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Testerkorea.com has been a Korean/Japanese cosmetics website under my radar for years, but every time I plan to order from them, many negative reviews on this website prevent me from doing so, so I order from Yesstyle and Jolse instead
However, because of the Covid, my favorite Japanese products are no longer sold on Yesstyle and Jolse makes me pay 18€ of shipping to Europe.
So I decided to order from Testerkorea, in despair, because I absolutely need my SK-II First Treatement Essence.
Why I like Testerkorea
Testerkorea is, theorically, a very good website because they sell full sizez but also lots of travel sizes, samples and sets. They ship from South Korea and have very low prices even compared to other Korean sites. They have a lot of brands that are hard to find in France
I really like their eye cream samples because this kind of creams are expensive when you don’t need a lot of them
They declare the packages as “gift” to avoid customs fees for European customers.
Why I hate Testerkoea ?
Their stock. Not every product sold on the site is currently in their warehouse. That means that when you place an order, they also have to place an order. And only when they receive the products (7 working days) they can ship it to you. Sometimes, they also sell products that are out of stock and you will only find out later. If you want to replace these products with something else, it takes another week. I guess I wasn’t very lucky either because I placed the order right between two holidays, which made the processing time much longer. The refund is made to my Testerkorea account, but I can also ask to be refunded directly to my credit card or PayPal.
The shipping fees are calculated by weight, so the more you buy, the more you pay for shipping fees. Even the shipping via the Korean post, super slow, is expensive (9€ minimum), while you just have to add 5€ to receive the package by FedEx (4 to 8 working days) so I don’t bother and choose FedEx. I highly recommend FedEx because finally it doesn’t cost that much vs. the slow Korean post, and they don’t charge customs fees systematically like with DHL or UPS for example.
The unfavorable exchange rate. The prices are in Korean Won but you can only pay in US Dollars or Euros with a very unfavorable exchange rate. For example, on an order of 125 000won, instead of paying 92€, I had to pay 99€
They sell the samples so unlike other sites, you won’t get a lot of samples, but right now they’re nice, I got free disposable masks in my package.
Why do I still purchase from Testerkorea?
The good news is that they respond within one business day to my request for delivery. The customer service is ultra responsive and courteous.
And when the package is finally shipped with FedEx, FedEx delivers on time.
Shipped on the 18th (on Sunday), received on the 21st, without customs fees (they declared that my package was worth only $20)
In short, I ordered on Dec 6 (a week after Korean very important Moon holidays, the equivalent of Christmas for us), the package was shipped on Dec 18 via FedEx, and received on Dec 21. So if you desperately need something, pay with PayPal to get a quick refund if necessary (Testerkorea also refunds but having PayPal is to have extra guarantee, without additional costs). If you do not yet have a PayPal account, I can refer you. Click here to get 5 € discount for your 1st order (> 10 €)
I recommend Testerkorea if patience is your main quality, or if the product you want to buy is only sold in Korea, or if you want to buy bundles, you will save lots of money. Will I reorder from them? Sure.
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