Has Lazada made a mistake using vendors outside of Thailand?

[impulse]

impulse, on 27 Jun 2016 - 12:33, said:impulse, on 27 Jun 2016 - 12:33, said:impulse, on 27 Jun 2016 - 12:33, said:

If they could combine AliExpress' product selection with Lazada's "one delivered price, with shipping and customs included- no surprises", and Lazada' policy of only allowing advertising stuff that's in stock ready to ship (and improve their search function), they'd have a real winner.

Edit: Oh, and Lazada's wide variety of payment choices that don't require a credit card or sending money internationally.

My fear is they'll merge the worst of each and end up with a turd.

If you want to grow, every company wants to do that you do not want to sell only local items. As a customer I really prefer a wide selection above a fast delivery.

When i was back in Europe i was looking for something but could find it nowhere. Googled and: there it was. Aliexpress. Never heard of but tried. Yes they could deliver but as i realised that Aliexpress is a chinese company i did not expect having it delivered in short time. Took three weeks but, i got something i could not find anywhere in europe, even not on the european internetcompanies. And cheap. Since then i am using Aliexpress more often but of course only when i am not hurried. Extremely broad productrange!

Super wide product range is an AliExpress strength.

But as it is, AliExpress has all kinds of items without firm pricing, and they advertise stuff that needs to be built after the order is received. Each vendor makes their own shipping arrangements with no guaranteed shipping rates, and it's a crapshoot whether your goods will get through customs, and at what cost.

If they can add the Lazada strengths of firm delivered pricing, not accepting ads for items not already in stock, multiple methods to pay, and Lazada acting as escrow agent, I'd be a happy camper.

There are several thousand dollars worth of items I'd order today, even from AliExpress- and gladly wait a few weeks. But when I try to order them, the supplier needs 4-6 weeks to make them, they can't give me a firm shipping cost or shipping date and I know from experience if they use their shippers, I'll get scalped with import duties and customs fees.

[stoli]

I think Lazada is still in its infancy and will get better with time. Ebay was like that years ago and has come a long way since then. I like the search option, "Free international shipping", on Ebay.

But what about the taxes that Thailand imposes when buying out side of Thailand. I understand that you are able to avoid these by buying from Lazada. Am I wrong? I am thinking of using them.

[farang000999]

Filter for domestic should not be complicated for them

[tropo]

I think Lazada is still in its infancy and will get better with time. Ebay was like that years ago and has come a long way since then. I like the search option, "Free international shipping", on Ebay.

But what about the taxes that Thailand imposes when buying out side of Thailand. I understand that you are able to avoid these by buying from Lazada. Am I wrong? I am thinking of using them.

I've bought many items from overseas suppliers on Lazada. I'm glad they went this way. The price you see listed is what you pay. The delivery times have always been much faster than indicated. I'm not interested in COD and always pay by card. A lot of people are complaining about that but don't mention that delivery is free. I used to have to order over 1000 baht to get free delivery. Now I can have a 100 baht item delivered to my door. That's hard to beat.

[impulse]

I think Lazada is still in its infancy and will get better with time. Ebay was like that years ago and has come a long way since then. I like the search option, "Free international shipping", on Ebay.

But what about the taxes that Thailand imposes when buying out side of Thailand. I understand that you are able to avoid these by buying from Lazada. Am I wrong? I am thinking of using them.

Seems that's all on Lazada's dime, just like the shipping. That's why the price may be higher on Lazada than EBay or Amazon- but it's all inclusive:

INTERNATIONAL PRODUCT POLICY

1. Do I have to pay extra duties or taxes for Internationally shipped items?

All internationally shipped items from Lazada Marketplace may be delivered at no additional cost to you. These products may be subject to customs fees, GST, and import duty, where applicable, at the point of importation. However, such fees, taxes and duties will not be borne by you. Hence, you are not expected to pay any duties or taxes, where applicable.

If you are asked by Customs or our logistic partner to pay duties, or requested to present a personal ID, please contact our Customer Service at www.lazada.com.my/contact/for clarification.

NOTE: When customs clearance procedures are required, this might cause delays beyond our original delivery estimates - kindly liaise with our Customer Service to get new estimated delivery times.

Source: http://www.lazada.com.my/international-product-policy/

Edited June 27, 2016 by impulse

[thesetat2013]

I agree that it can be difficult navigating through Lazada, I gave up trying to buy a carcam as I couldn't work out if they included an SD card and if so, which one, and if not, can I buy one (which one?) from them? In addition the problem mentioned above just put me off trying to use them again.

You were better off not buying it from them anyway! I made that mistake and got a cheap piece of crap that lasted about a month. When I tried to get their help in returning and replacing it, I found that was extremely difficult to do and ultimately I never got their help or my product replaced.

[happy Joe]

just select 'delivery time' in the 'sort by' drop down - if anyone ships from within thailand they will appear first, most available with cash on delivery

It doesn't work like that, I tried, just got the usual foreign sellers.

It works perfectly for me in Chiang Mai

Since the purchase by Ali group, there are now two types of products:

1 Stored in Thailand, as before, that are delivered in a few days.

2 direct import goods shipped by Ali partners that are delivered in 1 month.

There is no advantage to control the import of products Lazada now. The Ali offers is infinitely more vast and almost always enriched with equivalent in much lower price.

However Lazada is unbeatable for heavy and bulky it manages in warehouses.

[tropo]

I agree that it can be difficult navigating through Lazada, I gave up trying to buy a carcam as I couldn't work out if they included an SD card and if so, which one, and if not, can I buy one (which one?) from them? In addition the problem mentioned above just put me off trying to use them again.

You were better off not buying it from them anyway! I made that mistake and got a cheap piece of crap that lasted about a month. When I tried to get their help in returning and replacing it, I found that was extremely difficult to do and ultimately I never got their help or my product replaced.

If you buy a cheap piece of crap on any shopping site (Amazon, eBay or AliExpress) that's worth a small amount of money, and it's no good, you're screwed anyway. To ship it back will cost more than what the item is worth. You need to do your homework before you order. If it's cheap it will most likely not be high quality. Most items are available on other shopping sites and you can find more info or reviews... or even send requests for information.

There's a lot of good stuff on there.

I use all the big shopping sites, including Lazada. It's called shopping around for best product and price.

Edited June 28, 2016 by tropo

[kennypowers]

I think they have made a mistake because they are inviting problems. I tend not to order from sellers outside Thailand as I've heard some horror stories. That said, I've been pleased with the service so far and landed some great bargains.

I don't think you can filter by COD though. I'd make a suggestion to their support team on it as I'd find that useful too.

By the way, they're doing some great deals on American Tourister bags and suitcases this week see here - 50% off. I bought an AT rucksack 3 years ago and it's still going strong despite me constantly overloading it with weight.

[Konini]

I recently ordered a rather snazzy laptop stand which was a fair bit cheaper buying from the overseas vendor (China of course, the local bod had just done the same as me in larger numbers and was onselling with his mark up) and not something I needed particularly quickly. I was very surprised to receive it in 4 days, was expecting a lot longer, although ordering from Aliexpress I've occasionally had the package within a week of ordering. I've also ordered something I needed quickly and went for the local seller but the noticed when the package arrived, also quickly, was from China.

As said, buying cheap crap is always a gamble, but like Amazon, Paypal and Ebay, Aliexpress almost always side with the buyer even in cases when it's obviously the buyer pulling a scam; the goods being not worth enough to return or when they are returned the old switcheroony has been done with the buyer keeping the new item and the seller stuck with the older, broken or less valuable item returned. Personally, I wouldn't want to be a seller on any of these sites, but I buy from them knowing that I have protection and it will all turn out well for me if there is a problem.

[jeab1980]

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

Edited June 28, 2016 by jeab1980

[Mark123456]

If you do want to buy a product that is imported you can just print off the receipt and pay the bill at a 7-11. Pretty much like COD as you do not need to use a credit card.

Don't mean to doubt chowny77 but is this correct?

I want to pay COD, because I don't trust the seller to post it to me, or the Thai post to deliver it to me.

This isn't rocket science, but no money until I see the package, understand or not?

Can't you use a Visa debit or credit card? The couple of occasions I've had problems with ordering goods online (not from Lazada), my bank reversed the charges as soon as I opened my dispute.

[Mark123456]

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

I find eBay just as annoying. Too much stuff I want to buy goes via the Global Shipping Program, which I refuse to use, and they removed the ability to filter results based on whether the vendors would actually delivery to your country, which I thought was ridiculous. Now I have to wade through hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of results, most of which are completely irrelevant to me.

[Mark123456]

I want to pay COD, because I don't trust the seller to post it to me, or the Thai post to deliver it to me.

This isn't rocket science, but no money until I see the package, understand or not?

One of Lazada's other selling points is that I pay Lazada, not the vendor. It appears that Lazada pays the vendor only after they get confirmation that my goodies have been delivered, and within 14 days. So instead of filing a complaint with PayPal and hoping they'll claw the money back from an errant EBay vendor, Lazada controls the money until the deal is done and dusted and everyone's satisfied. Kind of like an escrow service.

I've never had a non-delivery or quality problem, but I suspect my odds of getting a satisfactory result are better trying to get a refund from Lazada, than from the vendor or from the payment service (example- PayPal) who then has to get it back from the vendor.

I haven't used COD since my 2nd Lazada transaction- because I don't like carrying a bunch of cash around waiting for the delivery guy to get there- plus, I'm usually gone out to lunch when he arrives.

I'm pretty sure that PayPal operate in much the same way as banks - they reverse the charges, i.e. they take the money from the vendors account and pay it into yours. I don't think they refund you and then hope they can get the money back from the vendor.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Mark123456

[jeab1980]

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

I find eBay just as annoying. Too much stuff I want to buy goes via the Global Shipping Program, which I refuse to use, and they removed the ability to filter results based on whether the vendors would actually delivery to your country, which I thought was ridiculous. Now I have to wade through hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of results, most of which are completely irrelevant to me.

Ilook for what I want pick 3 sellers of the item and contact all 3 of them as to wWether they ship to Thailand. Been lucky maybe but always found one who will.

[Mark123456]

Do you mean you ask 3 sellers who don't advertise they ship to Thailand and ask them if they will? I've only tried that once because I assumed that people who decided they only wanted to deliver within the USA (for example) would not be interested in sending something to Thailand. In my case, it was a vintage razor from a French vendor and they were quite happy to send it to me. Makes me wonder why they don;t say so in the first place -they could attract a lot more bids. Is it maybe because they have to work out the shipping charges for each country they list?

Edited June 28, 2016 by Mark123456

[jeab1980]

Do you mean you ask 3 sellers who don't advertise they ship to Thailand and ask them if they will? I've only tried that once because I assumed that people who decided they only wanted to deliver within the USA (for example) would not be interested in sending something to Thailand. In my case, it was a vintage razor from a French vendor and they were quite happy to send it to me. Makes me wonder why they don;t say so in the first place -they could attract a lot more bids. Is it maybe because they have to work out the shipping charges for each country they list?

Yes I just ask them if they would ship to Thailand some do say world wide. Only once Ihad to ship it to friend in UK then they sent it onto me.

[ThailandLOS]

I used to work for Lazada and totally agree on the search functionality. They are constantly working on improving it, but still have some distance to go.

With 20+ million products in their catalogue it's not an easy task. It's huge volumes of data to tag and filter.

I would expect at least one of the search words I used to apply to the results.

How hard can that be?

You would be surprised, data scientists are paid 250k+ THB/month for this type of thing. It's not so much about the search word but rather how products are tagged. If you got a list with 20 million entries and half of them are wrong, you can't just put people on entering the right info. This is the problem.

[tropo]

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

I find eBay just as annoying. Too much stuff I want to buy goes via the Global Shipping Program, which I refuse to use, and they removed the ability to filter results based on whether the vendors would actually delivery to your country, which I thought was ridiculous. Now I have to wade through hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of results, most of which are completely irrelevant to me.

(Sorry, this is not a reply about Lazada, but it may be useful to some people)

Why would you refuse to use the eBay Global Shipping Program? Sometimes it the only way you can get an item shipped from the USA or UK.

I used the eBay Global Shipping Program last month to have a large and heavy piece of gym equipment delivered from the US. I was very impressed - it was quick and there wasn't an cent extra to pay. I'd rather know exactly what I'm up for including customs duty and have it cleared for me and delivered to my front door than have to visit customs up north (I'm in Pattaya) - which could cost at least 2000 in taxi fares and a lot of wasted time... and pay the customs officials whatever they want. A clearing agent isn't cheap either.

The Global shipping agent asked me for a scan of my passport and an explanation of what the equipment was for.

Sure, for small items there probably isn't going to be a customs hassle, but for big items you can't avoid it. I will most definitely be using them again.

Amazon have a similar shipping program where you pay for customs up front. I had an item delivered last week - it was lightening fast from the USA.

If you want to import decent gym equipment, there aren't many choices other than from the UK or USA. Australian merchants won't ship here.

Edited June 28, 2016 by tropo

[ThailandLOS]

just select 'delivery time' in the 'sort by' drop down - if anyone ships from within thailand they will appear first, most available with cash on delivery

It doesn't work like that, I tried, just got the usual foreign sellers.

It works perfectly for me in Chiang Mai

Since the purchase by Ali group, there are now two types of products:

1 Stored in Thailand, as before, that are delivered in a few days.

2 direct import goods shipped by Ali partners that are delivered in 1 month.

There is no advantage to control the import of products Lazada now. The Ali offers is infinitely more vast and almost always enriched with equivalent in much lower price.

However Lazada is unbeatable for heavy and bulky it manages in warehouses.

Those two options have been available for the last years. Has nothing to do with Ali taking over Lazada (in fact Lazada is competing with AliExpress).

Shipment time is always individual and is stated on the website for each product item.

[impulse]

One of Lazada's other selling points is that I pay Lazada, not the vendor. It appears that Lazada pays the vendor only after they get confirmation that my goodies have been delivered, and within 14 days. So instead of filing a complaint with PayPal and hoping they'll claw the money back from an errant EBay vendor, Lazada controls the money until the deal is done and dusted and everyone's satisfied. Kind of like an escrow service.

I've never had a non-delivery or quality problem, but I suspect my odds of getting a satisfactory result are better trying to get a refund from Lazada, than from the vendor or from the payment service (example- PayPal) who then has to get it back from the vendor.

I haven't used COD since my 2nd Lazada transaction- because I don't like carrying a bunch of cash around waiting for the delivery guy to get there- plus, I'm usually gone out to lunch when he arrives.

I'm pretty sure that PayPal operate in much the same way as banks - they reverse the charges, i.e. they take the money from the vendors account and pay it into yours. I don't think they refund you and then hope they can get the money back from the vendor.

Not if the vendor was anything like me. Paypal got such a bad rep for freezing accounts that I swept my Paypal account immediately any time it had any real money in it. Perhaps there was something in the fine print that said they could sweep the money back from my Bank of America account without my approval, but I never found out. I had a 100% feedback rating, though only a couple of hundred transactions.

If I planned to buy anything, I added $$ from my BofA account just before I bid or bought. If I got an email saying a payment had been added to my account, I swept it out as soon as I could log on somewhere.

Had anything of mine been returned, Paypal and EBay would have had to come after me by freezing my account and selling privileges. Had I been Chinese, I'd have been selling under a new ID before they could type up the demand email.

That's why I have more faith in Lazada as escrow agent.

[Mark123456]

I'd much rather use eBay and PayPal as a buyer, I must admit.

Edit: I mean rather than as a seller, not rather than Lazada.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Mark123456

[thaivisaismylife]

Anybody is buying in Alibaba here ? How often do you have problems with sellers ? And you are refunded ? Thanks.

[Mark123456]

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

I find eBay just as annoying. Too much stuff I want to buy goes via the Global Shipping Program, which I refuse to use, and they removed the ability to filter results based on whether the vendors would actually delivery to your country, which I thought was ridiculous. Now I have to wade through hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of results, most of which are completely irrelevant to me.

(Sorry, this is not a reply about Lazada, but it may be useful to some people)

Why would you refuse to use the eBay Global Shipping Program? Sometimes it the only way you can get an item shipped from the USA or UK.

I used the eBay Global Shipping Program last month to have a large and heavy piece of gym equipment delivered from the US. I was very impressed - it was quick and there wasn't an cent extra to pay. I'd rather know exactly what I'm up for including customs duty and have it cleared for me and delivered to my front door than have to visit customs up north (I'm in Pattaya) - which could cost at least 2000 in taxi fares and a lot of wasted time... and pay the customs officials whatever they want. A clearing agent isn't cheap either.

The Global shipping agent asked me for a scan of my passport and an explanation of what the equipment was for.

Sure, for small items there probably isn't going to be a customs hassle, but for big items you can't avoid it. I will most definitely be using them again.

Amazon have a similar shipping program where you pay for customs up front. I had an item delivered last week - it was lightening fast from the USA.

If you want to import decent gym equipment, there aren't many choices other than from the UK or USA. Australian merchants won't ship here.

In the past, I have refused to use it because the shipping and duty charges were far higher than they would otherwise be. For example, I just looked at a turntable on eBay that, including shipping charges, comes to around $600. The import duty quoted is $296, which is nearly 50%. Unless I'm very much mistaken, that's way above the actual import rate + VAT. Even at 30% (and some musical equipment only attracts a rate of 10% duty) + 7%, it should come to around $234, not $296.

[Mark123456]

eBay GSP has now become even worse - they hide the charges until you add an item to your cart so they aren't even being upfront about the charges any more.

[Berty100]

Lost all confidence in them. Tried several times to order goods COD they accept order then after two weeks they say there carrier can not find our house as there is no road name!! Strange as the carrier is Thai Post and we get letters every other day. Anyway ordered it to MIL's house (two doors away only diffrence is house number still no street name guess what delivered two days after. Rang them explained but they just blame the carrier constantly. I buy of eBay again now no problems at all

I find eBay just as annoying. Too much stuff I want to buy goes via the Global Shipping Program, which I refuse to use, and they removed the ability to filter results based on whether the vendors would actually delivery to your country, which I thought was ridiculous. Now I have to wade through hundreds, or sometimes thousands, of results, most of which are completely irrelevant to me.

(Sorry, this is not a reply about Lazada, but it may be useful to some people)

Why would you refuse to use the eBay Global Shipping Program? Sometimes it the only way you can get an item shipped from the USA or UK.

I used the eBay Global Shipping Program last month to have a large and heavy piece of gym equipment delivered from the US. I was very impressed - it was quick and there wasn't an cent extra to pay. I'd rather know exactly what I'm up for including customs duty and have it cleared for me and delivered to my front door than have to visit customs up north (I'm in Pattaya) - which could cost at least 2000 in taxi fares and a lot of wasted time... and pay the customs officials whatever they want. A clearing agent isn't cheap either.

The Global shipping agent asked me for a scan of my passport and an explanation of what the equipment was for.

Sure, for small items there probably isn't going to be a customs hassle, but for big items you can't avoid it. I will most definitely be using them again.

Amazon have a similar shipping program where you pay for customs up front. I had an item delivered last week - it was lightening fast from the USA.

If you want to import decent gym equipment, there aren't many choices other than from the UK or USA. Australian merchants won't ship here.

In the past, I have refused to use it because the shipping and duty charges were far higher than they would otherwise be. For example, I just looked at a turntable on eBay that, including shipping charges, comes to around $600. The import duty quoted is $296, which is nearly 50%. Unless I'm very much mistaken, that's way above the actual import rate + VAT. Even at 30% (and some musical equipment only attracts a rate of 10% duty) + 7%, it should come to around $234, not $296.

Never buy anything from Ebay sellers that are part of the global program, because the pre-charged duty is a scam. It's easy to select a seller that doesn't charge the import duties upfront.

By the way, Amazon uses the same trick. I was looking at a lightning protector on Amazon not so long ago, and they also charged 100% import duties.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/916217-order-on-amazon/?p=10774008

Edited July 1, 2016 by Berty100

[Berty100]

It has become clear that Lazada has been taken over by Alibaba, since the fake emails already have started.

A few weeks ago they had an LG 43LF540T LED for 8490 Baht offered by Tesco. I tried to order it, as it was in stock, but by the time I clicked the order button it showed up as out of stock.

I opted to receive email when it was in stock again.

Today I received the "back in stock" email.

Dear customer,

We are pleased to inform you that LG LED FHD Digital TV 43 inch 43LF540T (Black) is back in stock! You may want to order before they run out of stock again. For comfort You can make your purchase via the link below.

Strange enough there is no link at all in the email, and a search of the Lazada page shows that there is also no tv like that at all.

[Mark123456]

1 left at 9,990 apparently: http://www.lazada.co.th/lg-led-fhd-digital-tv-43-43lf540t-black-1623146.html

You're right about Amazon - every time I get to the checkout section and see massive shipping and import charges I just delete the item and start looking on eBay for a vendor that doesn't use the GSP.

[Thian]

I just placed a big order at BANGGOOD but there are many more huge online shops today in Asia.

When you pay with PAYPAL there's not much risk, this week i refunded 2 purchases because they got lost in the mail in Europe and within 2 days i had my money back, all of it.

Also ebay is great but not many vendors will send to Thailand.

[Berty100]

I just placed a big order at BANGGOOD but there are many more huge online shops today in Asia.

When you pay with PAYPAL there's not much risk, this week i refunded 2 purchases because they got lost in the mail in Europe and within 2 days i had my money back, all of it.

Also ebay is great but not many vendors will send to Thailand.

I order most of my items on Ebay, and have never had a shortage of sellers who want to ship to Thailand.

At the top right corner of the listings page I select, price + shipping lowest first, and then I only get shown listings of sellers that ship to Thailand.

It also save me the hassle of finding out which one is the cheapest in total, as it will be pre calculated on the listings page.

Edited July 1, 2016 by Berty100