Overseas shopping and shipping!

We always say that the world is becoming smaller because travelling and importing of items are made way more accessible compared to 10 years ago.

I remember how it was almost a dream for anyone to travel anywhere out of their own country or even to just the neighbouring countries, but now, travelling across continent is a norm. Buying of things from halfway across the world is a norm. But yet, we still constantly seek for the best, the fastest and the cheapest way to ship something across the earth.

As not all online sites provides free international shipping option, we will still need to search out for companies who does shipping for us.

In the past, i use to purchase things through Vpost where they offer shopping from USA, EUROPE, JAPAN and CHINA.

 Their charges was one of the best at that point with a base charge depending on the location, weigh and fuel charge that are based on the weigh or volume of item.

However, i found a better way and it's way cheaper! 65daigou ships for you from USA, TAIWAN and CHINA.

Their rates are based on weigh only. There are no additional base charges or fuel charges. That makes it a lot cheaper to ship something from USA or China, to Singapore.

Of course the location wise does matters because if you are purchasing from Europe, then you will still have to use Vpost for now.

These sites too have a "buy for me" option where you do not have to coordinate the shipping options of the various sites and ensure the parcels arrive and coordinate for the items to be shipped to you. You can purchase you item through the site by keying in the URL of the item from the shopping sites. However, do note that they charge a service fees of 4-8% of your spending, meaning the more you spend, the more you are charged for the service.

But the good part about using this function is, they will be responsible for coordinating with the sellers and ensure that your items are received and sent out to you in good condition. Hence, they work as a meditator to ensure shopping satisfactory.

Hope this gives you a better and easier way to shop and ship! ;)

Paypal save?

Save? or Safe? Was that a typo? I'll explain why.

With the constant increase of online shopping and payment across the nations with different currencies, paypal has emerged as one of the most trusted way of making payment!

Just a few years back, people are so scare to do transactions online or to give people their credit card number as credit card frauds was a norm. However, with the growing e-commence network, credit card companies have stepped up in their security. Paypal came forth as a very secure payment mode and gain the trust of many!

Recently i wrote a post on 'Ebay Frauds?' with my personal encounter with fraud activities on Ebay. Even though prevention is better than cure, sometimes a cure is still needed. I wrote about how to prevent being fraud by fraudsters who are out to cheat us of our trust in what they have posted.

In this case, Paypal served as my 2nd row of defense. For some reason, i could not raise the issue to Ebay as the item is not under the Ebay buyer protection, even though it is different from what was described under listing. Thank God i made payment with Paypal and i could still raise the issue to paypal!

What are the steps to take?
1) Go to Paypal - Resolution Centre
2) Opening the case in Paypal with the paypal transaction number that can be found under your paypal transaction history list
3) Contact seller through this Paypal case, that will be recorded and monitored by Paypal
4) In the event seller do not reply or you could not come to term with seller, you may 'escalate to claim'. Note that when you take this step, the case is no longer in your hands or the hands of the seller. The money will be freeze with Paypal and it goes to no one until Paypal reviews the case and determine who will get the money
5) Paypal will contact you via emails for actions needed or information needed on your part. In my case, Paypal required for a letter to verify that i have discarded or destroyed the item. I guess the request was quite drastic, instead of request for a return, because the item was an imitation or fake of a branded
6) If you did not receive the email within 2 weeks after escalating the claim, do not hesitate to drop them an email to check the status of the case. In my case, my email had issues receiving system generated emails from them and i waited for a month before doing so. You do not have to wait that long to email them to check
7) Do as Paypal requires you to, and send them the information needed
8) Wait patiently for Paypal to review the case and they will get back to you shortly!

Paypal saves!

News and updates

This is written from my point of view.

Standing outside the court hall at 6am, on the 15th May, the first day of the trial. I saw how many people coming together to show the support of the church and at the same time how some people who are against us or even for the purpose of "making news", writes and report things that are not true or made up.

Not being able to make it into the morning session, i queued outside patiently for the afternoon session at 9am. I witness how a specific reporter from ST sat among us and try to 'drag for news'. I took photos of her and even know her name but decided that i shall not name her here. However the next instant, she reported a news that was published on Straits Times online at 11.01a.m. stating somethings that prosecutors said. This made me feel kinda curious.

Questions flooded my mind:
- Isn't the use of phones or recording devices banded in the court hall? Because she was also constantly texting with her other partner, whom i also have a photo of but decided not to post it here, who is in the court hearing throughtout.
- How then did she get the information of what is going on in the court when she is sitting right in front of me? Through the text that was sent by her partner or is it just made up stories?
- Is then the most trusted news media in singapore making up news just so that they will be the first to report on news?
- Are they facts reporters or just tale bearers?

These questions are not just regarding this case, but Straits Times as a trusted social media of Singapore. If they are just making up stories so that they beat the other media, then can we trust what they say anymore? Are the writers writing out of their own bias point of view? And reports bitterly in this case, just because she was thrown out of the first session due to not having a media pass? :x

However, i am not so affected after all, as i have no longer trust straits times for the most accurate news. If your want the latest, most trusted news of this case, you can refer to Citynews as the professional writers write facts and truth about the details that happened in the court room after every session (instead of just making wild guesses).

Ebay Frauds?

Just like many other ebay users, i sell and i buy from ebay. But as much as we want to be a honest seller, to give a 100% true and full account of the item we are selling, we expect other sellers to be as honest as we are. However, we need to know that there are dishonest sellers around!

Having many unpleasant encounters with dishonest sellers, the thought of giving up on ebay crossed my mind. However, instead of withdrawing from my bad experiences, i decided to write them and advise other ebay users of how they can protect themselves!

Recently, i made a purchase on ebay for a bag. Looking through the photos almost 20 times to make sure that the item is not a imitation or a fake, i decided to buy it. When the item arrived, the alignment of the print is completely out and it is obvious an imitation, a fake! But because the seller indicated 'do not accept returns', i could not do anything or report this seller to ebay!

What can you do to prevent things like this from happening?
1) Make sure that you check through the photos and the materials used to be real before even bidding for the item or make a purchase
2) Check whether seller accept returns, it is ok if seller DO NOT accept returns
3) Make payment with paypal and only in a single payment. DO NOT accept oversea sellers offering you a discount to make payment via transfers at a discount, especially if item is expensive

If after you have done all the above, but still you encounter the same situation as me, what should you do?
1) Contact seller and communicate with seller
2) Indicate to the seller the reason why you think it may be an imitation or a fake
3) Try to come to an agreement with the seller that you will be satisfied with. Whether is it a full refund, a partial refund or other agreements
4) In the event if seller is not responsive to your messages and have indicated clearly that they DO NOT accept returns, try reporting to ebay
5) However, there maybe times where item is not under the ebay buyer protection. Do not be despair. You can go to paypal solution center and file a case against the seller via the transcation
6) If seller still does not response to paypal solution center, you may then escalate to a paypal claim where the money will be withheld from both the seller and the buyer till paypal review the situation and come out with a reasonable payout
7) Be patient to let paypal review the situation but at the meantime, try to keep record of as much evident as possible, as paypal might ask you for some information

Unless seller tell you personally and guarantees that item is authentic, do not assume that it is authentic. There are many replica nowadays that comes even with the authentic card, so even if the seller has an authentic card, it no longer guarantees that the item is authentic anymore. So unless you get a personal response from seller that item is authentic, do not buy.

My 2nd case is as such. i asked the seller whether item comes with authentic card and seller replies yes. However after the first case, i wrote to the 2nd seller immediately to ask whether item is 100% authentic and his reply was that it is from a private seller and it comes with the authentic card. After prompting further, he could not give a 100% yes and say that if i receive the item and still do not like it then i can send it back but i will have to pay for postage and bear the cost of sending the item back.

SO BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN YOU ARE PURCHASING ONLINE. Make sure the seller could tell you and assure that it is a 100% authentic even before you make the purchase so that it will save you all the postage fees and the trouble of sending the items back. Postage fees can easily cost up to $100 per time, so be wise!

However, there are some items that you can live with even if they are not authentic, just like those i mentioned in my previous post on Real or Fake.