If you placed orders just before Chinese New Year (late January) or during the Chinese New Year holiday (which lasted until 14 February; CNY is actually a 15-day long holiday although most people don't actually take such a long break), your supposedly instock items may not have arrived because the sellers are still going through backlogs, or they're waiting for their suppliers to replenish stock. In the current situation, many of them have said they can only dispatch the orders around end of February (which is soon). Made-to-order / pre-order items are expected to take even longer, perhaps up to mid-March.

So please wait patiently. If you feel that your order is taking an unusually long time to finish up, feel free to contact me to ask for an update, but please bear the above situation in mind. Thanks!

This year I'd really like to set aside more free time on weekends to be spent with my family, friends and on self-improvement. Therefore, I will not be working on shopping service matters or answering any shopping service related emails on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (Singapore calendar, there are not many of them, don't worry).

The exception is for the handful of customers who are business operators and need Taobao stock for their operations, as well as urgent orders. And of course, if anything crops up with your order that needs your urgent attention, I'll notify you too.

Just to recap the meaning of urgent orders as stated on my shopping service pages:
I don’t accept orders with urgent absolute deadlines (I don’t own the postal service or the shops so it’s really not up to me to promise you a date that you’ll receive your items). However, if your item has limited stocks (less than 5) or a specific limited order period / discount campaign, you may put “Urgent” in your email subject and I’ll prioritise your order to purchase it earlier. Refer to this page to understand how to read stock availability.

I'm not a full-time shopping service by the way, for those who didn't realise. I have a day job from morning until evening. I may handle shopping service matters during my day job if I'm having a lazy day. Otherwise, I'll be working on shopping service matters only from 8pm to 10pm (Singapore time) every weekday.

Therefore, if you submitted an email or order after 10pm on Friday, the earliest you may expect to receive a response would be on Monday after 8pm. Typically, I respond within 3 working days (excludes weekends and pub holidays).

I seek your kind cooperation and understanding!

As mentioned in my post dated 23 January 2014, I'll be increasing the exchange rate used from 4.4 rmb : 1 SGD to 4.3 rmb : 1 SGD for orders submitted after 8 February.

Hence, all orders and add-ons submitted after 8 February 23:59, Beijing Time will be subject to this new exchange rate. I base this on the timestamp of your email. I have updated the shopping service page with the new order form. But if you used the old one, I will edit the exchange rate for you, no worries.

There are no changes to the shipping rates.

In addition, total sums will be round up to the nearest 1st decimal place for easier calculations in future. For example, if the total sum comes up to 45.618 SGD, it will be round up to 45.70 SGD instead of 45.62 SGD. This applies for all services, including shipping fees. It does not apply to individual prices.

I have switched agents for the Singapore shopping service and as such, there are many changes. Please refer to this page.

Thanks!

Understandably, some people only have a few important things to buy, and just add on some other items to take advantage of shipping savings. If an item(s) on your purchase list is not available and you'd prefer to drop part of the order or the entire order in such cases, you can, but please let me know which items are your important ones so I'll check those out first before going through the whole order. That will save us both time. You can either fill up the order form with just the important items first, or fill up the form with your whole list but mark out those that are more important.

However, please understand that items may suddenly go out of stock even after I paid for it. In this case, if I've already ordered everything else, you can't cancel them. To resolve this, we can first go ahead with purchasing the important items, then purchase the rest separately when the important items have arrived. This may cause some delays and incur additional domestic postage, but it beats buying a whole bunch

I'm dealing with a huge backlog after Chinese New Year. Please excuse me if I take longer than usual to get back to you (I try to keep it within 5 days).

To avoid further delays, please have all your questions and concerns in one email. Each time you raise an enquiry after I answer your last question, your email gets pushed back to the end of the queue.

As usual, I will prioritise emails with completed order forms. I may not answer emails without order forms, especially if the question is answered on my website. Kindly only email me if you're serious about purchasing.

Submission of CWT36 orders is over. Please don't send in any more order forms for CWT 36. They will not be accepted.

Please also be reminded that I'll be increasing the exchange rate used from 4.4 rmb : 1 SGD to 4.3 rmb : 1 SGD for orders submitted after 8 February. Sorry ^^; Nevertheless, this only really affects Singapore buyers, and if your currency is strong against the SGD, it probably doesn't affect you much.
Shipping rates will also be revised accordingly and the changes will take effect from 15 February onwards.

I'm currently swarmed with new orders lately. I prioritise emails with properly filled order forms first. So if you just sent a question, I will take longer to reply. Sorry about that! If you already have an order on hand, then I strongly suggest you send it along with your question.

Recently, the yuan has been going up pretty aggressively against Singapore dollars ^^;
If this situation does not improve, I'll be increasing the exchange rate used from 4.4 rmb : 1 SGD to 4.3 rmb : 1 SGD for orders submitted after 8 February. Sorry ^^;

1) Intermittent hiatus for processing of orders / emails - Hiatus from 30 January to 3 February
I may be able to reply if I happen to have spare time, but there's no guarantee. You may continue to send your orders but most likely i can only get back to you after 3 February.
ETA: Sorry, hiatus starts from 31 Jan, not 30 Jan. I forgot about reunion dinner ^^;

2) No processing of shipments from 27 January to 6 February as postal services are closed. For Budget express courier shipment to Malaysia and Singapore, the hiatus starts from 23 January.

3) Typically, rest period for many of the sellers and domestic couriers is from 23 January to around 8 February. During this period, I can still place orders, but please understand that the sellers will not despatch your order, and they may take longer time to respond if you have questions for them.

For those who are ordering custom-made items (cosplay clothing, lolita clothing, props etc), please remember to factor the above rest period into your waiting time.

The above applies to both the China and Taiwan shopping services.
Exception is for CWT36 orders. Deadline for finalised orders is 3 February.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone who celebrates it! 

and I'll follow up on existing orders as well as shipment arrangements. Thanks very much for your patience and hope everyone had a good holiday!

Please note that I will only be handling new orders from 15 January (as stated in my earlier post). You can send in your order, but I may not be able to get back to you on it very soon.

Please also note that Chinese New Year is coming up. It is a major holiday in China so expect some shops and postal services to be closed for a few days. The official public holidays are Jan. 31 - Feb. 6, but expect some sellers to extend their holiday.

I will update accordingly when I have more news. Personally, I will be on holiday from Jan 31 to Feb 3 as well since it is also a festival I celebrate.

Sorry but I'm dealing with a heavy workload again (seems like a lot of people were trying to get their orders in by 1 November >___<). I'll be prioritising business customers, paid orders and shipping arrangements first. I may need about another week to clear out the rest of the new orders and queries.

Please be reminded that I'm no longer accepting orders from new customers from 1 November. Sorry!

I apologize for constantly changing my hiatus schedule. I have been trying my best to keep it as short as possible to avoid disrupting everyone's shopping schedules but I realise it's quite impossible as my big events draw near, so here is my updated one. It should be the finalised version now ^^; Please note that this applies to all shopping services, including the Taiwan-based and Japan-based services.

Blackout Period applying to all customers - 23 December to 8 January (No orders or processing of shipments)

The schedule is different for different customers:

a) Businesses (Returning customers who purchase stock for their businesses/shops)
Not accepting any new orders from 15 Dec 2013 to 8 Jan 2014
Please note that throughout the month of December, while I may still process orders from you, my responses may be sporadic and I will not be able to process your orders with my usual efficiency.

b) Returning customers (Customers who have used my shopping service previously)
Not accepting any new orders from 15 Nov 2013 to 15 Jan 2014, if you do not already have an open orders before 15 Nov.
No orders with absolute deadlines will be accepted as I cannot promise to monitor their progress given my busy schedule.

c) Current customers (Customers with open orders i.e. items in process of being purchased, shipments awaiting shipping)
You may continue to add on to your open orders until 30 Nov 2013. From 1 Dec 2013 to 15 Jan 2014, no more new orders may be added.
No orders with absolute deadlines will be accepted as I cannot promise to monitor their progress given my busy schedule.

d) New customers (Customers who have never used my shopping service previously)
Not accepting any new orders from 1 Nov 2013 to 15 Jan 2014.

e) CWT35 Customers (Only for returning customers)
Due to the exclusive nature of products at this event, I will continue to provide the service for it although it's in December. Depending on how fast my CWT agent processes the results, you may only be able to have your purchases shipped after the blackout period (see below). I will not make a new announcement, just drop me an email by 1 Dec if you want to place your order for CWT35.

You may continue to leave your purchases in the warehouse if you want to add more items after I resume business as usual. Processing of shipments can be done as per normal whenever you wish to ship them. However, there is a blackout period whereby I'm overseas and will not be able to handle any shopping service matters whatsoever:
Blackout Period applying to all customers - 23 December to 8 January (No orders or processing of shipments)

In the meantime, during the periods when I'm not accepting any orders from you, if you come across any rare item that you absolutely need my service for, you are still welcome to contact me, but I may not be able to process it with my usual efficiency.

I seek your understanding to help me tide over my hectic end-of-year schedule without compromising the quality of my service, and sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused!