A long shot, but someone might have recs

[cupcake_goth]

Do any of you out there in the LJ hivemind have recommendations for an easy-to-use, reputable Taobao shopping service? There are two different Taobao shops I would like to (eventually) purchase things from, but I'm not sure what shopping service to go with. Who do you like, and why?

(Yes, I have read a bunch of the Taobao reviews on egl. They don't really make things any clearer.)

Next, I need to find out if R-Series and Infanta offer custom sizing on the items I'm sighing over.

---

In other news: holy bats, how did I not know about this thing?



That, my darlings, is a sterling silver and carnelian replica of the Dracula crest ring that Bela Lugosi wore. The one that Forest J. Ackerman owned. A gorgeous, gorgeous replica. Guess what just fluttered to the top of my birthday wish list? Oh my yes. I'd have to get it resized to fit one of my fingers, and that's fine. DRACULA CREST RING.

Comments

[alexiarnps.livejournal.com]

If it's just Japanese you can ask Dan.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

Nope, Hong Kong online retailers. It'll be easier to go through a shopping service who's already got established accounts with them, and who are used to navigating custom orders.

[alexiarnps.livejournal.com]

Ooof.

Then I got nothing.

[paillettes.livejournal.com]

you are looking to order custom sized stuff? or just little random things?

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

Custom-sized things. There are two different jackets I really like.

[paillettes.livejournal.com]

in april i blew my tax refund on a bunch of taobao stuff, and i ended up going through 4 different shopping services, all of which went well.

1. taobaonow: this one is set up like a shopping cart; you add the URL of the item and it figures out the price for you. i used this for things that i didn't need custom sizing for. supposedly they can do it, but i preferred a little more hand-holding and personal service for those items.

i would recommend one of the other 3 for custom stuff:

2. dollypoddle: this is a person on lj who operates a shopping service. you PM her with the items you want and your measurements. my order with her took a long time because one of the two items was delayed, and i wish she had let me know earlier so i could have split the shipment and gotten the finished item sooner. otherwise i had no problems -- she was friendly and easy to communicate with, and my items came out fine.

3&4: qutieland and clobbaonline: 2 websites that are basically resellers. they have to have what you want on their site though; i don't think they do a general sort of shopping service. they are well-equipped to do custom orders and are a little bit more expensive accordingly... but when i calculated the price for an item through dollypoddle vs. one of these sites it was only a few dollars more. supposedly if the item comes and doesn't fit, you have a little more recourse with one of these sites, but there's one review on egl where the girl had a problem and qutieland was not much help.

anyway tl;dr: i would suggest quiteland or clobbaonline if they have the jacket you like, otherwise try dollypoddle. let me know if you need the links for any of those.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

Thank you, this is exactly the sort of info I'm looking for. I know that taobaonow and taobaospree are supposed to be fine, but since I DO want custom items, going through quiteland or clobbaonline sounds like the best bet for me. If you could give me links to those, that would be great. Thank you!

[paillettes.livejournal.com]

clobba's clothing section is here: http://clobbaonline.com/index.php?p=1_7_Clothing

qutieland's outerwear section is here: http://www.qutieland.com/show.php?cat=1&scat1=3

(reload if it looks funky, sometimes it doesn't work when you link them -- also check under tops too)

[megumi-selwyn.livejournal.com]

I went through Qutieland to buy a skirt from R-Series, and had it custom sized. I don't know if it applies to *all* their items, but I've had wonderful results with their custom-sizing. As for shopping services, I've used Qutieland and Taobaospree, and I prefer Taobaospree. Customer service was better, and so was the pricing.

[phoenixfire12.livejournal.com]

That ring is definately awsome. I even love Carnelian.

[dearquenne.livejournal.com]

I use clobbaonline for all my taobao shopping, if you can supply the link to the taobao item you want, Martin from clobbaonline will be able to give you the information on it, including if it is available for custom sizing & purchase it on your behave even if it is not listed on the site. I have used him to buy non-lolita stuff & lolita related stuff.
He has always been pretty detail on all the information i need to know about a item I wanted to buy, and kept me updated on everything. So now I only strictly use clobbaonline for all my taobao purchases.

I've have extremely good customer service from him.
When 1 of my dresses was made the wrong size due to the manufacture's fault, Martin dealt with it right away without even questioning me and payed my postage to ship it back to him & pay it to ship it to me again.

From what he told me, i think r-series stop taking custom sizing for the recent pieces (not 100% sure) unless it is during the time or pre-der for new releases and i think infanta does do custom sizing.

He will also double check all the measurements you submit to him too to make everything is correct and nothing is mis-measured.

I hope that helps a little for the info about clobba.

I've only used taobaospree myself once, and I didn't really have a excellent experience with them. I had to pay before ordering an item, which is normal, but then after I paid, they told me it was no longer available which I felt they could have check beforehand before billing me. then I had to go thru the hassle of waiting for them to refund me.

qutieland is similar to clobbaonline, but i think they will strictly only order what is on their site. I've never had any issues with them when I had order stuff there, but they are more expensive then everyone else.