Korean Job Discussion Forums

[MattC23]

Is anyone aware if Home Plus offers any sort of "price protection"? (ie, if an item goes on sale they will refund the difference if you purchased teh item lately at full price)

What are general return policies there? (refund, time limit, etc)

Made a fairly major purchase and it is worth my while to try and recoup differende in regular and sale price.

[tzechuk]

AFAIK you can return the item you've purchased soon after you've bought it - may be 7 days? - without question asked.

I don't know about buying an item full time and then it goes on sales afterwards.. if that happens to me I'll just put it down to bad timing. But I've had times when they charged me wrong, I went to the info counter, got the difference back plus a coupon.

No harm in asking.

[sojourner1]

I returned items with no questions asked on 2 occasions last year. Home Plus has good karma and a very friendly vibe to it. I like Home Plus. Wish they had more stores. They also offer better bargains and more selection. They truly beat the pants off of Emart, but don't have as much market share. Since they are not as supportive of domestic Korean producers as the national Emart, they are not allowed to be dominating like they could be if operating in a true free market economy, but they represent and resemble something of what is a free market economy. Korea is not truly a free market economy as it's protectionist of it's domestic producers as to protect jobs and profits to maintain national pride a high standard of living. This is why Wal-Mart is not possible. Have you noticed most of the American things for sale in Korea come from US Army posts?

Homeplus is the store that brings more selection, including American, to Korea without resorting to stealing from the US Army due to import restrictions. Gotta love em'.

[ttompatz]

ummm.... Walmart WAS HERE....

They had no clue about the domestic market here and got their butts wiped thinking it was just like back stateside. They sold the leases to E-mart and left.

[kiknkorea]

Yeah they lasted a short time here. It's no great loss. They had poor store design and even worse merchandise. Koreans weren't going to fool with Wal-Mart when they had Homeplus and E-Mart. Competition is one thing Wal-Mart can't handle, which is why they packed up and left and are focusing on rural China. Here's a story on it (I know, it's ABC ).
http://abcnews.go.com/International/WireStory?id=6062931&page=1
Most any retailer is 'possible' here, but doing well is enough to stay can be another matter.

[icicle]

[kiknkorea]

[tzechuk]

Actually... back in the days - there were only TWO main supermarkets: walmart and carrefour (French). Then Emart came into the market, followed by homeplus and lotte (I think these two came at about the same time).

When Emart came into the market, Carrefour began pulling out because they stopped making any money, so E-land bought it and changed it to Homever. Shortly after Carrefour left, Walmart left, too, and Emart bought their stores. Now E-land is also quitting the supermarket business and Homeplus reportedly bought it.. but haven't seen any evidence of a change over, yet.

[mack the knife]

[VanIslander]

[pkang0202]

The packaging has to be in perfect condidtion.

I bought a webcam from HomePlus. It was sealed with a piece of tape and when I removed the tape, some of the paper in the packaging tore. I didn't like the webcam and I wanted to return it.

I went back the next day and HomePlus would NOT take the iterm back because there the packaging was not in pristine condition.

They said since it was opened, I can't return it. I had the receipt.

This is the HomePlus is Poongmu-dong in Gimpo.

[icicle]

[Ilsanman]

A true Walmart, identical to those in Canada/US. or a true British TESCO's would wipe the floor with E-Mart and these other cookie cutter mart-uh in Korea.

Walmart here didn't resemble anything like what I remember. It was still better than the local Lotte Mart, but store design was poor and produce was too.

What Walmart needed to do is either emulate an American Walmart or emulate a Korean mart-uh. They went halfway. Not good. Koreans don't want anything different. They expect every place to be exactly the same and frown upon different things.

Walmart made out like thieves, as they bought/leased the land after the Asian Financial Crisis, and sold out before the market fell out here.

[tefain]

[bassexpander]