FT: Absolutely Irresistable

Monday, February 9, 2009

Reader 169

Hi there! I have been shopping online for quite some time now. Just wanna voice out some of my concerns based on my experience with various online sellers.

While most shops practice the 'first come, first serve' policy, some other shops defer by implementing a bidding system. For example, if an item is wanted by two or more buyers, that item will be open for bidding and the highest bidder will get the item. I think that this is perfectly okay as long as it is stated in their 'terms and conditions'. However, what annoys me is when some of these sellers do not post the current price of the item. There was once when a particular dress caught my eye and I emailed the seller to get her bank account details. But the seller replied me that the item is currently reserved for another buyer and asked me if I would want to increase the bid. (Take note that the item was not listed as reserved or that a bid had been placed on it.) As I really wanted that item, I agreed to increase the bid and pay more than the amount stated on her site. But I was thinking, what if there is actually no existing bid for that item? What if the seller purposely increased the price of the item when she knows that I am interested in it? By not stating the current price of the item, the seller has opened all these possible doubts. Therefore, I strongly feel that online shops which are implementing the bidding system should always state the current price of the item. By doing so, we will know that sellers are not deliberately increasing the price of the item when there are interested buyers.

Other than that, I have had fairly good experiences with online shopping. Shops which offer excellent service and after-service are Absolutely Irresistible, Ancient Orchids, Sweet Toothsome and Shopaholic Epitomist. Kudos to these owners and keep up the good service :)

Also worthy of mention is Phat Culture. Few days ago I emailed them to enquire about an item which I've set my eyes on. As I'm quite heavy-chested, I asked the seller if the item would fit me in that area by providing my measurement. She honestly replied that the bust area wouldn't fit me and discouraged me buying it. They provide accurate info even if it results in unsuccessful sales. Honest sellers like these are what other online shopping sites owners need to look up to. Again, keep up the good work :D

Spotted!

This section is where FT features items, as well as link up other blogshops that are also selling the same item.

The definition of 'same item' in FT are items that are almost identical. We are not 100% sure that items are exactly the same as sellers may argue that the items are bought from different suppliers, or the material is different and so on.
This section does not include clothes from oversea-sprees, e.g. clothes from Taiwan / Korea.
Should FT make any mistakes in wrongly assuming that two items are the same, we sincerely apologize, and would appreciate if blogshop owners can kindly notify us about the mistake.

Our main purpose is to allow readers/customers to look for the same item should the item be out of stock in one particular e-boutique. Apart from that, readers/customers can also search for blogshops that provide CODs in their preferred area to save on postage.

Reasons as to why prices of similar items may differ

Some readers already know this, but some do not.Well, we have compiled a list of reasons as to why prices on identical items may be differ.

1. Some sellers want to earn a higher profit margin, some sellers settle for lower profits

2. Some sellers include COD charges & postage charges into their listed price.

3. Some sellers state a higher price just to allow some space for customers to negotiate the price. do remember that different buyers may get the same item from the same blogshop at different prices also.

4. Some sellers hire models to model their clothings, some sellers also do seek professional help to do up their blogpage layout. Some sellers include their petrol prices, time & other expenses into their selling price.

5. Some sellers have an 'offline boutique'. They operate both their online & offline boutique.

6. Occasionally, some sellers import their items from overseas, that is because they did not know that the same item can be bought locally at a much lower price.

7. Some sellers are located out-of-KL, which may explain why their prices may differ compared to the sellers based in KL.

8. Some sellers do get cheated by the supplier too. Different suppliers charge at different price. Also, some sellers may buy the same item in bigger bulk, which they may get it at a lower price.'

9. Some items with the exact same design is in fact of different quality grade (made of different materials & craftmanship).

10. Some items with the exact same design may be imported from Taiwan/Korea/China (either pre-order of stock-in-hand), while some are from local suppliers.

[this list will be updated from time to time, email us at fashion.truth@gmail.com if we missed out any. thank u!]

Stories

Readers, sellers & buyers are welcome to share your stories with us.
Stories include : online shopping bad & good experience, thoughts and comments about online shopping, advices to fellow readers.
Stories will be moderated. Emails containing vulgarity and harsh words will be modified accordingly. However prior to posting the email up, FT will send the copy of modified email to the sender to get their approval.
Senders can request for their stories to be posted anonymously. Should senders fail to note that they would like to remain anonymous, FT will post up their names as well. This applies for both buyers & sellers.
FT will post up stories regarding negative shopping experience, however, the blogshop concern will be remained as anonymous. Changes to this may be made in the future.

FT

Linkbar

Announcement

Monday, February 9, 2009

Reader 169

FT

Email Us

Nuffnang

My Blog List (A - M)

My Blog List (N - Z)

Advertisements

Link Button

Spotted!

Reasons as to why prices of similar items may differ

Stories

Followers

Labels

Blog Archive