Luxray

Dragonnite, thks for your help. managed to find a Philips kettle which I like. Cheers, Luxray

Hi Ongcs, Thks for your recommendation. just launched order for the following Philips SS kettle at daigou/taobao. Only $30 (exclud shipping/agent fee of 6%). Love the fact that it is full SS, even for the underside of the kettle cover jingdong & taobao same price, but latter had free domestic shipping to daigou warehouse http://detail.tmall.com/venus/spu_detail.htm?spm=a220o.1000855.1000983.1.r6tCiC&spu_id=207887350&no_switch=1&default_item_id=20102492319 Cheers, Luxray

Hi Dragonnite, Need to buy a stainless steel electric kettle too. From your experience, Is "AUX" brand good and reliable? Seems to be one of the major brands in China? Can I trouble you to share link of your Sanyo kettle? Cheers, Luxray

Msg from Daigou for those who are interested.. Dear customer, If you haven't started shopping for new apparels, new decor and etc for Lunar New Year, it's not too late to get started now! From tomorrow (12th Jan) till 18th Jan 11pm 2013, your new economy air shipment orders are entitled to shipping fee discount. For every 8KG in parcel, you pay 1KG less in terms of shipping fee. To be more specific, if chargeable weight of your *orders* are greater than 8kg, you save SGD 6 in shipping fee, if chargeable weight of your *orders* are greater than 16kg, you save SGD 12 in shipping fee, so on and so forth. *orders* are strictly applicable to new economy air shipment orders submitted and paid during 12nd - 18th Jan 11pm, 2013. Taiwan orders are not included. 65daigou reserves the right to explain promotional details. Last Sea shipment vessel departs on 28th Jan, please try to submit to ship by 26th as we need some time to pack your parcels. Exact date of last Air shipments (all 3 methods) are to be confirmed by our logistics, but base on our experience, you will be able to submit to ship by 3rd Feb. We will keep you updated on this. #Gentle reminder# As our sea shipment office has been moved to Guangzhou, please try to select products from sellers located in 广东，珠三角，广州，深圳 to shorten the duration of domestic shipping and save domestic shipping fee. We sincerely appreciate your generous understanding for any inconvenience caused. 65daigou 11/01/2013

To think I have always thought women were the "shopaholics", we have a group of unbeatable male version on this blog all out to poison each other

Interestingly, I think they send the vouchers with promotion pamphets to selected members only. At one point of time, I was receiving the members' sale vouchers by mail but my husband (also Robinson cardmember) didn't... Have always been using my credit card to pay. I even received sms informing of the recent members' promo . Think you can nonetheless check out Robinson web page if they are issuing the $30 vouchers.. http://www.robinsons.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/YES/mobile/index.html You can maximise saving if you can split your purchases into blocks of $180, and use more than 1 voucher. Cheers,

Other than bed sheets, quilt covers etc, I usually buy kitchen stuff such as Correlle plates, WMF pots, lock & lock containers etc. business / polo shirts & pants Kids' stuff I only buy when there is members' special ($30 voucher for purchases of $180& more) on top of discounts for individual brands. Good deal I think

Don't worry. Robinsons has "fairly regular" members' sale. Think they had a boxing day sales last year....no matter what definitely one before CNY. I only go shop there when there is one ...waiting for the next one too...

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Can always request extra discount vouchers from customer service counter. Then divide up total purchase into blocks of ~ $180 wherever possible to enjoy max discount %. Good thing is that they always have fairly good discount applied across many brands, and this voucher (& month end 5% rebate) can be applied on discounted prices too. Cheers

For me, prefer Robinson above the rest. Great discounts esp. Using the members' voucher ($30 off $180 purchase)....can use these vouchers even after whatever in-store promo going on. Then month end still have total bill 5% rebate. Do check it out. Cheers

Daigou代购 (65daigou.com) - Basically you search the items you want on taobao first, then go daigou and paste the link to instruct them to order on your behalf. Daigou is in English, so it is really easy to use. The slightly more difficult part is how to search for exactly the things you want. For me, I was looking for the philip downlights (those commonly found in local lighting.com shop), so just needed to key in "Philips" in taobao and start search from there. I bought close to 40 Philips downlights for my new place, spent $1k and saved $ 800 （40%+ saving) so was really worth the effort. Afterall these philips lights are all made in china shenzhen, so can imagine how much you can save. Also bought from them some iPad covers as well. http://www.65daigou.com/Help/Default.aspx http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.1.1000638.3&id=16771760003 http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a1z0d.1.1000638.24&id=16391611630 http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.10.1.3e05bb&id=15787247677 Enjoy shopping! Cheers, Luxray

Really enjoy making amazon purchases. Their customer service is superb :thumbs up: Just sharing my experience with them. While waiting for my Dark Knight triology blurays to be released and shipped with other blurays and Timex watches (no prizes for guessing whose poison I swallowed), realised that the prices for several of the disks dropped. Wrote to amazon to ask if I could cancel and reorder to enjoy the better prices, they reverted with the following:- "Thanks for contacting us about the recent price change on 2 items. I recognize you have a choice of retailers and appreciate that you prefer to order from us. Unfortunately, we do not have a post-order price guarantee.; I've reviewed your order and see that your items have entered the shipping process. Under the circumstances, I'll make an exception and will refund the difference in price after the item ships. I'll follow up with you to give you the details of your refund. You'll also receive a confirmation e-mail when the refund has been processed." Their response lead time to all my queries in my 3 times orders are really lightning speed. The other time I ordered my Mirage speakers from them, they had some slip-up in fulfilling my urgent shipment request and gave me a $20 promotion voucher to be used against future orders. Highly recommend amazon. Daigou (for taobao purchase) is also very good. Made 2 purchases thr' them so far for my new house and order fulfilment very timely. Bought my Philips led downlights and iPad covers from taobao at a steal price. Definitely worth exploring. Cheers ,

Was using the terms mixer and faucets interchangeably... Believe the faucet thread size is also us specific.. Cheers, Luxray

Have bought plenty of hansgrohe stuff from insani24.de myself. It is another of the online german sanitary fittings retailer, similar to iceprice. Insani price is cheaper (esp. Shipping cost) compared to iceprice, which is the reason why I chose them, though I did encounter delivery issue with them. You may want to check out the overall cost on insani24.de. Not sure about the shower head on its own, but I do know and have heard (even from my plumber) that the thread size for mixer is always different from that from Europe and is difficult to connect them. The part number ending with 001 is specific to us only. Suggest not to risk and buy from us site. Ps. Just back from holiday. Will call smc and let you know soon. Cheers, Luxray

Hi Kim76, Bali Ubud is a good place to get nice paintings from..though you must be prepared to bargain like crazy. I love my canvas painting, brightly colored and intricately painted. I got this piece from an artist centre in ubud, where there were many artists gathered and their art pieces displayed. Even had pix taken with the artist of the painting i bought. Cheers, Luxray

When we got our canvas painting from Bali, we also brought back pretty much the same way as kim76. In the original cheap wood frame, bubble wrapped properly and checked in as fragile. The frame wasnt broken too when we received it. Cheers,

Hi kim76, Managed to get my full load of amazon stuff. My husband was off to US for a trip and so ordered all stuff we needed and got them delivered to the hotel he was staying at. ..including the Mirage omnipolar center and 6x nanosat speakers Too bad I couldn't wait to coincide with black Friday week. Signed up amazon prime free 1-month trial membership and got inland shipping waived too... Got the 3m filter which you bought as well..but plumber came and said mine very difficult to connect with my hansgrohe kitchen faucet. Called smc distributor but was told that the connectors you were using are not food grade and meant for pneumatic air flow..was in fact advised against using it for drinking water. Not sure if true...will check with smc again tomorrow. You may want to check it out too... Love the magic holder. Very versatile to hang all sorts of diameter poles. Cheers, Luxray http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JFNA4Y/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GI9EE8/ref=oh_details_o01_s02_i00

Oh, i was referring to the box of screws and bolts. My plumber didn't use it for the installation. Did yours? You are right about the strain basket, very well made. I love the trivet too. Fortunately my tabletop has a bit of protruding edge to hide the underside silicon and yet is wide enough to insert and remove the trivet. cheers, Luxray

Hi Kim76 & all, I have finally installed both sinks...can I ask if your plumber use any of the kraus accessories provided? Mine didn't use any of it.. Thks, Luxray10

Can anyone pls share their experience with regards to charges by their electrician on installing T5 lights? Cheers, Luxray

Glass shower screen not difficult to wash at all .....just use the melamine sponge from Daiso $2 shop, cleans like a breeze. Discard after use when too much scum accumulates on it... Cheap and effective material to clean all glass materials without leaving scratches...

I managed to get my s/s kitchen udder trolley (one single rack) replaced recently after rust spots started showing on it after about a year from purchase. No receipt and I insisted Ikea for change as I thought it was unacceptable that a stainless steel item should rust when it has been left in a dry corner...they relented after escalation and allowed a change. Advise, better avoid Ikea's so-called "stainless steel" products.

Think I have been taken to the cleaners by my ID's electrician as well. I have a total of 45 units of t5 lights for my entire house, and my ID is charging me 45x$38 + 45x $10 for all these... Total $2160 The light shop from which I bought my t5 also warned me of this and was so amused when I shared with him how I was being charged...When the connection could have been easy peasy with much lower cost incurred. For an area of 4 connecting units of t5 lights, Option 1) the best case. I could have used phillips interconnecting clips (sold at $3 each) to connect up each t5 and just pay 1 light point ($38) + $10 installation charge for each of the t5 + $3x3 = $ 87. .. Option 2) this looping method seems to be what my electrician is doing.. pay $38 for 1 light point but pay lower looping point cost (market rate of $18 per loop point) for the other 3 T5 lights, plus $10x4 for installation charge. Total cost = $132 Instead I am being charged $38x4 + $10x4 = $192! Having at least 14 such similar t5 areas in my whole house, it would have meant close to a $1k difference. I will have to bring this up to my electrician and get his explanation.

Hi kim76, Good for you. See the following thread on how much my electrician charged me http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20953 Cheers,