Order from Dangdang

[hquek]

Ha. And I’m trying out peeka. Hope the shipping costs won’t be scary. The thing I like buying from dangdang direct is the certainty of shipping costs. With transport companies, I won’t know until it’s too late

[Oppsgal]

Anyone try buy other things other then books through Peeka? How’s the shipping, exchange rate and their service like? Very confused by their calculation…

[hquek]

Oppsgal:

Anyone try buy other things other then books through Peeka? How's the shipping, exchange rate and their service like? Very confused by their calculation...

I just tried peeka recently. Order placed in mid march, expected to arrive by this week (yeah). since it's my first time, I tried carefully to get books of about the same size (total about 7-8). Ended up paying $5 concierge charge plus $16 shipping. So nett nett, I paid more for shipping than I would have with DD.

Good points: service is prompt and they update you every step of the way. Shipping is fast compared with dangdang. Some of the items are only available in some provinces - interestingly, peeka could get for me (that's a double plus).

Bad points: shipping charges are unknown until the items are on their way to SG.

Basically, I log into my account with peeka and add items by pasting weblink from DD (it's vey smart and can capture the price etc). Remember to zero out the DD shipping cost if DD absorb your transport to Peeka receiving centre. once I confirm, Peeka will charge me (I think) 80% of the cost at their official exchange rate (when I paid, I think it was about 4.85; they post the rates on their website, so it's transparent).

Peeka will order for me and receive for me. once the items are received, they will repack and then ship out. only after it's shipped out then I will know how much balance to pay.

btw, during the waiting time, you can add more items to your order. as long as not everything is in, it's fine to add.

i'm happy with their service but still feel it's pricey. so end of the day I probably won't use their service again unless it's to try get my hands on those items that are out of stock for sending to SG.

[SAHM_TAN]

How much would you have paid for shipping if you went with DD? Thanks for sharing.

[Oppsgal]

hquek:

Oppsgal:

Anyone try buy other things other then books through Peeka? How's the shipping, exchange rate and their service like? Very confused by their calculation...

I just tried peeka recently. Order placed in mid march, expected to arrive by this week (yeah). since it's my first time, I tried carefully to get books of about the same size (total about 7-8). Ended up paying $5 concierge charge plus $16 shipping. So nett nett, I paid more for shipping than I would have with DD.

Good points: service is prompt and they update you every step of the way. Shipping is fast compared with dangdang. Some of the items are only available in some provinces - interestingly, peeka could get for me (that's a double plus).

Bad points: shipping charges are unknown until the items are on their way to SG.

Basically, I log into my account with peeka and add items by pasting weblink from DD (it's vey smart and can capture the price etc). Remember to zero out the DD shipping cost if DD absorb your transport to Peeka receiving centre. once I confirm, Peeka will charge me (I think) 80% of the cost at their official exchange rate (when I paid, I think it was about 4.85; they post the rates on their website, so it's transparent).

Peeka will order for me and receive for me. once the items are received, they will repack and then ship out. only after it's shipped out then I will know how much balance to pay.

btw, during the waiting time, you can add more items to your order. as long as not everything is in, it's fine to add.

i'm happy with their service but still feel it's pricey. so end of the day I probably won't use their service again unless it's to try get my hands on those items that are out of stock for sending to SG.

Thanks for the info.

Does DD accept local credit card? You using sea shipping for Peeka?

[Pen88n]

Oppsgal:

hquek:

[quote=\"Oppsgal\"]Anyone try buy other things other then books through Peeka? How's the shipping, exchange rate and their service like? Very confused by their calculation...

I just tried peeka recently. Order placed in mid march, expected to arrive by this week (yeah). since it's my first time, I tried carefully to get books of about the same size (total about 7-8). Ended up paying $5 concierge charge plus $16 shipping. So nett nett, I paid more for shipping than I would have with DD.

Good points: service is prompt and they update you every step of the way. Shipping is fast compared with dangdang. Some of the items are only available in some provinces - interestingly, peeka could get for me (that's a double plus).

Bad points: shipping charges are unknown until the items are on their way to SG.

Basically, I log into my account with peeka and add items by pasting weblink from DD (it's vey smart and can capture the price etc). Remember to zero out the DD shipping cost if DD absorb your transport to Peeka receiving centre. once I confirm, Peeka will charge me (I think) 80% of the cost at their official exchange rate (when I paid, I think it was about 4.85; they post the rates on their website, so it's transparent).

Peeka will order for me and receive for me. once the items are received, they will repack and then ship out. only after it's shipped out then I will know how much balance to pay.

btw, during the waiting time, you can add more items to your order. as long as not everything is in, it's fine to add.

i'm happy with their service but still feel it's pricey. so end of the day I probably won't use their service again unless it's to try get my hands on those items that are out of stock for sending to SG.

Thanks for the info.

Does DD accept local credit card? You using sea shipping for Peeka?[/quote]The advantage of ordering from Peeka is you can order from elsewhere and not restricted to DD. I checked and ordered some from Taobao - which can be cheaper than DD or sometimes DD out-of-stock for long time. And they can combined all the goods from the different merchants before sending over. Payment is via internet banking / ATM to a local bank account. 1st payment is 50% price of goods. Then next payment will be the other 50% plus shipping cost (I hope I did not get the % wrong

[hquek]

SAHM_TAN:

How much would you have paid for shipping if you went with DD? Thanks for sharing.

Rough estimate is about RMB80 - about S$16. out of pocket about $5. not much, but then i hate having to think very hard how much an additional book will add to the shipping costs. I wanted to add a hardcover fairly large book but I think the overall shipping will increase by quite a bit in comparison.

[hquek]

Oppsgal:

Thanks for the info.

Does DD accept local credit card? You using sea shipping for Peeka?

pleasure. I keep my DBS Amex card for DD - apparently Amex is good for use. yes, I used economy shipping for Peeka.

But note. I have a large stock of books yet unread and so can afford the waiting time for DD (likely I would have had to wait like months for DD shipment to arrive), and Peeka only took less than 1 month end to end (so that's sweet - to quote DS1).

[hquek]

Pen88n:

The advantage of ordering from Peeka is you can order from elsewhere and not restricted to DD. I checked and ordered some from Taobao - which can be cheaper than DD or sometimes DD out-of-stock for long time. And they can combined all the goods from the different merchants before sending over. Payment is via internet banking / ATM to a local bank account. 1st payment is 50% price of goods. Then next payment will be the other 50% plus shipping cost (I hope I did not get the % wrong

Agree with Pen88n - I do love they repack and consolidate purchases.

First payment is 80% of the cost of the products. I used interbank transfer (they have a few local bank accounts). 2nd payment is for the balance and shipping.

[hquek]

a bit OT, but can't resist. DS and I just finished this book - it's beyond excellent. 一年级的小豆豆（注音·全彩·美绘版)


Story about a child in Primary 1 in China and the antics he and his classmates get up to. A bit like the chinese version of Nicolas (by Goscinny). Stories are witty and extremely funny. Each story is 1 chapter and there is hypy (I need this).

This is the 2nd time Ds1 bug me for bedtime story everynight to complete the book (we do one story at a time) - the first was for kameila. I was so thrilled by its success I went out to order the other books in the series before finishing.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=21114753. Short excerpt is available from DD web.