Cho Ji-hyun: "SKT short of savvy in overseas markets"?

Logo

(Image from Wikipedia)

Overseas markets? The company is just as short of savvy here in Korea!

My wife and I access the internet through SK Telecom (SKT), and we've had problems over the past couple of years. In fact, we're currently having a minor problem. I can't quite log in on my blog. I say "can't quite" because I can sort of log in, but not entirely. I log in, and I can blog, but my blog doesn't show me as being logged in. This only seems to pose a problem when I try to post comments to other Blogspot sites that likewise use SK Telecom for their access to the internet. In such cases, I'm forced to post as "Anonymous"!

We contacted SK Telecom about this problem, and they had conceptual difficulties in even understanding what our problem is. A service representative did eventually show up and diddle around with our computers and internet connection, but finally confessed his ignorance. To his credit, he did advise us to try one of SK Telecom's competitors, admitting that the competitors are likely to have more understanding of the foreign company that hosts Blogspot.

Indeed.

Cho Ji-hyun, reporting for the Korea Herald in "SKT short of savvy in overseas markets" (June 12, 2011), explains why:

When SKT inked a deal with U.S.-based Internet service provider EarthLink in 2005 to create a mobile virtual network operator, it marked the inception of a new firm called Helio . . . . But Helio soon ran into a series of troubles, most of them which were of its own accord, such as bad reception, poor after-service and unfair billing.

The company's customer service center soon earned a reputation for dodging customers' complaints and acting as if they did not know what was going wrong.

"The biggest problem was that SK Telecom conducted its business in the U.S. just the way it did things in Korea, without thinking about the cultural differences or the huge gap in the business environment," said an industry source, declining to be identified.

Fascinating.

To think that "SK Telecom conducted its business in the U.S. just the way it did things in Korea"! Meaning that the company's representatives continued "dodging customers' complaints and acting as if they did not know what was going wrong."

Exactly our experience here in Korea, precisely as the article states.

I've shown the article to my wife, and she said, "Maybe it's time to look for another internet service provider."