This is going to be very lengthy and you should read it thoroughly only if you're seriously considering buying something on Taobao. So i ordered a bunch of stuff on taobao, totaling probably around $3000 CAD. These small parcels were shipped from each individual sellers (These sellers were legit domestic sellers) to this warehouse that Taobao outsourced, and at the warehouse they were separated into three larger parcels to be shipped over sea.

After about half a month, they claim they've lost one of my large parcels in the warehouse, and they're only willing to refund me $400 CAD for it (Parcel worth over $1500). I began negotiating with customer service, which was like hell because this company doesnt centralize anythingm they outsource their shipping provider and shipping company (Yes, one shipping provider the other is the shipping company) so I had to go to different customer service people describing what happened over and oevr again, until finally they've agreed to pay me back in full. Plot twist, a day later they claim they found my parcel and its expedited, so it should be arriving in Canada anytime now. I was super happy, only a few days later to find out that parcel wasnt even mine, they gave me the tracking number for someone else's order (Coincidentally, someone who also lives in the Toronto area). I went to the shipping provider's customer service and they confirmed that all the shipping details doesnt match, the address, name, phone number, and even the contents of the parcel don't match (I ordered some model kits and this parcel was a musical book), so she said let her look into it and asked me to check again the next day. The next day I went back and she started saying that the parcel has been delivered and its mine, ignoring all the evidence (Those that she sent me the night before) that I provided. So there you go, my experience with TAOBAO is absolutely $#*!, a incompetent Amazon wannabe that cant even straignten up their customer service department. This entire process spanned over one and a half month, and I'm tired of it. I'm in the process of arguing for my money back, but who knows if they'll give it back. Come to think of it, this entire "Parcel recovered" thing maybe was just a plot to put the blame on me. If you're considering buying something from TAOBAO thats expensive, trust me, don't do it. It's not going to be worth the time, effort, and risk. Best of luck.

Scam. Bought 4 items in differenet sellers. I did not received a single item. Waste of money.

I'm surprised this one got overlooked so let's catch up: This Chinese site sold more goods in 2010 than Ebay, which had already turned tail and fled from China when Taobao's parent company, Alibaba, acquired Yahoo! China in return for Yahoo getting a 40% stake in the business. That was back in 2005 and since then, there have been ongoing rumors that Yahoo and Alibaba weren't getting along, and there were alleged negotiations involving a break between the companies as Yahoo's investment in it wasn't working out. Rumors as late as the end of last year forecast doom for the "unhappy marriage".

So, in the inverted nature of such things, it should have come as no surprise when, just a couple of days ago at the time of writing, Yahoo USA received a huge boost from a big investment from a famous American hedge fund. The reason? The fund managers had done their sums and figured that Yahoo's share in Asia, and especially Alibaba, and especially Taobao, is going to be worth more than the entire company's declared public value today. Yahoo shares immediately shot up, something that probably doesn't happen as often as it might these days, and the fund made some money, naturally, and the owner of Alibaba declared that Taobao would be the next Walmart. Which it may well be, since everything at Walmart is probably already made in China anyway.

The site is in Chinese, naturally, but still worth a look for its, well, Chinese-ness, and for the joys of running it through Google Translate, which does a truly awful job. I found my way to the adult section at once, just at random of course, where I discovered that unlike Ebay, the site offers such delights as "Inflatable doll half shake entity male vocal apparatus", and "Semi-solid high explosive section 2011 inflatable doll real voice chiling special spike Japan". The Chinese appear to have overcome their long enmity with Japan when it comes to cutting-edge inflatables, and I'm not too surprised that there are none of the female tractor drivers and construction workers that you might expect from a purely Chinese range.

Spurred on by the prospect of another 99 pages in this category alone, I mused over "Japan semi-solid inflatable doll - gentle voice of female", which looks scarily like Ozzy Osbourn, was thoroughly turned off by "2011 latest buy a real shot to send ten feet high with" (don't ask), and amused that the site uses little images of steaming cups of tea to cover up the naughty bits. "100% genuine lovers doomed to be thrown swing male" was a puzzle even with the photo, but after much deliberation I settled on "2011 latest models have finger toes burst halfling entity" as my choice of imaginary evening entertainment. Although I declined the invitation to "cument the recent turnover" I did find many previous "cuments" and according to the translation, they were all good, Ebay-style, with plenty of "fast delivery", "great service", and so on, plus one "quick recharge" which may not have been correctly translated at all.

Anyway, there you are, the next Walmart and likely to be a tad more interesting than the current one, by the looks of it.