Order from Dangdang

[jollyme]

Hi LHNQ,


u're most welcomed!
Hope you will receive your parcel soon.

[hquek]

They use china post. So singpost will handle for them ultimately. So far I still have faith in the end product. You may want to give it a few more weeks. Else, email customer service and ask them to send you the parcel reference number. You can go online to check the status. Sorry I don’t have the link, but it’s embedded here in few of the pages.

[LNHQ]

hquek:

They use china post. So singpost will handle for them ultimately. So far I still have faith in the end product. You may want to give it a few more weeks. Else, email customer service and ask them to send you the parcel reference number. You can go online to check the status. Sorry I don't have the link, but it's embedded here in few of the pages.

Hi hquek

Thanks.. 1st time buying

[hquek]

no worries, understand your excitement. Hope that your shipment goes through smoothly.

[marklim]

Hi all,


I am a first-timer on these forums, nice to meet you.

I want to order books from China and it seems like there are quite a few shipping options. The main ones I believe are: dangdang direct, peeka, daigou, shopsg and vpost.

Can any experienced kind soul help to differentiate between these options in terms of pricing, service and security (of delivery)? I plan to buy about 8 single-volume books in one go. Thank you very much in advance!

[hquek]

Hi marklim,


So far I’ve only tried dangdang and peeka for china, and vpost for Europe. Personally, vpost was very expensive option for me, and I think the china option also ex.

For peeka, if you have the exact dimensions, it’ll be easier to gauge the final bill. Choose economy and you won’t have to worry how heavy these are. This service is fast and transparent (status update available). But in my case, though I tried to order only books of the same size, I paid more than what I would have under dangdang.

My favorite probably is dangdang becos I know exactly how much I need to pay. Sometimes the amount on the stamp is higher, other times lower than what I paid. Only problem is that it can be slower than putting it on a snail and having the snail crawl all the way here. But my books have so far arrived safely. My preference also becos I got too many books and I can wait. If you can’t, then better to choose another option.

[marklim]

hquek:

Hi marklim,


So far I've only tried dangdang and peeka for china, and vpost for Europe. Personally, vpost was very expensive option for me, and I think the china option also ex.

For peeka, if you have the exact dimensions, it'll be easier to gauge the final bill. Choose economy and you won't have to worry how heavy these are. This service is fast and transparent (status update available). But in my case, though I tried to order only books of the same size, I paid more than what I would have under dangdang.

My favorite probably is dangdang becos I know exactly how much I need to pay. Sometimes the amount on the stamp is higher, other times lower than what I paid. Only problem is that it can be slower than putting it on a snail and having the snail crawl all the way here. But my books have so far arrived safely. My preference also becos I got too many books and I can wait. If you can't, then better to choose another option.

Thank you for sharing hquek I guess for heavy and bulky volumes, dangdang is the only viable option since it doesn't go by weight.

I am surprised peeka cost more for you. Was your package size considered large (in peeka's lingo), i.e. between 60,001 - 200,000 cubic cm? I am assuming that for single-volume books (say around 400 pages), it would take many of them to reach that range. So if i buy less than 10 books, my package size should be medium and peeka's shipping rate for medium is quite low indeed.

Also, for peeka, did you have to pay GST and handling fee on top of shipping fee? Are these percentages out of shipping cost or (shipping cost+product cost) or something else?

In any case, great to hear your books arrive safely! At least the tradeoff is between speed and cost and not security.

[hquek]

My order from peeka was for about 6 or 7 normal sized books. Not very big. But I was charged e medium sized.


For peeka, they charge a handling fee, shipping, and the exchange rate is also fixed by them. So they are in fact earning more than just shipping.

[hquek]

Btw, I rather pay for certainty, that is why I still prefer peeka. But I could be very wrong as to which is actually cheaper.

[marklim]

hquek:

Btw, I rather pay for certainty, that is why I still prefer peeka. But I could be very wrong as to which is actually cheaper.

Yea I would rather certainty as well As to which is cheaper depends on the contents of each individual shipment wouldn't it? I just bought 11 single-volume books, 1 set of 6 children books and 1 set of 4 dvds. Dangdang shipping costs me SGD$55 or so.

When my package comes I will use its volumetric weight to calculate peeka's costs. If peeka is significantly lower I will be sure to share my finding back here

:lovesite: