Buying on Taobao: Phase 1

Hi everyone! I'm here to document my entire process of buying something on Taobao. I'll be using a shopping service, so I'll talk about which ones I considered, which one I went for and why. Disclaimer: I'm not getting paid for this. I don't work for them. I just thought this might be helpful for those on a budget like me, and have never used a Taobao shopping service.

Anyway, let's start!

So if you've seen my wishlist, you'll know that there's this really cute necklace I want.

I've never used a Taobao shopping service before, so I figured I'd try it out with a small purchase first.

So I was looking for popular and reliable companies doing shopping service. It seems that the top 3 ones are Taobaoring, Taobaomaster and Taobaospree. Taobaospree is probably the most popular one, while Taobaomaster is the cheapest. Naturally I was drawn to Taobaomaster, why would anyone not go for the cheapest right?  Well.. as I looked more and more into the company I was getting more skeptical about them. I didn't find even one blog review on them, compared to Taobaoring and Taobaospree. Also, they don't accept paypal, only credit card and money transfer.

Taobaospree on the other hand was ok but the most expensive. I mean I got an invoice for the product and it says the total excluding international shipping is $16.86 (€12.7). Which isn't so bad I guess. But Taobaoring gave me a quote for $13.34 (€10.1). Thus, I decided to go for Taobaoring.

So the first thing I had to do was place an order. It's pretty simple, just add the item to your cart. Then it tells you an estimate of how much you have to pay for the first round of payment. That includes the cost of the item and handling fee. Handling fee for Taobaoring is 30yuan, compared to Taobaospree with 50. For some reason it does NOT include domestic shipping (Taobao shipping the product to Taobaoring)... see "Freight: 0 ¥"... and Paypal fee.

They then told me to wait until they've contacted the seller, to make sure my item is in stock. Throughout this I've been in constant contact with one of their people, and she's been very nice and helpful. She even asked me to point exactly which one I wanted.

The next email was a confirmation that my item is in stock. In this email they've also added the domestic shipping fee.

I then got the go-ahead to make the first payment. I paid through Paypal, got an email saying that they're ordering my item soon. They told me it'll take around a week for it to get to them. So now all I have to do is wait!

TIMELINE:
February 11: Placed an order
February 12: Got an email saying it's in stock. Paid the first round of payment.

I'll write "Phase 2" when the product gets to them!

Update: Here is Phase 2 (CLICK). And the Final Phase (CLICK)