amandalpaca Posted October 20, 2016 Posted October 20, 2016 As I'm reading this thread I'm actually in the process of healing from my surgery at Banobagi... my mother and I feel that Docfinderkorea was pretty much useless when it came to helping us bargain for prices. In fact they didn't even do much for us. I was in contact with this lady, Jennifer, for about 3 months prior to the surgeries, she explained to us and answered our queries. But the usefulness of DFK pretty much ended here... To give you guys an idea about what surgeries my mum and I did after consultation with Dr Lee: Mum: mid face lift and lift sagging eyelids Me: nose fillers and fat graft on cheeks Upon arrival in Seoul we were introduced to different people every day - there's not one person that helped us consistently throughout our stay here. Essentially we were passed around like a hot potato. On our consultation and surgery day, we met a lady named Kwan who was nice enough and followed us... but did absolutely nothing to help us lower the price (we had multiple surgeries each). During the price negotiation my mum and I did all the talking to the staff (who spoke English so Kwan was quite redundant). She didn't help us negotiate for a lower price nor any free services etc. After surgery, we were pretty much left to our own devices. A guy named Shin Park texted us occasionally from time to time but did nothing important. About 5 days after surgery, my mum was fit enough so we moved to a guest house. Here's the funny part - we were suddenly contacted by and passed to a lady named Clovis whose entire job was to help us hail a taxi to our guest house. WTF, right? Then as we were boarding this taxi, Shin Park appeared out of thin air and said, "Hi I am Shin Park" and shook my hand and I got into the cab. So there goes our encounter with Mr Shin Elusive Park. I have met celebrities for a longer time than the impressive 3 seconds this guy showed up to introduce himself. On the day we had to remove our stitches, Player 4 named Anna showed up at our guest house and took us to the clinic. Her job consisted of waiting with us to get our stitches cut out... Then dropped us off in a cab. Here's another frustrating experience I had with the staff of DFK. After my mum got her stitches removed, she noticed that the operation line on her eyelids were crooked and even had some bubbles on the op line. It was quite worrying and we texted Anna to ask about this. She simply replied, "this is your mum's skin." ??!!!!???? My mum's eyelids certainly did NOT have any bubbles or bumps prior to the op, only some slight sagging. We'd expected her to say something like "Show me a picture and I'll send it to the nurse"... but her replies made us even more annoyed and frustrated as it was almost equivalent to her telling us "that's your own bloody problem". She then suggested that we have laser treatment at the dermatologist @ Banobagi. I was really infuriated at this point as it made us feel like she was telling us to pay extra money at the dermatologist in order to get rid of a problem that surfaced due to the surgery. At this point, we turned to Shin Park and explained our predicament regarding the worries we had about my mum's bubbly eyelids. Guess what. We got reprimanded by him! He replied, "Why didn't you ask it to us earlier if she is not happy with that?" (pasted exactly from my Whatsapp conversation with him). Is that aggressive or what? I don't know about you, Mr Shin, but anybody would obviously be unhappy with a bubbly, bumpy operation line. How are we supposed to accurately judge the finished product before the stitches are removed? Essentially we felt like we were quickly kicked to the curb once our operations were finished. Shin Park even told me to contact him if I had any more questions. No thank you, I think I'll get even more furious talking to you. I've seen some nice comments regarding a Mr Shin in this thread, but I don't know if it's the same Shin you guys are talking about. Maybe the one I talked to was his loony evil twin for all I know. As for our surgery satisfaction with Banobagi, I'm fairly satisfied with my nose filler and fat graft on cheeks. My mum, however, can't comment on her surgery outcome yet as she's still bruised and slightly swollen. Bumpy operation line aside, she is impressed that she didn't feel unbearable pain. However, she recalled hearing two sets of doctors' voices during her op, which worried her a little as she doesnt know if Dr Lee was the one who did the surgery. As mentioned earlier, as I'm typing this I'm still in Seoul spending my last few vacation days here. All these encounters are very fresh in my mind. These are the dissatisfactions I have with DocFinderKorea. I feel that they're quite redundant and only served to hail taxis (seriously) and give non committal replies to our post surgery queries.
aristocat99 Posted October 21, 2016 Posted October 21, 2016 I had my first ever surgery in Hong Kong. I trusted my friend's recommendation and I had a nightmare experience. My eyes was uneven and the crease was too high for my eyes. I look like I have 2 sausages on top of my eyelid. I had non-incision method so I asked the doctor to remove the thread and unfold my eyes. Unfortunately they embedded it too strong and deeply so even after the thread removed my eyes still look terrible. Obviously I was scarred after that and I had trauma with hospital and doctor, especially plastic surgery clinic. But I can't live with my eyes like this. I can't endure looking at the mirror every day only to notice that my eyes are severely uneven and plainly horrible. I read and see many reviews about plastic surgery in Korea. Finally I mustered all my strength and I decided I want to have revision eye surgery in Korea. But there's another problem! I don't speak any Korean. I know kamsiahamnida that means thank you and that's sums all of my Korean speaking ability. And then I found out about medical tourism agency like Seoul Secret, DFK and Seoul Touchup. Among all the reviews and information on the internet, I'm more drawn to DFK service so I contacted them. They provided me with many insights and in the price list email they mentioned that I will get the same price also if I contacted the clinic directly, so I did. And they do give the exact same price! I re-read the email from DFK again and I found out that they received commission from the clinic that's why their service are free. Who would reject free transportation and medicine? My surgery is a revision and it's already expensive! I would like to have all the free service from DFK. I came for surgery last August. I asked DFK to arrange my surgery on the day of my arrival so I don't waste time because I want to use all the time that I have in my hand to recover, I have to return to work. I was so nervous and almost break down on that day. If DFK didn't take care of everything for me I would run into the corner and take a flight back home. I was so insecure so I asked to be fully awake during my surgery. I got my revision incision eye surgery with ptosis correction with Doctor Hwang at ID hospital. I was literally awake during everything and in the surgery room I see Doctor Hwang and several nurses and there was also another Doctor who is in charge of my local anesthesia, he can speak some English and he introduced himself to me as Doctor An. It was uncomfortable during my surgery because I wasn't sleeping but I feel satisfied because I was aware of all of the things they did to my eyes and it was a relief to know that Doctor Hwang was the one who performed all the surgery from beginning until the end for me. There was a little bit pain and I feel it when they cut open my skin but it wasn't intense. Doctor left some thread on my right eyes and he said he will adjust it later after some of the swelling go down. My eyes are really asymmetrical before and I'm happy to hear that he put this things into consideration. So I came back after several days. Doctor Hwang came to see me again to adjust the thread on my right eyes and it was UGH painful and weird. I can feel he's pulling my muscle. I want to scream, it's so painful! DFK staff Anna was with me and she held my hand to calm me down. It was a small gesture but I was thankful she was there for me, I'm not alone in this room with this pain. Sadly doctor Hwang left 2 more threads for him to pull on my last day. I prepared my heart for several more days until the last day. I will have more thread pulling. I'm nervous again. That day DFK staff Kwan was with me and she also helped to calm me down. This time everything went by so quickly. It wasn't as horrible as the first one because this time I already made mental preparation. After that Kwan helped me with tax refund and then I'm free to go home. It's been almost 3 months and overall I love my new eyes. My eyes now is exactly how I wanted it to be! It was worth it to go through all the pain and trauma again. And I cannot go through all of this without the helping hands from DFK. I'm very impressed with their service and I referred them to my family and close friends. I still have a little swelling but I know I will get better in time. I don't know how amandalpaca ended up with that kind of experience. I'm sure that was not the DFK that I've experience.
oliviacom Posted October 21, 2016 Posted October 21, 2016 I had done jaw bone surgery 2 years ago in VIP clinic by myself. I had bad feeling that time since I didn't meet Doctor at all during consultation and went into surgery room. I'm too stupid ! Yes! Of course the result of surgery is not good, my face until now still big and square. I wanna get revision but definitely I'm not going back to vip. I told all my surgery history through email with docfinderkorea . They explained well, really trustable. I did my revision in banobagi and docfinderkorea helped me a lot during my whole trip in Kr. I didn't really scared to be cheated again by hospital. Now I'm already back to my country. Waiting to see my slim and small face haha
aristocat99 Posted October 23, 2016 Posted October 23, 2016 That's freaky! How can the clinic not let patient meet the doctor before the surgery. VIP is really sketchy. I heard a lot about VIP from my mom's friend but I didn't know too much about them. Thank you for sharing your story. That's why DFK didn't recommend that to me. Glad you was able to do a revision in a good clinic. Who's your doctor? My baby sister's considering getting jaw surgery too. I hope your face will get slimmer and smaller soon
carlabell Posted October 23, 2016 Posted October 23, 2016 sorry for your experience.. this is why ive decided to do my research on my own! i think its a better option personally
oliviacom Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 De Dr.오(oh) did my surgery he is really good Doctor and very patient to answer all my questions My friend did her face and breasts in vip , but I don't really think that she looks pretty, she looks like a Chinese style woman now. Omg!!!
oliviacom Posted October 28, 2016 Posted October 28, 2016 I did my revision in banobagi with dr오(oh)also. My face is so round, he suggested me to cut my jaw bone again and genio plasty . He was very good Doctor and gave me a lot of advises. How about u? Did u consult with him already ?
amandalpaca Posted October 31, 2016 Posted October 31, 2016 On surgery outcome: Hi everyone, it's been several days since I have returned to my home country. I'm healing well and my so is my mother. The bubbles and bumps on her op line are slowly receding and her bruises are now yellowing. She has also received comfort from a user on one of the forums that explained her own mum's similar situation in the past. Thank you! On DocFinderKorea: With regards to my comment about DocFinderKorea, I retract my statement and would like to say that there were some misunderstandings due to different expectations and fear of bad surgery outcome. DocFinderKorea followed up on my case and it turned out that the statement concerning my mother's skin was a statement that came from the clinic directly. Docfinderkorea did address all our issues to Banobagi, and forwarded us their reply as it is. I wish they could have explained more what the clinic meant and used a different expression, and docfinderkorea agreed to translate more carefully now. They also explained that docfinderkorea is a team that works close together, and even though Shin Park as coordination manager tries to assign only one road manager to each client during their whole trip, it happens that other managers will jump in in between when the schedule doesn't match. They always arrange so that the aftercare process goes smoothly according to the schedule. All managers work hand in hand with the office managers and they are all up to date when it comes to the clients' records. I can't say that any of the managers we met had been rude or unfriendly; they did take very good care of us. But nevertheless I was expecting to be having only one manager during my whole trip. In the end I think maybe I have judged too soon, and I wish I would have told Shin Park right away whenever I felt uncomfortable. After all docfinderkorea is a service company, so they will try to find a solution to whatever problem that occur. I take back all the things I said previously as there were misunderstandings between us. DocFinderKorea is worth trying out if you want to have more service and comfort during your stay in Korea. Just make sure to address all concerns to any of their managers and keep in mind that after price bargaining at the clinic, you can still walk away if you don't like the end price they are offering. Thank you."
xoxogossipgirl Posted October 31, 2016 Posted October 31, 2016 Everytime I use Docfinder, they always harass me with phone calls.
oliviacom Posted November 1, 2016 Posted November 1, 2016 It's good to hear your mum and u are healing well.I used Docfinder service also during my surgery. Yes I agreed their term works close together and they are really helpful. I got all good care and pick up that time . I had no worries that I was alone in Korea that time. Btw:Hope your mum healing much better later
juwonwon Posted November 1, 2016 Posted November 1, 2016 Good to hear that you and your mum are recovery good. I also did my surgery in banobagi through docfinder. I agreed that both banobagi and docfinder are providing very good services.
pinkmacaroon Posted November 2, 2016 Posted November 2, 2016 After reading a blog on Docfinder I was interested in using their service. But when I emailed Docfinder, the answers are like copy and paste, they don't address my requirements and only recommended the big clinics which I have mentioned on my previous email that I would like to avoid due to bad reviews. And they only allow you to book 2 consultations with no operation date, or 1 appointment only if you want fix operation date (only with downpayment).
loverly Posted November 4, 2016 Posted November 4, 2016 Be careful with agencies. They usually just milk you and the hospital of their commission, I wouldn't recommend it. Just go directly to the hospital of your choice. Most hospitals (at least the legit ones) have language assistence anyway.
puddingboi Posted November 9, 2016 Posted November 9, 2016 Reading though this thread I don't know what to think anymore. I am planning my trip to korea for surgery (not sure what yet but it is to shape my body from stubborn fat and lose skin) and I have been emailing both DocFinderKorea as well as some places directly. However since I am going alone, i think, I was very interested in DocFinder, but now I don't know anymore. What are the pro's and con's of doing it yourself or having DocFinder plan it out for you? Is it true that DocFinder only will recommend two clinics?
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