Orinity

If there was any spree organizer that made a deep impression on me, it would have to be this organizer:

The first thing I noticed, was the definition of the term ‘Spree’. For people who are not yet familiarize with the term completely, this is a great explanation, coupled with case studies to compare the prices. I have seen websites that have a truckload of words that seem to drown me, but this website is really easy to navigate, straight to the point and with really pretty (and related) pictures of shoppers. Some organizers like to have background music for their sites and personally, I do not have that preference. My belief is that, I am here to shop, not to be distracted by songs that I am probably not in the least bit interested in. I admit I was a little bit irritated when I heard some voice talking, but when I realized that the video that was playing is actually an audio guide/walkthrough about this website, I was even more impressed. Never in my life have I heard instructions being read out at a spree website!

About a month back, my interest in Taiwan sprees have decreased at an alarming rate. The items are become more common, such that there is no exclusiveness any more. So when I discovered that Spree Organizer’s Sprees are all U.S sprees, I was overjoyed! Once you click on the vendors on the left column, a short description about the site and useful information (such as the average price and offered discount) will appear on the right. There is a legend on the website, stating the status of the vendors, such as whether the organizer is currently opening a spree from the vendor. There is a animated message that goes past under the main tabs, that states how much more (order) prices an active spree can take in. You are also welcomed to request for any vendor you like by clicking the ‘request’ link at the bottom of the vendor list.

One of the best things about spreeing with this organizer is the rate. As of now, The usual rate I see is 1.58 or 1.6, so you can imagine how astonished I was to find that their exchange rate is $1 USD = $1.485 SGD, which is the BEST rate I have seen so far! So, do drop by Spree Organizer today! As their tagline goes, we shall all “Spree Together, Save Together!”

There are many Singapore online stores. The difference lies in the items that they sell. Many online shoppers would definitely agree with me that Taiwan apparels are the most common.

Let me define the ‘Taiwan apparels’ that I mean – Apparels that are most commonly seen at Taiwan online auctions such as Joyceshop, Cutie, Xiao Mei, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love these online auctions just that the apparels have gotten just too common.

However, there are a few Singapore-based online stores that offer customizations and unique apparels.

How unique? Well, based on my Taiwan spree experience, I have mostly never come across such items.

For accessories, I’d like to recommend two local stores who offer customization pieces at affordable prices.

1. Petal Thots

What I feel about this seller’s items is that the designs are more towards an oriental feel with flowers being much of a staple component in her items. Like butterflies, birds and handmade clay dolls? Well, this is your site to splurge your money on! Like the second seller that I am going to mention, there is a detailed description about each particular item, like what kind of material the chain/wiring is, what kind of crystal, etc. I actually came across this first seller first when I was looking through her collection of accessories. It was only then that I noticed she mentioned the following seller.

2. Edynae

‘Exquisite’ is a mild term to discuss her creations. I absolutely love her designs! However, as most of her pieces are a one-time item, all of them got sold off by the time I found her site. Everyday, I visited her website, hoping to be among the first few to lay eyes on her creations and buy any item that I like. Interested buyers in her past designs need to be aware that the seller does not re-produce her designs. Once sold, is sold. I know because I was interested in some of her items and I enquired about purchasing her past creations and she informed me that this was not possible. Please do note that if you are a repeat customer, do give other potential customers a chance to purchase from her. Let everyone have a taste too, will you?I respect her principle. To create unique and one-of-a-kind items that we as customers, feel proud to own. Now, if she’d just have more designs up… Like the first seller, please do buy the item you like immediately. Please note that as their designs are very much in demand, sometimes buyers need to ballot for them.

3. MDS Collections

Even I have to agree with my girlfriend Blue on this: So far, we haven’t come across anyone who is wearing something resembling anything from MDS Collection of apparel.Who wants to wear something that is owned by half the female shoppers in Singapore? I remember once I wore this blue and white dress, only to discover another girl wearing a black version of it on the other side of the billboard I was standing beside! It was a really embarrassing situation, I tell you. One thing to note though is to take into account the measurements of the item that they are selling. Why? What looks normal size on the model (who is a very pretty elegant lady) may look shorter in real life, because she is very petite. Blue bought one pink dress from her, only to realize it became a tunic when she herself wore it. Blue, a 1.6metres tall lady, tells me that the model is probably about 1.5 meter tall and very petite, thus the apparel looks much longer in length as compared to us 1.6 meter gals. Don’t get me wrong, I envy and want to be a petite person, but sad to say, my genes don’t allow me to be!

Last but not least, I am pretty sure some of the fans of online shopping have heard of her:

4. Candy Pulp

If you are a fan of dresses, this is the site to be! The colors are very vibrant and designs eye-catching.

5. The Secret Closet

This seller is selling more of the common apparels that I was mentioning earlier, but I decided to include them in this list because of their superb after sales services. They are one of the few sellers that I have in my list of ‘Helpful Sellers’. Previously, I bought a dress from them and due to some circumstances; I had no choice but to request for a exchange/refund. I knew most sellers do not do refunds as their policy has been that. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that we can be demanding and this seller will do our bidding. What I am saying is that, unlike other sellers who don’t follow up with after sales service, this is one seller who does. So far, I have only come across two sellers who provided me with excellent post-purchases services and The Secret Closet is one of them. For the situation I was mentioning, they told me that they are not able to do a refund, but they can do an exchange for me. Sad to say though, the items that I was going to exchange to, all were out of stock by the time I replied them. Not one item, but three items. That’s how fast their items move. So do grab any item that caught your eye!

If you have any other interesting online sites to recommend, do drop me an email at: cyene@orinity.com. I would be most interested to patronize the site and do a brief review on them.

Have a pleasant weekend, everyone!

Here it is! My reviews of online spree organisers!

1) Pretty (http://www.pretty.com.sg) was (the site no longer exists) by far the most interesting spree organizer ever. She had the most number of different sprees. Almost half of which is the less common sprees from the Taiwan auctioneers. However, I waited way too long. Average was about 2 months. I even waited for 3 months odd, had to email the organizer even. Apparently she had my items but didn’t send to me until I dropped her that email. One of my girlfriends got pretty pissed off by the slow response. She came across a forum discussing about this particular spree organizer and was none too surprised to read about the many bad encounters the forum members had with Pretty.After a few sprees with her, my girlfriend Blue and I stopped placing orders with her.

A couple of months later, she posted about refunds and her site closed down soon after.

2) The second spree organizer I came across was My Little Closet (http://cutiecloset.blogspot.com/). The original exchange rate was 18.5, which was eventually revised to the current 20 (Taiwan sprees). For US sprees, the exchange rate is 1.58. Funds transfer via POSB Savings Account. They charge a minimum rate of $3 for tops. More for other items such as dresses, shoes, etc. They are now currently having a Taiwan shoe spree and a Forever 21 spree. Do check it out!

I placed the most number of orders with them and so far they have given me 2 rather negative incidents to get upset over. Once, in the beginning when I was a newbie to sprees, and a most recent one which somehow stopped me from spreeing with them. They are pretty good organizers actually, just that I have a couple of other spree organizers that I would prefer to deal with.

Oh yes, I should elaborate more about the 2 negative incidents first. In the beginning, Blue and I had placed our separate orders from My Little Closet, only to discover that our items were Out Of Stock (commonly known in spreeing terms as OOS) and the alternative option of ‘Do Not Buy’ (DNB) were not available. Usually, spree organizers would drop the accumulated orders to the actual auction supplier, and the suppliers would revert back on the stocks status. If an item is OOS, the organizer would email the people involved about the matter and asks if there is an alternative item they would like to buy. However, we were not given this option and being the persistent women we are, we refused to choose another item (as the other items did not catch our fancy) and thus demanded a refund. Eventually, they did refund us despite some reluctance on her part. The second incident happened recently. I was enquiring about a spree status (a PG Bag spree #8) as I had already received a bag from a later spree (PG Bag spree #11). What My Little Closet did was to repeatedly give me the status of the later spree, despite me attaching my order forms and sending to them twice. They even tells me to transfer them postage for the bag I already have received, and on another occasion, tells me the bag (that I got) was OOS while the other (which I didn’t receive because it was stated OOS in her past email) was available. My girlfriend Blue actually had a major argument about some of their orders and she stopped ordering from My Little Closet since.

I don’t discourage spreeing from My Little Closet. Just that you need to be fully aware of what you have ordered based on the fact that I know they are quite busy folks since there are quite a lot of sprees available. So invariably there are bound to be cases where there is miscommunication and such. So please be patient with your orders.

3) Shoppingspreezzz (http://shoppingspreezzz.blogspot.com) is one of my favorite spree organizers. This site is no longer available because they got pretty pissed off by some spree-ers would bug them to no end. They have thus created another private blog to their more well-behaved spree-ers, which of course includes ME. Haha.

The wait for my orders were relatively shorter, which of course made me very happy. Their exchange rate is one of the best, despite a $2 handling fee. Exchange rate for Taiwan sprees is 20. No US sprees. So far, they have not given me any problems. So I would greatly recommend them to you. If you are a well-behaved and patient spree-er who is understanding and do not have vulgarities in your language, you may drop an email to them at Your Dream Shop(dreamzz_shop@yahoo.com.sg) (as they are known currently) to seek their permission to view their blog.Please do not create trouble for them and do understand that they have lots of orders to accumulate and process. The liaising process is never easy.

4) There was Tinkerthotz (http://tinkerthotz.blogspot.com), but they closed shop due to one of their staff going overseas to study.I remembered I was quite sad at the news when they posted the message. They gave me my fastest spree orders ever. I got my pair of boots three weeks after they closed the spree. One of the team even dropped by the boots to one of my colleagues so that I can get them. I love this organizer loads! No unhappy incident so far.

5) Pretty Dolls (http://prettydolls.wordpress.com) is a relatively new organizer and I have only placed one order (for the E.L.F cosmetic spree) from them, but I like the way they do things that shows them to be a steady team. Exchange rate for Taiwan sprees is 20.5, with an S$1.50 handling fee per item. Exchange rate for US sprees is 1.6, with an S$1.50 handling fee per item. Transfers are done via DBS Savings Account.

They have more US sprees if Taiwan sprees are not your cup of tea. And one thing is that they have a longer spree time frame of at least two weeks, so there is plenty of time for you to mull over which top you should get (Even better, get both!). They are currently having a Forever 21 spree (US) and a Cutie fashion (Taiwan) spree.

6) Last, but not least, there is EV (who has requested for us to keep her name disclosed). My guess is that she is a regular in Livejournal sprees. I got her email from Blue and so far she is a trustworthy organizer. My friend whom I mentioned started spreeing in 2005 has also liaised with her before and she greatly recommends her. However, the thing about EV is that she does not have a site (that I know of) and will only email me when she is opening a spree. And she closes the spree pretty fast; time period is about 4 days max. So far, she has not had any problems with my orders. If you are a reasonable, patient and understanding person, you may wish to email her (please drop me a mail at cyrene@orinity.com to request for her email) to be included in her mailing list. As mentioned, I do not wish to have you harassing her with your emails/enquiries as this is a spree we are mentioning.

POINTS TO NOTE:

Some unspoken spree rules:

– Don’t accept the Terms & Conditions by the spree organizers? Then don’t join the spree.

– No Payment = No Order. You wouldn’t go shopping without bringing along money, do you? Credit cards do not apply.- There has to be trust among the organizer and you. Don’t trust? Don’t join. Do not cry over spilled milk later on.

– No changing of orders after you has placed yours. Adding of new orders shouldn’t be a problem if the spree has not closed.

– Please try to state any alternatives in case anything is OOS.

– There is only so much the organizer can do and have control over. Respect them. They should also not be held for any defects in the items. They would usually instruct the supplier to check that the items are in good condition before they are sent out.

– No vulgarities. We are all educated people, why must we talk in that manner?

– Lost mail? Normal mail is cheaper, but it depends if you want to risk having your items get lost. The organizer can provide you with details if you chose delivery via registered post, but any mail that is out of her hands is out of her control.

– Once the spree is closed, it means no more orders.

– This is a spree. Please be prepared to wait 1-2 months.

Do drop an email to the spree organizers if you need any clarifications. They would usually revert back within 1-2 working days.

I started online spreeing in mid-2006. If you think that is a long time ago, you would have been pretty amazed that I have one friend who started spreeing in 2005. Haha. For those of you who is unsure of what a spree is, it is defined as, “A shopping spree denotes a playful and “devil may care” attitude in a single shopping trip where lots of money is spent. A spree can be defined as a carefree or pleasant outing, in the pursuit of purchasing goods.”

In a more operational context, it is a process involving an organizer (middle person), customers (people like you and me) and overseas auction suppliers. The organizer is someone who collects orders from customers and places/liaise with the overseas suppliers. As it is a lengthy process, customers must understand that they need to wait patient for 1 to 2 months (or even longer) to receive their items.

This is the basic steps of a spree: Organizer opens a spree of an overseas auction/brand supplier, customers place orders and transfers payment to organizer, and organizer liaises with suppliers and informs customers of their order status. Items arrive at organizer’s address since organizer was the one who did the liaising. Organizer sends out customers’ orders via mail or sometimes meet-ups.

Here are the spree organizers that I have encountered so far.(Excluding the LJ sprees, which always closed so early before I can place my orders? Actually, I don’t really know how to place orders in LiveJournal sprees. My girlfriend Blue does that for me. Hee)

1) Pretty (http://www.pretty.com.sg)

2) My Little Closet(http://cutiecloset.blogspot.com/).

3) Shoppingspreezzz (http://shoppingspreezzz.blogspot.com)

4) Tinkerthotz (http://tinkerthotz.blogspot.com).

5) Pretty Dolls (http://prettydolls.wordpress.com)

6) EV (name undisclosed as requested).

Will post my reviews about these 6 spree organisers in my next entry. Do keep a lookout for it!