Taobao Help Needed

[melvingwj87 0]

Ok! Thanks OceanElevan!

[Larrylaw 1]

Hi Guys,

Would like to know for LED lightings like downlights, what should like be looking out for to be compatible with sg? eg power, attachments(screw)

and also is philips light worth to get from taobao after shipping and gst?

[kaylinpickles 1]

i thinking for shipping bulky items i may consider amcon express. i thought it was abit complicated they charge per cubic meter but after some calculation its actually alot cheaper. i took the IKEA's ektorp 3 seater sofa as an example :

http://www.ikea.com/sg/en/catalog/products/S69875862/

the measurement is 87cm (W) x 41cm (H) x 201cm (L). the total is 716,967 which after i used peeka.sg's calculator the shipping is abt $190 and 65daigou is abt $112 (based on their rate of above 100kg its $4.7 for the first 500g and $0.90 for subsequent 500g). whereas for amcon express its abt RMB550 or abt $110 per cubic meter. the ektorp sofa is 0.71 cubic meter which is actually not even 1 cubic meter! so the shipping is only $78! but of course they charge GST and $35 declaration or whatever but if you buy in bulk its definitely cheaper than those peeka or 65daigou.

only thing is does amcon does checking and inspection, does anyone have any idea? because i think only agents do inspection and repacking, forwarders dont.

Edited May 14, 2014 by kaylinpickles

[OceanEleven 203]

Amcon charges 1 cubic meter irregardless if you meet 1cbm.

the measurement is 87cm (W) x 41cm (H) x 201cm (L). the total is 716,967 which after i used peeka.sg's calculator the shipping is abt $190 and 65daigou is abt $112 (based on their rate of above 100kg its $4.7 for the first 500g and $0.90 for subsequent 500g). whereas for amcon express its abt RMB550 or abt $110 per cubic meter. the ektorp sofa is 0.71 cubic meter which is actually not even 1 cubic meter! so the shipping is only $78! but of course they charge GST and $35 declaration or whatever but if you buy in bulk its definitely cheaper than those peeka or 65daigou.

[edskh78 0]

Just want to contribute a little on buying from Taobao. I had explored myself first and experimented with various purchases before just chancing upon this page yesterday.

I just started buying from Taobao from late May, 2014 and I had already received 3 shipments from their designated forwarders where there are a total of 3 forwarders who ship to Singapore. They will consolidate purchases at their warehouses in China, and allow up to 20 days free storage for each invoice while you consolidate your purchases before forwarding.
This is especially convenient for overseas customers, and I have noted that most of their sellers' customer service are very good, because they are very concerned that you give them good reviews. There are 3 types of reviews, Good, Normal and Poor. Only Good Reviews will add points to their grading which make them more reputable.

I have bought a variety of items from them including coffee equipment (V60 cups, manual coffee grinders, filter papers, kettle and weighing scale for Pour-over V60 usage), clothes, shoes, hair accessories, some wooden kids toys plus those catapult helicopters, beginner telescope F36050M, and lastly toilet accessories (aluminium - realised I cannot attach photo, nevermind, refer to link http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.253.6QxLsF&id=35669910786). I will be moving on to purchase baby cot, kitchen accessories and other home reno items (to be used when I purchase my home soon), as long as the price and shipping works out to be cheap.

Note that I was a heavy Qoo10 shopper but I have mostly converted to Taobao supporter now, because their Sellers' and Taobao's internal customer service are really very much better than Qoo10 sellers and most importantly Qoo10 customer service which are very bad now.

Back to Taobao. Do note that their China customs differentiate goods into Special Goods and Normal Goods. So the forwarders will also charge you differently for different goods, and you can consolidate up to 20 invoices into 1 forwarding invoice. Note that there are restrictions on the size and weight per package they receive from each seller, for example in Chinese, 新加坡的包裹限制：新加坡/马来西亚：单边长 不超过150cm，或者（宽+高）*2+长≤330cm ；所有地区特货：单边不超过150cm；新加坡/马来西亚：单件不超过30KG ^_^

I have currently used 乐趣购 for all 3 invoices (and these few days I have chatted extensively with the customer service to clarify on especially Special Goods Classification and Item Size Classification), of which one package was special goods, and the other 2 were normal goods packages. They sent by Air and the delivery time is about 3 - 6 working days.

During my first item purchase, which was a cheap F36050m telescope, when I saw it classified as Special Goods (reason now I know was because it may have contained magnet), I got a shock with the shipping fees, which was RMB118 for 1st kg, and RMB23 for every 0.5kg. Normal goods are only RMB35 1st kg and RMB12 every subsequent 0.5kg.
However, when I reviewed the forwarder as poor review (because I really felt not too happy), their customer service contacted me and did service recovery if I was willing to change to good review. My shipping fee for this telescope, weighing scale and kettle worked out to RMB187 initially, but the forwarding agent refunded me RMB100 due to the above issue. So they are actually very customer service oriented. You try doing that with Qoo10 customer service or seller.

For my future purchases, I will be trying 酷悠悠.PRouter as their 1st kg for Special Goods is only RMB47 and subsequent 0.5kg is RMB27.

Special goods are those classified as the following in Chinese: 特货（特珠商品）：液体、粉末、食品、手机、含电池商品、玩具枪、玩具刀、对讲机和带有磁性商品以及化妆品 ^_^这是特货的大致分类. Basically, food, powder, liquid, mobile phone, battery items (I think also any electrical items), toy guns and knives, loudspeaker and magnetic products are largely classified as Special Goods, and note that according to the forwarding agent I used, they have a high chance of being rejected by the customs and sent back, so wasted the shipping fees.

Do note that there are also items that are prohibited. Most of the information above can be found in the link below to Taobao's forwarding page in English.

Forwarding agent Normal Goods 1st kg then every 0.5kg and Special Goods 1st kg then every 0.5kg, all in RMB/Chinese Yuan
4PX递四方 35 12 118 23
酷悠悠.PRouter 35 12 47 27
乐趣购 35 12 118 23

http://www.taobao.com/go/chn/transit/price/eng.php?spm=0.0.0.0.dNgY3C

But for bulky items which is charged by volumetric weight, I will research and maybe use Amcon or similar if it works out cheaper, especially for electrical like lighting (these are classified as special goods) and bulky items.

If anybody has any questions, I will try to answer if I can.

Edited June 19, 2014 by edskh78

[spectral 0]

Hi Guys,

Would like to know for LED lightings like downlights, what should like be looking out for to be compatible with sg? eg power, attachments(screw)

and also is philips light worth to get from taobao after shipping and gst?

I gotten all my philips LED lightings from TB and diy installed myself. The voltage is the same so no worry about it.

These are some of the models of philips lights i bought from tb, you might want to take a look and reference from these.

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35327204095&spm=a1z09.2.9.33.DyoLpL&_u=a1tpeudjca59

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35410585366&spm=a1z09.2.9.90.DyoLpL&_u=a1tpeudj8982

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z09.2.9.174.DyoLpL&id=14671297825&_u=a1tpeudj6c35

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35427727259&spm=a1z09.2.9.80.KPdrF4&_u=a1tpeudjfb5a

http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?id=35320201091&spm=a1z09.2.9.104.KPdrF4&_u=a1tpeudje008

Total cost for the lightings alone amounts to around 2k+ with few pcs as spares.

Breakdown:

LED 22w x7

LED 12W x3

LED 12W IP65 x3

Ledino x2

LED 10w downlights x20

LED led strips 10m + 5 * 240v to 24v transformer

LED E27 x4

I had 3 different shipping order for all the above.

The max shipping charge was for the first air shipment of the main bulk of my orders, totaling 44kgs and costed me ard 748rmb to ship over.

[xiaohuiis 7]

is this true?

My friend was telling me that if i buy my lightings from TB.. bcoz they do not have the safety sticker like those purchase in SG.

If choi choi the house kana fire, the house wun be covered under the fire insurance coz the lightings are from TB n are without the safety stickers..

[OceanEleven 203]

is this true?

My friend was telling me that if i buy my lightings from TB.. bcoz they do not have the safety sticker like those purchase in SG.

If choi choi the house kana fire, the house wun be covered under the fire insurance coz the lightings are from TB n are without the safety stickers..

To a certain extend, lighting sold locally may not all have the safety sticker as well.

Touch wood, in case of fire, I guess there will be nothing much left to back the claim of having or not having the sticker.

[xiaohuiis 7]

Hmm true to another extend..

So I guess I will pretend I din hear that advise haha and continue to plan to get lights from TB haha

or come to think of it.. was her advise the other way round

like if you buy lights from TB bcoz no safety stickers, when the lights some how goes sot sot n causes a fire, your fire insurance for the house is consider void coz the lights are not from sg with safety stickers?

Edited July 11, 2014 by xiaohuiis

[OceanEleven 203]

like if you buy lights from TB bcoz no safety stickers, when the lights some how goes sot sot n causes a fire, your fire insurance for the house is consider void coz the lights are not from sg with safety stickers?

It will be controversial in such cases. Somebody will have to prove someone did something wrong. No a easy feat.

[spectral 0]

Hmm true to another extend..

So I guess I will pretend I din hear that advise haha and continue to plan to get lights from TB haha

or come to think of it.. was her advise the other way round

like if you buy lights from TB bcoz no safety stickers, when the lights some how goes sot sot n causes a fire, your fire insurance for the house is consider void coz the lights are not from sg with safety stickers?

I went to local philips showroom to check the pricing and have a feel to see the actual products.

Also went to their recent sales, but they either do not sell the model or the model I want but with warm white only. I only want cool white color temp. The price for the led 22w ceiling was quite tempting, 2 pcs for 150 but too bad only in warm white. For cool white will have to go their showroom to buy but the sales person was kind enuff to give a voucher for 15% discount to buy from their showroom.

Even after 15% discount calculation, I found tb to be more cheaper.

BTW, from their showroom and sales I had checked that those lights also made in China.

[alexng 0]

is there any problem to bring in queen size mattress from taobao?

[spectral 0]

is there any problem to bring in queen size mattress from taobao?

shouldn't be any issue, just that sea freight might be quite expensive for such a large item.

[sugarkitty 0]

I'm thinking about buying a rattan bar table and 8 stools set from Tmall, the seller estimated that it will be around 3 cubic metres.

Is that an accurate estimate? i'm counting counting, seems to be quite a bit shipping just for one item hmmm...

How do we tell if the prices reflected is the Shuang 11 price? The transacted prices for the last month or so seems to be the same leh, but the seller told me it is the Shuang 11 price already. *scratches head, then chin*

[sugarkitty 0]

BTW, how do I negotiate for cheaper prices and shipping? When i asked for a discount to shipping (its 300RMB!!) the rep said "it doesn't go to us".

Very bad at bargaining and negotiating! How long will they usually go?