I just need to have a quick rant and let other people know to be careful when ordering from abroad. I recently had a bad experience with a website I ordered from , HALF the order was incorrect. A pair of straw sandals were very different from the picture advertised on their site (small case of false advertising, naughty, naughty), 2 costumes were arrived at the wrong sizes. A medium came as a small and a large cam as XXL??????? How is it possible to get an order THAT wrong?

On top of that, the package was being held at a depot in London because it had acquired custom charges in HK, it could only be released once the charge of £26 had been paid. I paid this as I was only days away from a convention with no other alternative.

I then contacted this site to let them know where they went wrong. I haven't had much luck at all. I think there's a very large language barrier in the way between myself and the sites contact. It's not even worth correcting the order anymore as it would cost up to £20 to post back to HK and then probably another £25 "custom charge" (scam alert) on its return . Also, there's no guarantee I'll be sent the correct products.

I was also shocked to learn that no-one had complained before me! Hopefully I've made some sort of impact on the seller to LOOK at their orders properly. I've spoken to a few other oversea buyers and had similar problems from different sites.

Things to be aware of when ordering from abroad:
- Hidden custom charges
- Product is as specified on site
- Be more vigilant when buying online and ask the seller questions if in doubt

Useful link for overseas purchases
http://tinyurl.com/386bu7f

Oh, and the site in question...
http://www.allanimedvd.com/

Lesson learned.

custom charges are usually nothing to do with the company you order from, sometimes its just luck of the draw. IF the seller marks something as a "gift" of low value instead of the actual value sometimes you are lucky and can avoid them however its not always the case, basically its a risk you take with importing things.

HM Revenue and Customs have more information here:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/internet.htm

its often to do more with paying the VAT (copied from the site here):
All other goods

If you order or send purchased goods other than alcohol, tobacco, perfume and toilet water from a country outside the EU then you:
will have to pay Import VAT on goods with a value that exceeds £18

from: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/buying.htm#3


While yes it is a risk when ordering from online and other countries its often best to do as much research as possible, check feedback from people etc if you can. I can understand why you're so frustrated but with sizing different countries can use different sizing systems for example a large in america is often more an XL here!
and I'm not totally sure but the advertising regulations here in regards to things like what we might class as false advertising and safety regulations don't always apply in other countries.
its frustrating but I hope this helps ^^

Agreed totally. The cusotms charge is not a scam at all.Our country ads VAT and then the post office add a fee for handling of it. Its actually illegal for the seller to mark the item asd a gidft or with lower value. Though some do it. But then if your parcel went missing it wouldnt be insured for the correct value.

I know how you feel with this, I ordered for a friend a prince of tennis phone sock and when it arrived they had sent the wrong 1, I emailed them and never got a reply

can we cap this off with a critique on the actual costumes?

i honestly want to start a push to discourage the community from using these dodgy Chinese sellers, and start encouraging the use of our home grown makers. i've heard too many stories like this now where customers have ended up with poor quality service for a price (when P&P+customs is added) close to what a UK commissioner would charge for a costume made with infinitely better materials.

I've often thought about doing costume commissions myself, the only one I did was for a medieval re-enactor and they don't mind paying for quality, but I was discouraged by the incredibly low prices charged by the type of sellers mentioned...Looks like the saying is true, all that glitters is not gold...

This.

I have friends who live in HK and commission their costumes in Mainland China. Those costumes turn out absolutely brilliant - but make no mistake, my friends do their own costume breakdown, choose & buy their own fabric, and talk to the tailor in person about exactly what they want. And the prices are NOT cheap, in the region of £60-100. Remember, that often doesn't include fabric!

When you're ordering from overseas, it's a completely different story. Without even being able to feel a sample of the material or take a look at the work quality, you're just an easy target for a quick buck.

So if anyone's thinking Chinese prices are lower because their living standards are lower or whatever but the quality should still be great, you're wrong. The prices are cheap online because the product's quality is poor. You get what you pay for, though you also have to pay for shipping and customs on top.

That said, the other day I went to my town's comic/manga shop and they were selling some cosplay outfits. A rather inaccurate, wafer-thin bankai Ichigo costume that I can whip up in an hour, for £40+. That's also a real rip-off.

So I also recommend commissioning home-grown costume makers. Communication will be a lot better, it'll help the community grow, and you're likely to end up with something you'll be happy with.

I agree with you both pez & xae ^^

the things about customs etc I was pointing out I was thinking more about wigs which I personally nearly always order in from overseas (though I've also ordered some nerdy tshirts from america hence my mention of sizing XD)

i feel your pain! I ordered from a site called Milanoo before and received a rubbish wig that was very late and that had a massive rip inside so it was basically unwearable. Getting hold of someone was a pain and when I finally did they didn't seem to understand what I was getting at. I never received my refund, I ended up paying an extra £10 sending it back, serious waste of money.

I now stick to about 6 sellers on ebay, all of which I've received awesome wigs from and they're scattered all over the place X3

I ordered a Tifa costume from a site once and the sizes were a bit all over the place and the costume just didn't set right so I ended up learning to sew instead, so at least I don't have to worry about postage and sizes ^_^ I know that's not always possible for everyone but it worked for me

something that's really starting to bother me is that these garbage pedallers are now getting people from other countries to be a front for their sales operations. just about all these "cheep cosplayz" companies are simply fronts for the main culprits like milanoo. they promise "cosplay closer to home", but in reality, you're still buying cheap, ill fitting garbage from bad makers.

I remember another thread where we were talking about Milanoo being a massive scam (they've ripped off people in the lolita communities too.) I think you guys are very right.

Has it been suggested/done to have a thread naming and shaming these businesses? Then even people new to cosplay would know who to avoid!

I agree, i haven't seen anything yet, maybe it's hiding? if not then someone should because it's really not worth it especially if you have limited funds/budget for a costume. There are a fair few of these 'wholesale' cosplay/wig companies, I've never heard much good coming from them.

It can be immensely tempting when you go onto a site and you can get what looks like a decent looking costume for alot less than you've seen anywhere else.

http://www.coolcomputing.com/d/milanoo.html that site basically has lots of reviews of the company, an overall score of 2.5/5 is a bit rubbish lol. I think there should be a section for people who are new to cosplay on here, so they know where to buy things from, which places are a no go and stuff. I know there is a wig section on here which says good places but I think we need one for everything to stop people receiving garbage and no refunds from these places

problem with sites like that is the bad sellers "pad" their score by posting fake reviews. you have to pick through the reviews to realise they swing heavily from "amazing" to "awful".

it's pretty common for these guys to do this, even on ebay. they will set a ton of fake 99p auctions up, set them to private, macro generate accounts to buy with, and voila, and impressive positive feedback in a day for peanuts

I agree that people need to think about getting costumes from home grown commissioners instead of some of the crap overseas companies.

Not only will it take out the frustrations of communication but it will help our own community flourish.

I make all my own stuff so I never ordered from these overseas sites. I have a couple of friends that have and I would have to say that I'm not that impressed in terms of cost and vaule. Its been quite rare that I've seen something that has been very good.