Buychina.com and Taobao

Back to old habits and not posting again... sorry! Promise to be good from now on, I have been abit Etude House crazy recently so I have lots to post! Bit of a wordy one and no pictures for this one but I would really like to share this!

So I recently discovered Taobao. For those who don't know this site, it is basically like China's version of eBay. Unfortunately though, if you are overseas you can't buy directly from there and you need either a relative to get things for you and post it to you or use a third party agent.

There was something I really wanted that I saw on there and to go about buying it I did a Google search to see how and if it was possible as it is all in Chinese! I am Chinese but however my reading skills are relatively low from being born in the UK and not really paying attention Chinese School when I went! I think there are a few agents that you can use but I saw a guide and Buychina.com seemed to be the one that they recommended so I went ahead for it.

What you need to do is look for the item that you want from Taobao and then paste the URL into Buychina's website. What I have noticed though is that not everything is available, obviously being large items such as a floor length mirror I saw, haha and also things that are fragile such as mugs and for some reason I wasn't able to buy a stainless steel flask.. not sure why about that one!

I have now placed 3 orders in total, my first one consisted of a new case for my phone and a new case for a tablet. My second order was for clothes and my third order which is currently in progress of more clothes and a few hair accessories.

First Order:
I ordered this on 24th March and I can't remember the day that this arrived unfortunately but it did take about 2 - 3 weeks. Bare in mind that the process is a little longer as I am getting this from half way round the world and someone has to buy it for me and sent to them before it comes out to me. It comes with a tracking number and you can also change the weight of the items if you know for sure how much the item weighs to reduce shipping charges. If it comes to sending it out and its actually heavier than you though then Buychina will get in contact with you to pay the additional charge. The items itself were pretty good, something that I expect from China if I went shopping there. All in all, no problems, very straight forward. Buy, pay, sent, received, even came with a tracking number.

Second Order:
After I received this order, I saw many other things that I wanted! This time it was clothing. This took about 1 month this time, I'm not sure why. I am thinking because there were quite a few items and they receive all the items before it gets sent to you. This is where I must warn you to be careful. I got my package and it incurred a customs charge,  not a big problem but the clothing itself was not the best of quality. I ordered, 3 skirts/ dress and also 2 chiffon shirts. After washing one of the shirts, mysterious stains seemed to appear on the shirt but in all honesty, to me its not the biggest of problems as it was quite cheap anyway but don't expect the clothing to last that long, its not high quality but its not bad. If you have ever bought any clothing from China, you would know what I mean.

Third Order:
This order is what inspired me to share my experiences. If you can't read Chinese, it is a bit of a problem... I bought a dress which was $10RMB and I thought, wow! What a cheap price for something so nice! So I bought it and it appears that this was a deposit price and I had to pay additional for it in the end, this also happened with a bag that I saw and I ended up getting 2 and altogether it would have cost an additional $81USD for it.

BuyChina customer service were really helpful though and gave me quick responses and they even refunded me the money for the additional when I said I didn't want it. I ended up paying the extra the first time round because it wasn't too expensive (they didn't realise I ordered 2 and just increased the price for 1) and it was really hassle free!

I am still waiting for this order but I think it should come soon. I'd definitely recommend using BuyChina if you wanted to buy something from taobao! Just be careful though, you do need to look at seller ratings and don't expect the greatest of quality! And also be careful with the deposit stuff!

I'll be back with more product reviews soon! As always in the mean time, please do leave me a comment if you have any questions :)

Kary x

Update: I finally got my latest order!!! After all the communication with the deposit amounts, as soon as I requested for a refund I got it. I had to wait ages for this package because there was a dress that I bought that would not be delivered to the agent until the end of May. The package got sent on 3rd June and it got to me on 21st June. I did get a £22 customs charge on it, I have noticed that on my larger orders of clothes I have been charged customs so do take note and be prepared to pay it if you need it!