Depending on where you live depends on the name of that wondrous website where you can buy everything. I have used ebay, trademe and now taobao. My relationship with taobao is developing slowly and certainly has its ups and downs.
So, taobao is obviously in Chinese. Thank you Google Chrome automatic translation function for helping me with this. However, despite having been able to browse and understand product descriptions on taobao thanks to the internet magically translating everything for me I was still unable to purchase anything. I was lucky that a colleague and neighbour is a taobao veteran and thankfully her husband had typed instructions with screenshots as to how to set up a taobao account. So, following these I nearly made it to being able to purchase yet I was foiled again by my lack of Mandarin and no amount of translation apps or internet support could save me. This time my rescue came from a beautiful Chinese lady who works in the school where I work who authenticated me and set me up with an Alipay account and money so that I could shop until my money ran out!
There are a few things that I have purchased from taobao almost 8 months ago and all were successful, matched the description, arrived quickly and are still doing the job I bought them for. My favourite purchase by far were 2 Eames style rocking chairs that are perfectly situated on my balcony and allow me the ideal view across the lake and cost a meagre 240RMB each including delivery. Amusingly in my first two purchases I gained free gifts. With the rocking chairs there were 2 doll sized pink perspex chairs and with a second purchase of rubber doylie like placemats and coasters in bright colours I found a plastic light up ear pick.
Following my initial succeses and emptying the amount I had loaded onto Alipay I ignored taobao and decided it was all too hard. More recently colleagues have been regaling me with stories of their purchases and bargains from taobao and I find myself somewhat jealous, especially of the clothing. I decided that it was time to attempt taobao again. I spent far too long searching for items of clothing that I liked and would be useful and necessary in my wardrobe. I found a few things that I couldn't live without and spent the next 3 hours trying to complete the purchase. My Alipay account was almost empty, I had no clue how to top it up, my automatic translation on Google was not working and my only salvation was another colleague who guided me through the payment process patiently over the phone and at last I had purchased something without a Chinese person to help.
All of my purchases arrived within 3-5 days of making the order and no free gift. It would appear that you don't get exciting free gifts when you purchase an item of clothing. I'm clearly devastated. The purchases I made were of High Street branded clothing and I decided to buy everything in almost the largest size available as in Chinese terms I am rather large and in the Western world I am ironically a Medium or you could say average size. Well, everything is pretty as expected though some of the labels are rather amusing with the price tag saying the dress is a scarf and a size 8 and the neckline label is a size 12 and the label with the wash instructions is a size 10.
Taobao is a risk. It is hard work. It does take time. Am I saving money? I believe I am and hopefully I have kept my dress sense!
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