Taobao Secret: Buyers Beware

(Update: Check out my guide on how to pick good Taobao sellers! http://therevolutioner.blogspot.sg/2015/07/how-to-pick-good-sellers-from-taobao.html).

If you've been suspecting that the feedback reviews on Taobao cannot be trusted, you're quite right. And if you've been wondering why you've been getting crap despite selecting the best sellers, here's why:

Without those important reviews, (my bro says) buyers are blind. There is no way of knowing whether you'll get crap.

I've been relying on those reviews (I can read Chinese), seller's feedback scores, seller's website & items' presentation to decide whether I should trust a seller.  But my bro and I started getting suspicious recently when he started getting crap despite buying from sellers with high positive scores.

Personally, I've also received crap despite carefully picking the "best" sellers.

Every time my bro ordered glass light bulbs from Taobao sellers, the sellers will send different items from what they show in their photos. For instance, the photos show a Philips brand light bulb. But after ordering, the seller sends a China brand item.

In other instances, the sellers sent light bulbs that were completely different from what was shown in the photos, completely not what was ordered & completely wrong.

This is despite these sellers having high scores of 4.9 and 5.

Bro also noticed that while an item page shows a number of sales for an item (成交记录), there is strangely not a single review (deleted? Not posted?).  Sometimes, a seller's score shows 4.9, but there are no reviews for any of the seller's items. So how did the seller get a 4.9 score?

In a recent case, I purchased an aquarium pump filter. Seller had a top score of 5.0 for all 3 parameters: item description (描述), service (服务) & speed of delivery (物流).  

But the item I received was badly scratched down one side. At first, I thought grains of gravel at the base of the container had escaped and scratched it, but the box was empty. No gravel had escaped.  How did it get so scratched down 1 side? The box looked new.

The item didn't look brand new & looked like a display piece that had been somewhere for a while.  Bro said it looked like it had been wedged between 2 things & got scratched. I was really puzzled. (And why didn't 65daigou tell me about it & exchange it with the seller?).

Just a few days ago, I received the hairband that I ordered. The seller as you can see in the link, has good scores of 4.9 throughout the 3 parameters.  The item itself has a score of 4.9 with many positive reviews on its great quality & softness etc...  (http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=40903538464&spm=2014.12193480.0.0)

But the hairband I received....  At first, after I took it out of its cute plastic wrapping, I knew the smell was a very bad sign. Hairband could be washed & perhaps the petroleum smell might go away. But the moment I stretched it, it snapped.

The elastic band is strangely thick & black,  not matching with such a soft-looking item & clearly, it's just been thrown into the thing without any care.  Very poorly made & in the seller's photos, that black & ugly elastic band is not shown.

Threw it away. That was more than $3 including shipping.

How could the seller have sent such crap when the reviews & the seller's ratings are so good?  Is the seller nuts? Sending good items on some days & bad items on others?

On 22 Jan, I asked 65daigou to leave a negative review on my behalf.

I wrote in Chinese that the hairband had a strong petroleum smell & the elastic band broke. Very poor quality.

On 25 Jan, 65daigou staff replied with a screenshot of the review that would be posted. The staff took the initiative to add for me another line "waste of time & money!", which surprised me. You can see that the staff gave a black flower -1 point.

25/01/2015 09:28

Dear customer, so sorry for the late reply!
Suppose you mean DE011409129, have added a negative feedback as your requested(attached).

Any further help, please let us know. Thank you.:)

However, the review didn't immediately appear on the seller's page (累计评论).

In Amazon.com, reviews are immediately displayed.  But not so for Taobao.

After waiting 1 day, I asked 65daigou when the review will be shown on the seller's page.  Here is 65daigou's reply on 26 Jan: 

Dear customer, normally, the negative feedbacks need to be checked by the sellers first, after they checked the feedback, then it will be reflected on the website, we have no idea when the check will be done..

Thank you.:)

When I told bro, he said this function of letting the sellers "check" the reviews first shouldn't even exist. I agree.

It means the sellers can choose not to allow negative comments to be shown, thus ensuring the high positive scores.  It means the scores cannot be trusted.

It also means that sellers with low ratings for the 3 parameters, are actually the honest ones. Because in allowing negative comments, their scores fall.  And I think China buyers know/understand this.  I am often surprised that despite some sellers' low ratings (4.6, 4.7 etc..), China buyers will still buy their items & some of these items actually have positive feedback.

So those sellers with high scores are actually the bad ones, & those with low scores are actually honest?

"What an upside down world." I said.

Bro agreed.

On 27 Jan, the negative review appeared on the hairband seller's review page. However, it's odd. Why did 65daigou staff leave a review dated 25 Jan that says the quality is average? I never said the quality is average & that's the date the staff was to post the negative review (even the time of the review posted matches the staff's reply to me in 65daigou on 25 Jan).  Then oddly below it, is the negative review in a follow-up "1 day after confirming goods received".  What's up?



Why did the staff provide the review that the quality is average when the staff isn't the one who received the item? And why is it dated 25 Jan when this is the date of the negative review?

Why did my negative review that should have been dated 25 Jan end up as a follow-up?

~~~~~

China reviewers are less discerning than Amazon reviewers. China people don't know quality or authenticity the way we understand it. Often, you'll see China reviewers give top score for an item, but on Amazon, that item gets blasted by reviewers to a 1 star position. 

In fact, China buyers can't tell the difference between an authentic item & one that isn't. Reviewers very often "guess" that an item is authentic because they haven't seen or tried the real thing. 

So, hoodwinking them is easy. Which is what China sellers do. 

And when we buy from these sellers, we are actually buying into this world of con that is meant to con the China buyer. That's why it's a big risk for every purchase we make & that's why we get crap.

But, that is not to say that all of the sellers on Taobao are bad.  There are quite some sellers that sell WYSIWYG stuff.  So far, depending on sellers' reviews & items' presentation... I've bought some stuff that are as described.  To a certain extent, sellers' reviews are still important & still reliable.

I try to keep purchase amount low, in case it's crap.  The most expensive thing I bought was a pair of Nike running shoes for $150 with 65daigou's "Sensitive" air shipping. According to the seller's photos, it's authentic. The reviews were good (that was when I believed the reviews could be believed). 

Luckily, the shoes I received was as described & from the quality so far,  I don't doubt it's authentic Nike.  [I bought it because the color is not available in SG & I didn't like Amazon's policy of trying & returning.].

The 2nd expensive thing I got, was a Dyson lookalike fan that I purchased through Peeka (before I switched back to 65daigou).  It's not Dyson, but it works exactly like it.  Unfortunately, due to electrical incompatibility, it cannot just be plugged into our Singapore socket. So bro had to make some kind of adapter for it. And it works beautifully. And just like a Dyson, it loses to the good old fan when it comes to actual fanning. So, it's really a Dyson, just without the name. It cost just $58 (without sea shipping cost) and has been thrown aside & buried in a pile of junk in my room for some time.  

If it had been a Dyson,  it would have been a severely expensive junk, as one poor man lamented to me one day while I was considering to buy one at Best Denki some time ago last year.  He bought the $699 authentic, vertical, Dyson piece of junk which he told me never to ever get.
~~~~~~~~~

Another reason why overseas buyers receive crap when buying through a proxy like 65daigou, is that the Taobao sellers know that the address is a warehouse address & therefore a proxy. 

The sellers know there's no way the buyer can leave negative feedback unlike the China buyer. No way the buyer can return & get a refund.  The sellers get rid of their crap this way & get paid for it.

This is supported by Peeka's comment in their Facebook where they mention receiving items at their warehouse & are required to pay for the delivery when in fact nobody ordered these items that are actually "worthless". It means their address is known as a warehouse address. And whoever sent those items are aware that it's a proxy.