ririna

DES= Double eyelid surgery
FG= Fat graft
FC= Facial contouring

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With every review I read, I know that there is a large possibility that the person got a discount. In fact, the vast majority of reviews I've read on here are promotional in that way. But some other people don't know that.

Why can't people be more honest with the fact that they got a discount? Why should we just be satisfied with the way things are on this platform? I would feel like I'm hiding something extremely important if that were the case for me, but it seems like very few other people actually care about being transparent.

 

^This!
No one wants to admit if they got a discount to write a review, which means that, in a lot of instances, a person who goes to a clinic for surgery after reading said reviews might get worse treatment and even be botched because the clinic didn't bother to try as hard for a person who wasn't going to write them a review or share their pictures. It's happened before with GNG.

People -- if you got a discount, DISCLOSE IT.

 

By any chance, was the last one Regen? Because I've heard they recommend them a lot.

 

Almost every single person that responded to this thread saying they're going to Banobagi posted for the very first time...
Seems highly unlikely of a coincidence. Watch out everyone, don't fall for it.

 

You're definitely right about the YouTube thing. I know how easy it is to edit your appearance in a video editing program or even just through using one of those filters on your phone. Some phones are even built with beauty filters that work as soon as you hit record. It's so incredibly easy for any old schmuck to edit their photos and videos, so it's not at all surprising that clinics will edit the crap out of them for their website.

 

Oh wow, I didn't think that a clinic would ask people to edit their reviews after they're posted to make them look better! Ugh, and just for the sake a of gift card? How incredibly shady. Thanks for telling us this!
I just read through your MVP review. Did they ask you to change some of the negative stuff in your review to positive or just delete them altogether or something?

 

Okay, since I've been worried about the exact same thing lately, let me tell you some of what I've learned:

Promotional reviews are usually those where the clinic gives a discount to a customer in order for them to write review(s), as well as share their photos and/or videos for the clinic's use. This essentially allows the clinic to promote themselves to a wider amount of people (usually foreigners). In GNG's case, in the past year they've ramped up their game tenfold and issued a LOT of promotional reviews, which is why they got so much attention on here. You can usually tell if they are promotional reviews if you just check the clinic's Instagram or blog pages and on their YouTube, and see if they have pictures of the same person as in the review.

Now, the reviews themselves being promotional doesn't necessarily make them innately dishonest/ bad. Of course, most people wouldn't write a super positive review on a clinic if they didn't quite get the results/ treatment they expected, even if they got a discount (like in the case of pspi, who went to GNG).
But what is more concerning is the fact that a clinic like GNG is putting so much effort into promoting themselves. Because, if a ps clinic is giving out promtional discounts left and right and targeting them hard to foreigners, you have to wonder; are they doing this because they're not getting enough patients in Korea? Because if so, it puts a lot of things into perspective. Places like ID clinic do this exact same thing, marketing hard to foreigners who don't know any better because the people who actually live in Korea won't dare go to them. (I'm not comparing GNG to ID necessarily, but you get my point.)
The worry is that non-promotional and non-sponsored patients will get less good of a treatment, because the clinic doesn't need to use their photos for publicity and so the patient has less power over them in a sense. This was the case for that poor girl who got a botched nose job recently at GNG and did not have a publicized surgery.

Also side note-- even if the person shares pics of themselves, know that it still might just be someone from the clinic writing that post. This was the case for this View review here, where the person writing the review wrote as if she had just recently had the surgery, and was even writing monthly "updates" as well. It was proven that the reviewer was fake since the girl in the picture's surgery actually happened years prior, in 2015:
# Okay, so what I'm saying is essentially this: Cross-reference every review you see. Check the clinic's website and all their social media, check dates, and most importantly, message people! Not every promotional review is fake. This way, you can get a little more insight on them, hear their story, get more pics, etc.

Honestly speaking -- it still is a huge worry of mine, trying to filter each review I see and recognize which ones are reliable/ trustworthy and which are written by shills/ those working for the clinic. So, if others have more to add on this, please do!

 

Yes, please do!

 

I understand. But if you do have the knowledge that GNG mandates that the person writes a positive review before having surgery, would you care to elaborate on it more? I think this would be a bombshell of info on this hospital if it were really happening.

 

Wow, seriously? Would you pm them to me?

 

Yeah, I've heard from a few people that they weren't forced to write a positive review. It's really weird though, I've been hearing some awful things about GNG lately with them telling one girl to write a review on here but keep it a secret for 50% off her surgery. I don't know what to believe!
And yeah, if it were only easier to determine which ones are sponsored and which only got a promotional discount...

 

Whoa... can you link it to me or tell me what to search to find it?

 

God, I feel terrible for you @p.joann14. I really hope you can find a more ethical surgeon to do your revision rhino if you choose to have another one. The hospital telling you to keep waiting and shrugging you off seems to be standard for a lot of Korean ps clinics, and it's terrible.

This... this is why I'm so skeptical when reading reviews. I feel like it's a puzzle to figure out if a reviewer has gotten sponsored, is a total fake (from the clinic itself), or if they got a promotional discount to write their review (which in of itself isn't bad, but again I wonder if I will be treated the same even if I don't share my pics or write a review).
GNG's abundance of shills and paid promoters seem to have sprung up from 2017 until now, which in of itself seems extremely suspicious to me. I'd rather go to a place that has built up it's reputation over many years, than one that just popped up recently. But sadly since I don't know Korean or live there, I feel like I have a huge lack of information and am at a disadvantage. -_-

 

It looks like from her previous posts that she went with Dr. Hong.

 

Personally, I wouldn't trust their reply considering they referred to @pacd as a 'she' and 'her' several times even though he's a guy.
It shows me that the person that wrote that didn't actually bother to check with the patient, and that their whole response is a load of bs.

https://beautyhacker.com/index.php?threads/981100/

 

I'm really glad Regen didn't force you to write a review, that relieves some of my worries. Thank you for shedding some insight!

 

Ah okay, so they offered you a discount to use them?

 

@csolare Yeah that's what I'm worried about too lol, people who got a promotional discount and are forced to write a review writing a positive one even if they weren't actually so satisfied with their results (because they know the clinic will read it). Have you found PMing people to be better in terms of honesty?

 

Wow, they asked you to write a review, but keep it a secret?? How sleazy. And 50% off... that seems unusually high. I didn't even know that was a thing... thanks for telling us.
Also, if you have any more info about View, please let me know! It's on my list for my facial contouring.

 

@SheOnlyLooks25 Hahaha I feel like that too If it looks super natural then maybe!

 

Thanks @MissOrange. It really does feel like going through a minefield trying to find proper ethical surgeons and clinics. I'm also scared of something going wrong and the surgeon not taking responsibility. I really do wish the Korean slander laws weren't what they are. The only thread that I found here with posts of bad experiences so far is the "Negative Clinic Experiences" thread.

 

@Gats I don't know, I guess I'm just an overly cautious person? Haha. In the case of peri.winkle, I did think she was genuine, since I saw her writing helpful responses to other people's posts who were asking about Regen. A lot of people will just leave Purseforum forever after they're done with their surgeries.
Like I said, the reason why I feel this way is because of how people can be treated differently depending on if the results will be publicized. MissOrange talked about how 2 girls she met in Korea went to GNG and got unsatisfactory v-line results and were not offered revisions. These girls did not have publicized surgeries. There are some other people that I read reviews on, but they were publicized surgeries that went well. Also, because of the slander laws in Korea, you can be threatened if you write a negative review on a clinic. I've heard of quite a few girls getting threatened to take down their reviews on here before. This is why I worry.

 

@Gats Yeah, I know. I heard from one girl I talked to a few days ago that Regen offered her a discount if she wrote a review, but they said they wouldn't force her to write a positive review. That made me feel a little better. But still, I feel weary about clinics that have so many sponsored reviews. I just get these ID clinic vibes, you know what I mean? ID clinic puts a HUGE effort into glamorous promotional content, which initially draws in a lot of people, even though they are a bad clinic with a history of doctor-swapping.
I just would feel more comfortable relying on reviewers that have not got any incentive to write positively (like feeling bad for getting a good discount on their surgery or whatnot).
I don't think this means that every person whose pics are featured on a clinic's site automatically should not be trusted, however. But there are a lot of circumstances that come into play that make it more difficult to tell if they are reliable. Again, I wonder if I will be treated the same way as a person whose results have been publicized. Because unfortunately, I have heard of cases where that is not so.

 

@ElijahSpeaks Thanks Elijah. I knew that you were interested in Regen like me from talking to you a few days ago, so I'm glad you saw this.
And yeah, any pictures or videos on any of a clinic's social media pages (Instagram, blogs, their website, etc.) are promotional. Either the clinic gave the person a discount to write a review/ film videos for the clinic's YouTube channel, or they flat out paid for the entire surgery (like in the case of those twin sisters Celia and Sonia that went to Cinderella and made vids on their personal channels). They will also sometimes offer some freebees like extra deswelling treatments & pumpkin juice for allowing their photos and videos to be in the clinic's possession, as was the case for Kitty who went to GNG.
There are some newer ones that I am following, like this girl on YT named "Jade PinkSugar" who is getting v-line surgery in May (I believe she's actually in Korea right now). If you watch her ps video, you'll find out that she was offered a discount for blogging her experience at Regen. Even though she has only about 200 subscribers on YouTube, she has over 1,000 followers on Insta, which is why I believe they offered her a promotional discount (more exposure for them). In case you can't find it, the vid she made is called "BLACK GIRL GETS KOREAN PLASTIC SURGERY - V LINE FACIAL CONTOURING".

It's super disappointing I know, I'm just trying to find people who weren't offered anything in return for their review.