endymion

Congrats! The improvement looks amazing! I'm so glad that it went well.

 

Kudos to you! We should all do this more often

 

That is retarded. I did my buccal fat removal in US a few years ago from a highly qualified surgeon, and it only cost me 2000 USD INCLUDING EVERYTHING. Of course I was quoted double the price at other places too, but I just walked somewhere else.

 

This is not acceptable. 10~20% more expensive is somewhat reasonable considering the extra cost associated with dealing with international patients. But 100% more? Does a translator's service cost as much as one entire surgery performed by a board certified plastic surgeon? The answer is no. This is just pure greed. And the attitude you have here is only going to encourage the clinics to charge even more.

 

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170718000929

Did anyone read this article? I know that foreign patients are often charged more than Korean patients. But I thought it's just 10~20% more. This article reported a nearly 100% difference, which I honestly find disturbing.

If anyone has good experiences haggling with the clinic on price, please share.

 

Get a better job would be a start

 

The consultant at ITEM quoted me 6.16M KRW if paid in cash. That’s About 5700 USD.

I’m planning to meet with both him and Dr. Song from JOGAK. I hope I can get the surgery set up during the same day. Hopefully it will slow down a little bit during mid January

 

I got quoted from 6000 - 7000 usd at JOGAK. This seems pretty expensive to me as well. How much did they quote you?

 

Tryptophan,

I regret that the discussion on rhinoplasty quotation went awry and turned into such a mentally and emotionally exhausting debate. It is not my original intention and I never meant to offend anyone. As someone who had followed this topic for long enough, it was incredibly frustrating to see people start asking question on whether 6M is a reasonable price on fat graft. My goal has always been helping people from overpaying for their surgery. I do realize that my first response to you was a little blunt and the wording could have been more diplomatic. I apologize for it.

Maybe all of us are doing what we believe is right to supply helpful information to people on this board. But like you said, at the end of day it is up to each of us to make our own decision and bear the consequence of it, good or not. Let's just leave it here. I do feel happy for your successful surgery and hope everyone here can achieve the same.

Soong sister,

I am truly sorry for the harrowing ordeal you had to go through with JW and grateful for your decision to share it with us here. It's good to know that you were able to find a good doctor and mend the damage done by the highly recommended Dr. Suh in JW. I hope you have got the beautiful nose you wanted and everything goes great for you from here.

 

One more thing I forgot to point out.

There seems to be some code of chivalry among the ps clinics in Korea, which is not to give negative comments on their fellow plastic surgeons/clinics. For all the consultants I have talked to so far, they all refused to give comment on specific doctors I asked about. It is ironic that some of them hold such high moral standards toward their competitors while treating THEIR OWN PATIENTS WHOM THEY SCREWED UP ON as if they are worthless.

Back to my point. For someone who has done enough research, it is hard to believe he/she would only visit one clinic in Korea. And a typical review from someone who came back from Korea would list the specific names of ALL the clinics he/she visited for consultation and describe their experiences with each clinic down to the every last detail, instead of only painting one single doctor as a saint. Of course this would inevitably involve damaging the reputation of a few clinics while polishing only one of them. For ps marketers, this would certainly be considered as "unethical".

Again, I'm not accusing you of promoting April31. I can not possibly know that for certain and I would rather believe in your good intention. However, due to the reasons I have listed, your review on this clinic is on the more subjective end and can be potentially biased. I would like to advise anyone who read your review to give it the benefit of doubt.

 

Tryptophan,

It's impossible for us to verify the story posted by anyone on this message board. Personally I would rather believe you had good intention to share your positive experience here. If you read my first response, I didn't accuse you of promoting april31. I was merely disagreeing with you that you think 6M is reasonable quote for rhinoplasty in Korea. I appreciate you answering other posters' question in detail, but your opinion on pricing was definitely misleading. As you can see, so far nobody has agreed with you on that. My intention was to remind people who had not done enough research that korean clinics overcharge significantly for foreign patients so there is lots of space to bargain. Then you started defending the clinics and acted in a hostile way towards shinyglitter and me. Adding to the fact that you signed up only a few days ago, it does look like someone hired by the clinic you were raving, doesn't it?

Also FYI, for every positive and negative review posted here, people should always take with a grain of salt. One average nose surgeon can perform up to one thousand surgeries a year. Even if he is such a horrendous doctor that he fails on 90% of the surgeries, you can still easily find 100 people who would vouch for this doctor. I appreciate your effort sharing here; however, your personal story with April31, no matter how amazing it was, really doesn't mean as much as you would think. On the other hand, their practice seems rather questionable based on the grossly overpriced quotes they give out to inquirers.

Please don't feel offended by my posts. As a member of this message board, I only want to help people and keep them from paying more than they have to for the surgery and confidence boost they want.

 

I'm glad that you had a good experience with April31, so much that you think it warrants the hefty 6M krw you paid for you rhinoplasty. You like your result and you don't seem burdened financially (I wish the rest of us could say the same). Like you said, it's supply n demand. You are certainly entitled to pay as much as you want for your surgery.

HOWEVER, like what SmittenG said, another korean customer might have done exactly the SAME procedure, at the SAME clinic, with the SAME doctor and SAME post-op care for 2.5M. Korean clinics overcharge foreign patients for the SAME procedure by 2-3 times, and the evidence is everywhere if you take a look on the Korean websites or simply read some posts here on PF. You might not care about how much money you pay, but not everyone here has enough money to throw into water. For many people plastic surgery could exhaust years of savings and they might even have to take loans. I bet they won't be as grateful as you getting overcharged like this.

You signed up for the forum three days ago and the very first thing you posted was raving April31 and the doctor there. Even so I would believe that you had good intention to share your experience here, but I could not stand by and watch inexperienced people misguided by your inaccurate "opinion" that for primary rhinoplasty "6M is reasonable". It is NOT unless complicated osteotomy is needed. It's very difficult to get quotes as low as korean locals, but there are still much space to bargain as long as you do your research. There are dozens or even hundreds of top-notch nose surgeons out there in Seoul from whom you can get high quality surgery at a reasonable price (last time I checked, they all claim to be the best nose surgeon of Korea). Competition is good for customers, also from basic economics.

Wish you have a happy recovery from your sugery.

 

Tryptophan,

Please do not post such misleading information. There are many people who just started their ps research and can be a victim of inflated pricing. It also puts your credibility in question and make people suspect your motivation of posting here.

6M is way too expensive for rhinoplasty unless osteotomy is involved. Many big clinics offer typical rhinoplasty i.e. bridge augmentation + tiplasty at a much lower price (e.g. pitangui). Local Koreans pay 2-3M for rhinoplasty. Do you think they all get botched nose jobs?

Korean ps clinics charge foreign customers 200%-300% of the prices for local Koreans. They want to rip us off as much as possible. Please be well informed and don't make this easier for them. It only encourages these unscrupulous clinics to give us even more absurd quotes.

 

Hi Winterntht,

I think most people never heard of this clinic. How did you find it? If you were referred to it by anyone, be it a "friend" or a translator, I think you are being ripped off big time. One of my friends got full face fat graft for 2k usd. Please being informed and don't got pushed into decision and taken advantage by those unscrupulous clinics.

Good luck

 

Hey,

Do you have a kakao ID? I can add you to the Dec group.

Thanks,

Endy

 

Hi all,

I will be going to Seoul in late December for my surgery. I have previously joined the October kakao group and learned so many things from those people. It is amazing how random people around the world can come together and support each other.

I have created a December kakao group for seoul PS. If you want to find someone to share information, get support and hang out with in seoul, please PM me so I can add you to the group.

cheers,

Endy

 

Shinyglittery you are seriously amazing. You have my respect now

 

$150 is for each client, not every day. It includes the consultation, surgery company and a few follow up visit. Does it still sound profitable to you? Seoul is not a cheap place to live.

And my point is that they all take hefty commission from your surgery. That's where their real profit comes. Those translators make way more than you would guess. It is an unscrupulous business.

 

Because they all take commissions from your surgery. The fee they charge for translation is barely profitable.

 

Hi greenderss,

Did you contact the clinics yourself and got quotes? If you did, were the price different when you went to face to face consultation?

 

Hi greenderss,

Did you contact the clinics yourself and got quotes? If you did, were the price different when you went to face to face consultation?

 

Did you bring your own translator for consulting? That could jerk up the quote

 

Face-line:

cheekbone 8.6M krw
v-line 14.3~21.4M krw

I laughed when I heard this price on the phone.

 

Hi Michelleee,

I'm so glad to know that you are going there late Dec and early Jan. I will be there for about the same period. We can meet up and support each other. Do you have a kakao ID? I can't PM you.

Best,

Endy

 

Sorry for your experience... You have to be extremely careful choosing your clinic. There are good ones, but in general Koreans are not best known for honest business.