Latest Taobao fails
A few years ago I wrote a post about Taobao fails and I think it’s among my funniest posts. Those fails were inflicted upon other people and I was merely reporting what the Chinese internet said, but lately I’ve experienced some Taobao fails myself and I wanted to share them with you.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed my son had only one pair of winter shoes so I headed to Taobao. I was very glad when I found Pediped, an American brand of children shoes, had some discounts on their official Taobao store: 50% off! I found a pair that I liked and ordered it, not without first noticing the banner on their storefront:
It was an orgy? Like the ones EU diplomats attend in Brussels when they should be on lockdown?
Using random English words as decoration is not an an unusual sight in China, though (I’ve written about weird slogans in T-shirts before). Funnily enough, the same thing happens with Chinese characters in Western countries, and I think everybody knows or has heard about someone that got a tattoo that says “chicken” in Chinese because “it looks cool”.
Back to the shoes. When I received them, I opened the box and took one shoe out to check it. Everything looked good. Then, later, when my son came back from his morning walk with his grandparents, I took out both shoes for him to try on. Then I noticed something was off… both shoes were for the left foot!!
Uh oh…
On the bright side, the shop (and Pediped’s factory, it seems) is in Suzhou so exchanging them was fast…
Another fail happened a few days later. On the weekend I’m going to a lunch with a group of women and we are doing a Christmas ornament exchange. I was looking up on Taobao and found this glass ball that looked quite cute, so I bought it.
But when it arrived… I realized I had been caught in the old “looks nice online but in reality it’s a piece of shit” trick. The part with the light is a plastic cover that doesn’t fit tightly on the wooden base, so the ornament cannot stand straight and the fake snow inside leaks through the gap.
Now I understand why they put fake snow under it on the product picture…
Now I have to do what I was trying to avoid because I simply have no time: Going to the mall to buy an ornament. Thanks a lot, Taobao.
Santa looks like an elf!!! hahaha I love this post. Please do more :)
I was actually thinking of doing a post about the Christmas gifts that Taobao suggests for my in-laws…
“Orgy baby shoes.” Wow.
I usually go to an ornament exchange party every year. It’s one of my favorites. Not this year. So post lots of pictures from yours!
Oh, I didn’t know exchanging ornaments was a thing! It’s the first time I’m going to do it :D
I think a good quarter of my tree is from ornament exchange parties.
La vida te da sorpresas….sorpresas te da la vida!
( léelo con la música de Pedro Navajas)
Es que eso no se puede leer con otra música, jajaja!
Taobao is such a hit and miss, haha! My Chinese is not that great so I refrain from ordering from it too much! ❤️✨
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
I’m usually lucky because I try to refrain from buying crap xD
Check out “See Kai Run” shoes, Marta.
Thanks, I will check them out next time. Actually, that was one of the brands that the mums from the Suzhou mums wechat group recommended, together with Pediped and Dr. Kong.
The pandemic has kept me at home since February, so I’ve order things online that I would normally buy in person. I’ve some some real fails. The worst were underwear. It’s hard to judge it by a picture.
Hahaha yes, underwear is always very risky. My bottom is bigger than the average Chinese bum so every time I’ve tried to get something cute on Taobao, it turned out the biggest size was too tight for me… And don’t even get me started on bras! I used to buy them in Marks and Spencer (British shop), but since they closed I can only get them in Spain…