Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Kpop Fanmail experience - my story of trying to send a gift to Eric Mun

I'm curious about the topic of fanmail, i've been searching the web to know if sending letters and gifts the old style works, i was born in the 80's ok, so far i read that Taylor Swift has answered to fanmail before, but my target idols are korean idols, kpop you know. It seems they have their twitter accounts,- twitter is something unknown for me i don't get it honestly, but i tried to open an account and i got suspended because someone hacked it and named me whitehoblabla, to which i'm not white and neither a ho lol- and apparently kpop idols do answer online fanmail and good wishes through twitter. Some of them answer to comments through Instagram, but what about the hundreds or thousands of letters and gifts they receive? Do they get in their hands or our good wishes and presents go to managers and secretaries hands, maybe a shelter? I guess some idols receive so much that it's impossible for them to read it or even appreciate it. I read somewhere that the Exo guys have received the golden edition of a playstation (not one, but three) for a birthday, come on girls! or what about the creepy but real story of a girl who send her letter written in blood (menstrual blood) to Taecyeon? forget about sending fanmail to 2pm.
So my experiment it's going to be for my ultimate and finally found bias, a Shinhwa's member, maybe it could bring light to what fanmail is or what happens to it. I have a slightly hope that Eric Mun will receive it, he's became popular lately with a dorama that just finished, but i guess Shinhwa's (oppas) aren't receiving thousands of letters. My fanmail is composed by a letter (a long one) written in english, in hope that Eric still remembers his english skills and a small gift (a bracelet) like this:

I won't send it through postal service, i'm sending through DHL so it's expensive.
Shinhwa (taken from koreaboo)
My first question was on how to write the address, and the official Shinhwa's page gives the address at the bottom, not hangul writing at all, so i'm sending it that way.
My second question was what's allowed to be sent? Can a bracelet be sent in a basic DHL envelope? Do i have to pay for more? Is there a limit of weight? What else can i send? food? clothes? gold? What are the restrictions? Are there value restrictions?
My third question, Will my fanletter be returned unopened? Can the address be found? is it better to send through postal service or is it better the express delivery? Does Shinhwa company receive fanmail?
this and more, Well i'll find out soon.
My fourth question, the language barrier. What's the possibility of an idol reading fanmail in english? Most of them do not speak english and i don't speak hangul.


Update: i sent the package by DHL it was around 14USD from México to Seoul, i asked for what can be sent, and they said almost everything no matter the weight, clear exceptions: food, medicines or gold. I asked for restrictions at customs office but they said it's their dutty when shipping because you have to declare what's going in the package and how much it costs and of course they won't let you send something that would be returned by customs office.

Update: I left the package at DHL office on thursday late in the afternoon, by friday night it was already in the USA, it arrived to Seoul on Sunday at 00:07, that's fast!! the system says it's gonna be delivered by wednesday late in the afternoon but i think it's gonna be by Monday or Tuesday, i'm excited. (the system shows local time in Seoul)

Update: DO NOT SEND FANMAIL TO SHINHWA COMPANY , my package is on its way back to me, it seems the address do exist but no one received because they say the company is not there. What's the truth? Is DHL uncapable of finding the address or is Shinhwa not receiving? I feel so sad.

Also, if you send fanmail I strongly recommend to include the address in hangul, I had to call DHL korea at midnight to confirm the address written in hangul, the only happy thing was the guy with pretty voice that answered in hangul and spoke in fluid english, he was so helpful. By the way the phone number of DHL korea displayed on its page it's wrong, the actual number is +82 15880001

BREAKING NEWS

Final update: IT WAS DELIVERED to Shinhwa Company!!! OMG!! What happened? The system said it was in the States, so did they returned the package to Seoul? Girls YOU CAN SEND FANMAIL TO SHINHWA, there's hope they will read it. I'm so happy , thank you Shinhwa oppas you're awesome.


Girls, it's an up and down experience to send fanmail as you can see, but it's an experience, just do it. If your idol receive it or not, you'll have something to tell to your grandkids in the future. Just prepare your pens and your wallet 😃

4 comments:

  1. In your post, is that the address that we need to write to send the fan mails properly with no issues? Please reply. I would like to send something! Thank you! :)

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    Replies
    1. There's something wrong with the romanized address that's provided by shinhwa's page, i didn't know what is it. But the person in seoul dhl center knew right away when i read it in hangul. So i suggest writing both. Also i don't know if they actually received it but i hope they did.

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  2. Thanks for the info. I gonna use straight away.

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