Buying furniture on taobao

[Lisafuller]

TBH I am really surprised that people are doing this, unless it is just a temporary measure and not your final set of furniture.

1.5 year ago we bought some stuff from HipVan for our rented apartment. The design was ok but the quality is simply not there:
- upholstered chairs are not well balanced, and the whole internal filling is flattened
- table top in the dining table looks terrible - scratches and stains I am not able to clean
- sofa parts are sagging
At least with HipVan, they do the assembling for you.
I guess Taobao is similar quality, or worse.

Well, it's all about what you can afford, both in terms of time and money. If you can afford to wait, go for the cheaper option. If you can afford the more expensive furniture, then by all means go for it.

[Lisafuller]

nelyanne: I think their prices (Hipvan) are incredibly low so that worries me..I would also try to stay away from online shop without a shop presence to view the product.

I know a couple friends who bought from them before, don't have many negative things to say.

[Lisafuller]

I am so tempted to buy study desks from Taobao..just afraid it doesn't look the same as in pictures and it's impossible for a return. I just can't find a nice looking study desk in Singapore..

Have you tried IKEA? Lol!

[Lisafuller]

@abby HipVan has a shop at Suntec, so you can see stuff in real before buying. However, it might be hard to tell how well the item will age (unless it is obvious from the first look that it is a crap). There used to be some kind of Taobao showroom at Funan, but of course it doesn't cover all sellers.

Anyway, I don't regret - using Hipvan was still better than renting a fully furnished apartment. I just wouldn't do it again if I buy my own house.

I find the Taobao store impractical, they have such a crazy variety of products online that there's no way to showcase all of them at once.

[Lisafuller]

I've had a few furniture shipped in from taobao before but i usually purchase it from there if i don't mind the quality (usually for the aesthetic of my place rather than practicality). you can find really good pieces at really cheap prices but there's a risk that it will not show up like in the photos, and returning it can be a hassle. Hipvan on the other hand, i believe most of the stocks came from the same few suppliers from china but at least you get to see the real thing in their physical stores. I would usually shop on Robinsons if i were to look for furniture online, and they carry quite a few well known brands.

I thought Robinson's closed down...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Lisa, they did. In all probability this is probably a spammer, but Pal is using a new IP cloaking device called Cloudflare that masks IP addresses. The bad part is now we have no way to trace if what smells like a spammers is actually a spammer by looking a the IP addy of origin. I think this is going to make a trashcan out of the board eventually but I'm just a janitor trying to keep the floor clean. When I read it I checked for an IP from India where a lot of spam comes from, especially with wording and the data being referenced for answers is 5 years old or more. e.g., Robinsons. Sadly, all IP's are now masked via cloudflare so it difficult at best trying to second guess some of the posts.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Lisa, they did. In all probability this is probably a spammer, but Pal is using a new IP cloaking device called Cloudflare that masks IP addresses. The bad part is now we have no way to trace if what smells like a spammer is actually a spammer by looking a the IP addy of origin. I think this is going to make a trashcan out of the board eventually but I'm just a janitor trying to keep the floor clean. When I read it I checked for an IP from India where a lot of spam comes from, especially with wording and the data being referenced for answers is 5 years old or more. e.g., Robinsons. Sadly, all IP's are now masked via cloudflare so it difficult at best trying to second guess some of the posts.

[tiktok]

Lol because you put it behind cloudflare, now you can't figure out origin country? While still not dealing with the root problem of fake signups? I don't even run a forum but I know these things both have easy solutions. The incompetence of the people running this site is astounding.

[SammieUY]

Lol im not a spam? It's in the news that Robinsons is back but fully online. I even found them on the cashback & local bank apps

[Pal]

Sorry about that lol.

Looks like you are more well informed than us!

Thanks for the tips.

Lol im not a spam? It's in the news that Robinsons is back but fully online. I even found them on the cashback & local bank apps

[Lisafuller]

Lisa, they did. In all probability this is probably a spammer, but Pal is using a new IP cloaking device called Cloudflare that masks IP addresses. The bad part is now we have no way to trace if what smells like a spammers is actually a spammer by looking a the IP addy of origin. I think this is going to make a trashcan out of the board eventually but I'm just a janitor trying to keep the floor clean. When I read it I checked for an IP from India where a lot of spam comes from, especially with wording and the data being referenced for answers is 5 years old or more. e.g., Robinsons. Sadly, all IP's are now masked via cloudflare so it difficult at best trying to second guess some of the posts.

Interesting. It's amazing how much you know about all this tech stuff, I feel like I'm older than you here.

[Lisafuller]

Lol because you put it behind cloudflare, now you can't figure out origin country? While still not dealing with the root problem of fake signups? I don't even run a forum but I know these things both have easy solutions. The incompetence of the people running this site is astounding.

What's the solution?

[Lisafuller]

Lol im not a spam? It's in the news that Robinsons is back but fully online. I even found them on the cashback & local bank apps

Wow, you're right! I hadn't known.

[tiktok]

Lol because you put it behind cloudflare, now you can't figure out origin country? While still not dealing with the root problem of fake signups? I don't even run a forum but I know these things both have easy solutions. The incompetence of the people running this site is astounding.

What's the solution?

1. Custom cloudflare headers like CF-IPCountry
2. Captchas and/or SMS OTP

[Pal]

I suggest you logout and try register and take a look at the captcha.

Lol because you put it behind cloudflare, now you can't figure out origin country? While still not dealing with the root problem of fake signups? I don't even run a forum but I know these things both have easy solutions. The incompetence of the people running this site is astounding.

What's the solution?

1. Custom cloudflare headers like CF-IPCountry
2. Captchas and/or SMS OTP