Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nuorange]

First off, I'm sorry if this is the billionth thread on this topic. I searched for an old one to no avail.

Secondly, I've been in Korea a while so I am familiar enough with Korean and Korean websites to know that alien numbers often just don't work. What I'm wondering is if there's anything you can do to sign up for certain websites, especially off the beaten track ones (i.e. not Naver or Gmarket) and order stuff.

For example, there's an 18-200mm Nikon lens that's exactly what I want and it's about 200,000 cheaper on one particular site but it won't accept my alien number to register. It's not the first time or the first site and I'm wondering if, other than asking a Korean to do it for me, do I have any other options?

Thanks in advance!

[crossmr]

If your number doesn't work, there is little you can do. While foreigners can often sign-up for off the beaten path websites, anything involving shopping is usually not available other than gmarket.

If the company has a publicly available e-mail you might try sending them one.

You can try using i-pin. I've got a full sign-up guide on my blog. You can click the little WWW at the bottom of my post to view it.

or you can head directly here:
http://www.g-pin.go.kr/center/main/index.gpin?request_type=REQUEST_TYPE_CHANGE_LANG&request_code=en
and sign-up yourself, it's all in english.
when registering at the site, use the i-pin option to sign-up, not the regular sign-up option.

[coralreefer_1]

Not sure if the sites you are interested in using will fall into this category, but according to the following link that was in the paper last week, many of the major websites will end the personal ID number registration for membership, although the alternative verification process that may be implemented may not work for you either.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2008/10/30/2008103061008.html

[crossmr]

Most of those methods are already in use on a lot of websites as extra verification. They still require a number as they are generally used to verify you have some control over the ID. The I-pin is the only method that avoids needing your number on each site.