Shopee or Lazada?

FindlayMacD wrote:

Personally I always find Lazada's search engine is much better than Shopee's, but once I have found the item I want in Lazada I then check the price on Shopee using the same item description shown on Lazada.

I recently bought an air purifier on shopee and received it in two days. Now I decided to DYI and bought a 20 inch box fan $1299 php, a suitable box to install it in and several other things for this project, this order took two days also.

Now my process in ordering:

(1) I look where it's being shipped from.
(2) if it's from Shopee Mall or a Preferred Seller.
(3) Read all the reviews.
(4) Message the sell to see if it's a pre-order or on the shelf ready to ship.
(5) When placing the order I indicate in special instructions "Please text me or call at time of delivery".

This eliminates 90% of the problems, I've had to contact Shopee by email in the past and they are responsive with a reply the next day that and it's not a robo message.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

FindlayMacD wrote:

Personally I always find Lazada's search engine is much better than Shopee's, but once I have found the item I want in Lazada I then check the price on Shopee using the same item description shown on Lazada.

I recently bought an air purifier on shopee and received it in two days. Now I decided to DYI and bought a 20 inch box fan $1299 php, a suitable box to install it in and several other things for this project, this order took two days also.

Now my process in ordering:

(1) I look where it's being shipped from.
(2) if it's from Shopee Mall or a Preferred Seller.
(3) Read all the reviews.
(4) Message the sell to see if it's a pre-order or on the shelf ready to ship.
(5) When placing the order I indicate in special instructions "Please text me or call at time of delivery".

This eliminates 90% of the problems, I've had to contact Shopee by email in the past and they are responsive with a reply the next day that and it's not a robo message.

I think delivery times are very different if you live in Metro Manila. Way down here in Cagayan De Oro Shopee delivery times are abysmal and Lazada times, although still not great, are usually much better than Shopee.

@Enzyte Bob

I also used Shopee until a couple of items needed a refund and for that you have to download their program to have a "Wallet" which will accept the refund from the merchant. Seems ok until you go to download their program and they insist you give them access to your email contacts.

NOT SO GOOD!

They're about the same. Many of the same shops.

Beware of reviews. MOST Filipinos buy on price alone, so the cheapest items will get the most stars. Filipinos don't like to write anything negative so they probably just rate it 5 stars.

Most of the stuff I have bought with good reviews have been mediocre quality. I've learned NOT to buy anything expensive for better quality. Some name brands ended up being knock offs. Most reviews are probably fake anyways. There so many reviews with photos unrelated to the product. Bad bots.

For things under $150 and small, I just buy from Amazon. Amazon often has FREE delivery and better discounts. Amazon usually ships to Philippines in 2-3 business days, but then it gets handed off to customs and local carriers. Expect up to two weeks. BEWARE, always use Amazon delivery. Other sellers use USPS which must partner with Philippines Postal. You WILL lose any package through the postal system. It is shit and your packages will mysteriously get lost. I received 1 of 3 packages from them even after they collected extra import fees.

I have received 723 orders from Lazada and 52 orders from Shopee. I had to count the Shopee items because their software doesn't tally orders the way Lazada does, at least on a laptop which is what I usually use to place orders. I can do a search of past orders on Lazada but I have to use my phone for that. I can chat with the seller on Shopee and Lazada but I can also ask questions in public on Lazada and read responses from other customer's public questions.

Lazada also has the closest thing to good customer service I've found in the Philippines. Maybe it is because of all the orders I've placed but I've found a way to quickly get a measure of satisfaction from stubborn sellers. I select "Help Center" at the bottom of the page and hit "Chat Now" and I'm greeted by a bot but I type "agent" and more often than not I'm soon chatting with a live person. I recently bought 10 solar post lights and 3 failed right away. I tried to contact the vendor but no reply so I did the chat thing with a Lazada agent and opened a case. I would get daily updates and after about a week I got a notice that the cost of the 3 lights was credited to my wallet, about P3,300, and I did not have to return the defective lights. I was actually only asking for replacement batteries which I determined was the problem with the lights. I ordered 18650 lithium batteries and soldered the BMS from the failed batteries onto the new batteries and the lights are working fine. That's as good as it gets in the Philippines. I like the Lazada wallet and load it with Maya which I load with WU, and I didn't have to share my contacts when I enabled my Lazada wallet.

@Moon Dog Good advice on avoiding contact sharing. I've received many spam text messages after joining Lazada and/or Shopee. Annoying as hell.

@Moon Dog Good advice on avoiding contact sharing. I've received many spam text messages after joining Lazada and/or Shopee. Annoying as hell.
-@marioph

Never had that problem with either, perhaps  change your filters within your account/s.

Cheers, Steve.

@Moon Dog Good advice on avoiding contact sharing. I've received many spam text messages after joining Lazada and/or Shopee. Annoying as hell.
-@marioph

I get those also. Someone, somehow, knew my wife's name and phone number and scammed her out of 20 bucks by posing as a Shopee vendor. They congratulated her on being such a good customer and offered her a P9,000 watch for P1,000. They directed her to a Shopee site where sure enough the price was P9,000. The watch was actually selling on legit sites for between P400 and P500. They called again a month or two later and I spoke to them this time and they haven't called back.

That whole deal brought something into focus that I had been curious about. I had stumbled across items that were way overpriced and wondered why. It must be related to that sort of grift. My wife couldn't understand how it worked but I told her the vendor can punch in any price they want. It was not a P9,000 watch, it wasn't even a P1,000 watch.

Another scam got me for around P350. A COD package arrived at the gate and I paid for it, but it was not something anyone had ordered. Inside the package was a small opened box containing a foot bandage that sells for P25. There was a return address but no way to contact. The scammers knew my name and address.