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iPhone from Blitz - any experience?

 
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Caffeinated



Joined: 11 Feb 2010

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:01 pm    Post subject: iPhone from Blitz - any experience? Reply with quote

Hi,

Anyone know anything about iPhones from Blitz?

http://www.blitzcom.co.kr/

Thanks.
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daemyann



Joined: 09 Nov 2007

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. The site looks pretty legit.
Very interesting.
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jonpurdy



Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Terrible web design (you'd think they'd be able to hire a professional designer).

Why are the monthly prices so expensive? (2x SHOW) And why are they in dollars and not won?

Even if it turns out to be a legitimate company I wouldn't bother with them.
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daemyann



Joined: 09 Nov 2007

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jonpurdy wrote:
Terrible web design (you'd think they'd be able to hire a professional designer).

It's not too bad, especially considering it's a smaller organization (apparently trying to take advantage of the plight of a relatively small group of people.)

jonpurdy wrote:

Why are the monthly prices so expensive? (2x SHOW) And why are they in dollars and not won?

Because you can get them with an E-2 visa, whereas with show you cannot.

jonpurdy wrote:

Even if it turns out to be a legitimate company I wouldn't bother with them.

Presumably because you don't have en E-2, or don't really want an Iphone..
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jonpurdy



Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan

PostPosted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

daemyann wrote:
jonpurdy wrote:
Terrible web design (you'd think they'd be able to hire a professional designer).

It's not too bad, especially considering it's a smaller organization (apparently trying to take advantage of the plight of a relatively small group of people.)

How can a small company provide something as complicated as mobile phone service to such a small number of people? It takes a huge amount of money to set up this sort of company. Surely they'd allocate a couple thousand dollars for competent web design.

daemyann wrote:
jonpurdy wrote:

Why are the monthly prices so expensive? (2x SHOW) And why are they in dollars and not won?

Because you can get them with an E-2 visa, whereas with show you cannot.

These prices seem exorbitant. (I pay 65,000원 a month with SHOW for almost the same thing they offer, but for $105 instead. Typically they would make their money in the handset purchase by offering less of a subsidy. They charge more money for the phone on a one-year contract than on a two year contract. There's no reason to have such a difference in price between their monthly fees for each, nor between all the other operators. After less than a year it ends up being cheaper to buy an officially unlocked Hong Kong iPhone, certifying it, and using it with a Korean network.

daemyann wrote:
jonpurdy wrote:

Even if it turns out to be a legitimate company I wouldn't bother with them.

Presumably because you don't have en E-2, or don't really want an Iphone..

I'm on an E2 and got the iPhone the first day they came out. It's signed up under my co-teacher's name and gets billed to my account. I'm a huge fan of the iPhone and felt a void in my life between the time I had one in Canada and when it came here Smile

The idea of a competing mobile company (especially one that caters to foreigners) is fantastic. However, I don't think this company nearly fits the bill.
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daemyann



Joined: 09 Nov 2007

PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jonpurdy wrote:

Surely they'd allocate a couple thousand dollars for competent web design.

They did.
It is competent. It's just not 'flashy'.
Again, they're appealing to a niche.

jonpurdy wrote:

These prices seem exorbitant.

Not exorbitant, but yeah, pricey.

jonpurdy wrote:

They charge more money for the phone on a one-year contract than on a two year contract.

Both prices are presumably aimed at paying the full phone cost over however much time the contract takes place over.

jonpurdy wrote:

...it ends up being cheaper to buy an officially unlocked Hong Kong iPhone, certifying it, and using it with a Korean network.

Really? That's pretty interesting.
Link Plz.

jonpurdy wrote:

I'm on an E2 and got the iPhone the first day they came out. It's signed up under my co-teacher's name..

So you don't really have an iphone. You pay someone else to use your co-teachers iphone. I'm splitting hairs here to demonstrate the point that the service in this thread offers a way to actually own your own while you use it.

jonpurdy wrote:

However, I don't think this company nearly fits the bill.

Fair enough. It is kind of pricey. I'm waiting because I assume there will be a similar offer with a cheaper rate available from KT in April. I heard something to that effect, but I can't recall the specifics.
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jonpurdy



Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan

PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

daemyann wrote:
jonpurdy wrote:

...it ends up being cheaper to buy an officially unlocked Hong Kong iPhone, certifying it, and using it with a Korean network.

Really? That's pretty interesting.
Link Plz.

HK (officially unlocked) 16GB iPhone 3Gs = 5388 HKD = 785,000원
SHOW i-Medium plan = 65,000원/month (this includes an iPhone subsidy so actually should be a bit less)
Korean certification = 350,000원
Over two years total = 2,695,000원

Blitz 16GB iPhone 3Gs (2 year pricing) = $125 = 141,000원
Blitz Power Plan (approx. the same as i-Medium) = $104.99/month = 118,000원/month
Over two years total = 2,973,000원

So Blitz is 278,000원 more. And at the end of two years you'd still have a locked phone with Blitz (though you can jailbreak and unlock but it's not the same).

daemyann wrote:
jonpurdy wrote:

I'm on an E2 and got the iPhone the first day they came out. It's signed up under my co-teacher's name..

So you don't really have an iphone. You pay someone else to use your co-teachers iphone.
I'm splitting hairs here to demonstrate the point that the service in this thread offers a way to actually own your own while you use it.

She didn't give me a loan to buy the phone; she's merely a guarator. The phone and plan are 100% mine. It's even registered under my name and address. She can't decide to suddenly request my phone since I've been paying it off.

You're absolutely right though about me needing someone else to do it. It's definitely a bit of a pain, especially for those who don't have co-teachers or K-girlfriends to do it for them. It's a shame that SHOW doesn't let you just buy the phone outright (which I was prepared to do at first).


daemyann wrote:
jonpurdy wrote:

However, I don't think this company nearly fits the bill.

Fair enough. It is kind of pricey. I'm waiting because I assume there will be a similar offer with a cheaper rate available from KT in April. I heard something to that effect, but I can't recall the specifics.

The reason I was skeptical is because I've seen operations that seem like this in Canada. They just take your money and run. I didn't see any details about how the company works, nor was able to find additional info through Google. I'm just being naturally skeptical, that's all. It's probably legitimate but I'd wait for more info before moving with them.

Based on the pricing and the fact that their phone number is a mobile number, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Korean (or a group of Koreans) who would register a bunch of foreigners under his own account Smile
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jonpurdy



Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan

PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, and Mods, you might want to move this to the Technology forum. Others might not want to see us nerding out here in General.
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daemyann



Joined: 09 Nov 2007

PostPosted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 11:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jonpurdy wrote:

So Blitz is 278,000원 more. And at the end of two years you'd still have a locked phone with Blitz (though you can jailbreak and unlock but it's not the same).


Thanks for doing the math.
I can and would jailbreak it, but if it's cheaper to maintain a warranty, it's hard to argue against it.

I did however see a video on very deceiving (in everything except performance) fakes being exported from China, which might slow my hand a bit.


jonpurdy wrote:

She didn't give me a loan to buy the phone; she's merely a guarator. The phone and plan are 100% mine. It's even registered under my name and address. She can't decide to suddenly request my phone since I've been paying it off.

That's exactly the opposite of what i was told, but having not done it, you're the authority here. Cool.

jonpurdy wrote:

It's a shame that SHOW doesn't let you just buy the phone outright.

QFT

jonpurdy wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Korean (or a group of Koreans) who would register a bunch of foreigners under his own account Smile

That's actually very possible, although that wouldn't totally delegitimize it(
He would just be the facilitating 'guarantor'...right?Smile, and seems less likely given the extent of the site.

It's safe to say that I won't be first in line, but I champion with the mission statement.

Anyway, thanks for the info.
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jonpurdy



Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

daemyann wrote:

I can and would jailbreak it, but if it's cheaper to maintain a warranty, it's hard to argue against it.

Keep in mind that you can easily un-unlock and un-jailbreak a phone for warranty purposes. The main reason I wish I bought a fully unlocked one was for ease of use. Current iPhones need to be re-jailbroken every time they are restarted. When I went to Thailand and Canada it was a bit of a pain having to find a computer to re-jailbreak whenever I restarted.

My next iPhone (in two years time, assuming I don't get an Android phone) will definitely be from Hong Kong officially unlocked, even if I have the option of getting a subsidy from a carrier
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lost at sea



Joined: 27 Nov 2009

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The question is can a Korean iphone be unlocked and jail broke? I have read they can't, and they are almost entirely different than a normal iphone.
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jonpurdy



Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lost at sea wrote:
The question is can a Korean iphone be unlocked and jail broke? I have read they can't, and they are almost entirely different than a normal iphone.


Whatever you read is false; ignore it. They are the exact same as every other iPhone in the world.

Korean iPhones happen to be among a newish batch so they need to be re-jailbroken whenever they are rebooted. Old ones would be jailbroken once and it would stick. This issue has been fixed but not released; the dev team is waiting for the next iPhone to come out before they release the fix.
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Caffeinated



Joined: 11 Feb 2010

PostPosted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is the email they sent me after I asked about a one-year rental:

"If you would like a one-year iPhone rental service, you just have to pay $89.99 a month that comes with the service mentioned on the website.

One thing not mentioned on the website is the deposit. For the rental service, our deposit options are as follows:

Option 1. The deposit is $500, and you receive an annual interest of 3% if the payments are all on time. The refundable deposit is returned regardless after we receive the phone.

Option 2. The deposit is $500, and we deduct $25 per month off your monthly service fee for the deposit. Hence, the monthly fee would be reduced to $64.99 ($89.99-$25.00) and after the one year contract, you will receive $200 ($500-$25x12months).

Other than that, there are no hidden fees or surprises in our service."
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The Sleeping Earth



Joined: 08 Apr 2010

PostPosted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 11:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For some reason that site screams "scam" to me.
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Caffeinated



Joined: 11 Feb 2010

PostPosted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 10:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Posted this over on the Technology forum but maybe it will be more visible here.

Quote:
Quote:
I was just looking around on Gmarket and found the following. Can anyone translate?

http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=182989461&pos_shop_cd=EN&pos_class_cd=90000003&pos_class_kind=T

http://english.gmarket.co.kr/challenge/neo_goods/goods.asp?goodscode=182825155&pos_shop_cd=EN&pos_class_cd=90000003&pos_class_kind=T


G Market is working with KT to sell phones at a discount to foreigners. You still have to set up an account with KT to use it here.


Thanks! Sounds promising. It looks like you can prepay for the 16 and 32GB iPhones, then activate with KT or SK (SK seems easire to deal with apparently). Will it be a no-commitment contract since you've paid for the iPhone already though?
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