Why you shouldn't consider a translator

[twinklebelle]

Totally agree! Been there twice, didn't hire any translator. Best part is that the prices I got were awesome. Big savings!

 

[wonderamy]

Thanks for the info.

 

[dor3mi]

shinyglittery said: ↑

So many people are still considering getting a translator here in the forums or a translator someone they talked to in a forum recommended to them. Unless you hire the translator from a consulate it's always a plastic surgery agent/consultant. Always. I can't say it more clearly: ALWAYS. That's why I will use the word agent below.

Many people simply don't know any better and it leads to so many people losing money and sometimes a lot more. Reasons for not getting a translator:

1. They will find out your personal information though your chats and some of them will claim they are your consultant even if you don't choose their services. They will contact clinics and tell them to add their fees to your prices because they recommended you to the clinics.
2. Using an agent will add commission to your prices, always. Any agent who claims different is lying, lying, lying. This is on top of whatever you're paying for their "services".
3. Most surgeons and the staff at many clinics speaks English. Almost all clinics have a Mandarin translator, you will never need a Chinese agent!! (Chinese speakers, please take that seriously...)
4. agents will always recommend you to the few clinics that they have a consultant contract/"understanding" with. These clinics usually include Regen, ID, Grand, Jewelry, Banobagi, VIP, BK.
5. if you want to visit other clinics, they will play along. the tactics they use:
5-1. they will make a previous consultation last longer and then you'll find out you don't have enough time for two more so you're pressured to choose their clinic instead of the clinic you wanted to choose, or your consultation at the clinic you chose will be a lot shorter than you wanted.
5-2. they will purposefully mistranslate things so the consultation will seem to be going nowhere or the surgeon doesn't seem to understand what you want. they might also mistranslate what the surgeon says to you so you get the wrong idea.
5-3. they will tell tell you about someone who had bad surgery at the clinic you want to go to
5-4. they will introduce you to other people, their "friends" and those people will tell you they know people who had bad surgery at the clinics you want to go to or good surgery at Regen/ID/Grand/whatever clinic the agent can easily get their commission from
5-5. they can go as far as showing their "friend's" and "relatives" who had surgery at the clinics they want you to go to. the images are either of surgeries done elsewhere or photoshopped. to anyone who doesn't know: it's possible and EASY to photoshop an image so that no one but a professional photographer can tell it's been edited and even then you can't tell unless you open it in an advanced image editor and look at some values. there are many programs just for editing face shape, lips, eyes, skin texture and so on. any image can be perfectly edited
5-6. they will be sick or they have to go somewhere just when you were supposed to go to a consultation with a clinic you chose
5-7. they will ask the clinics you chose to add their commission to their prices and they will make their commission to those clinics ridiculously high so that the clinic is forced to give you a ridiculously high price which will cause you to not choose that clinic.
5-8. some of the ones with medical knowledge or years of experience through being an agent might even refine and improve what a bad surgeon tells you (though this is probably rare)
5-9. it's possible the clinics they work together with will have arranged beverages, free tests, free shampooing, free food or something small like that that will make you feel really good but doesn't really cost them much. it will however make those clinics seem better in your eyes
5-10. there are many more ways in which they can manipulate you. some of them might not be very smart but anyone who's done it for a long time can only do it because they're smart. Don't think they can't think of ways to fool you and lie to you.
6. Korea is a very "sales" oriented society and anyone in Seoul will want to use you in any way possible. Anyone can decide to become an agent and get commission from you behind your back, including people you got to know in a situation/for reasons that had nothing to do with plastic surgery or anything like that. anyone you know knows an agent and can introduce that agent as their friend (and they probably really are friends).
7. about the commission: don't think it's going to be something like $500. It's going to be anywhere from 15-200% of your surgery price, depending on how good/ruthless your agent is and how stupid they estimate you to be. remember, you're probably going to many clinics so they have lots of opportunities to evaluate how much they can squeeze out of you. they will probably get it right by the time you choose a clinic.
8. even if you go with a clinic they can't get commission out of, they will have your personal information forever and can forward it to any clinic and say they're your agent and want a commission.

I wrote this for everyone's benefit because I really think people should be smarter about these things.

Because I chose to write this I also want to say this to any agents reading this:

I know you're making millions from this industry and some of you have some really wealthy/powerful corporations behind you and I've probably just made a lot of you really angry. Please realize that I'm not here to make friends so no matter how many times you try you won't get my name, nationality, phone number, skype, kakao, email or anything like that but I can't stop you from wasting your time. Unlike most people here I actually understand most of you are dangerous people. Greed is a scary thing. Writing this made it impossible for me to ever trust anyone here enough to share any information like that and any information I've shared so far will lead nowhere. I did it for the good of everyone. I'm not sorry for writing this. I want people to know there are no translators that you just find in a forum and that work for $150 / day because they're nice people. I hope people will find this helpful.

If you read all this and now feel hopeless: please don't. Knowledge is power. When you know and consider all these things you will be able to avoid more mistakes than and make better decisions than before. I know it seems scary but it's possible to make the right decisions. I wish you get everything you dream of

Click to expand...

I agree with this completely. I was planning to hire a translator at the beginning but completely changed my mind now after all the posts I've read. I'm just going by myself to the clinics and utilize the in-house translator they have there.

I also agreed with K. It's very important to be able to communicate with your surgeon. Even if the surgeon is extremely skilled but there is a language barrier, it will be hard for him/her to understand what you want.

 

[blancnoire]

Hey guys,

I was thinking of getting an interpreter until she suddenly stated she's working for KIMA Korean International Medical Association. Have anyone heard of this? She's a chinese interpreter btw.