Friday, September 28, 2012

My first Taobao review!

Bringing my blog back to life?


I've been browsing Taobao for a long, long, LONG time. I don't even remember when I first found out about it but I've been on the fence for a while. There was something about a shopping service that made me nervous! There were so many to choose from, so many different reviews... I decided to go with TaobaoTrends!

A little information as to what Taobao is; think of it as a Chinese Ebay or Amazon! There's no bidding, but it's a bunch of stores with many different items! Electronics, clothes, shoes, cosplay goods, you name it!
Now Taobao only ships to China. This is where the shopping service comes in. Let's say you have a few items picked out, great! Now you have to send the link and info to your SS, they'll check with the shop to make sure said item is in stock and then order it! You pay for your items and the domestic shipping to the SS. You wait for the item(s) to get to your SS, then they weigh all your items and send you an invoice for shipping. After that, you wait some more and then your items arrive!


Read on for pictures and reviews of what I ordered!! :)




Okay, so not all of the items in the box belong to me. My friend Mariyah decided to get in on the order too, so that shipping would be a lil' bit easier on us because while the prices on Taobao are very good, the catch is the shipping!

Like I previously mentioned, my SS of choice was TaobaoTrends. They were very helpful and their English was not difficult to understand! They sent email notifications of any changes to my order and answered my questions sometimes within a couple of hours, or by the next day.
Here's a timeline of my experience:


Order date: Aug 29
Status: Pending

Status changed to "confirmed", Aug 29.
Proceeded to pay, status changed for "Processing"

Aug 30, notified through email that colorway of one item was out of stock, a shoe had two diff heel sizes, and that one pair of shoes (house slippers) were free size.
Replied back with diff colorway choice, heel height desired, and that it was alright if the slipper were free size.
Sent back an email confirming my changes.
Email notification status changed to "ordered".

Aug 31
Notified that a shoe is out of stock, said they had to cancel that order.
Asked if I will be refunded, they said that it will go towards shipping fee.
(info was on bottom of first email saying the same thing)

Sep 13
Items arrive at SS

Sep 16
Order status changed to "paid"

Sep 18
Items are shipped.

Sep 26
Items are received.

Subtotal of our items: CNY 1440.20
Agent Fee: CNY 144.02
Total: CNY 1584.22
TOTAL: $260.24 (Original total was $279.68 before we were notified that one pair of shoes was out of stock)

Shipping fee for our package that weighed in at 7.6kg (~16.75lbs) was $106.72 

OVERALL TOTAL: $366.96


I'll be showing you the original listing picture, and then my picture AKA what the item actually looks like.

I don't think I have anything else to address so I'll get to the pictures.
A pillow!

Link
~$2.50 - ~$4.72

I have nothing to complain about with this purchase! I only wish that they sold them in bigger sizes, or that they at least had the other style available!

Link
~$7.13



I was very sad about this!! The brim and ears of the hat are very flimsy and because of how it was packaged, it was all dented in. After spending a little bit of time on it, the brim isn't that noticeable anymore but the ears are still messed up. Not sure how I'll be able to fix that!

Link
~$.039



I was a bit disappointed with this because I thought it would be bigger? Now that I look at the picture, the headband itself doesn't look that thick, so that's my bad! I had originally wanted a polka dot one, but my SS told me they were sold out of that, so I chose the stripes instead.

Link
~$21.74

I love love LOVE this dress! Unfortunately it doesn't fit! Due to a personal "crisis", I gained 10 lbs which mostly went to my boobs and stomach area. At my original size, I could definitely fit into this, so not all is lost! Once I'm able to work out, I'm definitely going to and then this will soon fit :) My butt is forever huge though, so I have to slip this on over my head. It zips up until it gets to my chest. I'm only 4'10" so I'm shocked to see that it's really short, the kind of short where you don't feel comfortable bending over! I can't imagine what it'd be like if I was average height.







Unfortunately I don't have the original listing for this shirt! It disappeared! But I will say that there's something wrong with this. In the original picture, the collar of this shirt was a SOLID black. I couldn't tell what the material was made out of, but I know that it was a solid black material. As you can see from the pictures, the collar is actually two different layers. You can also see how thin the material is. It's such a shame, especially because the link to the store isn't available anymore, I hope I don't run into that store again!
ETA: I wore this shirt yesterday and I'm pretty sure it wasn't there when I receieved it, but there's now a hole :( I guess it's from constantly pulling the shirt down (I wore the outfit posted further down, with the black skirt)







Link
~$15.35


I'm very excited to say that I've finally started my lolita wardrobe! It's only a petticoat, but it's a start! I'm having a little bit of trouble finding a dress that I really, really want.
I have little to no experience with petticoats so I can't say much about this besides the fact that I know a lot of people love Classical Puppets' petticoats!

Link
~$6.18




I adore this skirt! It's exactly like the picture and the quality is great! The fabric is thick! I'm definitely going to be buying more of this in other colors, and probably some other stuff from the shop too! Out of everything I ordered, I was most excited for this skirt and I'm glad it fit!
Link
~$36.27 - $63.31


I was so extremely excited for these! I've been wanting Tokyo Boppers for a long time, even to where I was thinking about saving up money to buy the originals! I had no idea Antaina had replicas, so of course I jumped on this!
I have nothing negative to say about these whatsoever, I love them! They fit pretty well, I'm a US 5 so I bought Size 35. I'm not too sure if I would want to risk buying a Size 34, I feel like that might be too small. With the black ones, you have the choice of getting a 5cm platform, or 8cm, I went with 8!
I wore these all day at work (I'm on my feet all day, 5 to 7 hour shifts) and I have no complaints :)

Link
~$39.77









These are also some shoes I've been wanting for a long while! I've seen them pop up on ebay from time to time but had never been able to buy them because I didn't have the money at the time, or they didn't carry my size! I wasn't expecting these to be super comfortable because I've read about them, and I mean, I can't imagine that this material was going to be that great to walk in either! I wore them to school and out and about, the part of my foot that started hurting first was the ankle.
The wing part of the shoe is removable, all you do is slide it on and around to cover the strap of the shoe. If you don't have the straps tight enough, the wing will move from the side of the shoe towards the front of your ankle. I feel like my ankle started to hurt because of the fact that I had to have the strap so tight so that the wings wouldn't move.
When I took the shoes out of the box, they weren't in any plastic bag like the rest of the items. As you can see from the pictures, there were some blue stains on the shoe from being up against a shoe box that they included.
It's not really a big deal because the colors rubs right off of the material, just thought it was worth mentioning!

Link
~$17.50 - $21.14



In my opinion, I don't think the wig looks at all like the image! One of my friends told me that I might just need to tease it (in addition to obviously cutting the bangs) and it'll look better. I don't know! The quality of the wig itself is pretty good, I was just disappointed because it isn't as big and frayed out as I imagined it would be? Also, the way the wig isn't as bluntly cut as the listing image!

That's it for my items, so these next few items are what my friend ordered!

Link
~$5.56

Obviously, her hat came out better than mine did, haha!
Link
~$3.18

Link
~$3.65


Link
~$3.02


Link
~$23.86


Unfortunately, I don't really have any pictures of this on the actual pillow besides this one...



That's it! Of course, I already have a wishlist set up, this time with more clothing because that's what I really need! 

13 comments:

  1. is this from engtaobao.com? or just taobao.com? if its from taobao can you get it in english?:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used TaobaoTrends! You can't order directly from Taobao (unless you're in China) so you have to use a shopping service.

      Delete
    2. Nice and informative information shared by your blog on China Products. I really appreciate it.
      English Taobao Agent

      Delete
  2. awesome! love the shoes so much! im always wondering about size tho. well im us 8.5 maybe ill try 38 or 39. =/ still figuring out! thanks for the review was very helpful!

    ReplyDelete
  3. hey i'm thinking about ordering some stuff from taobao as well. Not sure which shopping service to go with! How did u like TaobaoTrends?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They were really easy to use, I liked that they had a shopping cart option on their website! I've mediated more towards TaobaoSpree lately :)

      Delete
  4. dear, where you ordered, looks nice. is it taobao official site or best taobao agent Agreetao.com?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I used a shopping service named Taobao Trends!

      Delete
  5. I find that some of your purchases are not worth the money spent, even though they do not cost much. The wig looks terrible, you look prettier without it. That dress with printed design does not suit your age, and will only makes you look mature. That black hat with crumpled ears is nothing to shout about, just another cheapy thing. That mini black skirt looks ordinary, one can find such a piece in neighborhood shop. There are nicer ones in Taobao.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi. Can I order also from the Philippine?
    I see a website http://www.easy-taobao.com/ and I don't know if it is a legal or scam? because I want to order in that website.

    Can you help me if it is OK to make an order on that site or not?

    I hope you can help me. Thank you

    Grace

    ReplyDelete
  7. Waoh! Too many things! But i think still expensive the shipping fees >__<

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lol. Taobao reviews are meaningless. That is one of the ways the company makes its money from sellers. Taobao itself employs people who are paid to write reviews and also has an option to delete bad reviews (currently the price to do this is 5000 rmb per month).

    ReplyDelete
  9. China is indisputably the largest source of all our consumer electronics and International Wholesaler of Electronic Products, producing more hi-tech products than any other country.
    You can buy all of these and many more digital accessories via NewBECCA. Newbecca is an international China buying agent online & e-commerce site shopping agent. You can also source electronic components, mobile ornaments, and art supplies.

    ReplyDelete