PG Mall/ PG Beauty Review

Established in 2003, PG Beauty is a popular Taiwanese handbag/accessory brand.
They have their own online shop, PG Mall, as well as a Yahoo Taiwan storefront and TaoBao storefront. Their goods are also sold on YesStyle (marked up significantly, as usual).

Overview, timeline, reviews, and price comparison with YesStyle after the jump! You can also check out how to order from PG Mall/ PG Beauty here.


Overview
Customer Service/ Communication: 3.5/5
Their customer service is polite and helpful, but they replied to all of my emails at around 3 pm Taipei time (6 hours into their workday), which meant I received them at 4 am and couldn't reply until their next workday. This was pretty annoying, because you have to email them at least 3 times, and their stock sells pretty quickly/isn't reserved for you until you have paid, so it's possible that items in your order will sell out while you're waiting for customer service to respond. Compared to Tokyo Fashion's ~30 minute reply time (during their business hours), PG Mall was a letdown. I thought I could place my order in one day, but it ended up taking several days. Also, they didn't tell me when my order was shipped.
Price: 5/5
My total before shipping/fees for three bags and a wallet was NT701, or roughly $24.
Quality: 4.5/5
Items are exactly like the stock photos, but the "fake leather" PVC items felt a little flimsy, although not unexpectedly so.
Shipping/Packing: 3/5 
PG Mall gives you different options for shipping (EMS, Airmail, or Seamail), which is nice. Since I picked airmail (untracked), I don't know if they provide a tracking number, but as I mentioned before, I wasn't told when my order was shipped, which I would have liked. Assuming my order was shipped the first business day after I paid, airmail shipping only took 10 business days to arrive, which is totally reasonable. Shipping costs were pretty high, since bags in general are heavy; however, their weight estimate was off slightly and they overcharged me for shipping, so I wasn't happy with that (they charged NT1020 for shipping 3kg; actual shipping cost as marked on my package was NT884 for 2.05kg by volume weight)
Overall: 4/5
I love PG Mall's designs, and their quality is really good for the price. However, shipping is killer - even though I picked Airmail, shipping for my stuff was more expensive than the cost of the items themselves.

Timeline
Thursday, April 12: Placed order
Friday, April 13: Received reply to order; confirmed
Saturday, April 14: Received reply to confirmation; paid and confirmed payment
Monday, April 16: Received confirmation that my order had been placed
Saturday, April 26: Order arrives

My mom opened up the package because she saw it was from Taiwan and got excited haha...it's just a plastic bag, no padding.

Each item comes in a plastic bag.

Reviews
Stock photos are copyright to PG Mall/ PG Beauty.

精緻鍊飾點點長夾(桃紅)/Dotted Long Wallet (Cherry Pink)

Price: on sale for NT99/$3.40.
YesStyle Price: $18

I have to admit, I'm not sure about the zipper pull...I might snip off the extra dangling chain and blank tag.

Lots of space! It fits US bills (which are longer than Taiwanese ones) just fine.

復古蝴蝶結簡約相機包(駝色)/ Retro Bow Camera Bag (Camel)

Price: NT199/$6.82
YesStyle Price: $20 (without bow)

Just the right size for a cell phone, camera, and maybe a small coin purse. Love the logo lining!

海軍風船錨大方包(紅色)/ Nautical Anchor Tote in Red

Price: NT250/$8.57
YesStyle Price: $28

Somehow I didn't notice when I was ordering that the striped part is actually red and gray, not red and white...still looks nice, though.

Each sequin on the anchor applique is sewn on, not glued. I'm glad - I hate shedding sequins/rhinestones!

Two inner pockets - good size for a camera or cellphone. Very roomy! (I put in the wallet for scale/to help prop up the tote).

The other side has a zip pocket.

甜漾蝴蝶結斜背包(白色)/ Sweet Bow Shoulder Bag (White)

Price: NT220/$7.54
No longer available on YesStyle, but based on the prices of other NT220 items, probably ~$25

The bow is actually made of two separate pieces of material tucked through a loop, so you can style it either with one piece on top of the other (the way the model has it) or have it look more like a normal bow.

The top zipper is gold and has the PG logo!

Like the tote, the inside has two pockets on one side, but sadly they're too small to fit my cell phone or camera.

Again, like the tote, the other side has a zip pocket.

Price Breakdown/ Comparison

	NTD	USD	YesStyle
Item cost:	768元	$26.34	$91
Discount:	67元	$2.30	N/A
Shipping:	1020元	$34.98	Free
Subtotal:	1721元	$59.02	$91
PayPal Fees:	72元	$2.60	N/A
Total:	1793元	$61.62	$91

For clarification:
Discount is 10% off 3-7 items, 20% off 8+ items (not applicable to sale items or other promotional offers).
The total estimated weight for my order was 3kgs. EMS shipping would have been NT 1260.
International PayPal fees are 3.9% + $0.30.

YesStyle total would be roughly $91, which is enough for free shipping under their current promotion. I paid about 30% less, which is decent but not nearly as great a savings as the over 60% savings from buying Tokyo Fashion items directly. (Note: most of the things I bought from Tokyo Fashion were on sale. If I bought only on-sale items from PG Beauty, like those NT99 wallets, my savings would also be greater.)

If you're going to buy several items from PG Beauty, I'd still say buy direct. But in this case, buying from YesStyle isn't *that* big of a ripoff, because of the possibility of free shipping. Prices on their TaoBao store in some cases slightly cheaper, but as far as I know no additional discounts are available, and you'd need to get an agent (and Taobao agents generally only ship via EMS, which is more expensive from China to the US than from Taiwan even with TaoBao agents' EMS discount). However, TaoBao agents actually weigh your package before charging shipping. So if you're buying just one or two items from PG Beauty and plan on buying other items from TaoBao at the same time, it's not a bad option.