My taobao agent stopped buying ponies for me

[mshesha]

More of a rant : I've been using yoybuy to get my ponies from China and last night, when I attempted to add ponies to my cart the following message appeared (word by word):
"In order to prevent our customers from getting screwed, so the system can not put item on brand products!"

 

Any other agents doing the same?

[mercynova]

That doesn't even make sense!

Good luck trying to work it out, could just have been a one-off!

[ponylady]

Strange and a little unprofessional by using the word screwed in there.

I used to use BuyFromTaoboa and I can't even get it to load my searches anymore.  So I gave up, plus I had some issues with them.

Hopefully you can get it figured out or someone knows what's up with them?

[teresat]

Interesting! Is it just ponies?

I'm really can't help. I've used TaobaoNow in the past.

[Knibitz]

a lot of taobao agents don't speak perfect english, it's possible he's using a translator and it just translated it back into "screwed"  so it could mean "in trouble" "problematic" etc.    That, or they just pick up on english slang, not realizing that it's offensive.

To me it sounds like it may be a glitch in the system that they're trying to figure out so that's their message while they fix it. I could be totally wrong though.

[Colorscapesart]

Since they mention "brand" products, maybe they are running into legal problems?

[hathorcat]

Are you using youbuy? They came out with a policy the other day about no longer "buying" branded products - mainly as a lot [i.e. most ] of the popular branded products on Taobao are of course fake - Nike, Chanel, etc - but they claim their buyers are not aware of them being fake - you are buying off a Chinese website with prices a minimum of a tenth of the actual retail of course they are fake .

It happens with these agents...they exist for a while - then either shut down or are shut down and then another one will pop up to replace them. Or in a couple of weeks they may simply reverse their actions as perhaps things were a little too hot for them. You could wait or you could try another agent

[babystarz]

I think this just comes with the territory of dealing with agents who exist in a legal "grey area". It's hard to know when/how/who is going to start trying to enforce their copyrights, and especially because laws differ internationally, and even legal concepts are viewed differently depending on country. I mean, have we even figured out what category the (possibly) discarded prototypes and factory errors fall into? Some people think it's stealing, others emphatically disagree. And we know the Taobao agents get these ponies from another party, possibly 3rd or 4th hand.

[mshesha]

a lot of taobao agents don't speak perfect english, it's possible he's using a translator and it just translated it back into "screwed"  so it could mean "in trouble" "problematic" etc.    That, or they just pick up on english slang, not realizing that it's offensive.

To me it sounds like it may be a glitch in the system that they're trying to figure out so that's their message while they fix it. I could be totally wrong though.

Back in May their server suffered a hostile visit, as they mentioned in this email sent to me 5/28/12:

The server of (youbuy) suffered a hostile visit this afternoon.
You may be unable to connect our homepage due to it.
However,you can login your account and place order by this URL:_________
Our IT dept will try our best to recover it as soon as possible.Please do not worry.

Sorry for the inconvenience caused and thanks for your understanding!

Since then I wasn't able to use their search to add items with keywords such as hasbro, my little pony, etc. I had to copy paste straight from toaboa.  I guess they're trying to avoid something similar from happening in the future. 

 

[BrightIdea]

Uuuurrrg!!! I just added money to my Yoybuy account and can't use it. Thanks, Yoybuy, for "protecting" me from what I actually want to buy. 

I looked at their announcements section and they say some garbage reason like "our customers got mad at us because they received fake brand name perfume from Taobao. Now we have a policy that we don't buy anything with well known brand names"

Bringing fake items out of China is obviously not allowed, but what about all of those other items out there that are genuine and just have keywords relating to brands. I think they will realize they just lost a lot of revenue, and amend this policy somehow. Also I just sent a grumpy-ish email because I am out money now.

[mshesha]

Also I just sent a grumpy-ish email because I am out money now.

You can ask for a refund if you used Paypal. It goes back to your account right away.

[BrightIdea]

Also I just sent a grumpy-ish email because I am out money now.

You can ask for a refund if you used Paypal. It goes back to your account right away.

Cool, thanks for the info.

[xeevee]

If you need help, hit me up.  I will actually be in the US in 1 month, so for about 3 weeks I can buy things for you, and then bring them over and ship from the states.  There is only one exception though, in that I am going away for about a week in about a week. 

[mshesha]

If you need help, hit me up.  I will actually be in the US in 1 month, so for about 3 weeks I can buy things for you, and then bring them over and ship from the states.  There is only one exception though, in that I am going away for about a week in about a week.

Thanks for the kind offer xeevee. I'll keep it in mind

[Galactica]

I have had problems with my agent too-  Have been using EnglishTaobao - just tried to bid on some ponies and the site said my password was wrong- and then that my email address is not registered in the system.  I forwarded an email (from EnglishTaobao) from the same email address- and asked them to try and figure it out.

I am a bit unhappy as I still have funds in my account I want to spend.  I don't think paypal will cover it since I put the funds in around May.