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Pitch

macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2011
335
1,315
I really wanted the caramel woven nylon which urvoi didn't have so I ordered that and a couple of loops from Crested, waiting on them to arrive so I can compare quality.
I had a bad customer support experience with Crested where I accidentally shipped an order to my old apartment, realized right away where I could've canceled the order but since I used coupons I asked Crested to change the address for me. They said no problem, since it hadn't shipped. Then they still shipped it to my old apartment and got mad when I disputed the order with AliExpress. I won since I had the screenshots but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
 

worker73

macrumors regular
May 4, 2015
132
59
Looking forward to your feedback. Thanks

Quite comfortable and I really like the splash of orange...

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ApplePenguin

macrumors newbie
Apr 14, 2020
20
23
I had a bad customer support experience with Crested where I accidentally shipped an order to my old apartment, realized right away where I could've canceled the order but since I used coupons I asked Crested to change the address for me. They said no problem, since it hadn't shipped. Then they still shipped it to my old apartment and got mad when I disputed the order with AliExpress. I won since I had the screenshots but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

That sucks, that's really crappy customer service.

The bands arrived today, they're good quality (I got the toasted coffee woven nylon and the close your rings sports loop) but the sports loop seems a bit less tightly woven than the urvoi ones. Not enough to completely ruin it, but enough that I think I'm going to wait for Urvoi to get the newer colours of loop in (They have a couple so far) and order those from them.
 

weeesss

macrumors 6502
Oct 24, 2017
349
187
Just received an Inteny sport loop from Amazon and I am returning it. The band is fine but the lugs do not lock in like the factory bands and I do not trust it. So much for a cheap band I guess.
 

Gaven

macrumors member
Jun 12, 2011
73
26
Has anyone ordered this from TB, appreciate any kind feedback on the product:
 

JTitleist12

macrumors newbie
Dec 9, 2019
28
5
Just received an Inteny sport loop from Amazon and I am returning it. The band is fine but the lugs do not lock in like the factory bands and I do not trust it. So much for a cheap band I guess.

I have completely given up on trying to find 3rd party nylon sport loops that have secure connecting lugs. I have tried almost all of them from Amazon including Inteny's version. It's a shame because I love the way the nylon sport loop looks and feels.
 

Pitch

macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2011
335
1,315
I have completely given up on trying to find 3rd party nylon sport loops that have secure connecting lugs. I have tried almost all of them from Amazon including Inteny's version. It's a shame because I love the way the nylon sport loop looks and feels.
The ones I have from I Love Luo on AliExpress all lock in. Some of them have very slightly more gap spacing than some of the OEM ones I also have, but gap spacing is similar on some of the OEMs and they all lock so it’s fine. They have shipping down the US and at a $1.60 each you can see if they meet your standards or not.
 

zerolight

macrumors 6502a
Mar 6, 2006
518
105
Glasgow
Has anyone ordered this from TB, appreciate any kind feedback on the product:

I always use this Taobao guy - DongD shop.


I've bought 3 Hermes clones from him that were all excellent and I still use regularly two years later. I also bought a genuine link strap from him that presumably fell into someones pocket during QA failure (very very minor scuffs, of which I have applied many more from regular wear). Can't speak to reliability or quality of other Taobao sellers. I contact him directly through the Taobao / AliExpress app - AliWangWang or whatever it is called, he sends me a PayPal invoice, and I send him payment directly, bypassing TaoBao.
 

Pitch

macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2011
335
1,315
I always use this Taobao guy - DongD shop.


I've bought 3 Hermes clones from him that were all excellent and I still use regularly two years later. I also bought a genuine link strap from him that presumably fell into someones pocket during QA failure (very very minor scuffs, of which I have applied many more from regular wear). Can't speak to reliability or quality of other Taobao sellers. I contact him directly through the Taobao / AliExpress app - AliWangWang or whatever it is called, he sends me a PayPal invoice, and I send him payment directly, bypassing TaoBao.
That piqued my interest. Is TaoBao all in Chinese? Do they ship internationally?
 

zerolight

macrumors 6502a
Mar 6, 2006
518
105
Glasgow
So, apparently there are three Urvoi stores on AliExpress:
urvoi Store
URVOI Official Store
URVOIZ Store

I ordered a bunch of Nike sport loops off of the URVOI Official Store, which is the only one listed as a top brand, whatever that means. They haven't come in yet but when they do I'll let you know how they are. If they have loose lugs or other major defects I guess I'll stick to 3C/I LOVE LUO, since at least they've been generally consistent.

I was told they were all the same owner. I use this one because they offer free shipping.

 
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zerolight

macrumors 6502a
Mar 6, 2006
518
105
Glasgow
That piqued my interest. Is TaoBao all in Chinese? Do they ship internationally?

TaoBao is China's equivalent to eBay. They ship domestically only. You can go through the freight forwarding thing which is a pain. But this guy will deal with you direct outside of Taobao using the AliWangWang chat app. If you install and register on the AliWangWang app then there's a wee icon on Taobao that will launch a chat in that app - little blue cartoon head.
 

ondert

macrumors 6502a
Aug 11, 2017
692
997
Canada
TaoBao is China's equivalent to eBay. They ship domestically only. You can go through the freight forwarding thing which is a pain. But this guy will deal with you direct outside of Taobao using the AliWangWang chat app. If you install and register on the AliWangWang app then there's a wee icon on Taobao that will launch a chat in that app - little blue cartoon head.

Did you place an order through that AliWangWang app? If so, what is the seller's info?
 

Pitch

macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2011
335
1,315
AliExpress Seller Update:

  • Crested – someone posted on r/applewatch a photo of a gold link band from Crested that looked great. I have a real stainless steel link from ChargerStore on eBay, but haven't wanted to shell out on the black one, the gold is impossible to find and Apple never made a rose red, so this seemed like a good opportunity to give Crested another chance. The link bands came in and they are a very good visual match to the Apple OEM one. Their biggest differences is that they feel noticeably less solid, there is more of a slight gap between the links if you compare them to the OEM and that the links are extremely difficult to take off in the Crested ones. I set up the black and gold ones and went to set up the rose gold and the clasp would not shut fully, no matter how I tried to close it. I contacted Crested and sent them a photo figuring it would be an easy return since it's clearly defective. They asked for a video and I sent them one. Then they kept on asking about the links, which didn't make sense since it was clearly a problem with the clasp. I restated the problem several times and finally they said the band worked in the factory and wouldn't help me. I initiated a dispute with AliExpress and AliExpress offered a partial refund to keep the band since, in their words, it still has value (not sure what value a band that doesn't close has, but okay) or a full refund to return. I clicked full refund and then found that I pay return shipping. I went to pay for the shipping only to find out it was as much as the band itself. Unable to contact AliExpress, I contacted Crested again asking if they could resolve this and they said no problem. A few days went buy and I didn't hear from them so I contacted them again and they said they would only help if I returned the band. I disputed the transaction on my credit card and fortunately got an immediate refund. I won't be buying from Crested again. 0 for 2 on issues they've created and some of the worst customer service for open and close cases I've ever had online.
    60CB4CF2-8590-4774-8483-67F35175B891_1_105_c.jpeg
  • Urvoi - an order I ordered from Urvoi was almost a month late. I contacted them and they said if I didn't get it a month from when it should have originally arrived I should dispute with AliExpress since it was likely lost in the mail. Thankfully I got the order, but still much better service than Crested. The sport loops are great, the lugs sit flush and are not loose, the only issue is the connection from the band to the lug is not as clean as the ones from I Love Luo.
  • I Love Luo - I hope my honeymoon period is not over. I ordered a few sport loops from them and for one they sent the wrong size. When I contacted them they said they'd send the right one when I ordered again, but that makes me hesitant since there's nothing else I want to order right now. Also, I ordered a few knockoff Nike loops and 2/5 are not reflective like their original version. For a $1.72 each not the end of the world but still not great that it's basically a crapshoot.

TaoBao is China's equivalent to eBay. They ship domestically only. You can go through the freight forwarding thing which is a pain. But this guy will deal with you direct outside of Taobao using the AliWangWang chat app. If you install and register on the AliWangWang app then there's a wee icon on Taobao that will launch a chat in that app - little blue cartoon head.
I tried to sign up for TaoBao to log in to AliWangWang to message your guy but I never get the verification text or phone call from TaoBao. Pretty weird.
 

Pitch

macrumors 6502
Jan 9, 2011
335
1,315
On a side note, does anyone know if there are third party versions of the international edition / Olympic woven nylons out there? I looked all over AliExpress and eBay and turned up nothing.
 
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