I started buying from Taobao a year plus ago. Main reason was I was using a unique handphone which phone cases are hard to come by.I usually purchase through an agent, 65Daigou.
How 65Daigou works
1. Copy the url and paste on the website, state your preferences and choice of shipping
2. made payment through internet banking, credit card and paypal
3. Wait for items to arrive at 65Daigou. Select to ship.
4. Pay agent fee and delivery when item arrive in Singapore and arrive to pick up.
How TAobao works
1. Add item to cart and when making payment, select forwarding agent.
2. make payment through credit card
3. Wait for item to arrive at forwarding agent and consolidate to ship.
4. Make payment and wait for item to arrive to singapore.
Good about 65Daigou
1. It was a big company and the website was easy to navigate.The good thing is that they repackaging the goods and check for simple defects for me. And if I realise any item is damaged or lost, they will come up with a solution real quick.
2. There is also 3 forms of delivery: Express which takes 1-2 days after they received the parcel, economy air which is around 3-5 days and sea delivery which is around 2 weeks and definitely much cheaper.
3. I do not need to spend time liaising with the seller. They will get everything done for me
4. Lots of options regarding pickup
Not so good about 65DAigou
1. The negative part was the extra agent fee that needed to be paid, depending on which kind of vip category you are in, range from 4%-8%.
2. Need to pay extra for home delivery.
Good about direct purchase
1. You are in charge.
2. No agent fee, good for expensive item.
3. Home delivery
Bad about direct purchase
1. some of the forwarding agent are not good
2. have to spend time liaising with seller.
3. Shipping can be slower than economy shipping depending on forwarding agent
4 Items have a time limit to be consolidated or additional shipping fees will be incurred
5. Basic chinese
6. 1% transaction fee
Did a simple chart regarding the delivery charges.
However, is not accurate due to exchange rate difference.
Direct Taobao do door to door delivery, for 65daigou have to pay extra for home delivery but they have a lot of pick up locations available.
Personally, I prefer 65Daigou unless I buying expensive items because sea shipping is cheaper and is much simpler not to deal directly
And if you want to get your item as soon as possible, express will be the fastest and then economy and direct taobao and lastly sea.
I tried 2 forwarding agents before. One was 4px递四方, they are quite fast in delivery which is around 4 days.
I will really recommend 4px as they are good and fast.
Firstly, they will text you once the parcel reach their warehouse so you do not have to keep refreshing the page. Unlike the other provide who says 3-6 days ( only working days).
4px manage to ship the item in 3days, I submit to ship on sunday and I receive it on Wednesday and Tuesday is Vesak day. They are as fast as express shipping.
I will really recommend 4px as they are good and fast.
Firstly, they will text you once the parcel reach their warehouse so you do not have to keep refreshing the page. Unlike the other provide who says 3-6 days ( only working days).
4px manage to ship the item in 3days, I submit to ship on sunday and I receive it on Wednesday and Tuesday is Vesak day. They are as fast as express shipping.
The other was lequgo 乐趣购 is real bad, do stay away from them. Review
Let me share my experience with lequgo.
1. Firstly, they put 3-6days to deliver but they usually take 5-6 days to deliver and not including weekends so they take very long.
2. Customer service is very irresponsible. My parcel was missing although they signed and received the item. I tried talking to them, they keep asking me to wait for a day but I told them it has been signed and received for days and then transfer me different agent and make me repeat the story and then ask me to question the seller and then ask me to wait again. I was doing the work, repeating my story to different cs and talker to seller. In the end, I have to go straight to taobao and file a complaint before they locate my item within an hour, 6 days after the receipt of the parcel.
3. They will give customers some benefits to change bad reviews to good reviews so that explains the rating.
4. Their Singapore courier do not pick up phone, I spend more than half an hours on calls and it has never been answered.
