Have you bought direct from China?

Notmyrealname

BigRonW wrote: »

Over a selection of posts, I've been encouraging readers to buy electronic goods direct from China, because my perception of China's situation is that they're moving rapidly out of the "metal bashing" phase of economic development and becoming a country that's capable of designing its OWN products. In my view, if one product is - say - only 80% as good as another, but it only costs 33% as much, then (excluding peculiar external factors) only a fool or a snob (or perhaps and Apple Fanboy?!) would insist on paying three times as much for a marginal improvement.

What do you do when it breaks? The shipping costs to return it would write off any savings.

If you're a business selling these items the situation is even worse as the contract you have with your customer makes you fully liable.

OneADay

Bought a cheap hard drive enclosure proudly boasting "Made in China".

Nearly got electrocuted with shoddy wires, shoddy case - never ever again.

Binned.

Notmyrealname

Indeed. I've bought cheap £5 laptop chargers from China built so poorly that they stopped the trackpad on the laptop working as there was absolutely no filtering in at all. The RF noise it produced was incredible and completely obliterated all of MW and HF.

grizzly1911

Go and have a chat with (Mr, Sir, Lord) Sugar.

spannerzone

It's things like electrical safety that needs to be considered. I've bought items from China and while the product works, the supplied IEC mains cable is dangerous and no laughing matter. The fact the makers even fake the BS certification mark makes it even worse !

This gives some typical examples: http://www.bs1363.org.uk/

I got a computer hard drive caddy that came with one of these awful leads and an Ebay search reveals tons of sellers selling them.

zurpher

I have bought cycling accessories and PC equipment from China / Hong Kong. The items were under £15.00 each so that I did not have to pay import VAT. If you are happy to wait a bit longer than importing from China can save you a bit of money.

BTW, I wonder whether the £15.00 limit includes shipping. If you happen to know that, could you also point me to an official source. Thanks.

grizzly1911

I brought a phone adaptor for a Samsung phone to alow me to use my earphones. Rather than a fly lead (had several which usually fray or break up) it was a neat little block that fits really well. an dhas lasted much longer.

It was about £3.50 and was delivered within 3days with full Chines Postal Stamps. Couldn't believe it.

I have brought cheap stuff direct where it doesn't matter too much whether it works or not (from a cost point of view).

The only thing that didn't come up to scratch was some LED GU10 light bulbs. They worked but they were an unsatisfactory colour and output. They refunded the money after I returned them to a handling address in the UK..

All purchases have been through ebay/paypal so at least there is nominal protection.

I recently fitted out two bathrooms and was looking for a particular type of shower screen. Whilst looking at the options it was surprising how many of those were actually made in China, even though they were being sourced in the UK.

BigRonW

Notmyrealname wrote: »

What do you do when it breaks? The shipping costs to return it would write off any savings.

If you're a business selling these items the situation is even worse as the contract you have with your customer makes you fully liable.

Last Saturday was my birthday... my wife ordered a replacement watch for me from China; I like "quirky" watches, and this one looks like if fell off the cockpit display of a MiG 15.

It's mechanical (something you don't see often these days) and self-winding, with three sub-dials on the face to display date and so on. Kind of a "fun" watch, and pretty cheap - about £15 incl delivery. It arrived this morning, but in transit had been shaken about so much that the sweep second hand had become detatched, and was rattling around loose under the watch glass.

Remember... this watch came from CHINA. The doomsayers here will tell you that this means "tough luck, your money is LOST". The reality is... I've just filled out an RMA request, which included a couple of snapshots of the problem, and I expect to discover shortly whether the seller can replace the item, or will instead give me a refund (I'd rather they replaced it!) Certainly there ARE crooks in China. But as Anne Robinson's career outside of fronting "Weakest Link" testifies.... we're not exactly short of them right here in the UK.

denwhatshisname

BigRonW wrote: »

about £15 incl delivery

So outside the realms of having to pay duty on the goods.

Are you saying you would rather spend £60 on, say, a tablet from china, with the costs inherent on that, or a £60 tablet that will be despatched from the UK. I know I can get the same spec for the same price in the UK.

bluesnake

I have bought quite a few items from china.

I've been ripped off with memory sticks, but have been ripped of twice locally with memory stick and sd card too.

Bought one item that was faulty, sent the business a vid of the faulty device and they sent out a new one, did not even have to send the old one back.

Had it once where a £2 item never appeared. Postage often is slow. but generally very happy