First off, it is important for me go clarify that this is not a paid review (and I say again that none of the reviews on this site is). 65daigou and many of the third party Taobao parcel forwarders pay bloggers to write reviews. Reading paid reviews always feels distasteful to me and takes away credibility from the author despite how objective they say they are. That said, and I think it’s obvious, the monetisation strategy for this site is plain old advertising, so don’t be surprised if you see a 65daigou advertisement on this page (i hope 65daigou catches the hint).
Prior to this, I never used 65daigou, since it is easier to just use Taobao’s consolidated parcel forwarding. Besides, Taobao’s parcel forwarding goes by actual weight, whereas 65daigou, and practically all third party parcel forwarders go by volumetric weight, which typically costs more, unless your parcel is very compact and dense. My preference is always for actual weight because i think it’s less likely to spring me a nasty surprise. Nevertheless, I think 65daigou’s economy air shipping rate, at $1.99 $1.69 per 0.5kg volumetric weight (basically the industry standard), is quite competitive (for comparison, Taobao’s shipping rate starts at S$6.40 S$5.30 for the first kg, and thereafter S$2.65 S$1.85 per 0.5kg).
While trying to order a video camera, Taobao’s parcel forwarding option was not available, due to the lithium battery in the video camera. I was left with no choice but to go with a third party forwarder. Naturally, I turned to Google to find out which one was better, but was not able to arrive at a conclusive answer. Eventually I went with 65daigou, because they appear to be more established (having the capacity to handle shipments from China, Taiwan and USA says something), and they have an on-time shipment guarantee.
I would say 65daigou’s website is very intuitive to someone who understands the overall concept of buying from Taobao. I was promptly informed about the arrival of my parcel at their China warehouse, way ahead of the delivery status update on Taobao’s website. I made the payment for the shipment via an Internet Banking transfer, and received acknowledgement of my payment within 1.5 hours (they promised to update within a few hours). The shipping to destination happened in less than one day after that. The estimated date of arrival given was one week from shipping date, although the given estimation on the website is 4 to 6 days. Anyway, my parcel arrived in 5 days, so their guideline on the estimated time to ship proves to be accurate. I picked up my parcel (for free) from their warehouse in Seng Kang, which is just minutes from where i stay. The pick-up timing is 6-9pm for this particular warehouse, which is probably convenient for most people. It’s nice that they have a proper warehouse.
65daigou’s Seng Kang Warehouse
Update 12 Feb 2016: I have since tried their ship-for-me service for USA as well. Again, very prompt notice of parcel arrival, both at the US warehouse and arrival in Singapore. The shipping rate is also much cheaper than what i was using before (Flat S$3.99 per 0.5kg vs US$11.80 for first 0.5kg and US$3.25 for subsequent 0.5kg). Gosh! i was paying way too much before!
Update 30 Nov 2017
Ezbuy was in the news recently for their failure to fulfill customers’ buy-for-me orders. Somehow, Taobao wasn’t happy with ezbuy’s way of buying thousands of items per day using just a handful of Taobao accounts. If you’re one of such customer who use ezbuy buy-for-me, i would suggest it’s time you moved on to buying from Taobao yourself. It will save you money in the long run, and it will be easier for you to resolve problems by communicating with the seller directly.
Anyway, i have something good to say about ezbuy. Just today, a parcel was received into the USA warehouse on my behalf, and ezbuy’s staff managed to repack the parcel, reducing the volumetric weight from 2.59kg to 0.66kg! That saves me S$12!
Hi, when you use ship for me service, what is the state of the USA warehouse address? Cause ezbuy didnt include any state!
Hi Maya, it is Oregon, which is abbreviated as OR.
Sorry if i asked too many qns! Then what do i write on the billing address? The same address they provide for us? Cause biling is regarding the payment right? :’) but the us website i wanna order from doesnt have singapore as one of their choice. Tried emailing ezbuy but they have yet to reply
And how many days did it arrive you for economy shipping? Hehe thank you so much!!
Hi Maya, no worries, your questions are not too difficult to answer 😉
Yes you’re right, the billing address is your credit card billing address (which is probably your home address). The shipping address is the forwarding address ezbuy provided for you. If the website forces you to choose a US state (which i’m guessing is the case), then check if they have PayPal as a payment option. If so, you’ll still be able to make the payment (just sign up for a PayPal account if you don’t have one). I guess this is not something ezbuy can help you with.
I don’t remember exactly, i think the shipping probably took around 10 – 14 days. One time it was delayed, but ezbuy informed me about the delay, so it’s not too bad.
Hi, hehehe last qn!! Then how to submit orders on ezbuy? Whats the courier company? It stated smtg like USPS, DHL, FEDEX and such.
When you purchase an item online, you’re not always told the courier company used to ship your order. If you’re given this piece of information (which is usually for you to track your shipment on its way to the ezbuy warehouse), then fill up the courier company handling the shipment with the corresponding tracking number.
Otherwise, if you’re not given this information, it’s perfectly fine to leave it out. It is simply for matching purpose. Any parcel that arrives at ezbuy warehouse that belongs to you will be reflected in your account automatically even if you don’t submit an order on ezbuy.
Hi there! How would ezbuy know that the parcel belongs to us if we don’t submit an order?
Thank you for your time!
Hi Izabelle, ezbuy identfies the parcel by a five letters code that is uniquely assigned to each of their account users. You can see this code in your ship-for-me address, in the street address line. It is therefore very important that you include this code in your Taobao delivery address, otherwise ezbuy might just return the goods if they cannot identify who it belongs to.
Hye.
I’m thinking on getting some stuff from ezbuy. so may I know how about the quality of the stuff you bought before? Are they in good terms when they reached you?
Hi Anne. Sorry, i can’t comment on the quality of the stuff because i’ve never bought any stuff that are sold or advertised on ezbuy. I only use their ship-for-me service, whereby i order the stuff directly from the seller in China/USA and ship them to ezbuy’s warehouse to be forwarded to Singapore. I guess you really have to try it to find out. All the best!
Hi, just to check, does ezbuy open the original packaging of the product when they repackage it when shipping? Thanks!
Hi Kelly. Sorry, i had repackaging done probably only once and i don’t remember what they did to the items. I suppose if they did a repack (with your permission), it does imply they would open the packaging? Anyway, i am satisfied with the way ezbuy handles the parcels. Except where the parcel is already contained in a proper box, they usually add another wrapping on top of the original item/parcel.
Thanks for the quick info!
Having tried their US forwarding service several times, only the 1st package arrived early. The rest were terribly late with no tracking.
Hi Spencer. Thanks for sharing your experience. I encountered the same situation as well unfortunately, the second and third shipments were late. I guess I was having no urgency in receiving the parcels, but yeah, it would be great if they could guarantee on-time shipment.
I used Ezybuy just for their ship for me service. Although they don’t have a base charge, their shipping fees from my recent 2 orders were certainly overcharged. The last 2nd order was 4 towels which weigh less than 1.5kg but they charged me 3kg, claiming it’s based on volumetric weight. My most recent order is a shirt plus a pair of earring and bucky balls, all in weigh less than 600g but they charged shipping fee based on 1.5kg. Really hate such dishonest practice! Doubt that I’ll use them again
Hi Belle, I guess it’s not always worthwhile using ezbuy. I still use Taobao’s shipping when I know I’m shipping something light but bulky. Clothes would be one of such items. I think you should try that as well.
Hi, I have a similar question as to shopping clothes. I’m looking for the best option to ship a set of wedding gown that I have found on Taobao but not too sure if it is counted as light and bulky. Hence, I’m not too sure if Taobao’s shipping or ezbuy’s shipping fits my case better. Could u please advice on that? Appreciate it!
Hi Joanne, hope you can understand that i can’t give you a definite answer, and you are responsible for making the final choice. That said, i think wedding gown is not-so-light and bulky. Actually, since the time i have written the article, Taobao Consolidate and Shipping prices have come down. It used to be 43 Yuan for the first kg, but now only 33 (S$6.80). So that makes it even harder to decide between Taobao or ezbuy. For S$6.80, you get up to 2kg in volumetric weight with ezbuy. I think that is all i can say and i leave it to you to decide.
You guys shouldn’t buy from ezbuy. I ordered prime and date to receive was two days ago and my item has been delayed for three days and I still don’t know how many more days will it be delayed.
Hi Vanda, thanks for sharing your experience. I’m wary about the Prime program and never signed up. My preference is still to buy from Taobao directly.
hey im not sure to put ezbuy or buy for me
Hi. You mean ship-for-me or buy-for-me right? buy-for-me is a service whereby ezbuy acts as an agent to buy the item for you. If you’re doing the ordering on Taobao yourself, then you just need ship-for-me. My earlier comment might be of help to you.
http://www.yenkai.net/2016/02/27/read-this-important-tip-on-ezbuy-65daigou-sea-freight-shipment/#comment-155
Hi Yen Kai!
Ezbuy mentioned that they can help us buy or ship from USA & Taiwan websites. However, even for widely known platforms like amazon, when i copy paste link into ezbuy’s link search box, nothing shown.
So, am i even allowed to use ezbuy services to purchase from Amazon, any idea?
I tried to search for a list of websites that ezbuy probably partner with so that we can use their service, but to no avail.
Hope you can share some input!
Hi Annie. I just tried pasting an Amazon link, it worked, and i managed to add to ezbuy’s cart also. I tried pasting a random eBay product link, it doesn’t display the product information like it did for Amazon, but i could input the product price and name and add to cart. So i guess it actually does work, never knew this before. Not too sure what went wrong when you attempted.
Thanks for this review. Very useful information!
Thank you 🙂
Hi! This is kinda late but may i know how long your delayed parcel from US took? Thanks!
I just checked the records, from the time i submitted my order for shipment, it took 6 days to begin shipment and 13 days to arrive in Singapore, plus it takes at least 1 day for you to be able to collect, so it was about 3 weeks.
Hi, some TB seller has no tie up with any shipping company. have you encountered anything like this? if yes, what did u do? thanks
Hi Joe, never encountered that. Actually, i’m not sure what you mean, do you mean they don’t even do domestic shipping? I don’t think you mean that, since TB is all about mail order?
Hi, I used to ship my tb orders using tb forwarders. However, with the current ezbuy prime membership, i am quite tempted to sign up. would you be able to elaborate on the pros and cons if i use prime vs usual tb direct orders? is it really not worth signing up for prime? i don’t usually buy big items like furniture, but will buy kitchen items (those bulky ones prob). not an easy decision, would be glad if you could shed some light on this. thanks!
Hi Wendy. I don’t have Prime membership, and I wouldn’t sign up for it, mainly because I only buy exactly what I need. I think this Prime thing encourages over spending, and who knows, the items may be more expensive than if you bought directly from Taobao? The only reason I can think of that justifies using Prime is if you’re getting a bunch of furniture and you found everything you needed from there. Otherwise, Taobao still gives you the widest choices and the reliability of the sellers are more assured. Ezbuy does not give you any guarantee over the items you purchase and you really have no idea about the reliability of the sellers at all.
Hi! I’m thinking of using ezbuy’s US ship-for-me service. I’m aware that i’ll need to use the unqiue address but what about the name? Do I use my own or the name that they provided? Hahah sorry if i sound dumb. Anw thanks for the info written! Helped much! Xx
Hi, no worries. In the ship-for-me forwarding address that ezbuy provided for you, even the name is given, so when you fill in the shipping address, use this name instead of your real name. In my case it is Merlion XXXXX where XXXXX is the specific code assigned to identify you. They can more easily and precisely identify a person based on a code rather than the actual name.
Items are not the same quality as in pictures. Poor quality China products.
Hi Angela, i presume you mean items sold on ezbuy’s website? I personally think it’s a bad idea to buy from ezbuy’s website, because ezbuy is paid by the sellers to market the products, but ezbuy is not responsible for the quality of the products sold. The refund policy says “Please take note that quality, authenticity or functionality related issues are not covered”. It’s better to buy from Taobao (or other websites) directly, where you can read reviews by other buyers and be more assured of the quality.
Hi, I recently found your website and I find them so useful before that I thought that shipping via sea would be cheaper too until I saw your post.
I’d like to know is it better to buy directly from tao bao or ez buy? From Tao bao it seems as though their shipping fees are expensive?
Hi Ann, personally i don’t buy stuff from ezbuy, because i prefer to find exactly what i need/want from Taobao. For me, buying from ezbuy is like impulse buy, where you browse and buy. Also, i don’t really trust products sold on ezbuy, because ezbuy is simply the middleman collecting advertising and transaction fees from the sellers, whereby ezbuy does not provide any guarantee on product quality at all.
Appreciate your clarification. I surf taobao and paste their link in ezbuy to buy. I have a list in my cart and all have international charges indicated except for one item which they are unable to advise. Is it possible to consolidate my purchases. It seems that under ezbuy, I have to pay for price+shipping etc when I check out. How do I consolidate such purchases? Thanks
Hi, i’m afraid i can’t really help you out here, because i have never used the ezbuy buy-for-me service. I only use the ship-for-me service whereby i buy and checkout from Taobao site itself. Anyway, are you still able to check out the item for which you’re not quoted the international (which i presume to be agent fee and shipping) charges? If so, i think in the end you should still be able to consolidate your purchases. You’ll probably be notified of the “international charges” just before shipping.
In any case, even if you’re not able to consolidate the purchase and you have to ship that single item separately, it wouldn’t cost you much more, because ezbuy uses a flat rate. You will save at most 0.5kg worth of shipping fee if you managed to consolidate, which, going by the economy air rate, is just $1.69.
Thanks so much for reply. I will try to sort it out.
Hi Yenkai, for the Ship-for-me services, I have tried using a US website but it didnt work for me. They require both billing and Shipping address. For the Shipping address, I used the one Ezbuy provided but for the billing address, when I also used the same one that Ezbuy provided, it said that they was a payment error as the billing address (Provided by Ezbuy) was not the same as the address registered under my credit card. However, I cant seem to change the billing address to my own Sg address as it is only limited to US.
Any idea how to work around this issue? Thanks!
I have tried using Buy-for-me instead but when I pasted the URL into the Ezbuy app, there wasn’t any price or product info provided and I have to key in manually (based on US Website’s prices) and they auto converted the amount into SGD. Would you know if this method is reliable? Thank you so much!
Hi Xq, for the billing address, it should be your Singapore home address, or whichever address your credit card bills are sent. I have also encountered this issue and usually i use PayPal to get around it. Hopefully the website you’re buying from accepts PayPal payment? If you pay using PayPal, the merchant website doesn’t care about the billing address, and PayPal loves international customers.
I don’t like to use Buy-for-me, especially for US websites, as they are usually very reliable and i don’t feel any risk dealing with the merchants myself.
Hmm i purchased 3 rugs via ezbuy,after 2days of payment date,they informed me that they unable to get feedback from seller,frm 2 diff sellers,surprisingly when i contacted d suppliers they hv said they did not received any order request and they are very responsive,i’ve chat with d seller at 11pm malaysia time,dissapointingly ezbuy solution is to cancel order,this hurt me bcz i’m reseller myself.they r not so easily reach by phone,so dissapointed with them
Hi fitri, actually I think your situation was not too bad, since you got a refund. My opinion is that ezbuy is not a good solution for a reseller because they are expensive! Their target customers are the consumers. I would suggest finding a reliable sea freight company for shipping your goods. You will have to liaise directly with the sellers, not sure if language will be a problem for you, but to save cost and make more out of reselling, that’s the way to go.
I had been purchasing several items thru ezbuy. Everything goes well except purchasing a Redmi Note 3 thru Ezbuy with warrantied by Itronic Mobile. The phone comes with screen defect and I feedback the defect to ezbuy immediately since Itronic Mobile claims that I had to work this thru ezbuy. After ezbuy confirmation, the phone returned to ezbuy – well, I claimed that I did not want repaired phone because knowing screen replacement will be worst repair. After a month of waiting, ezbuy returned me repaired phone and my scariest nightmare comes true. Itronic Mobile repair is too bad that, the back cover is scratched, damaged body frame due to the screen removal and, glues all around the edges and gaps on the screen (the screen is little tilted to a side) and majority of the screen is not actually glued down to the phone leaving gaps.
I feedback this to ezbuy again on the same day I receive the phone but they claimed that Itronic refused 1-to-1 replacement after keeping me waiting for another 2 weeks. I complained this to Itronic after ezbuy confirmation but it ended up that Itronic push the issue to ezbuy because the phone was returned to Itronic after a month claiming that it is not new phone and used for a month! Ezbuy sent the phone to me after 2 weeks the phone dispatched from Itronic & after I return the phone, it takes another about 2 weeks to Itronic). This is the most horrible experience I have purchasing online and the case is not close until now. This is totally dismaying experience. 🙁
Sounds terrible! Thanks for sharing your experience here, and I guess this serves as a warning for all. I personally there is too little support offered by ezbuy in protecting consumers, as compared to eBay who will refund you money out of their own pocket when something goes wrong. I don’t expect any company in Singapore is big enough to do that, but given a choice I would purchase via Qoo10 or Lazada instead of ezbuy. Yup, I bought my Redmi Note 3 Pro through Qoo10. Self collection though but no problem at all.
I would have not buying from ezbuy if I had read consumers review. And if there are more available online. Learn from mistake. Will only buy after read reviews. :'(
I guess they will continue to ignore me – it is almost 3 months now. Sigh…
I buy at ezbuy, I have to pay shipping fee. But can I check with u whether I hv to pay agent fee when arrive at Singapore?
Hi May, you don’t have to pay agent fee, which is only for the case where you choose items from Taobao website and get ezbuy to do the buying on your behalf.
Hi, sorry to add more questions.
May I ask if you declare true value of the items or you try to keep it within $400 since an extra 7% fat will be charged including shipping fee. That is a lot. Think mine came to another extra $80 if I do that… not something i want
Sorry. What I mean is 7% gst
Hi Kylie, i always declare the true value of the items i buy, excluding the local (within China) courier cost. One way you can avoid paying GST is to ship the items in batches, keeping every batch to below S$400. The shipping fee is usually a flat rate anyway, so it wouldn’t cost you more to split into batches. Of course, this doesn’t work if you’re shipping by sea freight (GST always applies), or if a single item is above S$400. Ultimately, what you do is at your own discretion.
Thanks Yenkai.
That is a good idea. Didn’t really think of separating into batches.
Hi YenKai,
I want to buy something from US timberland online. when i fill in the address, it is separated into first name and last name. Would like to ask with the name given to me from ezbuy website, Merlion xxxxx, how should i put it? Or it doesn’t matter with the sequence.
Thanks
Hi Hazel, you can embed the “Merlion xxxxx” somewhere in the address, such as in the optional second address line. The sequence doesn’t matter.
Hi, one more question my given address by ezbuy is:
8080 SW Cirrus Drive XXXXX
Beaverton, OR
97008.
However the timberland website suggest this slight change:
8080 SW Cirrus Dr XXXXX
Beaverton, OR
97008-5986.
Should i proceed to the suggested address? Would it cause any problem? As this is the first time I’m using this ezbuy, sorry if I asked some funny question. 🙂 Thanks so much for the reply
Hi Hazel, no worries. No problem to use the suggested address. Not funny question 🙂
Hello Yenkai,
What’s your comment to be a prime member of ezbuy? pay sgd99 with nearly free shipping cost (sgd3 for every shipment no matter how heavy or big they are) in one year. I used to buy stuff fm taobao n ship to Hong Kong. Since move to SG, i have no idea which way i should use when purchasing fm taobao. So far i used one by taobao offical 轉運商 Prouter. 27.79kg stuff cost me 567RMB shipping fee fm their warehouse to my home in SG. Is that reasonalble?
I need to buy bulky stuff and some small but heavy stuff soon (like chair n lots of storage stuff), thinking to use ezbuy n become prime member or not….
Very headache for me, so I would like to seek your advice.
What is the differenet between Taobao global direct shipping and Taobal Consolidate and shipping? not the same like we choose 4PX or prouter etc 轉運商?
Thank You So Much!
Ting
Hi Ting, no headache at all because ezbuy is out of the game now. They are no longer allowed to do Taobao shipping. RMB567 for 27.79 kg is totally unreasonable. You can ship a full CBM (weighing up to 500kg) of goods if you used sea freight shipping. You can try 86of (see my other posts to understand further).
With global direct, the shipping cost is included in each item’s price when you check out. Once you have checked out, you just wait for the parcel arrival without doing anything further.
With consolidate and shipping, the shipping cost is calculated and paid after all the items are ready for shipping. You will have to monitor the items’ arrival at the warehouse.
Hi Yenkai,
Thanks for reply!
So if only buy few items (different sellers) n not so heavy one fm Taobao, which shipping method you will use please?
Thank you!
Ting
Hi Ting, you should try Taobao consolidate and shipping. ZTO worked fine for me.
Thank you so much!!
Hi Yenkai,
I’m planning to use ezbuy Ship-for-Me service from USA. My 2 parcels each weigh 25lbs and the total value is around U$900. I’ve read one of your replies saying that we can consider splitting the order to avoid the gst, but in my case it would be difficult as the value is too high right?
And I don’t quite understand how they can repack and make the parcels so much lighter (you saved 12kg!). So in my case, 50lbs (let’s make it 25kg) will roughly cost how much of shipping fee? I won’t be able to get the shipping fee until the parcels reach their warehouse right?
Thanks a lot for your genuine review, we need a lot of this nowadays!
Hi Stacy, sorry for late reply, been busy. I believe 25lbs is the actual weight, and the volumetric weight could be much more. Assuming it is 25kg, you’ll be paying $200 for the shipping, and it could be much more. Yes you won’t know how much until the parcels reach the warehouse. You may want to explore other methods of shipping, especially by discussing with your seller whether they can arrange the shipping.
Yes, for your case, the value is too high to avoid paying GST.
US merchants usually pack items into standard sized boxes and sometimes your item might take up just 15% of the volume, and they use air pouches to fill up the rest of the volume. This is when repacking helps to reduce the volumetric weight. By the way I saved $12 which represents the shipping fee for 1.5kg.
Such informative reply! Great, you’ve cleared so much of my doubts! And oops, I saw 12kg instead of $12. I guess I do have to find an alternative shipping method as ezbuy may charge by volumetric weight, which most probably weigh a lot more. Thank you so much!
hie! i’m planning to use the ship-for-me service. product is from US. is there any agent handling fee? or any other hidden fees? thanks!
Hi lollipop, it’s flat fee of $3.99 per 0.5kg, plus GST if your goods plus shipping exceeds S$400. Nothing beyond that.
thank you very much 🙂