London shopping service? Is this a thing? Can you pay someone to go to a shop on London for you? (Christmas)

[L9ndonShop]

DD is obsessed with an American rapper and wants his merch for Christmas.

Only his American website ships and the reviews say delivery to Europe is very unpredictable.

He has recently opened a shop in central London but I'm in the NW and can't afford the train tickets ontop of the merch and don't have the time to travel there at all. I don't know anyone in London.
All the places like ebay/vinted have no feedback for sellers or the prices are tripled!

Is there such thing as paying a person via PayPal for the goods plus postage and a finders fee or something? Does anyone know of a reputable service for this? Don't want to get scammed obviously.

Sorry, just re-read regarding the reviews on shipping. I missed it first time of reading!

Yes I know they post from America but like I said in my OP they have bad reviews for postal services, especially internationally.

It seems the merch is good quality and the shops are great but postal orders are very unreliable and often never turn up.

Thankyou so much for looking though! I do appreciate it.

Ah that's amazing!!

Thankyou. It might take a little planning as its not as straightforward as could you get x items in x size as I'm not sure what's there?
Perhaps closer to the time I could add you to WhatsApp and you could send some photos of what's available in a men's Medium?

I know it's a lot of faff and I would be super happy to pay you for your troubles! ❤️

There's loads of Tik Tok videos that show you what's in there so you could look at those as a starter for ten?

Ooh thankyou! I'll have to download it and have a look.

It's a minefield as I really know nothing about him or his stuff. That's a great place to start.

try filling in this form to get info on how to reach the UK shop. It's worth a try at least?

I haven't used it myself but there are plenty of concierge services in London that would happily do this for you. won't be cheap though...

I am actually on a solo holiday to London (me time!) for a couple of days from Thursday and I am now extremely curious about what this is.

I am floating about all around so if I am close by, I'll try to pop in and take some pics for you (as long as they let me!).

Surely it’s worth spending £50 on travel so you can go to the shop yourself and figure out what you want?

This isn’t far from me at all but as you’re unsure of what it is you actually want, it sounds like quite a hassle🫣

Or ask them if there's an email address/phone number OP can contact them on?

It's not just £50 for coach though is it? It will be travel costs when we get there, it will be 10+ hours on a coach. I can't afford over night stay so we will be on a coach from about 5am in order to get there. Leaving at 4am to get to the coach station.

We wouldn't get home till near midnight.

And I didn't mention this in my original post because on another post someone actually had a go at me for mentioning it, like it was for sympathy, that my daughter is autistic (that's why it's so important to me to get these items cause that's all that on her list) so I really don't think she could do all that travelling well in one day.

I appreciate it's a faff and a lot to ask of a stranger.

But nobody is obliged to offer to help. If people feel it's too much then then simply don't have to acknowledge the post at all.

I wish there was an easier way like just an online shop! I wouldn't be asking if there was a simple way to get them :(

Fair enough! Hopefully someone on here will be able to help you out then

This is stressing me out quite a bit now 😂😂

It won't even let me send an enquiry.

It just keeps saying 'undefined'

Oh dear, sorry!!! Okay, in that case, abandon the form. The PP s who have said they can go in can always ask for a direct phone number or email address and that might avoid the need to deal with the website!

I wish she was still small and I could get fake stuff and she wouldn't notice 😂😂

If my DD had still been living in London she would have been completely on board with a personal shopping job.

I don't know the brand but is it one which has 'drops' of a few items at a time and is there also likely to be major queuing involved? It's not uncommon for these kinds of brands to operate in that way so definitely pays to try and find out as much info from others on the merchandise and store set up if you aren't going yourself.

No it's a permanent shop, open 7 days a week now :)

There's tons of complaints online re contact information, for all the stores. Looks like they don't like dealing with the customers🤦 the only thing I can see is their Instagram page you can message them..

I would use taskrabbit - basically you explain your task, then you will get put in touch with a person and can chat to them. If you ask them to, they would probably video call you from the shop and show you the options, then they will put in an expense claim. You'll also have to pay them for their time via an hourly rate

Oh dear 😩

I did manage to get her some TTCxConverse shoes from vinted, BN. And they came and are genuine so I might have to just keep checking and then get her some generic bits from etsy like posters and badges, fan made stuff.

Someone said the Tshirts instore are about £50 which is insane really

Oh so you don't just send them the cash for the merch?

They would be out of pocket buying it themselves then put a claim in?

Interesting.

It's not high risk for them as taskrabbit makes it fairly automatic - taskrabbit have your card details and then when the person does whatever they need to on their end, your card is charged

I have mostly used it for small home repairs where sometimes they have needed to expense materials

Have you checked whether their merchandise is sold in Edinburgh or maybe Glasgow? Would that be closer for you to travel to?

There's only 2 stores LA and London.

I just want to say thanks so much for everyone trying to think of ways to get this stuff.

Ridiculous how difficult it is.

If there's a UK store why on earth wouldn't there be a UK shop ONLINE in this day and age?!