You just gotta understand how Taobao operates.
Basically individual sellers only sell to China, but the shipper deals with getting your order out of China.
The official shipper is shit, and have lots of weird restrictions. They have problem with the real name verification for foreigners. Next time send your stuff to a private shipper and they will be able to help you with that.
Without good Chinese language skills, how would one go about doing this? Any suggestions with links, etc would be great!
Iām not sure. The shippers donāt really speak English either.
I have been using it occasionally. I select cod and Taiwan only. But I suspect a few are dropshipping stuff. In future if the delivery date is too far from the present I will just cancel the order because it is being drop shipped from China. Not worth the wait.
Note taiwanes domestic items take 1 to3 days normally. Often next day. Anything over a week is imported or a lost package.
Iāve used both Shopee and Ruten. Both served me well, no problems. I always choose cash-on-delivery and pick up at a nearby convenience store.
For Taobao style items, I choose taobao.
For Taiwan items, Foodstuffs, electronics, branded products I choose shopee
I never use EZWay, use the official shippers and always get my stuff. The only exception is when use the extra fast sfxpress option. I always use economy air delivery
Iāve never had issues ordering from Shopee. Just order stuff thatās from Taiwanese shops so you donāt need to wait a long time or worry about import fees.
I usually find the vouchers on there for free delivery and you can have it delivered to any of the convenience stores.
You can choose to pay on the app when you buy or cash on delivery. If youāre worried it wonāt turn up then choose COD
I donāt think you need more than a Taiwanese phone number and an e-mail address (and maybe an ARC number nowadays, not sure, but IIRC I didnāt have one when I first registered).
Thereās essentially no English on the web version and only limited English in the app. If youāve got the same app version as me, the language setting is as follows (Iām pretty sure itās the same layout irrespective of the language):
(1) Go to āMeā or the Chinese equivalent (rightmost of the five icons at the bottom, a head and shoulders).
(2) Go to āAccount Settingsā or the Chinese equivalent (third option from bottom, another head and shoulders)
(3) Go to āLanguageā or the Chinese equivalent (ninth option from top) and choose āEnglishā (in English).
You might need to be logged in to be able to change the language settings though - not sure. Itās probably easier to register on the web version if youāre having problems.
Iāve had mixed results on Shopee (č¦ē®). For every ten sellers that are diligent, and work well and hard to earn your custom, and are very willing to give refunds when appropriate, there is, for the lack of a better word some real c** online. **
Today, for example, I was trying to get in touch with the seller to buy some books in both PDF and physical format. Her website was a mess, and her instructions were completely unclear and illogical. I tried to follow her request as much as I could. I pay in advance by my credit card. Everything was set to be ordered and then she began to ask strange questions. For example, I couldnāt order some of the physical books because they were out of stock. She should know this! In response, I stated that her website and her instructions were very unclear. This is not due to my lack of competency in reading Chinese at all, but due to her lack of clarity and even competence in knowing what is on offer via her shop.
After announcing that I might not understand due to Chinese being a foreign language to me, she commenced to tell me that I was illogical and was āthird world.ā I still find it hard to believe that a Taiwanese person, supposedly from Kaohsiung, could be so ignorant and rude. It seems like typical mainland behavior. Iāll post a screenshot just to let you know how obnoxious this b**** was. I will not reveal her identity, but would advise you to take caution in purchasing anything that is not entirely straightforward in nature. If, indeed, this is a Taiwanese person. Shame shame shame shame shame! Bilingual 2030 my ass!
How were you on Shopee and buying from her website? Products being out of stock is pretty common as they often sell on multiple portals and/or resell other sellerās stock.
I was following up on an attempt to buy on 11/11. The seller mentioned that I could still receive a discount if I selected the items I wished to purchase. There were several selections where PDF files were available, but l several levels of a set of physical books were sold out.
Through a message, I communicated that I wanted both the physical and the PDF versions of the books. She responded that she was confused why I had only ordered some of the physical books. Obviously, and irritatingly, the website did not allow me to order the physical books as they were not in stock. As she continued to question me along these lines, I just decided to cancel the order. At this point the idiot decided to call me a third world illiterate.
Needless to say I blocked her and reported her extremely offensive comments. Does this make sense now?
I sometimes wonder if some of them might actually be sellers from China.
One time I ordered something and the seller sent me a completely different item. When I asked for either a refund or the correct item they refused, went on a long tirade about how I need to take responsibility, and then gave me a 1 star rating publicly saying I was trying to scam them. Shopee eventually refunded the money but refused to remove the review.
Yeah, itās annoying sometimes that you canāt leave ratings for an order you made but the seller was unable to fulfil after messing you around for many days. Iāve had a couple of situations like that, but the vast majority of sellers have been fine.
Some of them definitely are (and are advertised as such on the platform). You can often tell from the shipping times and product descriptions though. Plus thereās a fair few based in Taiwan but ordering or dropshipping the product from China first.
A bit more, but not much, but nevermind. The details arenāt important.
A lot of them are doing this , pretending to have items in Taiwan but drop shipping or repackaging here. Also they sometimes can get items through customs that normally may be difficult, such as tea or electronic toys , youāve absolutely no idea who is doing what on there.
I use Shopee quite a lot, and itās rare that Iāve had problems tbh. Iāve usually found it to be pretty obvious when something is coming from China because itās either marked as a pre-order item or thereās something in the product description saying itāll take x days to arrive.
Most of the stuff Iāve ordered came from Taiwan, but it probably depends what youāre buying - the only things Iāve really ordered from China are cheap household stuff I donāt care much about or couldnāt find locally (most recently a bread lame and a tray thing for baking baguettes plus some other random kitchen stuff, which are slowly on their way now for next to nothing). I wouldnāt really order from China for anything important.
Yes I should qualify a lot being a minority.
