Taobao proxy request: Omron B2R-ME

Daniel Beardsmore · 25 Mar 2017, 18:42

I've found that you appear to be able to buy B2R-ME singly here:

https://world.taobao.com/search/search. ... n%20B2R-ME

(Several people offer it, all at the same price.)

I'd like five please.

(I also want some of those Omron switches Ail found, wherever those are; they were much cheaper on Taobao than they are here on AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... 56680.html)

I see that you can sign up in English, but I can't pass the phone verification. I figured out what format they wanted the number in (the country code has to go into the number itself too), but they do stipulate a mobile phone (which I don't have) and even when (presumably) text message verification fails (and you can send text messages to a normal phone) when they offer to place a voice call, nothing happens then either. I don't know if it's broken all round, or broken for Britain, or broken for land lines, or land lines in Britain, or whether they just hate me specifically. Trying to call "44-44(my number)" is total nonsense, so I don't see how it could ever work for anyone.

[Edit: needed a URL tag at the start as the URL had a space in it that I'd not noticed]

Menuhin · 25 Mar 2017, 18:59

I'll look out those for you next time when I go shopping on TaoBao (with my proxy).

Many people use TaoBao Focus, anyways, it's a form of professional service they help you to deal with the sellers and transactions in their own mother language and in their own time zone.

For any package < 2kg, the shipping is going to be around 10€.

Of course, it's even better if members living in China can help Daniel out.

ba7777 · 26 Mar 2017, 00:58

I can help. And do have some experience to proxy and ship internationally. But the shipping is complicated as there are basically 2 carrier for me to choose. And the shipping methods vary.

Also I don't have a bulk discount of the shipping fee so the shipping is much more expensive for me than those professional proxy service.

If you are not satisfied with those services In the market I would be pleased to help without any profit.

Daniel Beardsmore · 26 Mar 2017, 01:06

I've just given [wiki]Omron B2R series[/wiki] its first major update, but there is more to do. My primary objective is to secure B2R-ME examples so that I compare them to ME1 and put permanent photos of ME up on the wiki. (Also, I only got three ME1 switches and I broke two already, so I need moar!)

TaoBao FOCUS looks like I might survive without excessive loss of sanity. The one thing that Chinese speakers can do is find stuff to buy in the first place! I only found these because they're correctly labelled with the part numbers.

Daniel Beardsmore · 26 Mar 2017, 15:44

These guys are morons!

No HTTPS — seriously? And not only that, but the site throws an error about your password needing to be at least one character long, if you dare to enter anything that isn't A-Z (and maybe 0-9 — I used spaces and other characters). So you're not allowed a strong password or a secure connection.

Not only that, but they can't make up their mind what domain you want: you log into one domain and use another, so after logging in you remain logged out from the item pages!

They better accept HTTPS at the point of payment, otherwise they deserve to be shut down.

scottc · 26 Mar 2017, 16:09

Ouch. That would be an immediate red flag for me.

Alternatively, you could try bhiner. They have HTTPS, at least.

Daniel Beardsmore · 26 Mar 2017, 16:17

Well, I've placed the order now. Their site really is an atrocious mess though. The Cart link doesn't increase its item count after placing an order. They use at least three separate hostnames (shop.taobaofocus.com, taobaofocus.com, mytaofocus.com) and you have to log into all three separately, or manipulate URLs to access the same page from another hostname to move it into an existing session.

It also thinks that the first part of my e-mail address is my name (of course it isn't) and I don't seem to able to tell it what my name really is.

duynguyenle · 27 Mar 2017, 23:10

Daniel Beardsmore wrote: ↑Well, I've placed the order now. Their site really is an atrocious mess though. The Cart link doesn't increase its item count after placing an order. They use at least three separate hostnames (shop.taobaofocus.com, taobaofocus.com, mytaofocus.com) and you have to log into all three separately, or manipulate URLs to access the same page from another hostname to move it into an existing session.

It also thinks that the first part of my e-mail address is my name (of course it isn't) and I don't seem to able to tell it what my name really is.

Agreed on the horrible site. In my experience they do deliver though (ordered stuff twice via TBF). Stuff always show up in good time and well packed. Never had anything got caught by HMRC's customs duty highway robbery either

Daniel Beardsmore · 28 Mar 2017, 20:18

Well, there's a surprise. Out of stock, no idea when they'll be back in stock. I'm guessing that all three sellers are referring back to the same stock, so if one seller can't find them, then they're long gone.

Daniel Beardsmore · 18 Apr 2017, 19:05

Huh. I had some money left in my TaoBao Focus account (which is now HTTPS by the way) as a result of not receiving the B2R-ME switches originally, so I ordered two B2R-ME from another seller, as that was all the remaining credit would cover with the domestic shipping (seller→TaoBao Focus) would allow. I figured nobody had any left, and just wanted to be certain before refunding the credit (since I'm unlikely to find anything else to buy as it's all in Chinese).

But no, they arrived at TaoBao Focus today. So there goes my shared-supplier theory.

Hm. So now I'll just have two of them.

I've held off posting the variants table and family shots of B2R as my last and only working B2R-ME1 switch is dreadfully yellowed. I don't know what happens to the plastic, but the ones coming are still relatively white.