Cheapest way of returning a faulty item to china?

mod81

I bought an laptop on ebay from a seller in China, it arrived this week i plugged it in and it blew the fuse in my house and had obviously burnt out as it stunk of burning electics, I contacted the seller and he offered a full refund if i return the item but im an stuggling to find a cheap way of returning it.
It weighs 2.1kg and the cheapest i can find to send something of this weight is £30 with fedex. royalmail want £45.99 for standard parcels!!

It seems crazy i can send 1 parcel weight 2kg for £13.22 with Royalmail surface mail small packets but its jumps upto over twice the price for just 100g more in weight.
Any other cheaper options?

dalek

Send the battery seperately - thus reducing the weight.

soolin

Ouch. Unfortunately you've found out the hard way about the danger sof buying items from the Far east.

Assuming the £30 with Fedex is guaranteed to track and guaranteed to get a signature on delivery I would go with that. It looks quite reasonable really.

ezhiks

Laptop usually has a separate power supply, are you saying the laptop itself smelled of burning or the PSU? To blow the house fuse would suggest a faulty PSU, even if you shorted out the low voltage dc output from the PSU (the worse that that laptop could do to it), it still wouldn't blow the house fuse, the PSU 'brick' is short circuit protected. The laptop may be fine and the PSU could be faulty. Maybe you could try to diagnose better what is broken before sending anything back. Might be cheaper too.

mod81

It was the PSU that went bang but the laptop doesnt come on now either, it did work on the battery before but now just lights up but no POST. Im quite good with technican stuff so know its not something easily fixed prob new motherboard needed.

Ive emailed the seller advising them ill return the laptop seperately from the PSU and battery as this weighs in at just under 2kg then for the laptop alone and its only a couple of quid to send the PSU and battery in a seperate envelope

theonlywayisup

mod81 wrote: »

It was the PSU that went bang but the laptop doesnt come on now either, it did work on the battery before but now just lights up but no POST. Im quite good with technican stuff so know its not something easily fixed prob new motherboard needed.

Ive emailed the seller advising them ill return the laptop seperately from the PSU and battery as this weighs in at just under 2kg then for the laptop alone and its only a couple of quid to send the PSU and battery in a seperate envelope

Be warned that sending via Royal Mail standard surface/airmail will not cover you for the value of the item. Also be aware that NO Royal Mail international services guarantees tracking, so if the seller goes to a Paypal dispute, you WILL lose it.

For £30 I would go with the courier, as soonlin says, as long as it tracks and covers the value.

cyberbob

Just to say buying cheap electricals from China they will either be fakes or dangerous as yours blew out you can see why. Most of the do not adhere to British or EU safety standards. The argument that a lot of electricals are made in china anyway is true but these items are specified by companies and checked for safety by them before the import them. I would avoid in the future if I was you

mod81

well the seller i bought it from had over 35000 possitive feedback so i think this is probably an isolated problem, and ive actually bought off the seller before and the items have been fine. I have also bought other electrical items from china before and not had any problems as well.

mod81

Be warned that sending via Royal Mail standard surface/airmail will not cover you for the value of the item. Also be aware that NO Royal Mail international services guarantees tracking, so if the seller goes to a Paypal dispute, you WILL lose it.

For £30 I would go with the courier, as soonlin says, as long as it tracks and covers the value.

The items value is not much above the £41 that i am covered for with royalmail proof of postage, fedex only cover upto £50 so its hardly any different. remember that if i pay £30 to send it back with fedex its £30 out of my pocket i wont get back.

soolin

mod81 wrote: »

The items value is not much above the £41 that i am covered for with royalmail proof of postage, fedex only cover upto £50 so its hardly any different. remember that if i pay £30 to send it back with fedex its £30 out of my pocket i wont get back.

A laptop for under £41, have i read that wrong?

custardy

mod81 wrote: »

The items value is not much above the £41 that i am covered for with royalmail proof of postage, fedex only cover upto £50 so its hardly any different. remember that if i pay £30 to send it back with fedex its £30 out of my pocket i wont get back.

and if you send via RM and the seller denies receipt?