The Perils of Online Shopping

I'm in my late 20's and frankly, I haven't purchased anything online yet!  Talk about being jurassic!  Jurassic by the way is a colloquial term we use pertaining to all things (or processes) ancient / aged / antique / dateless / barbaric / old-skool... you get the picture!

Photo from: http://drawception.com/viewgame/BYKsBcEae7/trex-riding-a-unicorn/

For one, I do not own one of those plastic cards.  Agh!  I know, you're thinking "how jurassic can this woman be?!"  Not that I owe anyone an explanation, but simply put, I'm not yet ready to have one.  Especially I have just recently quit my 'real' job.  I'm freelancing now.  I'll probably get into a few details about that in my future post.  Just a tad bit since I wanna make sure I abide by the tagline of this blog. :)

Anyhoo, the reason I've mentioned about buying things online is that I actually NEED to buy a rain boot (a fashionably appealing one and in matte pls!) and a couple of books that I need for my 'real' freelancing job.  Apparently, these books are only available in the US & it's frustrating enough already that they cost a lot... and I'm not being my usual kuripot self.  There's this one book that will cost me around 5k pesos!  Although it's a good thing that Barnes & Noble is on-sale today (I'm just unsure until when this is gonna be), so they took off 21% from the original price.

Plus, there are shipping fees, US Sales Tax fees, Philippine customs fees, which most of the time costs more than the item that you bought!  Then there's a possibility of the item you purchased being lost in the odds of transporting anywhere between the US and the Philippines.  Nakakaloka!  Hoho!

Which is why some of those who share my sentiments would opt to ask favors from their relatives or friends in the US who are either coming home soon or will have a balikbayan box sent over, to purchase for them online and they'll just wire the payment to their US-based friends/family.  I did this once already and it saved me a few thousand bucks!  The only catch here is that any inevitable delays (such as change of flights / dates of the vacationing balikbayan, or in the case of my friend - a <insert cuss here> boss who disapproved her initial leave dates and postponing it further 6 months!)



http://houseofflair.multiply.com/
(i fancy their logo!)

So, what do you do to get your purchased item ASAP with less additional charges and less hassle?  Upon researching for a couple of days (yes, it took me days!), I chanced upon House of Flair.  I THINK, this site is by far the most convenient and with the most minimal additional fees.  From what I understand on how their business works, you e-mail them the link of any US-based online shop that you wanna buy from and then they'll quote on how much you're going to shell out.  Afterwhich, you will need to make a deposit of 50% to confirm your order, and then they'll make it happen for you.  They'll have your desired items delivered right at your doorstep in 3-4 weeks time.  That simple.  It's perfect for those who do not have a credit card and a newbie online shopper like moi!
I haven't tried availing of their services yet, although, I've made contact because as I've said earlier, I have 2 freakin' expensive books which I'm dying to purchase but is only available in the US!  Sent them an email for an inquiry and in just 15 minutes, they replied with complete details.  They even offered to give me a discount should I purchase more.

I still have to make up my mind if I'll give it a go.  I will update you in my future posts.  Meanwhile, if you know of other ways to ship purchases from the US to the Philippines more conveniently & reasonably-priced, share it!!! :)