920,000 Complaints Filed for Seoul Subway Last Year... 'Heating and Cooling' and 'Mask' Complaints Most Frequent

Cases of 'Mask' Complaints Arise Due to COVID-19
Many Irrational Complaints Including Reckless Swearing and Malicious Content

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The most frequently reported complaints about Seoul subway last year were related to 'air conditioning and heating' and 'masks.'

On the 19th, Seoul Metro announced that a total of 923,093 complaints were received throughout last year (an average of 2,529 per day) based on an analysis of complaints submitted to the Seoul subway. This figure represents a 0.8% decrease from 2019, marking the third consecutive year of declining complaints.

By line, Line 2, which has the highest number of passengers, received the most complaints. Complaints decreased on Lines 1 to 4, while they increased on Lines 5 to 8. Monthly, complaints surged after May, correlating with weather conditions such as the abnormal heat in June and the longest rainy season in July and August, leading to an overall increase in complaints during periods requiring air conditioning and heating.

In particular, 712,058 complaints were received by the customer center last year, with the most common being 'air conditioning and heating' complaints (374,873 cases), accounting for 52.6% of the total. Air conditioning and heating complaints consistently make up the largest portion of discomfort complaints each year. Most of these involved requests such as "Please turn on the air conditioning because it is hot inside the train" or "Please turn on the heating because it is cold inside the train."

Complaints about train etiquette reached 13,457 cases, an increase of 3,474. Especially after mask-wearing became mandatory inside the subway due to COVID-19, mask-related complaints totaled 104,516. Following phone calls and text messages, the addition of a mask non-compliance reporting feature to the 'Ttota Subway' app at the end of July is believed to have significantly increased related complaints. Other frequently reported complaint types included ▲disorderly conduct inside trains (63,002 cases) ▲lost items (46,735 cases).

The corporation plans to continue efforts to resolve frequently and massively reported complaints. For air conditioning and heating, in addition to announcements by crew members and manual temperature control, cleaning of train air conditioner parts will be conducted and regular maintenance will be performed monthly. Regarding mask complaints, measures such as enabling convenient reporting via smartphones through the Ttota Subway app, public campaigns promoting mask-wearing, and strengthening routine patrols by subway security officers are being implemented.

However, there were also many complaints that were difficult to respond to. The most challenging complaints involved verbal abuse and insults accompanied by emotional labor, often made by phone with loud profanity or threats of retaliation if subway issues were not resolved.

Oh Jae-gang, Head of Customer Service at Seoul Metro, said, "We will strive to handle over 900,000 complaints quickly and accurately. However, we will also uphold the principle of protecting emotional laborers by limiting responses to unreasonable complaints."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.