Taobao With Nanyang Life

13/5
Ok, I have decided to take a leap of faith to buy the (potentially fake) Clarisonic Mia 2 from Taobao.

Unfortunately, Taobao sellers generally do not ship overseas. I will incur sky-high courier charges if I request them to ship to Singapore. Didn't find any Taobao spree. The only option was to engage the services of an agent. I was about to go with Daigou65, but along with the increase in their popularity, complaints also rose, mostly for unresponsiveness when things sour.

W recommended an agent whom her SIL used before, Nanyanglife. He charges a flat rate of 4.8 with no additional agent fee. Forgot what the shipping rate was, but probably $12 for the first 500g and $4 for subsequent 500g. No Singapore delivery charge for meetup, $2 rebate for self-collection. I could do the self-collection.

Makes no sense to buy just one item. I took the opportunity to rejuvenate my wardrobe. To place my order, I filled up an Excel order sheet, transferred the first payment of my items' cost to Nanyanglife's POSB savings account and emailed the order form over. Within the same day, Nanyanglife informed me that he will be overseas, so asked if I was fine with collection around 1st June. Sure thing, no urgency at all. I was pleased with how responsive he was!


14/5
Nanyanglife informed that my 巧克力色 harem pants are out of stock! Changed to 咖啡色.


1/6
I thought I will be fine with waiting, but it's different when you are expecting your loot~

Nanyanglife finally informed me that my items have arrived! The shipping fee is $20.

Frankly, I was taken aback. So expensive! And so.... exact... hmm... Well, he knew that I opted for self-collection and yet he didn't mention if the $2 rebate has already been factored in. I'm pretty sure he didn't! No harm asking.

And I'm right. Walau must be hoping that I assumed he has already given me the rebate since I have already stated self-collection in the order form! Dangerous!


2/6
Father went to pick up items. So happy to see my loots! But my heart broke upon seeing the torn Clarisonic box. WHO DID THAT? Who opened my present before me??! :((

Stock-check. Nothing's missing. Was it the local delivery in China or Nanyanglife? No reason for them to do that ley. To swap out my item to a fake?? Or the customs.


Today
I can't rest till I get to the bottom of case of my torn box. I emailed Nanyanglife to ask if the customs would do that. He replied they will check before sending to Singapore.

Huh... not good! What if it were a gift? I'm wary of ordering branded stuff from China now.


Verdict
Overall experience was ok lah. Nanyanglife's replies are short and thus may appear curt, but I guess it's probably due to his limited English. I have to be alert to the charges, else he might just swallow my $2!

Another thing is that I should have negotiated for free shipping for the second item from the same shop. So dumb of me to pay ¥6 each for the 2 chokers I bought. I'm sure Nanyanglife negotiated and conveniently kept the savings for himself.

The con of using an agent is that I can't feedback on the item. Else I will totally leave a scathing negative feedback for the Mia 2! Check out my review here.

Total Damage: ¥652.21 -> S$135.88
Shipping: S$18
Grand Total: S$153.88
Mean conversion: 4.2384