We know how the low prices on Shopee can be so appealing especially for audiophile-grade Audio products, here's our shopping advice if you care about sound quality and having your desktop speakers & vinyl players last as LONG as possible.

Hold it... because we do not recommend it.

Beware: The Hidden Risks of Buying Audio Gear on Shopee

We get it. Big discounts, easy checkout, and fast shipping sound tempting. But for high-end audio equipment, those 'savings' could result in unexpected inconveniences, or even costs you more in the long run.

Many buyers (including our own) have ended up with:

• 🎫 Invalid warranties because the seller was an unauthorised parallel importer.
• 📦 Empty parcels being delivered, followed by prolonged refund disputes.
• 😨 Orders marked as 'Delivered' in-app, despite no actual delivery taking place.
• 😣 Headaches chasing refunds that would never be processed, without chasing.
• 💔 Items arrive damaged, cracked, or even dead-on-arrival (DOA)
• 🤯 Weeks of unresolved lengthy disputes leading to unnecessary frustration, missing important birthdays or anniversaries
• 🤧 Products appear to work well at first, then became faulty weeks later, or just after warranty periods.

Just one day, this might just happen to you 🫵
even if you thought you have been careful.

 Read on...

Source : https://mothership.sg/2021/08/shopee-parcel-thrown-singapore/

Why This Happens

Marketplaces like Shopee are great for everyday shopping, but they were never built for fragile, high-value products like premium sound systems or vinyl players. Here’s why:

❌ Outsourced to multiple 3rd parties – Shopee outsources deliveries to the lowest-cost 3PL companies. These firms hire part-timers, housewives, and foreigners looking for side income. Most are not trained to handle delicate, high-value audio gear properly.

❌ Too many hands on your parcel – Every parcel changes hands multiple times in Shopee’s logistics chain. With no single person taking responsibility, careless handling is common, and fragile items suffer.

❌ Maximising parcel volume – Drivers and sorters are pressured to cram as many parcels as possible into vehicles and trolleys. Heavy boxes get stacked on lighter ones, small packages get crushed, and fragile electronics get tossed around in crowded sorting hubs. No bubble wrap can save a turntable when a 20kg parcel slams down on it.

❌ Low pay = Care-less – Each handler earns only 20–40 cents per parcel, regardless of whether it’s 20 grams or 20 kilograms. There’s no incentive to treat your premium gear with the attention it deserves.

❌ Exhausted workers – Many last-mile drivers work after their day jobs. By night, they’re tired, rushing, and just want to finish fast. The same goes for warehouse staff sorting parcels past midnight — often at the expense of proper handling.

❌ Shopee’s 'Next Day Delivery' pressure – To keep up with unrealistic promises to end consumers, Shopee’s 3PL partners prioritise speed above all. Your parcels are being rushed through the system. Throwing, kicking, shuffling, dropping, whichever fastest.

⚠️ Did you know? Shopee parcels are sorted at HDB void decks, multi-storey carparks, and even basketball courts daily, tossed around in open spaces displaying careless handling. Some parcels even left overnight, susceptible to further damage by the general public.

And yes, we’ve heard all sorts of stories from our customers.

As the go-to audio store in Singapore since 2008, customers have come to us eventually purchase what they want. Through our conversations, both online and offline, we've had to learn of many unpleasant stories.

👉 Here's the real cost behind Shopee’s 'cheap' deals and fast shipping.

Remember: Just a single accidental drop while in transit, can affect the performance of sensitive equipment like speakers, turntables, and amplifiers.

What could be worse than that? You being completely unaware.

The sound quality may not be at optimal, off-centre, loose internal components not visible from the outside at all. Lifespan may be SEVERELY shortened, even though your equipment may appear to be working at the start. 

❌ Shopee’s QC of sellers is deteriorating
Like every other marketplace, Shopee is in a race to list the widest range of products. That means they let almost anyone sign up as a seller — from Malaysia, Mainland China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and beyond.

With direct cross-border listings, local price control is gone. What looks 'cheaper' is often just because the product is sourced from a different market — and this opens up more cans of worms:

• 🚫 Counterfeit products reaching customers

• 🚫 Empty boxes instead of the actual item

• 🚫 Scams with completely unrelated items (keychains, soft toys, etc.)

• 🚫 No local official warranty

• 🚫 Parallel importers posing as 'local authorised sellers', offering fake warranties as short as 1 month instead of the full period.

👉 On Shopee, the product being listed at the 'cheapest' price, may not even be the product you thought you’d be buying — and even if it was, it could come with no valid local warranty or aftersales support. 

huh.
 
WHAT?

Just $312.00 (U.P. $469), what a steal!

'[Ready Stock]' too, oh wait.. 

 

Then you see 'Pre-Order (ships in 9 days). So which is which? Red Flag eh?‼️‼️

You might think it's just a 9 days wait, the absolutely lowest price is worth the wait, right?

And you might just Add to Cart the next second. 

Alas... you overlooked the fineprints.

'we provide a 3 months local seller warranty'.

 

👉 ✨ With TREOO.com, every product is an original local stock, genuine, and backed by full official local warranty. ✨ 👈

 

No fakes. No empty boxes. No nasty surprises.

By the way,

If you had purchased the Technics EAH-AZ100 from our direct webstore, it comes with ONE FULL YEAR local distributor warranty, as our stocks come through the authorised channels, guaranteed to be genuine!

So if the prices are too good to be true, it usually is.