Buying Transformers on Taobao

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by botfan, Feb 25, 2017.

  1. nhyone

    nhyone Well-Known Member

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    Local shipping is usually a non-issue. It's only 8 yuan (US$1.21) in this case and even a very large parcel (like 6 kg large) is only 10 yuan (US$1.51).

    I'm just grumbling about my lack of discount. 10% = 70 yuan = US$10.56. That's significant.

    The way I tell if a seller offers free shipping is to look at his other items. Usually they are either all free or all not free, extra-large items aside. But I've mentioned it before, there's no free lunch. The seller has to pay for shipping regardless, so it has to come from somewhere.
     
  2. mikequillm

    mikequillm Well-Endowed Member

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    Forgive my ignorance but there is a lot of info to read through. Do you have to have a Chinese bank account? And first time buying, should I go through the site or an agent?
     
  3. minstral

    minstral It's all about G1 Masterpiece

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    Anyone order any items during 11/11 and experiencing a massive delay?

    I ordered items on the 11th from within the same province as the forwarding warehouse. To date, it still hasn't arrived. Domestic tracking says it's been signed for and the 4PX warehouse says they haven't received it yet. Been speaking to the retailer and 4PX and those are the respective comments they've given. I can only assume there's a domestic receiving warehouse, which then transfers to the international?

    Does anyone know the process definitely? I was hoping I'd have my Girder and Artifex by now *sigh*

    2017-11-22_171753.png
     
  4. nhyone

    nhyone Well-Known Member

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    Based on your screenshot, that's clearly not true. It says 4PX warehouse signed for it on 2017-11-17.

    It is possible that Domestic and International are separate divisions and the systems are not linked. I vaguely remember getting the run around when I was trying to check my parcel's status more than a year back.

    I would avoid buying anything around 11/11.
     
  5. minstral

    minstral It's all about G1 Masterpiece

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    Thanks for that. I guess I'll keep hounding 4PX every few days!
     
  6. nhyone

    nhyone Well-Known Member

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    Oh, I just realized something. Is your order split into two parcels? Because the status updates are duplicated. It seems one has reached, but not the other.

    If the pattern for the second parcel follows the first, it should be received today or tomorrow.
     
  7. minstral

    minstral It's all about G1 Masterpiece

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    I provided the English translation alongside Chinese so there's only 1 tracking number. 2 items though from the same seller. Does that clear things up?
     
  8. nhyone

    nhyone Well-Known Member

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    Well, the 11-20 status is a repeat of the 11-15 status. That's strange. One thing I can think of is two parcels with the same tracking number. :) 
     
  9. minstral

    minstral It's all about G1 Masterpiece

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    Good spot. I only translated it and looked at the most recent tracking description. Seems weird!
     
  10. hoptimusprime

    hoptimusprime Well-Known Member

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    I've had he same problems with delay in China. I ordered FH Feilong and FT TG at the same time and they are taking forever. It says that Feilong is signed in at the warehouse but I don't have the option to ship. And TG is in limbo right now. I like the savings of Taobao but the uncertainty and less than accurate translations make it a bit nerve wracking
     
  11. ChromeMagnus

    ChromeMagnus Well-Known Member

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    As long as you didn't use the EMS shipping/warehouse then you should be fine.
     
  12. smkheidze

    smkheidze sideswipe and sideswipe and even more sideswipe.

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    my MP-36 KO has been at customs since monday....I am getting annoyed and a little concerned. CLEAR THE DAMNED THING ALREADY!!
     
  13. hoptimusprime

    hoptimusprime Well-Known Member

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    I think Feilong went via express and TG went via Yuantong courier.
    I think the one package is at the warehouse but there is no option to ship it. The other package I’m not sure about. I’m not really sure what to do
     

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  14. ChromeMagnus

    ChromeMagnus Well-Known Member

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    I can't tell what warehouse for overseas shipping you picked based on the courier (Yuantong). The courier just transports the item from the seller to the warehouse you've selected.
    That being said, based on the 2nd and 3rd photos, I see Zhongshan/Zhongshan City mentioned as destinations. That means you picked the EMS warehouse in Zhongshan as your overseas shipping warehouse instead of JCEX/USPS warehouse in Hangzhou Zhejiang province/Shanghai. You absolutely do NOT want the EMS warehouse. Hopefully you'll get lucky & they will receive and store your item in a timely manner but over the last couple of months the EMS warehouse has devolved into a unprofessional, delaying, stealing, item breaking mess. EMS charges more than JCEX for faster shipping time and as such they require signature for final delivery unlike JCEX/USPS. However lately EMS still charges the higher rate but severely delays packages, lies, steals items etc.

    This is the order submission page. Prior to clicking the Submit Order button down below, here is where you select/confirm what overseas shipping warehouse service you want. By default the system will show whatever warehouse shipping option you used last time. In this example it shows Jia Cheng-USPS which is the JCEX/USPS warehouse. If it shows something else and/or you want to change the overseas warehouse/shipping option then you click "modify service providers" and pick the warehouse option of your choice.....JCEX preferred.
    upload_2017-11-23_10-27-37.png

    You may have to click "modify service providers" repeatedly several times to get to the selection screen but once there you select the JCEX/USPS option as shown below.
    upload_2017-11-23_10-36-52.png

    If it shows USPS then that's what you want.
    I don't know if there is a way to switch warehouse options once you've placed the order.
     

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    Last edited: Dec 5, 2017
  15. hoptimusprime

    hoptimusprime Well-Known Member

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    Balls. I don’t think I’m meant to get FT TG. This is my third time trying to get it and I might not be successful again. Is there anything I should do? Contact the warehouse? Do I have to call or could I use Aliwangwang? Should I extend the delivery date? Contact the seller? This sucks
     
  16. ChromeMagnus

    ChromeMagnus Well-Known Member

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    I'm not sure if there is any way to change it. Maybe @connseanery or @botfan can weigh in.
    In the meantime just let the process take it's course. Keep checking the status of your item once or twice a day. If your item is not weighed, stored and ready to ship out of the EMS warehouse in the next 3 or 4 days then contact the the EMS warehouse customer service through their online cloud chat here. Their hours of operation are about 9:15 Pm to about 5 or 6am EST : 人工云客服
    That is the best way for someone outside of China who speaks English to reach them. Just make sure your desktop chrome browser is set to automatically translate the text on the webpage to English.
    You can also try reaching them thru Aliwang messenger desktop app (assuming you have the app installed on your desktop already) but they are not very responsive through that method: https://amos.alicdn.com/getcid.aw?s...E5%A3%B9%E6%97%B6&fromid=cntaobao%C2%CC%D3%D4

    Taobao Global Consolidation and Shipping
    upload_2017-11-23_14-44-18.png

    Just remember the 2 important steps when placing an order on Taobao:
    1. Confirm with the seller via Aliwang desktop chat app that quantity you need is available before placing the order. Do not trust the inventory/stock number mentioned on the item page.
    2. Confirm that the proper forwarding seller is selected on the order submission page as shown in my previous post.
     
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  17. hoptimusprime

    hoptimusprime Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for all the help
     
  18. ChromeMagnus

    ChromeMagnus Well-Known Member

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    No problem.
     
  19. northjason

    northjason Well-Known Member

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    Update, hard numbers, and observations...

    Had the last of my six orders make it to the warehouse today, so I decided to close the shipment out. From my last chat with JCEX, I was told the flagging of one order meant it had to go via Special Goods method. I chatted again tonight to get everything consolidated, and that turned out not to be the case. Tonight's operator asked for link to the item page to view what it was. I sent that link, and operator released the hold. After refreshing the page of my orders, the "Pay Transfer" buttons had become available for all. Yay, no extra cost for "special goods".

    I assume people are interested in my details, I know other folk's posts helped me. It was a moment of truth when I consolidated. I think I still got slightly raped on the weights, volumetric or not. About $147 to ship to Texas, USA. Here's what that got me:
    TaoBaoAnalysis2.jpg

    I crunched some numbers to get a sense of whether I had saved any actual cash after shipping. This was a little tricky--I'm cheap, so I assumed best case scenario for all the purchases had I not used Taobao but the best conventional source. I counted a couple of black friday deals, compared the loose MP Bumblebee from Taobao to a boxed black friday Bumblebee, and for the minifigs I assumed if they were available they'd be about 8$ each. Then I assumed three of my purchases I probably would have waited for an Ebay coupon. I added %4 to my Taobao totals for fees. Yes, this is fuzzy math.
    TaoBaoAnalysis1.jpg
    (In retrospect, I might have used a 10% Ebay bucks deal on Computron.)
    So, by my admittedly fuzzy math, I saved a net of about $86.83 by going the TB route.

    Now, assuming I have no more problems, was it worth the trouble and additional risks I took on? Kind of. I calculate this is roughly a 15% savings versus the best a true skinflint could have done otherwise. That's good, if I was buying everything anyway. I have to admit I probably got more spendy than I otherwise would have, though, because those base prices before shipping were soooo attractive.

    I think I lost money on the KO--I should have gotten that shipped loose from Aliexpress.

    Getting an order red-flagged was concerning, though it appears to have worked out this time, it could have gone the other way. I don't think I'd buy my KO Legos this way.

    I'll likely try TaoBao again when FansHobby releases their PM Optimus. I'm still kind of feeling this process out.
     
  20. minstral

    minstral It's all about G1 Masterpiece

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    Not sure if it hurts to know, but I ordered Artifex and Girder also - weight to ship is 1.55KG. That would make toyworld approx 4KG. Seems like you've got some large volume going on there?