Taobaospree Review 2014 - Part 1

First of all I'd like to apologise for being lacklustre with the entries, part of the reason being my inability to complete anything. I had many ideas in my head, just never got around to making a post.  I feel as though I need to continue because my cousin made me this lovely tea party themed layout for this blog, it would be a shame for it to go to waste.

Well here I am one year later, still buying from Taobao >_> who'da thunk it? You would think the shipping cost from my last order (Read here) would be enough to put me off, well you'd be wrong! haha. I think most people who buy from Taobao using an agent have come to expect the astronomical shipping fees. This makes the prospect of buying items from Taobao less cost effective as I have shown in my previous post. I had all but given up on Taobao, as it's probably cheaper to buy from Chinese sellers directly on Ebay.

That until I decided I wanted an underskirt similar to the ones being sold at Juliette et Justine. These beautiful chiffon layered skirts looked amazing underneath any dress or even on their own. I really wanted to buy one but couldn't justify the 25,200 Yen (nearly £150) price-tag.

Juliette et Justine 'Petal de Rose'

Juliette et Justine 'Robe du Azrael'

Failing to find any similar cheaper underskirts in various other places (Ebay, Etsy etc) I decided to look at Taobao Lolita shops and came across one in a shop called Little Dipper for a fraction of the cost of JetJ's. Many other Lolita's vouch for the quality of this skirt so I decided to give it a go.

Little Dipper 卡斯达1

Currently on pre-order the skirt costs 253 Yuan (around £25) and comes in 8 colours and a variety of lengths. I chose the brown colour as it would compliment my classic themed items well. I felt like I couldn't just order one item so I searched around for a few more items I could add before I made an order. So in total 4 items, yep not much at all.

Somehow I seem to always coincide my orders with Chinese New Year, this is not purposely done just coincidently. I would not recommend this as orders get backed up so it might take more time for your agent to get back to you and most Taobao shops close during this time.

This time I decided to use Taoboaspree, as I felt they would be more efficient and since I was ordering a pre-order item it would be easier to talk to a person rather than randomly leaving messages in cyberspace, as was my experience with Taobaoring.  Taobaospree's service fee is slightly more expensive than Taobaoring at 10% but you get a more personal experience I think.

The ordering process for Taobaospree is slightly more tedious than Taoboaring's as you have to individually add items to an excel spreadsheet which you download from their website.

The document has two spreadsheets, one without insurance (the main spreadsheet) and the second one with 5% Paypal insurance. I'm not exactly sure if the insurance refers to shipping insurance or something else, I am assuming that you are covered by Paypal Buyer Protection when you pay unless you chose to 'Gift' the amount to Taobaospre. Also I am sure that full value insurance is included with EMS shipping unless you choose to mark your items down in value.

Firstly you have to fill out the fields that are highlighted green, Name, Address etc. and  whether you would like your items sent via EMS. Also you can use the empty fields at the top to write any notes for delivery e.g. customs declaration or how you would like the items packaged.

The first two columns do not need to be filled in. The next three (TB Seller, Name and URL) do have to be filled in with the correct item details. It's better to copy and paste these in the untranslated format so that it doesn't get confusing.

The next columns to fill in would be Quantity, Price, Shipping (This is for domestic shipping and sometimes it is not clear so you can leave this field blank for Taobaospree to fill in if you are not sure.) and Buyer Comments. The skirt I wanted to order was a pre-order item and required a deposit of 80 Yuan. The full price of the skirt was 253 Yuan so I put that in the 'Price' field. Now when filling in the 'Buyer Comments' section it is best to have a translated version of the page open as well as a non translated version so you can copy and paste the Chinese text directly. The 'Buyer Comments' section is used to write any information on the colour, size, length or anything regarding the item.

Once I had completed the form I emailed it to Taobaospree (email address is on their webpage) 07/02/14. I got an automated message saying that they had just got back from Chinese New Year holiday and had a backlog that they were currently going through.  A few days later (10/02/14) I got a message from the agent Cici asked if I would like to proceed with the order because the skirt would take 1 month to manufacture. Also she asked for my waist measurement as I had forgot to note that down. I emailed back saying I was prepared to wait and gave my waist measurement. The next day Cici emailed me asking to pay the total amount (The Balance figure on the spreadsheet) to Taobaospree's Paypal account. After paying I emailed Cici letting her know and she emailed me back the following day she will buy the items now.

Here are a few pro and cons of using Taobaospree as your agent from my experience so far.
Pros:

• The Taobaospree agents speak very good English so there's no need to worry that they won't understand you. The are very helpful and polite.
• Taobaospree respond very quickly to any questions and are quick to confirm your order once you place it. 
• They will mark down your package.
• There is a wide variety of shipping options available, including discounted EMS.

Cons:

• The spreadsheet system is quite tedious and mistakes can easily be made
• The service fee is 10% which is quite high compared to some others.
• You can't easily keep check of the status of your items without asking your agent for a update. Taobaoring's website made this very easy to do.

Hopefully in a month or so my items will have arrived and I can do a more thorough review. 

Taobao order and Taobaoring review - Part 1

I am not very familiar with using Taobao, I have only bought a few bags and that was a couple of years ago. For that order I used the agent Taobaospree This time I decided to use Taobaoring as their website looked much easier to use than the excel spreadsheet Taobaospree uses. Indeed at first it seemed much easier, all you have to do is copy the URL of the item you want and paste into the 'Quick Order' section.

 The item will appear in your shopping cart then, be sure to write the colour, size you want or any other information that may be important in the 'Remarks' box. To make sure I normally write the colour in English and then paste the original Mandarin text in brackets just to be sure. You can also provide a link to the picture, so if it's a specific colour you can put a direct link to that picture. 

Taobaoring's fees are usually 8% and it is calculated simultaneously as you add items to your basket. Paypal fees are not added to this charge and will be calculated separately when they send the invoice. Once you confirm your order TBR has to confirm that your item is available with the seller then they will send you the invoice once all items are confirmed. This was the tedious part! TBR took over a week to confirm my order and by then a few of my items had sold out/were not available. This was due to the backlog  from Chinese New Year so it was understandable that they were busy inundated with orders to check. During this period you can still add or delete items from your shopping cart. 

During this time I became more adept at searching for items on Taobao even with my non-existent Mandarin skills. I usually perused through Tumblr blogs such as Random Taobao and Taobao Finds for good Taobao finds. Google translate and copy and paste help immensely when trying to look for specific items like cable knit sweaters or Mori girl related items. I finally managed to get the hang on it an made this order:

After Taobaoring had confirmed my order and contacted the sellers, they informed me that the cable knit cardigan was out of stock. Luckily I managed to find the same one in a another shop. After all items were confirmed in-stock TBR sent me the Paypal invoice, including Paypal fees, service charge and domestic delivery but not including international delivery. I paid the invoice straight away but a day after TBR informed me that the Totoro purse was out of stock and the green jumper was not available in that colour, and suggested a different item and different colour for me to choose. I didn't like the new Totoro purse they suggested so I told them to cancel that item and purchase a watch that I had seen instead. For the jumper I went with the navy colour instead of the green. Now my order is in the 'Purchasing' state so I will have to wait till the items arrive for the second invoice.

Here are a few pro and cons of using Taobaoring as your agent from my experience so far.
Pros:

• The website is very easy to use and understand, you just paste the URL to your item and the price shows up automatically. 
• The Taobaoring agents speak very good English so there's no need to worry that they won't understand you. The are very helpful and polite.
• You can add more items to your shopping cart in the confirmation stage.
• You can easily find out the current status of your order with asking.
• They will mark down your package.
• There is a wide variety of shipping options available, including discounted EMS.
• The fee is 8% which is the average fee for Taobao agents, some are higher but I have yet to find one lower. 
• They give you options to change the item to another if its out of stock or change the colour if the colour you want is not available.

Cons:

• It takes quite a while for items to be confirmed with the seller
• You cannot reply to the comments made by TBR on your order page so will have to email them separately or on the 'Message' section at the bottom of your order. This could get quite confusing. 
• Messages sent by TBR about your order are not sent to your email so you will have to keep logging in to your Taobaoring account to find out the status of your order and any changes to your order.
• Items can still be out of stock once you paid for them but this is common to most Taobao shopping services.
• They are quite slow at replying to emails.

That's all I could think of for now, I shall do a more thorough review when my items arrive. Please comment if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them to the best of my knowledge.