All along, i assumed that sea freight shipment is the cheapest way to ship your Taobao stuff from China. If you’re shipping one cubic metre (usually with allowance of up to 500kg) of stuff, that is confirmed the case. If you are using 65daigou however, it may not be the case. The shipping rate for under 30kg (volumetric weight) of goods is $1.30 per 500g, whereas the shipping rate for economy air is only S1.69 per 500g. The difference is only $0.39! That’s not all, i just found out that for sea freight, 7% GST will be applied for ALL parcels ON TOP OF THE SHIPPING FEE (i.e. 65daigou’s shipping fee is included in the calculation of GST), which means that most likely you will end up paying more, for slower shipping!
Without checking the bill carefully, i went ahead and shipped sea freight, and only realized something didn’t seem right after making the payment. I paid $33 to ship $56 worth of goods.. gotta consider more carefully next time. Anyway, i made an enquiry and got the following response.
Dear customer,
For Ship-for-me service: 7% GST applies for all sea/sensitive sea shipment orders. For air shipment orders, 7% applies if the parcel’s total amount of declared value, shipping fee and insurance is more than S$400. GST will be shown and collected when submitting a parcel to ship.Hope it explains, thanks.
So, the moral of the story: it is probably never worthwhile shipping via sea freight on 65daigou unless the weight (keep in mind that it is volumetric weight) of your goods is more than 30kg.
Also, come to think of it, i should have shipped via Taobao’s consolidated shipment, since my parcel included 2 pillows which are bulky but not heavy, and Taobao’s consolidated shipment goes by actual weight which would have been more worthwhile. Duh!
Anyway, for ease of comparison and calculation, here’s a table that shows you the total value of goods below which it will be worthwhile to ship by sea freight. As you can see, when the goods are under 10kg, it is very unlikely that sea freight will be worthwhile.
In general, if your items are light and bulky (provided it does not exceed the maximum allowed dimensions), ship via Taobao’s consolidated shipment. If your items are heavy and cheap and bulky (which contributes to the volumetric weight), ship via 65daigou’s sea freight. Otherwise, ship via 65daigou’s economy air.
Weight (kg) | How much more the shipping cost for economy air is than sea freight | Total value of goods below which GST applied will be less than the savings from choosing sea freight (i.e. sea freight will be worthwhile if goods total cost is below this value) |
---|---|---|
5 | 3.90 | 42.71 |
10 | 7.80 | 85.43 |
15 | 11.70 | 128.14 |
20 | 15.60 | 150.85 |
25 | 19.50 | 213.57 |
30 | 47.40 | GST will be applicable for economy air also |
35 | 55.30 | GST will be applicable for economy air also |
Update 7 Jan 2017
Received this email today:
So, no more sea freight. If you need to ship bulky stuff, you shouldn’t be using ezbuy anyway. Use 86OF. See my review here.
Update 26 Mar 2017
Apparently, Sgshop was acquired by ezbuy, and they offer sea freight shipment. I suppose their business volume is low enough for them to be able to handle sea freight on top of air freight. So, whatever I have discussed in the posting above applies to Sgshop. I suggest you try 86OF instead though.
sp
Yes. It’s my first time using 65Daigou recentlyand I did a thorough comparison between the shipping methods and realised it’s cheaper to use Economy Air! Do you know they are running a promotion for Buy-for-me at $1.69/500g via Economy Air, no agent fee till 06Mar16? I thought I’m quite lucky to grab this deal 😛
yenkai
I just use the Ship-for-me service since i prefer to handle all the buying myself. Sometimes there is a need to leave a comment regarding product options or communicate with the seller directly, and i feel safer doing this myself. The other advantage of doing Ship-for-me is paying exactly only the shipment fee rather than having to pre-pay an estimated amount, although your itchy finger is likely to do your next Taobao order very soon so you don’t exactly have money left inside the non-interest-bearing account for long 😉
Augustine
How to use ship-for-me in taobao.com.
yenkai
Hi Augustine, firstly you need to take note of the forwarding address assigned to you by ezbuy (it’s in one of the tabs when you click on ship-for-me). Next, when you do check out in taobao, you need to select to ship to your designated address, instead of the default choice which is global direct. I don’t remember exactly but I think you can add your delivery address in the next step immediately after you select this option. Just copy and paste the forwarding address from ezbuy and you’re done.
liz
Hello, do you get the forwarding address from ezbuy first, and then purchase your item when checkout just paste the forwarding address? How to notify ezbuy that you have purchase and for them to expect your order to make sure your order is confirmed and arrived?
yenkai
Hi liz, i presume you know where to see your forwarding address – it’s the first link under Ship-for-me in the left column of your account page. Details on using the ezbuy forwarding address:
– When you check-out in Taobao, the first item on the page is “shipping information”, and this is where you enter the ezbuy forwarding address, by clicking on “更改收货地址”.
– Click Ok to dismiss the pop-up box that appears (to confirm you understand that the final cost may change because you’re changing the shipping address).
– Next, if you have never entered your ezbuy forwarding address before, click on “+使用新地址” to add the address into your taobao address book. Subsequently, it will already be there and you just need to click on the radio button to select to ship to ezbuy warehouse.
– Select “中国大陆” -> “广东” -> “广州” -> “白云” -> “同德街道” (assuming you’re going via ezbuy’s Guangzhou warehouse”).
– Copy 3rd item in ezbuy’s forwarding address page (full address which includes your ezbuy code) and paste into 详细地址。
– Copy and paste 4th item 邮政编码
– Copy and paste 1st item 收货人姓名
– Copy and paste 5th item into 手机号码
– Leave the last entry 电话号码 blank
– Click 保存 to save
Your newly entered ezbuy forwarding address will now be displayed under “Ship to” and you can select it as the shipping address. Next, you can complete your taobao purchase as per normal (similar to taobao consolidated shipping).
To notify ezbuy about your purchase, select “Not arrived” under the Ship-for-me menu in the left column of your account page. Click “Submit New Order” and enter the details. The order number is the “订单号” that you see above each of your taobao order in “已买到的宝贝”. Product URL is the product details page (click on the blue arrow button to add the URL or URLs), but i believe it is ok to leave this out. In fact, it is ok if you don’t notify ezbuy about your purchase, so long as you have provided the correct shipping address to the seller (your ezbuy code – the last 5 characters in the address is VERY IMPORTANT). The seller need not be Taobao, you can buy anything from anyone in China and ship via ezbuy.
When your parcel arrives, you will get an email notification.
Gosh i’m helping ezbuy to write their website user manual for free!
Lucas
Hi there, the taobao consolidated shipping now charges volumetric weight already. Was charge 3x the actual weight price the other day for a bulky purchase! Such a painful buy gosh
yenkai
Hi Lucas, sorry to hear about that. I actually always suspected that the Taobao consolidated shipping doesn’t really go by actual weight. Somehow i always felt that it was actual weight plus a little bit more, but it was always still worthwhile. For my last shipment (20 March), it was still more or less actual weight. Not sure what happened in your case, but there’s nothing in their shipping information page that says it is based on volumetric weight. Or maybe there are some hidden clause about bulky items. Anyway, thanks for sending out the alert!
Deborah
If the volumetric weight is more than 3x the actual weight, the volumetric weight will be charged I think. That is what they say when I asked.
yenkai
Hi Deborah, I believe you’re referring to Taobao direct/consolidated shipping rather than ezbuy. Yes, you’re right, for Taobao direct/consolidated shipping, if the volumetric weight is more than 3 times the actual weight, you will be charged the volumetric weight, which is not worthwhile. This information is actually specified at this page (in Chinese): https://world.taobao.com/helper/knowledge.htm?spm=a312a.7762693.2015080302.15.ICiSRM&kid=6712962
Ivy
Hi, is the “Declared Value” based on the amount I paid for in Taobao (includes Taobao’s delivery)? Can I declare a lower value? I’m using the Ship-For-Me service by ezbuy.
yenkai
Hi Ivy, the domestic delivery fee can be excluded from the declared amount, since that value is already consumed before the parcel is shipped to Singapore. Legally speaking, you need to declare the actual value, but you can choose to declare any value you want, with the risk involved in mind. I always declare the actual value simply because it is the right thing to do.
Ivy
Noted, thanks for the advice!
brown
i always declared so much lesser until i do not have to pay GST, well didn’t get caught at least 🙂
yenkai
Naughty you..
Mabel
Hello! Do you have any idea if the ship-for-me function in ezbuy still has agent fee on top of the shipping fees?
yenkai
Hi Mabel, there is no agent fee for the ship-for-me service. You do the purchase yourself and just pay the shipping fee.
Ji
Hi! May i know how long does sensitive sea shipping method take to arrive?
yenkai
According to ezbuy website it takes 8-15 days. I did sensitive sea shipping once and it took 15 days.
Cheong Kok Keong
i am trying to buy a Fitbit Blaze activity tracker watch from Taobao but cannot check out via Taobao shipping or consolidated shipping. Can ezbuy ‘ship for me” ship that for me.
Do I need to pay any joining fee for having an account on ezbuy
yenkai
Hi Kok Keong, ezbuy’s buy-for-me service is what you are looking for. You need to sign up an account. I have not used buy-for-me before so I’m not exactly sure of the details, but generally it should work like this: submit the product link of the item you want to buy, top up your account with some cash and they will do the buying and shipping. There is an agent fee involved when using buy-for-me, where you have to pay an additional 8‰.
Niza
Hi There! I just bought stuff at Ezbuy (65daigou). When I look at my account it shows that there are 7 items processing. And the subsequent stages of Ready to Ship and Shipment are currently nil. Does this already mean that once these 2 stages are completed, it will be delivered straight to Singapore?
I have my delivery address updated in my account. But I don’t recall typing it when I made paymeny for my orders.
Help please 🙁
yenkai
Hi Niza, first of all, RELAX! If there’s any problem with your shipment, your parcel won’t go missing and you can always visit ezbuy’s office to collect your parcel, at worst.
To answer your first question, I have never bought any item on ezbuy (i always buy from Taobao website), but i’m presuming it should work more or less the same way. The “ready for shipment” stage means your parcel has arrived at the warehouse, and you need to select your preferred shipping method, so the delivery does not happen automatically. Since you are saying it is currently “nil”, then you need to monitor your email for the notification on the parcel arrival at the warehouse.
I suppose you don’t need to enter your address every time you make payment. You probably have entered it before when you registered for the account and that should be good enough for you to get the delivery.
Erffy
Whao. I’ve always been wondering about the shipping costs because my shipping always ended up highly significant as compared to the actual cost of the goods. You’re awesome for drafting out a comparison! Just before I placed my order. haha! thx yo! I’ll keep a look out on your blog if you’ve got any more tips to share!
yenkai
You’re welcome 🙂
Lexie
Hello Yen Kai, I stumbled upon your post and really appreciate your tips & insights on both Ezbuy & Taobao. I’m a frequent user of Ezbuy’s Ship-4-Me service for non-bulky items, but have yet to venture into purchasing bulky items for fear of exorbitant shipping charges as I’m unsure how to calculate volumetric weight. Recently I am looking to purchase a 29″ luggage (est 77/49/29″). Can you advise if it’s wiser just to ship via economy air or otherwise? Thanks!
yenkai
Hi Lexie, glad you found my postings useful. For the luggage you’re intending to buy, it doesn’t satisfy the size limit for Taobao direct/consolidated shipping, so you can only ship via third party, of which ezbuy is but one of the choices available. The other sensible choice is to go for one of those forwarders who do cubic metre (i.e. one cubic metre of volume and up to 500kg) sea freight. Obviously, you don’t need this much volume nor weight. There is one forwarder that allows you to ship as little as 0.1 cubic metre of goods, which is still a lot (a rice cooker is about 0.02 cubic metre), so maybe you can try buying a few bulky items to ship together. The shipping fee is very attractive. I have yet to try them out, so i can’t comment on their service yet, but i am going to do so very soon. Here is the link to the website.
Lexie
Thanks for the advice & llink! Will check it out and share my experience if I were to use them 🙂
Aile
Hello.May I know how long does ‘shipping to destination’ usually take for it to arrive.
yenkai
Hi Aile, it depends on the shipping mode you chose. By air, it will take about a week, by sea, up to 3 weeks. Anyway, the estimated date of arrival (ETA Date) is indicated in the My Parcel page.
Karine
Hello, i just stumbled on ur post when i was looking for information on taobao shipping. I’m looking at shipping some lamps for my new house from taobao and i’m not sure which method of delivery is the most cost effective. Would u be able to advise? The lamp with packing is about 4kg, the dimensions of the packaging is 58 x 58 x 37cm. Based on the dimensions, do u think 4px or ezbuy is cheaper?
yenkai
Hi Karine, unfortunately the dimensions don’t qualify for shipping via 4px. For ezbuy, the chargeable volumetric weight is about 22.8kg, which translates to $55 of shipping fee, plus GST.
ezbuy is very expensive for bulky items. I recommend shipping via a real sea freight shipment, whereby the shipping rates are charged by per cubic metre (CBM). I have just tried a new parcel forwarder 86of but have not completed the entire shipping process, so I have not written a review of them yet. Anyway based on the experience thus far, they are very responsive, and I feel confident about them. The chargeable shipping weight for your item is 0.125 CBM, and the shipping rate will definitely be less than S$23. You will have to self collect from their warehouse though, otherwise the home delivery will cost you another $20. Anyway, this is still better than ezbuy whereby the $55 you pay doesn’t yet include home delivery.
EZYBUY USER
I like to ship furniture n bulky stuff. And i find usinf Ezybuy is taking up for 2.5 mths to purchase n send to my doorstep. This is a bit ridiculous and they are over selling their marketing.. even they have high turn over rate to manage new orders. I do not know the rest has faced the same like me.. i dun even know my christmas gift for friends will arrived on time.
EZYBUY USER
What is another daigou service u can recommend for large items?
yenkai
I think for year end, where you have 11.11 and 12.12 promotions and everyone is buying gifts for Christmas, you’ll face the same problem of long waiting time to receive the delivery with any parcel forwarder. I would suggest checking out 86of.com, a parcel forwarder like ezbuy, except they’re cheaper. I will post a review once I receive my first shipment within a week or two.
They market goods similarly to ezbuy through these websites 3-ch.com and 4-ch.com. These are entirely in Chinese though, and their account management portal is in broken English, doesn’t look as polished as ezbuy, but hey, they’re cheap, and you can ship many bulky goods for a very low price. Sign up here and give them a go.
Gwendoline
Hi may I ask what does ‘shipping to destination’ means? Is it delivering to the address or its delivering to the warehouse?
yenkai
Hi Gwendoline, shipping to destination means the parcel is on a plane or ship traveling from China to Singapore.
Cherrie
Hi yenkai,
I would like to ask you about the ezbuy shipforme options.
Should I choose ezbuy’s shipforme, would the delivery from the taobao seller’s warehouse to the address provided by ezbuy’s shipforme be expensive??
Would be cheaper according to your opinion?? The consolidation option from TAOBAO or going through the hassle of using a EZBUY shipforme?
P.s I like to shop for bags, clothes and accessories so… I won’t consider them to be bulky?:/
yenkai
Hi Cherrie. Usually the domestic delivery rates are either free or up to 10 Yuan, so to me the fee is considered negligible.
Hard to say which is better especially when you ship a few items together. Bags could be bulky while clothes and accessories probably not. If you’re shipping really small items like phone casing, ezbuy ship for me is probably cheaper.
I would suggest trying both ways, then you’ll find out which is better for your case. Ezbuy is not much hassle as you imagine. Another consideration is whether you need delivery to your home. I actually prefer to pickup from the warehouse, because I can do it at my convenience, rather than worrying I will miss the delivery.
celest
Hi, i just bought a parcel of two dresses, 0.58kg of chargeable weight. How much will it cost?
yenkai
Hi Celest, for shipping via economy air, it will be S$3.38. Via sea shipment, it will be S$2.60, plus GST for the goods. Definitely not worthwhile shipping via sea. If you’re quoting the weight from the Taobao product page or seller, then the chargeable weight is likely to be higher since ezbuy charges by volumetric weight.
Bakingmum
Be warned! Check on the discount TB agent offer. Most of the time, ezbuy would tell there is no discount voucher and they will automatically keep all these ¥3, 5 given….Remember, small Amt to u but people do get rich over 1 cents saving! I just don’t like the dishonesty!!! I once bought 2 items of ¥598 which is entitled to claiming of ¥50 voucher. I never got to that!!!
Remember when they don’t pass u the savings, u will end up paying more on the exchange rate markups and the agent commission. It’s difference of ¥112.31 (based on every ¥100) that you lost or could have saved….
Adelyn
Hi,
I need some help here!! I’ve been buying clothes and makeup items using 65daigo. For makeup items,i can only chose sensitive sea because economy air does not allow for this. But just today,two of my makeup items which are blushers with a total of 44g(actual weight without the packaging all this) is ready to ship.The chargeable weight they gave was 1.05kg?????? And it cost $11.07 for it. Is it they count wrongly? I did asked them about this matter then the person replied back”G21723264287 For this item volumetric weight is 0.75kg.” I think its better if you could help me instead! I honestly don’t think the blusher’s volumetric weight can be so ridiculous.They are just Tonymoly crystal blusher and Abbamart blusher,apparently they are not bulk items.Please help!!!!!
yenkai
Hi Adelyn, there is the option to ask for a photo to be taken (may incur additional cost), but I’m not sure if they will allow it at this point. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t allow it. In any case, you still have the chance to complain when you receive the item and the volumetric weight really does not tally with what you were charged, so probably just ship it first.
fion
Hi Yenkai
I really wish to seek your advice on this. I’m looking to ship a mini microwave from Tmall, there is the SGBUY button there so I just went ahead. However I was being notified by the stuff that it cant be shipped to Sg because of regulations. Really meh? I thought so many ppl shipped electronics. I really need this mini microwave(which can be hanged up) because my kitchen is too small.
I tried googling but cant have any definite answer. If you know, please let me know.
And I wonder, is it all electronic stuff should go by sensitive air or sea shipment? I read about the GST already. This microwave’s weight is about 9kg, it’s dimesions is 32x42x22cm=29,568, and it’s listed price is around S$145.
Assuming if it can be shipped to Sg, what advice you can give me regarding the shipping? Thanks so much!!!
fion
Sigh…I just checked…indeed microwaves cant be shipped to Sg….
But still thanks for all your entries. They’re very enlightening. =)
yenkai
Thanks for dropping by. Indeed, I didn’t know a microwave oven cannot be shipped too, and I just come to know that about the website that gives you the full list of items barred from entry.
https://www.customs.gov.sg/individuals/going-through-customs/arrival/prohibited-and-controlled-goods
Just FYI, if you’re going to ship any bulky item, it’s probably better to ship via the per cubic metre type sea freight shipment. You can refer to this review for more information.
Lyn
Hi, if I have 3 orders that reached my address for ship-for-me, can I combine them to ship out together? Will it be cost savings and cheaper to ship out together or individually? I supposed they will look at the 3 total declared value to decide if GST is chargeable.
yenkai
Hi Lyn, the answer to your question requires some math formulation, and i don’t think i will answer it completely.
ezbuy charges a flat rate shipping fee for every 0.5kg (S$1.69 for economy air). This means that if you have any item weighing less than 0.5kg, you will save by shipping the items together. If you have items weighing more than 0.5kg, then whether it is cheaper to ship together depends on the remainder value when you divide the weight by 0.5kg, e.g. the remainder value of an item weighing 0.6kg is 0.1kg, and whether it is cheaper to ship together depends on how you combine this remainder 0.1kg with other items. Hope you get the idea.
GST is chargeable when the declared value of the items PLUS THE SHIPPING FEE exceeds S$400. If shipping the items together results in GST being incurred, then definitely ship them separately to avoid paying GST.
Shirl
Hi,
I wish to buy a screen protector at Amazon using ezbuy’s Buyforme (more costly at qoo10) https://www.amazon.com/Armorsuit-MilitaryShield-Anti-Bubble-Protector-Samsung/dp/B01ACXSKAG
How do I estimate the total shipping cost? Not sure if the full shipping cost is given here – https://ezbuy.sg/Help/CostCalculate
Are there any other cost involved? Appreciate your advice.
yenkai
Hi Shirl, the item is very small and light, and I’m almost certain that it is less than 0.5kg in volumetric weight. So the shipping fee will be $3.99. There is no other cost.
By the way, I have bought an Armorsuit MilitaryShield screen protector for a tablet before and I love it! The surface will feel slightly uneven but it presents no problem to touch and viewing.
Shirl
Hi Yenkai,
Many thanks 🙂
Eden
I totally agree. I used to buy from Taobao China and ship through ezbuy (by AIR), thinking it’ll be cheaper. But, when you copy the link from Taobao China and paste it onto ezbuy (SG), the exchange rate from RMB to SGD is already scary! Ezbuy has already earn a ton of money from this HIGH exchange rates. Then it’s the shipping charge and the agent fee…wow. Nowadays, I ship directly via Taobao China and it’s so much cheaper. You just pay ONE charge, ONCE, and Taobao ships directly to your doorstep.
yenkai
Hi Eden, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I guess everyone will have their own preferred way of buying and shipping Taobao goods. Certainly agree with you that there’s absolutely no need to have an agent do the purchase for you, unless language is a problem. I personally prefer to self collect from a warehouse than having to wait at home for the failure prone delivery. Anyway, it’s good that you were daring enough to experiment with different ways of shipping.
Ed
Totally agree.
Ezybuy is a blood sucker and horrible
– high unfavourable exchange rate (10%)
– do not pass on retailers voucher savings to us.
High shipping cost
– bad customer service
– prime program is effectively a gimmick !
I’m with them for 5 months and their service level is getting from bad to worse. They do not listen to customer feedback and dissatisfaction!
KPLIM
Hi Yenkai
To use ship for me do i need a Alipay account to pay on Taobao?
yenkai
Hi KPLIM, i believe you need an Alipay account. When i click submit to pay, i am redirected to the Alipay payment page, but i am already automatically logged into my Alipay account, so i’m not sure what happens if you don’t have an Alipay account. Or it is possible that an Alipay account is automatically created for you already. Sorry, can’t answer you definitely on this one.
Actually, i have not made payment through Alipay for a long time, because i have friends in China who make payment on my behalf. On the other hand, i buy stuff for them, so we barter trade. This is the cheapest way to buy Taobao stuff, because you avoid paying credit card transaction fees, and the currency exchange rate is the most favourable this way. I’ve always thought this would be a viable business idea.. too complicated to execute though.
KPLIM
Hi Yenkai
Thanks for the info.
Kae
Hi YenKai
I have my parcel status on ‘shipping to destination’ to close to 2 days. Is this normal for it to take a longer time?
yenkai
Hi Kae, I think it’s normal. It is stated on ezbuy’s website that it takes 2 to 3 working days for the parcel to be shipped, so I suppose it is still within the stated timeframe. The ETA should give you an idea when the parcel will arrive.
Estee Tock
HI Yen Kai,
I intend to buy some lightings and other stuff from Taobao
You have mentioned Peeka and 860.. which one will be better and cheaper?
yenkai
Hi Estee, I have never used Peeka so I have no idea what benefits they offer in comparison to their competitors. I personally use 86of and ezbuy exclusively.
Nadia
Hi yenkei. Just wondering cause my parcel status is to overseas warehouse. What does it actually means? This is my first time using ezbuy. Hope you can help
yenkai
Hi Nadia, you are using ship-for-me service right? Not sure if there is such a status called “to overseas warehouse”? I observe my parcel status and there is “prepare shipment” and “shipping to destination”, and i believe there is also something like “arrange delivery” when the parcel arrives.
Joyce
Hi, did anyone here shop in Taobao today? Singles day? Did you all manage to successfully checked out? I did not manage to though since past 12am, been trying the whole day but the system keep saying sorry, there are too many people checking out at the same time, please try again later… tried all ways and means but not successful.
Does anyone have the same experience? Care to shed some light into this? My first time shopping during Singles day : (
yenkai
Hi Joyce, do you mean buying from Taobao website itself or other sites like ezbuy? I had no problem buying from Taobao website, just past midnight when the website traffic would be highest, with everyone rushing in to do their shopping. I was surprised at how smooth it was, without any difference compared to any other day.
Joyce
Thanks Yen Kai for replying… yes i mean buying from Taobao website directly. Really? You have no problem checking out at all? Means it could be only me : ( I wonder why… that is strange as I did some purchase just few days ago and it all went through successfully…
Joyce
I still unable to check out from Taobao today… not sure what is happening… the same message still appeared like yesterday
yenkai
Hi Joyce, maybe you can try using a different device, like phone instead of PC, or try from a different network other than from your home network. Otherwise, maybe you can feedback to Taobao, there should be a feedback channel.
Joyce
Hi Yen Kai,
Yes I did try using my handphone and went to my mom’s place to check out yesterday but all gave me the same message. I did live chat with Taobao for help but not very helpful though, it didn’t help solve my problem… : (
I just couldn’t understand what could have happened…
Meow
Hi Joyce and Yenkai,
Don’t mind I share my views here regarding your checkout problem….
During checkout, have you checked if your highlighted or chosen ” default ” Taobao delivery address is your Singapore address or 860f China warehouse address? Got to go to your Taobao user setting*
If it is the 860f China warehouse address, then it should not have any problem during checkout.
But if by mistake during Tmall checkout, you accidentally highlighted or your default delivery address is your Singapore address, then Taobao may “sometimes” remind you that some of your items are prohibited to be shipped to your current location Singapore or cannot be checked out. Other times, they might automatically void the checkout process and you are left wondering why cannot checkout.
But if you have successfully ordered before with Taobao and shipped via 860f, then I also don’t understand how come you got that message about too many people. So far on 11-11, I only encountered once or twice a Taobao error page with a Taobao cartoon holding a pencil saying something about “page error…”, I just click refresh button and the page loading becomes fine again.
So (1) maybe you can check the delivery address and see if any mistake there?
(2) Or can try changing web browser, last time I used firefox got problem, now I only use internet explorer when buying from Taobao.
(3) Just assuming if this is your first time buying from Taobao, have you considered if your (Zhifubao 支付宝) is linked 绑定 to your Taobao account?
https://cshall.alipay.com/lab/help_detail.htm?help_id=256656
Just throwing in ideas…hope this helps… =)
mEoW
Joyce
Thanks Meow for your reply, really appreciate.
I did checkout using Ezbuy’s China warehouse address all the time… but the same message appeared stating your purchase is unsuccessful as there are too many people checking out at the same time, please try again later for both Taobao and Tmall.
I tried checking out one item at a time but also not successful. Tried again today still the same message. Really beats me… may not be able to purchase from Taobao anymore 🙁
I suspect it could be virus attack… any possibility? Even I clicked on this Yen Kai’s blog sometimes it will direct and start loading other websites before it came here.
Am using Safari, maybe like what you suggest, I should try using other web browser.
Meow
Hi Joyce,
Then I know the answer as to why that happened. I should have also asked earlier if you used Ezbuy, cuz I thought you only used official Taobao website itself and 860f to ship.
The Ezbuy purchasing accounts, the many accounts they registered with Taobao to buy things for customers have largely been locked or banned. Customers using the Ezbuy Dongguan warehouse as delivery address will not be able to check out as that address has been blacklisted by Taobao. Thus, this extends to not just “buy for me ” Ezbuy customers, but also other customers using their “ship for me” service.
Several speculations and confirmations have been made online at the local forums.
1) Some Ezbuy customers have been experiencing this problem since mid October, they put screenshots on the forums, they complained to Ezbuy but the company suggested it was logistics issue at their China warehouse leading to the problems. This matter was kept quiet all the while until now 11-11 when more and more more customers have problems ordering, the matter became a talking topic and later exposed on forum and newspaper.
2) Speculations were that official Taobao forwarders complained to Taobao regarding Ezbuy eating into their profits. I guess this makes sense as to be Taobao official forwarders, they probably gotta pay “license” money to Taobao to stay as official forwarders. Ezbuy pay no such money yet can register many Taobao accounts and make money off it, so maybe that was a breach of Taobao user regulations?
3) 860f is different I guess because users register their own personal Taobao accounts and order with it. And if ship by official forwarders such as 4px, then surely not related to Ezbuy type of issues also. So probably that’s a difference.
So I guess for now you may want to just use Taobao official forwarders or 860f, these are the only 2 reliable shipping company I know so far…hope the information helps… =\
mEow
yenkai
Hi Meow, thanks for your interesting revelation. I managed to ship stuff to ezbuy’s Dongguan warehouse just last week. Actually, i felt the market is big enough for everyone to have their fair share of profit, although anything could happen when politics is involved. Anyway, it may be worth trying out a different forwarder to see if it solves Joyce’s problem.
Update: The following was announced on ezbuy’s website
Dear valued customer,
We wish to apologize to all of you for stopping taking in Buy-For-Me orders from China before 11.11 Sale. We feel truly sorry for your disappointments of not able to submit your orders.
Regarding account suspension issue mentioned in our previous announcement, many Singaporean customers feedback to us that they have encountered the same problem. When they tried to submit orders on their own and ship to ezbuy Ship-For-Me warehouse address as usual, an error message “亲,同一时间下单人数过多,建议您稍后再试” (There are too many customers purchasing now, please try again later.) will stop them from completing the transaction. Same as us, when inquiring to the customer service officer, no explanations or solutions were given. We will inform you if we have any updates on this.
Joyce
Thank you SO MUCH Meow and Yen Kai for helping to solve the “mystery”.
I was actually in the mist of creating a new Taobao account and wanted to try place an order to see if it will go through. While searching for EZbuy’s China address, I saw EZbuy’s notice about the account suspension issue. I quickly came back here wanted to share with what I “discovered”. Who knows you two are much faster than me! 🙂
So for now, we cannot use EZbuy’s China warehouse address or risk our Taobao account being suspended…
“Mystery” solved.
Once again, thank you very much!
Joyce
Just to share…
I was reading into the issue about forummers having the same problem as me for not being able to checkout using EZbuy’s Dong Guan address. I understood from some that they had no problem checking out using EZbuy’s Shanghai address.
I called EZbuy this morning to enquire about this and the staff called me to confirm after checking for about half an hour that there is no problem checking out using their Shanghai address.
However, the staff is WRONG! I could not check out even using their Shanghai address. The exact same message appeared like when i checked out using their Dong Guan address. I was concerned that my previous account which I used to check out using their Dong Guan address was completely suspended by Taobao, I created a new Taobao account to do a check out using their Shanghai address. However, the same problem occured.
I then tried checked out using Taobao’s official forwarder, to my surprise, the check out process went through successfully!
So the conclusion is… BOTH EZbuy’s China Dong Guan and Shanghai warehouse addresses are blacklisted by Taobao, not just the Dong Guan now. My account is not at all suspended by Taobao, it is the problem with the forwarding address.
I called EZbuy again and asked to speak with the same staff who gave me the wrong information and advised him not to go around telling customers the wrong information and he apologised for the inconvenience caused.
I feel that EZbuy is not honest about it. I really doubt that they are unaware about their Shanghai warehouse address being blacklisted by Taobao.
So for now, can only check out using Taobao’s official forwarder. No sure about 86of and the rest…
Meow
Hey Joyce,
Based on what I know, this is the situation.
1) The accounts that were locked or banned were those Taobao accounts that Ezbuy registered to buy for customers using their “buy for me” service. Let’s call this the first hit.
2) The second hit is the Ezbuy Dongguan warehouse address was blacklisted. This means ship-for-me customers using their own personal registered Taobao accounts with Ezbuy Dongguan wareouse address will encounter the “too many customers” notice / error. If you use other address, say 860f china warehouse or your own Singapore address, you will most likely not encounter problems ( I ordered some items on 11-11 and the 860f warehouse address check out was fine…erm, some arrived safely at the warehouse already…other items on courier still very slow… )
No…Taobao did not ban customer’s personal account for using Ezbuy Dongugan warehouse, I believe they only make it impossible for them to checkout and make payment. They banned only the Ezbuy’s registered Taobao accounts…
3) The third hit would be on the so called Ezbuy Zhejiang warehouse that online forummers first talked about but some say it is actually the Shanghai warehouse, this hit will probably spread to the rest of whatever warehouses they might have left. I kinda saw that coming because if Taobao wanna mess with Ezbuy, no reason to stop at just banning their thousands of purchasing Taobao accounts and the Dongguan Warehouse address.
4) But no worries if you missed out on 11-11. This is because 12-12 will be here soon…yes!!! Although not as well-known as 11-11 singles day, 12-12 will also have quite good deals and discounts targeted at non-tmall stores, this means those normal taobao stores listed on taobao platform. So most likely you can get similar products there too on 12-12…. =)
Maybe for now you can start to find out which forwarders or shipping company you wanna use and gear up for 12-12…
Based on what I know now, I can confirm with you buying from Taobao using 860f china warehouse is safe… hope you get to buy what you want on their next big sale … =)
mEow
Joyce
Thanks Meow again for the detailed reply and advice.
Yes, will definitely try 86of if I have bulky items to ship… maybe during 12-12 sale : )
Learnt so much from the questions and answers posted here. Thank You!
Joe
I chose to use Lazada sea freight without any research… they do the same thing…
sarlyn
hi, ,may i know, should i click the “confirm the delivery” in my account at ezbuy.com?
yenkai
Hi Sarlyn, I’m not sure. I never did that. I only click the “Arrange Delivery” for my ship-for-me parcels and nothing else.