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! ;)

Fraser Rewards Card Reviews

Having a whole loads of cards in my wallet... Why another card? What are the benefits of having this card?

There are a list of benefits from this card, let me start from the one that attracts me the most and most useful to me to the least:

First of all is the FCM$ where you earn 1FCM$ for every $1 you spend AND this FCM$ DOUBLES on your birthday month! So it's my husband's birthday this month, and i bought $600+ worth of things from Challenger so i decided to get this card!

Secondly, it is the convenience of signing up for the card on the spot! I actually found out about this card after making my purchase at Challenger and was introduced to this card by the cashier in Challenger. When i went to find out about signing up for this card, the counter lady was very helpful, you just need your NRIC and key in some particulars over the iPad provided and the card was done almost instantly! The next best thing was that they allow me to credit in the FCM$ of what i have already made payment for at Challenger as long as it was on the same day!

On top of these, the third thing that happened was that i found out about instant rewards of complimentary gifts with purchase or promotions that vary across the malls, with minimum spending applies. The existing promotion at Northpoint was, spend $50 = receive $5 e-cash voucher or spend at least $150 = receive $15 e-cash voucher. You can combine up to 3 receipts in the same day. I have already spend $600+ in a single receipt at Challenger, so i was credited with $15 e-cash on the spot.

What can you do with the FCM$ you have earned? You have to convert your FCM$ into e-cash in order to use them to make offset of your next purchase. Some points about converting your FCM$ are, you need to have a minimum of 500FCM$ to start converting. Every 500FCM$ = $5 e-cash. You are capped at earning 8000FCM$ ($80) per redemption year (1st July to 30th June of the following year).

Every $30 you spent earns you a chance for promotional periods Fraser Rewards Travel Draw. I'm not sure how this draw will goes but who knows? You can win yourself a trip for a nice getaway~

Free weekday parking (with minimum spending) is something i have yet to try. Below are the list of participating malls! Find out more about the minimum spending for each mall and it's existing promotions by checking http://www.fraserscentrepointmalls.com !

* Anchorpoint
* Bedok Point
* Causeway Point
* Changi City Point
* China Square Central
* Compass Point
* East Point
* Northpoint
* The Centrepoint
* Robertson Walk
* Valley Point
* Yew Tee Point

Just a summary of my first transaction with the Fraser Rewards Card:
- Spent $600+ at Challenger = 600FCM$
- Double the points on birthday month = 600FCM$ X 2 = 1200FCM$
- Existing mall promotion of spending at least $150 = receive $15 e-cash voucher
- 1000FCM$ = $10 e-cash
- $30 = a chance in the Travel draw. $600 = 20 chances
Total i earned $25 e-cash and 20 chances in the travel draw!

*One not so good thing about this card is... you have to bring the physical card around and swipe it for the points. Many retail malls or shops have already gone 'card-less' where points can be credited directly to the account via NRIC or telephone number etc. So it just adds on the the stack of membership cards in my wallet~

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.

Shop a Cause

Always been shopping for the benefit and joy of yourself?
Share your joy while shopping, by purchasing items from this following site http://shop-a-cause.blogspot.com or click on the tab 'Shop a Cause'. It is started for the benefit of helping the poor and needy, where ALL proceeds goes to missions, humanitarian work and charity. Items are donated by me and some people who would like to take part in this cause! Items will be updated every now and then as the items are coming in.

There are 2 ways you can participating in this cause! Give away your items so that it can be posted up for sales and proceeds can be used to help the various groups of people or you can participate through your purchases. Items are updated every few days and once you put a price to the item, it is considered sold! So grab the items you like and do good today, before someone else beats you to it!

However, there is no reason not to do good. So even though someone might have beat you over an item, there is always another reason to give and keep giving.

Style Book #1 - Embracing Studs and Embellishments

Knowing the style of the mind, behind this blog!

Latest shopping purchase!

White Embellished Mesh Low V Back Dress by Lipsy

Below are some other stud and embellishment designs by Sass and Bide

Walking in style with studs and embellishment that brings out the curves in you. Love it!

Danger! Keep Out!

It's the SUMMER SALES again! Beware of the advertisement emails flooding into your email account!

One thing you should NEVER do, is to click into a sales advertisement, if you did not have intention to buy anything! Sometime the word "SALES~" can be really tempting. Words like "Up to 70% off!", "Storewide 50% discount", "Free Shipment", "Summer collection sales ending soon~", "Additional 40% off discounted items!", "$50 off every $250", "Everything below $50!" etc, can really draw you into taking a 2nd look!

The thought of just browsing through to see what they have, can be really really dangerous! Statistics have shown that the chances of a person making a purchase as they click into an advertisement is 90 times higher than someone who don't. Most of the time you end up buying something because of the SALES and discounts! So, unless you are looking out for something, do not click on the advertisements even though the amount of discount can be really appealing!

Same goes for window shopping without an objective in mind. Just by walking around window shopping, increases the chance of ending up with a purchase up to 90%! Don't shop if you don't have to or want to, to prevent impulsive purchase due to a sale or discounts offered.

Wait, No More!

Tried walking up and down the stalls again and again to look at the same item? To realized that it is sold the time that you went there for the last time to purchase it?

Many times we try to control our spending by walking up and down the streets, round and round the malls, the same day, the day after. Telling ourselves "maybe we don't need it?", "i will come back for it another day!" or "maybe next month then buy".

Looking back at all the 'lost opportunities', i have learnt. There are somethings that if we cannot decide at that moment, maybe we don't really need it or want it. But if you still think of it after walking around, we should not hesitate to go back for it!

One way to make sure you don't miss it, is to walk around window shopping. Set aside 30 minutes of the time you have before you plan to go off, to walk back to all the shops to get the things that is still on your mind. You will realize that almost 50-60% of the items you 'Keep.In.View' earlier are no longer on your mind and there are this 30-40% of the items that are still constantly recording in your memories. The right thing to do is to then evaluate the amount of money you have, whether they are within your budget. If not, get only the first few items that still comes to your mind despite all. You will realize that, you never regret getting them! In fact, you will be glad that you did!

Wait No More! I know that feeling because i am a shopper too!