Inspire Me Korea Reviews 

459
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TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

1.5

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I ordered an item from this website that they did not deliver. I tried multiple times to contact them for an update, and was thoroughly ignored.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Do not recommend. It’s been two months since I’ve ordered 3 different boxes. Close to $150 worth of product and they just keep offering excuse after excuse, no real resolution. I am now working with m... See more

Company replied

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

The box had cool stuff in it (despite some of it looking like things you could get at any Asian market) but the overall experience was bad. For one, I didn’t receive everything in my order. The shipp... See more

Company replied

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

After shipping was almost 40 dolalrs USD for me didnt feel like much was in box 2 of the 3 snacks i can find anywhere didnt get anything else other then the chopsticks and 4 mini little iron ons? Not... See more

Company replied

Company details

  1. Beauty & Well-being

Information provided by various external sources

Inspire Me Korea gives you an authentic cultural experience in a box - bringing you closer to South Korea! Each month receive Korean cultural souvenirs, Korean language learning material, K-POP collectibles, best-selling beauty/skincare and Korean food/snacks, plus a monthly magazine of entertainment, culture, recipes!


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1.5

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

459 reviews

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1.5

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(459)

1 review in the last 12 months

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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Would recommend!

I think your stuff is amazing and completely safe. If anyone struggling to find the right japanese and korean cultural, food and travel products this is the right place for you.

5 August 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Calligraphy books

Hi, i ordered the calligraphy books a few weeks ago.. and i received them in the mail today 🥰 i totally love them, thank you so much🥰💜💜

5 August 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Muddle up in order but customer services was quick to help

Muddle up in my orders, received the wrong box, customer services were very quick to sort it out for me and received what I ordered

5 August 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi Caroline,

We are happy to hear that we were able to resolve the issue quickly for you. We hope you love your goodies and that you order again in the future.

Thank you!

Chelsea,
Customer Experience Team

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

A bit disappointed

I only started getting these boxes earlier this year but I feel like even since then they have gone down in value. The price got raised (which I wouldn’t normally complain about as these things do happen) but I feel like the contents isn’t at the same level as it was previously. Either a box is filled with stuff I will never use (which I know will happen occasionally but it seems to be becoming more common) or a box has less stuff in it than it has in the past. As a result, I feel put out by the price going up and the box contents becoming less and have since canceled my subscription.

5 August 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi Alice,

Thank you for your review, we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you feel. We're sorry to hear that you were not fully satisfied with your box, as so much work goes into curating the boxes and we do get lots of positive feedback.

We'd really like to resolve this for you - if you'd like to email us on customer@inspiremekorea.com with your order number, we will investigate this and do our best to resolve things for you.

Thank you!

Chelsea
Customer Experience Team

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Best ever

Inspire me Korea is the best thing I’ve ever bought.
My daughter loves them we always have such excitement opening them.
I’d love to be able to visit Korea with her and see
for ourselves the beauty of the Country and speak the language. Maybe one day xxx but for now we will see Korea, Seoul, and the other beautiful areas that I only see pictures of

5 August 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

I am in love with this box!

I have subscribed to the culture box of inspire me Korea and I immediately fell in love.
The items in the box are handpicked with head and heart and everything is packed environmentally friendly.

5 August 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

Disappointed.

Bought the cultural boxes. Items received were cheap, easy to find in local store and not worth the price of the box.

3 August 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hello,

Thank you for your review, we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you feel. We're sorry to hear that you were not fully satisfied with your box, as so much work goes into curating the boxes and we do get lots of positive feedback.

We'd really like to resolve this for you - if you'd like to email us on customer@inspiremekorea.com with your order number, we will investigate this and do our best to resolve things for you.

Thank you!

Chelsea
Customer Experience Team

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I am worried and disappointed

I placed an order on the 25th of June, and by the middle of June I still hadn't gotten any news about it, so I decided to contact them. They told me then that my box had been shipped on the 26th of June and that due to COVID, the orders were taking longer to get to their destination.
Yet here I am, still waiting for the box, today is July 29th, and I have received no e-mail telling me that my box has been shipped, as it supposedly has, and I have sent them another e-mail asking for a solution and a clearer answer.

This kinda makes me sad, because I love the boxes, at least what they promote, and the team seems nice enough... but I am greatly disappointed and really worried

UPDATE:

So the team has answered my messages, and apparently the delay wasn't due to COVID, it is certain that the box got lost during shipping. So now I have to wait for them to "send another one to me as soon as they can" and I still don't know when "as soon as we can" is... I am very disappointed.

29 July 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi Nina.

Thanks for taking the time to write a review, we really appreciate it. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, longer shipping times should be expected. Hopefully, you have received a response from our helpful customer experience team about the issue and this has been resolved.

Thank you!

Chelsea,
Customer Experience Assitant

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Perfect Korean Culture Box

Really great subscription box for anyone interested in Korean culture!! Their branding is so cute and the box is full of fun goodies and learning materials. I think this could be the perfect gift for anyone learning Korean, planning a trip to Korea, or just super into the culture as a whole. Highly recommend!

22 July 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

No box received

Ordered on June, 12 and never received the package. Emailed them but never received an answer. Glad I ordered just one box. Never again.

21 July 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hello Gänseblümchen,

Thank you for taking the time to write a review, we really appreciate it.

We are sorry to hear that you have not received your box so would like to resolve things for you. Please send us an email to customer@inspiremekorea.com and we will look into this in further detail.

Thank you!

Chelsea,
Customer Experience Assistant

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Perfect!

This box was amazing! When i ordered it, it was delayed by a week because of warehouse changes and because of them changing how they ship, but they gave me many updates and emails about when it would be delivered. It was shipped and arrived in my house in a day, which was quicker than what they told me to expect due to covid. When the box arrived, it was bigger than I expected and when I opened the box, there was more snacks than i thought and they varied alot! The little notes it came with and the postcard were very nice, and i was in love with the picture of korea printed on the box! 10/10 will buy again!

19 July 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

J-Culture Box

Hmm.... I would say "It's OK" about the box rather than saying "Average."
I ordered the first J-Culture box. The snacks were yummy. I got some biscuits with funny panda prints and creamy filling, and also some long biscuits you can dip into tasty chocolate or strawberry cream. The both items were made in Singapore, according to their packing, however. Well, it's cool to taste something from Singapore (when on Earth I will have such an opportunity again?) and I am happy about it, but I somehow expected to get snacks made in Japan when I ordered a Japanese box. Strange.
Also, I got two packs of round savory... Sorry, I do not know the proper word for it, I am not an English speaker.... Things made of corn one eats instead of bread. They had seaweed taste, and I LOVED them. Mmm....
Some people write here their boxes included ramen or KitKats. Mine didn't. Actually, my box was torn a little, so I cannot be sure I got everything initially packed.
The box included a postcard, some things you can attach to your clothes or bag (foodie theme), nice chopsticks, language learner's cards, and a magazine. The magazine is thin, more like a small brochure. Honestly, I expected it to be thicker, containing more articles... Maybe, I expected to get more exclusive information, but.... It's good altogether. I learned a little something about Shibuya Crossing and other interesting places in Japan. I liked the article about the seasons in Japan (it contained many cool Japanese words).
To conclude, the box is fine, I like many things about it. But taking into consideration the shipping price... I expected something cooler. Something to say, "WOW!" Not this time, unfortunately. There is a space for growth. But still, I like many things about it.
My chances of actually not getting the box were tremendous. My house number address (I live in Ukraine) contains a Cyrillic character (apart from the digits). I indicated it in the shipping address. I had to, because if I had used a Latin character instead, a confusion could have occurred, and the box could have gone to a different house. It's a long and complicated alphabet-related story, but... Unfortunately, after being printed, the Cyrillic character turned into a question mark, and that is how the box started its journey. I was longing to get my hands on it. So, I contacted the Support Team and asked them to check if my box was delayed or lost. They informed me about the delays they are facing due to Covid. And then, a month after the shipping date, the post lady suddenly brought the box to.... My mother's apartment. I have absolutely no idea how the post lady figured it out where to bring the box so that it could get to me. This post office serves tens thousands of people in my district (if not a hundred of thousand or more). Probably, the post lady used to work as a super-professional spy. So, after being bought to a totally different address, my box finally got to me. (Still, my mother was not happy to learn on what I am spending my earnings). The post lady said the box arrived loooong ago, so my delay had nothing to do with Covid.
When I had been indicating my postal address in my account initially, there was a field for the phone number. I indicated it. It's sad the company did not use it actually, as in the post office they told me they find people anyway using their phone numbers, even if the address is spoiled. The company could make the things for the post lady easier if my number was used. But.... It's just an interesting story to tell.
Currently, I am not subscribed to this box (unsubscribed due to the delay). Maybe, in the future I will order something occasionally.... I still hope to get something cool and inspirational. Something which would pay off the talk with my mother (as I would indicate her address in the future to avoid any confusion).
Thank you guys! Good luck with your boxes!

16 July 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi Alexandra,

Thank you for your review, we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you feel. Please know that we are working hard on improving box contents so we can offer you a better variety with even more exciting products. We want you to continually feel inspired by what you find inside. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas with us.

Thank you!

Chelsea,
Customer Experience Assistant

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Snack box

I love this Snack box, but I think more snacks are needed. This box is too expensive in my opinion.

14 July 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi Paula,

Thank you for your review, we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you feel.

We are happy to hear that you enjoyed the snacks in your box. Please know that we are working hard on improving box contents so we can offer you a better variety with even more exciting products. We want you to continually feel inspired by what you find inside. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas with us.

Thank you!

Chelsea,
Customer Experience Assistant

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

First box was a disaster... Second (replacement) one was a success!

I signed up to the new Inspire Japan box towards the end of June. Having heard nothing about my box by early July, I emailed to find out what was going on. I was told it was shipped on the 24th June - which means it had already taken two weeks by that point. Two days later, it suddenly arrives on my door - having been sent by Royal Mail 48 hour service. It does not take two weeks for a 48 hour service parcel to arrive.

I think it’s fairly obvious what actually happened, my box hadn’t been shipped and my email prompted a panicked send off.

Worse, when I got my box this was the contents:

4 random language flash cards
A pair of chopsticks
A packet of basic ramen (seriously)
A pack of pocky (again, seriously)
Two mini kitkat bars
Two random patches

That was it, for £20 plus shipping. So much Japanese culture...that I could have picked up for a fraction of the price at any Asian supermarket. As for their claim that the box is ‘carefully curated’, watching another unboxing on YouTube reveals totally different (and much better) snacks - plus there were four of them, as opposed to my three.

There is no info card inside the box to tell you what the contents should be, leaving it wide open to abuse like this.

The company owners have issued an apology video to subscribers about how their warehouse has failed them. That might be true, but the quality of the box I received was woeful, not to mention the absurd waiting time for delivery.

Maybe their Korean boxes are far superior? The great and good reviews on here all seem to be for those. As it stands, their Japan box is a lazy cash grab with no consistency between boxes - there’s someone on this page who has left a review who says they received 4 iron-on patches, I only got 2! Goodness knows how different their snacks were - hoping for their sake that they didn’t get ramen like I did...

Edit (17/07/2020): After hearing about my terrible experience, the team took great pains to make amends. Whilst their practices behind the scenes were still very confused - the boxes are apparently random but the warehouse is still making mistakes - the replacement box I received was vastly superior. Night and day, really, it was exactly this kind of thing I expected the first time around - full of lots of different snacks and cultural goods. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, but I wouldn’t consider re-subscribing for some time until they’ve solidified their new warehouse practices and the quality of the second box I received becomes the norm.

8 July 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi L.S,

Thank you for your review, we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you feel. We're sorry to hear that you were not fully satisfied with your J-Culture box as we always strive to provide only the best content for our customers.

We would like to resolve things for you. If you would like to send us an email to customer@inspiremejapan.com with your order number, we will investigate this in more detail.

Thank you!

Chelsea
Customer Experience Team

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Upset with the BTS inspired box & not happy with the Culture box

I purchased the Culture box as well as the BTS inspired box. Unfortunately the BTS box was not as appealing as it is shown in the advertisement of the box. I was really upset that the major space of the box was taken by ramyeon and useless stuff that did not fit the overall theme “BTS” at all (e.g. a toy flower that is from China and of poor quality). The only BTS related products were a few small photographs. In my opinion it is not worth its price at all.
The Culture box was a bit better as it included more goods that were comparable to its advertisement. There were a few things to eat, a little magazine, the Flashcard for studying Korean, etc. I think that for those products the box is still too expensive.
To sum up I was not happy with my boxes and I will not order any further of them because of the stated reasons.

4 July 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi E.S,

Thank you for your review, we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you feel. We're sorry to hear that you were not fully satisfied with your box, as so much work goes into curating the boxes and we do get lots of positive feedback.

We'd really like to resolve this for you - if you'd like to email us on customer@inspiremekorea.com with your order number, we will investigate this and do our best to resolve things for you.

Thank you!

Chelsea
Customer Experience Team

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Poor Experience

The box had cool stuff in it (despite some of it looking like things you could get at any Asian market) but the overall experience was bad. For one, I didn’t receive everything in my order. The shipping was horrendous, I think I waited like 2-3 weeks. My biggest complaint is that they never even shipped the order until I emailed them a couple times. I’d recommend saving your money (as it is a bit pricey) or trying a different company.

1 July 2020
Unprompted review
Inspire Me Korea logo

Reply from Inspire Me Korea

Hi Brodie,

Thank you for your review, we really appreciate you taking the time to tell us how you feel. We're sorry to hear that you did not have a great experience and you didn't receive your full order.

We'd really like to resolve this for you - if you'd like to email us on customer@inspiremekorea.com with your order number, we will investigate this and do our best to resolve things for you.

Thank you!

Chelsea
Customer Experience Team

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