On August 18th, 2020, Golden Child announced their Ontact Concert - NOW to be held on Sunday, September 13th, 2020 at 3PM KST! Virtual ticket sales began on August 21st at 3PM and were available until September 13th at 2:50PM. Korean residents could purchase virtual tickets via Seezn with an option to purchase a physical ticket and photocard, while global fans could purchase through My Music Taste without physical options. There are also no additional benefits via My Music Taste. Live + VOD set is $27.50 USD while Live Only is $22 USD.
It's a bit bittersweet - MMT had been promoting Golden Child since late 2019, as if preparing for a world tour. But instead it's MMT that will host Golden Child's online concert for international fans.
Disclaimer: This post is probably unnecessarily long, but the key point is that Everline charges crazy prices for international shipping.
On September 3rd at 3PM KST, Woollim announced via Twitter here the merchandise list for this concert, with preorders beginning at 4PM and running through September 14th, all through Everline. Shipments will begin on September 25th. Yes this is the same Everline that sold Golden Child's Future and Past merchandise; you can read about my horrible, and sadly common, experience about that here.
Disclaimer: This post is probably unnecessarily long, but the key point is that Everline charges crazy prices for international shipping.
On September 3rd at 3PM KST, Woollim announced via Twitter here the merchandise list for this concert, with preorders beginning at 4PM and running through September 14th, all through Everline. Shipments will begin on September 25th. Yes this is the same Everline that sold Golden Child's Future and Past merchandise; you can read about my horrible, and sadly common, experience about that here.
Everline has a Korean site and a US site (along with Japan and China); for an international order, make sure you're using the correct site so that there are no language barriers and so that you can pay in the proper method. The US site only takes Paypal.
I logged in and right at 4PM refreshed the webpage and the 9 Ontact Concert - NOW items were listed. I'll blog more about the item details in a future unboxing. Each item page has a clearer image and product details. I added all 9 items into my cart within a few minutes, and here is the payment information for shipping to the US:
- Item Total price: $182.98 USD
- Total weight: 18.00kg (Product weight 16.50kg + Box weight 1.50kg)
- Shipping fee: $227.27
- Total payment amount: $410.26
Yes, that's right, the shipping fee greatly exceeds the total item amount, and this is due to the ridiculous weight they placed for each product. During Future and Past preorders, Everline also charged ridiculous fees, though now it's even greater. Regardless, I secured my order within 10 minutes after consulting 3 different people, for fear of items selling out like they did for FAP (though later on were back in stock). An hour later, Everline increased the box weight from 1.5kg to 2kg. People quickly sent in their inquiries to Everline about the shipping cost, and received a generic email stating that due to COVID they had to use the premium service UPS. This is clearly BS when the issue is the inflated product weight. A few hours later, Everline sent an additional email stating that they've changed from UPS to EMS, put in fillers within the packaging to prevent damage for overseas shipping which accounts for the added weight, and they encouraged people to cancel their original orders and reorder.
I reordered; no items sold out (either because of the outrageous shipping costs or because the items will be manufactured after preorders are over). Here is the new payment information:
- Item Total price: $182.98 USD
- Total weight: 15.50kg (Product weight 14.00kg + Box weight 1.50kg)
- Shipping fee: $199.54
- Total payment amount: $382.52
Yes, the shipping is still ridiculous, but it is amazing to see that Everline updated their shipping a few hours after receiving complaints. I hope potential buyers continue to push on this and end their scheming ways.
As for cancelling my first order, I sent a 1:1 inquiry in English. I received a full refund via Paypal. This all happened within 24 hours of the merchandise going on sale.
On September 11th, Ktown4U announced that you can preorder the Golden Child ONTACT CONCERT merchandise through them. I immediately jumped on this opportunity; for the same exact order as in Eline, this is the price breakdown from Ktown4U:
On September 11th, Ktown4U announced that you can preorder the Golden Child ONTACT CONCERT merchandise through them. I immediately jumped on this opportunity; for the same exact order as in Eline, this is the price breakdown from Ktown4U:
- Invoice Value: $196.48 USD
- Shipping Amount: $55.78 (for DHL; EMS and UPS were a few dollars cheaper)
- Total: $252.26
Therefore for the 9 items, Ktown only marked up the value by about $13 overall. And they have completely reasonable shipping options. However as an overthinker, I am really skeptical for several reasons:
- Ktown's item pages all say that these are currently on preorder, and the release date is September 25th and expected date of stock is October 2nd. There was no indication of a preorder deadline. Is Ktown aware that their orders with Eline need to be by the 14th? Currently I can add 10,000s of an item into my cart, so there is no maximum stock. I'll check again after the 14th.
- To clarify, I believe that Ktown is collecting preorders, then batch ordering from Eline. That is why there's the 1 week difference between release date and expected date of stock. Just below the product images, Ktown does state the manufacturer is Woollim and the importer is Everline [제조/수입: Woolim entertainment. 에버라인]. Lastly, the product image for the t-shirt, pictured above, shows a cursor overlay, as if Ktown simply did a screenshot from Everline's site.
- If Ktown does have limited stock or messes up my order, they'd simply refund me rather than try to get me the merch I ordered. This is in their FAQ, and I've experienced this when I preordered two 2018 Golden Child Season's Greetings. They instead sent me 2 Exo albums. When I confronted them, they refunded me and said that they don't have any more of this in stock. I placed my order on another site, then Ktown said they actually found my order. Because we're dealing with preorder merchandise with a limited run, I am really sensitive about how to order these and don't need the stress of having my order being messed up.
- Going off of the second point, if I receive an item damaged, would Ktown have additional stock to send me another one? If not, they would refund me but I wouldn't be able to obtain that item.
I tried to contact Ktown through their 1:1 CS Talk, which is a bot chat that is almost completely useless. Surprisingly I was a ble to quickly chat with a rep when I was preordering for Lovelyz' Unforgettable, however this time I haven't had any response to my inquiry. I also tried 2 email addresses I found, however it seems like Ktown doesn't use emails to handle customer service issues anymore. On the 13th, I requested to cancel my Ktown order and in the reasoning explained it's because I'm unsure if Ktown can secure the goods. I thought this would be a way to reach out to them about my inquiry, but they just gave me a full refund on the 14th.
On September 15th at around midnight KST, I checked Eline and the wristband, book pouch set, and t-shirt are all sold out. I checked again a few hours later, and only the book pouch set was sold out. Regardless, all other items are unable to buy. I also checked Ktown and was successfully able to add 10,000s of both the t-shirt and the mug to my cart and the status for this amount was "in stock". To test this theory that Ktown should cap the quantity based on what they have in stock, I tried this out for Exo-SC wall scroll posters that are also on preorder. One limited me to 15 (currently sales of 55) while another limited me to 19 (current sales of 51), so it looks like Ktown has 70 of each to sell. Therefore, I think that Ktown hasn't confirmed how much inventory they'll have of Golden Child's concert merch. I also checked SM's website and this product is in fact sold out with expected ship date of September 22. This further confirms my suspicion that for preorder items where Ktown knows how much inventory they've secured, they'll have a cap on how much you can order.
On September 15th at 1:30PM KST, Golden Child's official Twitter announced the second round of merchandise presales on Eline, from the 15th at 2PM KST until the end of the 20th. Delivery for this second round will begin after the first round of presales is shipped out. I checked again shortly before 2PM, and the wristband, book pouch set, and t-shirt are all sold out. Now at 2:30PM, there is a cap to how much stock is available - as a test I was only able to put 192 pieces of the photobook in my cart, 143 pieces of the bandana, and 45 pieces of the postcard set. I didn't check the remaining items.
I added all 6 available items into my cart to see if shipping is still just as ridiculous, and here are the order details:
On September 15th at around midnight KST, I checked Eline and the wristband, book pouch set, and t-shirt are all sold out. I checked again a few hours later, and only the book pouch set was sold out. Regardless, all other items are unable to buy. I also checked Ktown and was successfully able to add 10,000s of both the t-shirt and the mug to my cart and the status for this amount was "in stock". To test this theory that Ktown should cap the quantity based on what they have in stock, I tried this out for Exo-SC wall scroll posters that are also on preorder. One limited me to 15 (currently sales of 55) while another limited me to 19 (current sales of 51), so it looks like Ktown has 70 of each to sell. Therefore, I think that Ktown hasn't confirmed how much inventory they'll have of Golden Child's concert merch. I also checked SM's website and this product is in fact sold out with expected ship date of September 22. This further confirms my suspicion that for preorder items where Ktown knows how much inventory they've secured, they'll have a cap on how much you can order.
On September 15th at 1:30PM KST, Golden Child's official Twitter announced the second round of merchandise presales on Eline, from the 15th at 2PM KST until the end of the 20th. Delivery for this second round will begin after the first round of presales is shipped out. I checked again shortly before 2PM, and the wristband, book pouch set, and t-shirt are all sold out. Now at 2:30PM, there is a cap to how much stock is available - as a test I was only able to put 192 pieces of the photobook in my cart, 143 pieces of the bandana, and 45 pieces of the postcard set. I didn't check the remaining items.
I added all 6 available items into my cart to see if shipping is still just as ridiculous, and here are the order details:
- Item Total price: $114.64 USD
- Total weight: 10.50kg (Product weight 9.00 kg + Box weight 1.50 kg)
- Shipping fee: $143.72
- Total payment amount: $258.37
On September 24th, Korean Goldenness already began receiving their packages from Everline. On September 25th, Ktown finally updated their quantity counts and capped these concert goods; the photobook was also out of stock at 139 sales. Also on the 25th, Eline had a notice saying that they won't be shipping out products from the 26th to October 4th.
I used Eline's 1:1 inquiry service a couple more times. On Wednesday the 7th, I asked for a shipping update in English. They replied in English the next day, saying that they will send it out this week. I've noticed that I don't receive email notifications for any of my order updates, so I continually checked my order on Eline's site. They sent out the shipping label on Friday the 9th via UPS, and the UPS tracking showed that the package weighed 6kg. I sent Eline another message asking why my original order showed 15.5kg when UPS stated it as 6kg, 38% of what they invoiced me, and they replied with the following:
"Hello, we are Everline.
We're using ups.
When we measure the fare on our site, the fee is measured based on ems.
Ups are more expensive than ems, so the weight is supposed to be heavy.Please excuse me. Thank you."
I let it be, because in the end, I did technically agree to the shipping price when I placed my order.
I'll be blogging about these items soon!
Update: While I'm all happy-go-lucky now that my concert merch arrived safely, why must Eline post about preorders for the Golden Air badge now?! It's $16.27 USD + $60.80 shipping for 1 badge...
Update 2: I've unboxed everything, and unfortunately the behind book does have some damage to it...on the front cover, it looks like there's a long smear mark you can see in certain lighting, kind of like someone dragged a dirty eraser on the cover.
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