their customers like shit to get a little respect around here.
Cingular was bad now they are worse now that ATT owns them they are a crap company I had a phone for 4 weeks after 10 trips to the store they wanted to give me a used phone in exchange I told them to eat sh-t
Wow I need to try this with cingular. Stupid idiots.
hahaha, I love how they're all taking pics on their camera phones!
You guys have the nerdiest, yet best, descriptions of articles ever.
DAT'S GANGSTA!
What did he yell as he revved up the engine?
"THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!!!!!"
Don't lie, if you were in his situation, you'd do it too.
Wow, the comment about yelling "THIS IS SPARTAAAA" was really the icing on the cake here.
hilarious.
It looks like Mr. Kim got a little carried away. Justified? definitely.
That was the best comment of them all-LOL!!!!
Oh well, its just a car right?...oh um... crap a Mercedes and a glass door ummm uhhh hes fucked
Bravo.. way to go. I know people who have threated to drive their car thru the windows but you actually did it. To all of us out here you are brave and a hero.
Uhm...yeah sorry as much as he may be a "hero" for taking rational action and doing the damage he did. Door and glass can be replaced. Hes an idiot cause now he has to pay for the car/door/glass and i hope he gets jailed. Sorry, if you that pissed off about your cell phone...switch...(all over a cell phone) Dee Dee Deeeee. Of course unless its the only carrier, then there is no help for you. LOL
He didn't yell "THIS IS SPARTAAAAAA!!!!!" He yelled ""THIS IS KOREAAAAAA!!!!!"
I will admire this man more then he will ever know*
This might be the start of something big, I can see it now.......
ViVA La RéVolutIon!!!!!
hahahah hilarious, would have been good if he had also been reading Mckay's "if we must die", this guy is seriously a hero, i may have to do this to cingular
I think he did mistake. He might be rich and he had to buy bigger one. (eg: truck or something? whatever..)
Talk abt attitude... AWESOME! & Bad customers service. :P
I think the approriate yell would have been "Can you hear me now?!"
Anyway, too bad about the car (hope it was a rental like one post mentioned) but way to go Kim! Wonder if customer service from that company will improve now. "If you don't help me I will drive right over...and through your front door!" LOL
The way this is worded, it says that Kim is filled with rage and a 4,000 pound Mercedes. Ouch.
I like all the people taking pictures. Magic.
Dear god this man is a hero to us all. Id love to drive my truck through the verizon headquarters!
Adding insult to injury: onlookers taking pictures on their WORKING camera phones.
Hero? Good for the customers maybe but not for himself.
Of course it is possible that he is just extremely wealthy.
In that case Mercedes and the glass entrance and so on would not be much of a concern and knowing Korea, he can probably get away with it without any jail time.
However, if he isn't a multi-millionaire, then the cost will far outweigh whatever satisfaction he may have gained from this outrage, and he will most likely end up in jail, which probably isn't as bad as it is in the United States I would imagine, but still a jail is a jail.
I just hope he's a rich guy.
Well, he probably is rich- a Mercedes costs far more in Korea than it does in the US. Also- I wonder if his actions will inspire others to do the same to Verizon and AT&T. They deserve it; and Sprint, to a lesser degree. But, at least Sprint's willing to take on SK Telecom and KDDI as MVNOs (hope Helio learns from their parent company and never ever reach such an awful level of customer support).
mr kim, you are my hero!
if i were cingular/ATT, i would start pouring concrete reinforcements now because whatever SK has done to mr kim cingular does to thousands every single day. an S500 sure is fine but imagine what a Hummer would do!
He's not a hero. He's a moron. Let's go down the list:
* He smashed a $200,000 Mercedes.
* It wasn't his.
* The non-working phone was made by Samsung, not SK Telecom.
* He bought it from a distributor, not from SK Telecom.
* He'd been told the problem was with the USIM card, so he blamed SK Telecom, because they made it. Except they didn't; SK Telecom doesn't manufacture anything. The card may have been made by SK Teletech (a sibling company in the SK Group).
It gets better. Look at the picture. People are taking pictures of the wreck with their cellphones. Now, given that SK Telecom is Korea's largest cellphone carrier (about 50% share), and these people are at SK Telecom's headquarters, it's a good bet that most or all of those pictures are going to be sent over SK Telecom's network. So, this guy wrecked his friend's car to vandalize the *wrong* company, and wound up increasing their revenue.
1. The Mercedes looks relatively undamaged (sure, the hood might need replacement, but at least the important parts are intact)
2. So what if the phone's made by Samsung? It's just like in the States- carriers are expected to support the phones (else the carriers would embrace unlocked phones more rather than worrying about the support nightmares it would cause)
3. Korean phones don't use USIM cards (Only Japan uses USIM cards in their 3G phones).
Looks like Korea's much like the US- the carrier's supposed to support the phone but didn't in this case. Unlike the US, however, this person damaged a revolving door to make his point whereas Americans bitch and moan on forums. The US needs this kind of revolutionary spirit aimed against Verizon Wireless (for the crippling of their phones to their horrible pricing to their non-acceptance of imported phones).
maybe this is time for people to realize that the world is full of anger with the gas prices and all then add cell phone and rude people come on great job for the man and hope they learn a lesson selling junk and not taking care of the customer.
I need to stop by Enterprise and then head for Sprint!
Good for "KIM"!!!!!!!! I picketed a cell phone company in Penna in Nov 2004 for crap service. These companies want blood or so it seems...about time that the honest consumer fights back!
Yeah, this is definitely one of the coolest guys I've ever read about. Hopefully he'll stay on the outside and bring justice elsewhere, like driving through restaurants that don't hold peoples reservations!
-mb
did you notice the other people taking pictures with their camera phones? at least their phones seemed to work...
WAY TO GO KIM!!!!! MY HERO!!!!
i know he must of been upset, but come on, that was extreme. He needs to have to pay for restuition and serve jail time.NO EXCUSES.NONE
Oh, man... that's just awesome. Greatest thing I've heard all day.
lolx
he's my hero .. seriously though , if you get really cocky with the t-mobile reps, and they even get the slightest bitchy back, ask for a supervisor and complain and you get a free phone , i've done it like 5 times becuase those people are soo ignorant , especially when your phone's not working !
So glad he did that! I've wanted to do the same thing to SPRINT for giving me a 40.00 phone to replace the 500.00 phone they said was out of stock. They said they could not repair my phone, yet they just sent me (after I switched to Verizon six months ago) a letter with a postage paid envelope requesting I sell them the 500.00 phone for 50.00 since I'm probably unable to use it! I wanted to send them something really heavy in the envelope so they'd have to pay postage on it, but not get any phone to fix and resell for 100's of dollars. SPRINT SUCKS, TOO!!!
It is becoming more common to find news about a car that is parked in front of a store that went forward into the store because the operator thought the vehicle was in reverse. Cars today are much more complicated today then pre 1980. Everything is electronic, and the more safety junk on the car only makes it even more complicate. We need to slow down and doublecheck what gear we are in before we move an inch.
Good for him, the customer is almost always right! Let me share my story. I had an inter net radio station last year, well I was the main DJ for the Tucson station and in an effort to promote the station and generate some revenue I thought, Hmmmm, I'll just get a phone card, lap top and I'll go around and show everyone what we have and presto change-o, the money will start rolling in. So, being with Cingular at the time I thought, Ok, I'll give them a shot, Booooo! very poor reception but I'll admit they were still struggling with Broadband at the time, maybe by now they've got it worked out. Then I went to Alltel, the kid wrote me up, the manager was involved with some high ranking officials with Alltel at the time but just as I started out with my new toy, paper work in hand the manager asked the kid if he had told me that Broadband would not be availabe until another month or so. Well, nothing is going to pull up a radio station and play music BUT Broadband so they politely gave me my money back and voided the contract, cool!. Ok, I had a gig at Old Tucson our Movie location in the desert and on the way out there, considering that my friend in Phoenix had just praised Verizon to the sky I thought, hey, there's a verizon store I'll just pop in and snag a card because tonight of all nights the CEO of Old Tucson is going to be there and I'll just impress the hell out of him with my station, NOT! When I went into Verizon there was like 5 sales people and only 2 customers so I got really quick service, told the kid what I was doing with the card, what I had been through with the others and he assured me I was making the right choice, NOT! Since my station is Tejano and Norteno and this kid was Mexican I wanted to show off a little so I fired the lap top up and tried to tune in and it acted just like dial up. I said "hey dude, this isn't going to work, it's not bringing me up quick enough to even play a song". Oh no problem Senor, our Broadband will be in in the next month or so and you'll be up to par in the mean time just take it on and use it, you have 30 days. I said but it isn't going to work, I only want the card so I can show off the station and get advertising and if I can't play music, it's useless to me. No problem Senor, you have 30 days, just take it on and the reason he was pushing me is that now the store is full of customers and he wants to make another sale. Ok dammit, I took the card, got to Old Tucson and of course the damn thing wouldn't work at all so I turned it off, pulled the card out and on Monday I took it back to another store that was a little closer. OK, they gave me a refund on the card, no problema, I thought cool. Next thing I know I get a bill for $32.00 for time used, now we're talking about those few seconds that I turned it on when I tried to show him my station. Bottom line, it's hell to get a consultant on the phone and once I did I went through what you've had to listen to hear. Well sir, I'll transfer you to customer care and they can take care of your problem. Ok, now I'm at customer care and I get, I'm sorry but you did use it and we just prorate out the time you used it plus the connection fee. "Look sweety, are you not listening to me? I'm telling you that I turned it on for your sales person to see it work, it didn't work, he would not give me credit right there, I brought it back on Monday, unused, zilch, nada, nothing and now you want to charge me $32.00." Month after month I would get yet another bill and warning that this amount was to be paid so I would call yet again and go through that same time consuming crap each time. I think altogether I racked up like 3 hours of my time trying to get this matter straightened out. Finally on the last call I got a person that told me I had to take it back where I got it and they would give me a refund. Ok dammit, so I went back over there, and it isn't close. The kid looked at me as I explained everything like I was speaking Chinese and apparently these are all preprogrammed robots that work for Verizon because they all say the very same thing, "but sir, you used it".
I laid the bill in his hand and said, "LOOK DUDE, THIS BILL WILL NEVER, I REPEAT, NEVER BE PAID, DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH IT, I'VE HAD IT WITH VERIZON, YOU'VE COST ME A LOT OF TIME, ENERGY AND FRUSTRATION AND THIS IS INSANE. YOU HAVE A GOOD DAY".
Well, I didn't get any more bills after that, but geeze, it should not have taken all of that to get this matter resolved, SO MY HAT GOES OFF TO KIM, GO DUDE. YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE MADE IT INTO THE MAIN LOBBY AND DONE A FEW DONUTS.
Anyone else think Verizon's in store AND phone "service" is horrible? Who the f+ck is running that company anyway? TRY CALLING YOUR OWN SERVICE LINES IF YOU THINK THIS IS JUST B.S. It's awful 100% of the time so I'm confident only ONE check would be needed to see your company's lack of service. Potential Verizon subscribers: RUN, don't walk, to another carrier!!!!
Reminds my of the governor of California in a movie years ago.
"I'll be back!"
So what happens now? Did they fix his phone or does he have to pay an early termination fee?
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW !!!!!
I thought it was just me hating all kinds of retailers. I'm glad no one was injured though. That being the case, go for it. Maybe they'll even change their telephone menus now and go back to a real live operator. Thanks Kim. :)
There should be a fund where anyone could send $1 to help pay for the legal cost of these consumer heros.
Well, that is cool. No doubt about it--he was very pissed.
When I had a 100 day wait for a resolution to my question, I merely filed a small claims court action and served the summons to some out-in-the-sticks remote phone store---then it took 50 days for the legal papers to reach the legal dept at HQ. They called me 20 hours before the day of the hearing! Boy, did I feel powerful putting them on hold and running through the "push 7 for billing, push 4 for noodles, push 8 for fries" etc.
They never called back, and had to pay the default judgement of the Small Claims Court action! AND--I was never arrested for destruction of property!
Vindictive? YOU BETCHA!!!!!!!
i threw my phone out of the car at 70 mph on the hiway i was so fed up with dropped calls and service. ... hmm, if i'd only thot about it....
Bless Him - I fell his pain
CAN YA HEAR ME NOW ???
Good for him
He did something that ALL of us have wanted to do at one time or another.
My question is.. did they take the phone back after that?? {rofl}
he would use a LARGE TRUCK if he had COMCAST cable
Way to go! That's how I feel about my Verizon Wireless phone. HA! HA!
Hooray for KIM!!! It's about time someone tried to hold companies accountable for the junk products or untrained employees they use!!! How many of us wish we had the nerve to do what he did? We do need to get more vocal and visible, but I haven't the courage to emulate him...but i will - shall - try to get them to perform better or know the reason why!!!
Reminds me of that scene from "Fried Green Tomatoes" where outraged Kathy Bates drives her car into the two young tamps car who stole her parking space. AWESOME!!!!
I think intially it is hilarious that he did this and your comments had me laughing too. But he is in trouble for sure
Phone companys are such a rip off and you get no respect from them. They rip you off day after day and get away with it.
i understand why the guy did it, but i just don't feel like going to jail over a cell phone issue. i noticed 2 replies on here that interested me. they were the ones that mentioned cingular as being horrible. i agree 100%. i tried switching from t-mobile to cingular because my parents have cingular, and i work in the family business. i moved to cingular. afterward they tried to charge me $800.00 because they said my credit was not good enough. i told them that they should have told me before i signed up, not after. they would not budge, so i switched back to T-mobile. T-mobile has much better customer service than cingular. they may not have the best coverage nation wide, but where i use my phone most, it works great!! also, you get more minutes for your $$$. if anyone reading these posts is thinking about switching to a new carrier, choose T-mobile, they are truly the best.
All I can say is WOW!!! He really got their attention!!!
I've done this a hundred times in my mind to several cell phone companies...Never had the balls to actually do it. Go Kim!!!
Yeah their customer service is horrible and they keep raising prices on everything. I'm planning on switching to T-mobile soon. I'm either gonna wait till my contract expires or when I have the spare $175 to pay an early termination fee instead. For now I've asked them to block text messaging and internet access on my phone just to keep my bill as low as possible. Now my phone bill is down to about $35 a month compared to the $100+ I used to pay with all the added features.
Can you hear me now?
Good!
man, you gotta know that if you're going to ram-raid a business you need a big 4x4 and a Subaru WRX for da getaway.
i gotta say, i agree with most of the posts in the sense that yeah, he took matters into his own hands and good for him. in the other sense, i hear all you people bitching about your phone problems and think to myself, i have heard all these sob stories a 1000 times. i work for a verizon dealer and i gotta tell ya, there are some legitimate bullshit things that happen out there, but there are many many more things that are customers faults and lack of knowledge on their part.
A. WE DON'T MAKE THE F***in PHONES!
B. If you come in and start gettin huffy with me instead of just explaining the problem or acting like its my PERSONAL FAULT, Im gonna treat you like crap. Come in, be decent, and Im gonna work my ass off to help you solve the issue.
C. If we had time to sit and hold your hand as you learned every in and out of your phone and service, it would take us days to deal with a handful of customers. You people buy cars for thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, and I bet you know less about those than you do your cellphones. Or how about the financing of the car? I bet you don't know shit about it. You know exactly what the dealer tells you.
D. If you don't like them, or you dont like the prices, or you dont like the carriers, etc..... DONT BUY THEM!!!! Save us all the hassle. Do without! Cell phones are not a right, they are a product and service. If your so freakin unhappy, just remember how life went on before they were around. The world did exist before you could talk 12000 minutes a month and rack up astronomical bills. Be responsible for your own actions. Don't blame it on the damn guy behind the counter because you dont know what the hell you are doin. I would like to know where you people work so i can drive my car through the damn lobby when Im unhappy with you. Have a nice day you f***in whiners! End Rant.