yes, i admit i impulsively bought from this site, http://www.lovelyshoes.net, it's a china-based online shop selling shoes, bags, and whatnot . spent a few hundred dollars on some shoes. i got 8 pairs total, and paid for them via paypal, including the shipping fee. a week later my "package"'s status was "shipped" via TNT, an international courier.
copied the tracking code, pasted it into the box, entered, and voila, "not found". that's TNT for you.
weeks later, i was told that my package cannot be shipped out of china since "customs" thought that my stuff were of "great value" and thus we have to pay an unreasonable amount for taxes. Both the owner of lovelyshoes and i disagreed to TNT's decision (since i had been buying shitloads of shit over the net and never had i been charged of any taxes or tariff or what).
the owner offered TNT a document of all the things i bought, had it physically inspected, and probably the "customs" person thought that the shoes might be her size or something, she still declined, unless we paid said unreasonable amount for taxes. note that i had ordered things of greater value the same way and never had customs been suspicious or anything).
so, we had the package recalled, i paid a little more for a better shipping courier, and waited. take note, i had completed my payment July 8th, it is already July 27 as I write this sentence. paypal offers a way to keep shoppers secured by having an appeal for "dispute" which expires after 45 days of payment. I told the owner of lovelyshoes that i will not hesitate to file for a dispute if i still do not receive anything by the 16th of august (i will give myself about a week to have everything processed).
EDIT / aug 14, 2010/
i was told on aug 12 that my package had been sent out, and I will receive it on aug 16. today, however, I was not at home, and when I came back, my mom gave me a receipt from UPS that I was to pay $30 for customs brokerage! this wasn't even in our conversation (between lovelyshoes, UPS, and me). I researched about this customs brokerage thingy and found out that it wasn't even tax! next time, try to explain to your customers if they have to pay anything extra when they receive the package! i've never been charged for customs before, bought shitloads of more expensive things before from abroad, some through UPS as well, but i never had to pay such an amount!
so all in all, each shoe would cost around 1,075 php.
EDIT /aug 16, 2010/
got my shoes!
PICTURES FROM THE SITE:
OVERALL: the size is weird. i got em in size 39 (chinese sizing, around 8 in our size), they fit snugly on the toe part but it keeps slipping off from the ankle/sole part. i'd rather have something a size smaller than walk in something half a size bigger!
One of the best pairs in the batch. it's made of some nude faux leather material and black patent leather. The heel is made of synthetic wood, and is separate from the sole. had some dents and wrinkles from the packaging, but i't'll straighten out after wear. really cute IMHO. i can't wear heels though :P
This is probably one of the worst out of the eight. It is made of some sort of gray fake velvety material you aren't supposed to use anywhere but a scrapbook, and they were passing it off as a faux suede material. It's bound to rip apart any time soon, so, meh. comfy though.
Here's another nice one, Teal faux leatherette wedges with a woven heel and ribbon detail. It's comfy and looks really casual.
A really high-heeled gold faux leather strappy wedge sandal with woven detail. The woven bot was off, i know, but it was too cheap not to buy!
Black riveted Peeptoe booties. the rivets were kinda irregular on one shoe though, but this might just be the toughest material out of the bunch, it's made of synthetic leather.
I was really torn between buying a pair of yellow pumps with high heels, kitten heels or wedges, and i ended up buying this pair because it was cheap. :P can do without the ribbon though. patent leather.
Another bad buy, made of the same velvety thingy that you usually see on scrapbooks and cheap necklaces. Those gold brads are rivets, and hey at least they used shoelaces this time!
Skin tone crumply leatherette sandals :) very high and comfy.
You judge.
The leaflet and box has awful Engrish, ofcourse, but i'll try to translate it.
It is the fruit of the research of doctors from Japan Koto Basha Pharmacy Co. and taking 3 boxes can make you lose 10-20kg. It can make you slimmer, and has a little whitening and beautifying effect.
Each box contains 2 sachets. each sachet contains 1 blister pack of 10 capsules. you take one capsule thirty minutes before breakfast and dinner, so one box will last 10 days.
