Gmarket in a nutshell

Yohoo, I am going to try and win some vouchers for my online purchases. Spend a lot of $ on Gmarket so hopefully able to win some from them. hehehee

These are the information that might be useful for u..... but its full of words. So either u bear with it, read it through or just 'X' it. TSKTSK

Anyway, I often see qns on Gmarket like .....

'This is my first time ordering etc and I'm so lost. I hope someone can help me'.... but most often those qns are found on the Gmarket HELP section. The problem with some people is that, they expect u to spoonfeed them. Pls, you dont have language barrier when u look at English Help section so why is it so 'helpless' for u?

So if u understand english, go n read the HELP first.

To those that want to buy from Gmarket, pls go to http://www.gmarket.co.kr/ and click on English. There's a direct url but neh, i am too lazy to copy the exact url here.

From there, u can click on Customer service and starts to browse through. Read!!! Most of the qns can be found there.




What is Gmarket all about?
Gmarket is now joining 'forces' with Yahoo Singapore in Singapore. In Korea, its just Gmarket.
Its like any other online shops and u get to order from various sellers/shops in 1 single payment. All the items purchased in that single order will be shipped to u from Korea. As they are shipping by EMS Korea, its pretty fast. Maybe 2-4days can reach Singapore.

Another issue is that, shipping delays also can be a result of

a-sellers sending out items late,
b-sellers choose slow slow postal service,
c-sellers having issues with the orders. Need some clarification etc

You just need paypal or Credit card and u are ready to buy things from gmarket!


Problems likely to be encountered at Gmarket .....
I only have abt 3-4purchases from Gmarket (I think total I spent abt >SGD$800 for 95% of my stuffs) within the short 2 mths period?... its like buy 'nothing much' but yet everything just added up *faint* Plus I dont like to spree with people. So troublesome and waste of time.

Anyway, even though I have only purchased 3-4x but I have already purchased from more than err, 15 sellers? (hope i didnt remember wrongly).

The problems u are likely to encounter:

1-Sellers giving defect goods.
I have experienced this. But well, live with it since seller didnt properly package the stuffs but I suspect seller already know abt the palette chipping issue (i saw 1 THUMB PRINT on the middle of the CASE!!! i touched it by the side) and seller gave me chipped and actually its damaged free gifts...... ARGKKKKKK

anyway, what to do?!?! "Swallow" this down. I dont want to complain but wait till my other transactions are done n i will gave the seller low rating

2-Sellers pack wrong items
I have experienced this 2 times from the same shipment....... *ROAR* both are earrings issues.
One seller is honest to rebate the missing item cost. The other one is telling the Gmarket Global CSO that they are going to send them CCTV to check..... Zzzzz Ok, I hope their CCTV shows the packaging of my items clearly and not like how they handle their jobs. U cannot see things from yr CCTV- how the person check the quantity VS the items packed right? Tsk. Anyway keeping my fingers crossed.

This happened because I have ordered Item A, Qty 2pcs. Even the stickers on the box is Qty 2pcs but the item packed is only 1pcs........ Sianz. So now I am waiting patiently.. since 2-3wks ago?

3-Ordered wrongly and Seller request for top up.
I encountered this before. I thought I order Item A n B for 1500Won. Sala lah! Its 2500Won. No wondered I see how come this seller still dont wana shipped my stuffs out....... Then I received email in Korean Hangul, asking me for top up etc. So i send another email over in English and check things out. I have learnt a bit Korean so I can roughly guess whats the email about.

So I have to top up 4000Won and ok I tell the Gmarket Global to inform the Seller. Seller send out the items before I can do payment.

Initially I thought that they will deduct 4000Won from my CC but sala ....... deduct from Gcash. Then U have to transfer from Gaccount to Gcash.... I have tried several ways (follow the instructions given through email but its wrong!!!) and only managed to get it done after another different procedure.

Then the rest will be settled by the Gmarket CSO.

4-Insufficient $ or Topup for Postage
U rarely encounter this problem. For me, I kena this for my 'last' previous order. So happened the utensils + wallet is over the estimated weight so I have to top up. Again, u have to transfer $ from yr Gaccount to Gcash for this to take place. If u already have $ there, then it should be just a click of a button. Too long i cannot really remember.

5-Combined Shipping
Initially i am pretty confused abt this, even after I read the HELP. In this case, its like I placed an order A (ie 5 sellers, 15items) and then I realised I have something more to buy..... so I placed another order, B (ie 2 sellers, 5items).

Then I can combine shipping if order A *Last* seller to send out the items havent send it out OR its still on the way being shipped...havent reached the postal Office HQ i supposed...... then u can combine. If they already estimated the shipping charges or u already see the last seller sending out the items 1day ago with the tracking, then give up. Buy another time

When U placed order B, the shipping charges starts from scratch again. Shipping is cheaper as the weight increased. So it means if yr shipping charges for Order B is rather high, then most often u have more $ stuck in yr Gaccount when yr total weight isnt that heavy.

How do u combine order? U can go to Gaccount, Shopping list etc n u will see Order A n B. Click both and ticked 'Combine Order' or something. just ensure that the address , receipents etc for both are correct to prevent yrself from seeing 2 parcels.

6-Sellers cancel partial order?!?
Well, I ordered 3 items from Seller A, only to have this kuku delaying my items for >5days i think (all other items reached Gmkt) and then....... the seller cancelled 2 of my items and send me just 1 item!!!

THENNNNNNN that 1 item is scratched!!! and I have to pay 2500Won for domestic shipping. How unreasonable is this? Anyway, this happened before Gmarket allows international buyers to comment on the sellers. Otherwise I am going to give her a BAD BAD BAD rating.

7-Money stuck in Gaccount
I have more than 100,000Won stuck in my Gaccount. Why? Because some tiny things the seller put as 1kg. Then if i ordered 10 of such tiny things, I end up paying 10kg for something of mere 500grams including box. What to do............. I will have to wait for my next purchase. But HEY!!! If yr Gaccount is 90,000Won and yr cart is 90,0001Won inclding shipping......... good luck!!! U cannot useeeee Gaccount 90,000Won!!! and pay the rest by CC etc.

So yea, yr shopping cart must be more than Gaccount $$$ for u to utilise that.


Aiyoooooo my posts has some not that positive feedbacks on Gaccount sellers.... still can win the contest anot LOL

Ok, enough of the negative.... there are really very good sellers too. Like the one selling me Konad nail art and wallets!!! Although wallet seller reply is very slow but he still managed to help me with my order!!! :)

So I will buy from them again, plus one of the earrings sellers thats honest to admit her mistake. I will buy from her again.

I have also exchanged email with some of the sellers but wow, one of their email is 98.99% in Hangul and I have a hard time trying to decode it. hehehe has to send one reply soon else she must be thinking I go MIA....... Anyway just like when I visit Korea, there's very friendly and nice Koreans around and there's also some the 'i dont see u, i dont see u' kind of pattern. Maybe because they dont understand foreign language or dont want to waste time engaging in a 'chicken n duck conversation' and thus, they walked away..... Gmarket sellers are also like this. Mixed of good and bad sellers. But there's defintely more nicer sellers than bad sellers.

The thing to check out is reviews..... if the rating is poor, I wont hestitate to drop the sellers no matter how cheap/nice etc the pdts are.