Is saying "Kamsahamnida" to a taxi driver in Korea considered strange?

Question

When I visited Korea last December, I said "Kamsahamnida" (Thank you) to the taxi drivers after they had driven me to my destination. Many taxi drivers looked slightly stunned and did not reply, except for one, who replied "Ye". Should I have said "Komapseumnida" instead? Or was I too polite? Or is it in Korean culture not to reply? I'm pretty sure I pronounced the word correctly.

Answer 1

Actually,, I came by because some of the answers were wrong. Hi! I 'm korean:)
Well, you know in our country, taxi drivers are a little scary, I mean they are lot of impolite. Whatever,,,,
Kamsahamnida and Komapseumnida is the same and it has no difference. It's exactly the same word. It does not have difference in politeness or manner. It's really the same word.
Well, if your pronounciation was correct, then I think you did nothing wrong. I and all the people in Korea say Kamsahamnida when they get out of the taxi.
The THing is that you did nothing wrong:) It's the exactly right thing to do.

I think the driver must had thought that it was weird for such a foreigner to say korean, or maybe there could have been a problem in your pronounciation.
Well you did the right thing:)

Answer 2

Haha, well if you look like a foreigner, it might have taken them aback to see a foreigner speak Korean.

A lot of people tend to say goh-map-seum-nih-dah more though, I haven't said gam-sah-hahm-nih-dah in a while.

It's not that it's Korean culture not to reply, I'm sure its probably because they were just surprised.

Hope that helps!