Friday, November 30, 2007

How to register with Interpark.com (airplane tickets and online shopping)

Here are steps foreigners can use to register with Interpark.com. Please be aware that, when ordering plane tickets, you cannot pay online. Rather you book the tickets online and will receive a phone call confirming your purchase and giving you payment information. Too many people have bitched to me about that, as if I recommended that policy to Interpark in the first place.

1) On the main page, click on 로그인 (login). You'll see a string of words/tabs on the top of the page, and 로그인 is on the left.

2) Since you don't have a name or a password, click the left tab under the password box labeled "회원가입."

3) After clicking you'll have a license agreement in front of you. Under each section you'll need to click the button "동의함" for "agree." At the bottom of the agreement is a spot for your name (고객명) and your ID number. You will input your name and the ID number on your ARC. Your name should be as it appears on the ARC (not case sensitive, though), and your ID number should be 13 letters if you're not a Korean citizen: 123456-1234567. Then click 확인.

4) If everything checks out, you'll now see an information page. In a box to the right of your name is a place for a login ID. Pick something. Then, you'll have your ID number. Below that is the spot for your address. This is a little tricky. Click on the box and you'll have a pop-up. In the pop-up you'll have a menu with "우편번호" (mail number), "동" (ward) "군구" (county or district) and "도시" (city). You'll use one of these tabs to find your mail number. My address is quite short, so this is what I did: I selected 군구 and typed in 강진. Then I got a list with a ton of administrative divisions. I found mine (동성리, which is the next spot in my address). That's all you're looking for: the next spot in your address. Then, in the next box you can type in additional pieces of your address.

5) Below the address are two spots for the telephone: first is "home number," next is cellphone. I just put in my cellphone for both, as I don't have a landline. Next it asks if you want to be receive SMS notification with your order information. The one below that asks if you want to be notified via SMS of sales, events, and such. Click 수신 for yes (수신하다 = to receive a message), or 비수신 for no.

6) Next, pick a secret number (비밀번호). Type it again. Below that you'll see a series of "hints." Choose one, and in the box to the right, type in the prompt that you'll receive via email.

7) Next, type in your email address. Type in the first part first, then select the domain name. Below you'll see four boxes, and it's asking you if you want to be notified of: shopping information, movies, CDs and DVDs, and travel. 수신 for yes, 비수신 for no.

8) Below that is a space for another address: this is where they'll send the stuff. If you want your home address to be used, retype in your 우편번호.

9) Next is business phone number. If you choose to have stuff sent to your school, maybe type in the number of the receptionist. If not, you can use your cellphone.

10) Next is birthday, and it's asking you if you're using the solar (양력) or lunar (음력) calendar. Chances are you're solar.

11) Next is marital status. 미혼 is single, 기혼 is married. You can enter in your spouse's information, if you wish. 배우자 is "spouse," and there's a slot for his/her birthday.

12) Next is information about your career (직업), salary (월평균소득) and number of children (자녀수). To the right of salary is a menu for the highest level of education completed. 대졸 is for university, 대학원 이상 is for graduate school. Below that is information about your vehicle. But, you can leave all of those boxes blank, if you wish.

13) If you've forgotten anything, a pop-up will show you where. You'll also get a confirmation email . . . hang on to it.

14) If you want to browse flights, click the 여행 tab at the top.

Again, be aware that you can't pay for tickets online. I pulled this post from waygook.org because I got too many complaints---from people who can't navigate the site themselves, go figure---that it was misleading, so I decided to leave them to their own devices. Anyway, what will happen is you'll book the tickets and will get a phone call a short time after. If you don't answer the phone you'll get a text message with an account name (a jumble of letters like "adsfjal").

Also, be aware that the prices for airplane tickets do not include tax.

I'm not big into internet shopping, but if you are you can find a lot of good deals on interpark. There are various coupons available, and a point card program, too. They even have a decent selection of English-language books. Interpark is also often used for concert tickets, so it might be handy to have an account just in case.

8 comments:

SG said...

is there any english version since i dont understand any korean.. its bit hard for me to read everything tho...

Brian said...

Thanks for your visit and comment. I saw this post was linked on a Korean tumblr page recently, although the post is nearly four years old and things may have changed since I first created it. There is, unfortunately, no English page for it. If you are looking to shop online in English in Korea, there are other resources, most notably Gmarket. If you're looking for Korean items in the US (or elsewhere overseas), you can buy movies, CDs, clothes, stationary, and other items through a google search. There are also links on my sidebar that will take you to some vendors that ship overseas.

Heather said...

Not sure if you can help with this or not - but I've had this issue not only with Interpark but with Gmarket also - I can't create an account because supposedly my name doesn't match up with my ARC number?... or something vaguely of the sort. Wondering if this is a common problem or something you or anyone else has encountered at some point...maybe there's a small detail I'm missing somewhere. Here's the Korean text that actually comes up:
죄송합니다.
고객님께서 입력하신 성명과 주민등록번호로는
실명인증이 되지 않습니다.
성명을 다시 한번 확인한 후
회원가입을 해주십시오

Brian said...

Thanks, Heather. I was surprised to see a comment on this, as it's almost 5 years old. Because Interpark wouldn't let me transfer money with my KEB account in 2007, I never tried to use it after that.

Anyway, I mentioned that in #3 of the instructions. I know with this site and a few others, it had to be a perfect match and it took a few tries to get it right.

Teacher-ing In Korea said...

I purchased airlines tickets to the US a week ago for $1500 a head. Tonight, my uni student found the exact same tickets for 1 million Korean won. I'm kicking myself in the butt right now. Thanks for the info.

san said...

Teacher-ing In Korea,

I am curious how your uni student found that cheaper than interpark, since I want to purchase a ticket to US using interpark.

Anonymous said...

Hello, I do not understand the id number part?? will you please help me? Thank you beforehand!!

Brian said...

Every foreign teacher with a visa--and every Korean in Korea--has an ID card with an ID number on it. This is the ID number.

Please remember, this post is almost 5 years old, and the information has probably changed.

Thanks for your visit, and I hope that helps.