YEC

Seoul, Chongro

   Dear Greg John (John Greg?),
                                           I got your e-mail address from Dave's ESL Cafe and I would like to write to you concerning my experiences at YBM.  It's true, the pay was always as promised and on time, but I've had too many other problems with them and  would like to warn others.
   To start with, I came to Korea and began working at ECC Ansan, a branch  of YBM (see under ECC for this part of the letter).
  I then signed onto work at YEC, a branch of YBM located behind the big ELS building in Chongro-3-ga.  I didn't want to be trapped in the same situation I was in before, so I asked for only a six-month contract.  The Director, Mr. Yoon, told me that I could not get a visa for only 6 months, I had to sign for one year to look good to Immigration, and after six months he would simply give me a letter of release and I could go if I wished. Needless to 
say, I wished, and he refused. Of course, I see that this was my fault for accepting a verbal promise, but the really galling thing is that I confronted him about it and he yelled and threw his handkerchief around and said, "I said you could go!  I did not say I'd give you a letter of release! You want to go?  Go!"  I remember specifically asking him if a Letter of Release would be a problem, and he said "You will have no problems."  When I 
Asked to speak to his boss, the ubiquitous Daniel Choi, he admitted that I seemed to be right, but verbatim: "Mr. Yoon is a very big man in this company.  I don't want to step on his toes."  (He was an ambassador to Peru or Peraguay or some other crappy place.)  It went no further.  I showed up 
at his office several times later but he refused to help at all.  I think he is an awesome ass-coverer of the first class.
   The point of all this is that YBM does not provide any kind of complaint center for it's employees simply because YBM doesn't care.  No matter what your problem, they will find a way not to deal with it.  YBM exists to make money for the tottering old Min Young-Bin (hence the name "YBM") and his close friends, like Mr. Yoon, often to the detriment of it's employees and students. I paid \200,000 a month in utilities at the Officetel I lived in, 
in the middle of summer.  Don't even ask what it was in winter.  The company knows this is extremely difficult for employees already making only 1.35 a month, but when we asked to switch to a non-housing contract, the answer is always "no."  If it isn't in your contract, don't even ask.  In short, I have never been treated so badly, so blatently, by such openly smug people.  
There's far better out there than YBM. Pagoda, for example.
   Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss this further.
           -Daniele Carey