Have you bought direct from China?

BigRonW

Dreamnine wrote: »

People who buy cheap crap from China are idiots and deserve the problems they encounter.

Curiously, that pretty much mirrors my own view of the idiots who buy (100% Chinese manufactured) Apple products, at a price far higher than they're really worth, because they think it gives them an undeserved iamge of being "stylish" and "cool". The new "Mini iPad" would be a case in point. Demonstrably inferior to the latest Android tablets (worse screen, less powerful CPU, silly screen ratio...) yet costing a minimum of 35% more.

The big difference betwen "Cheap crap" from China, and obscenely overpriced crap that was also made in China, is that buying the former leaves a LOT more coins jingling in your pocket, and/or bank account.:T "Cool" is something that you can't buy!

neilwoods

Lets be honest, what isn't made in china or far east these days. Only difference is probably the quality control imposed by the well known brands.

I have bought quite a few items from china over the years, mainly ebay and DX, mostly good and some real tat. Only real concern for me was the UK plugs they supply which are banned from sale in this country, as no fuse and earth pin is partially shielded. Should also point out, last item i bought that came with a banned plug, came from Amazon (supplied to them from third party).

As for paying tax and duty, you have to factor that into the price. Just because some people and there friends have never have had to pay this, does not mean other won't. So would be a stupid buyer if they didn't factor the extra costs in.

LouLou

paddyrg wrote: »

If you have never paid duty and VAT on an import, you have been fortunate and I suspect the shippers put a deliberately deceptively low valuation on the goods declaration. I would not want to rely on tax evasion as being a sustainable way to go in the future ;-)

Has the 'coin' come down 'hundreds' of times in a row, or half a dozen or so? And remember, people are typically TERRIBLE at understanding odds otherwise nobody would enter the lotto (14,000,000 to 1) - or smoke (3 to 1)!

There's a Chinese ebay seller with this:

"From the end of July 2011, British Customs has stepped up its imports from China parcel inspection efforts, the parcel from China to implement 100% inspection.If your package's value over 15GBP, you will pay few tax/custom possible.If you buy more than 10 items at same time,I advise you don't need the gift box for each,you can save some shipping and the package look like smaller,maybe you can save some tax and custom." so I would say it is VERY likely you will get caught out by customs these days!

Also, like most people, I have been stiffed from a fake memory card, in the days when a Sony Pro Duo 4GB card was quite pricey (the Chinese seller sent me a cheque for about 1/5 of the price, Amazon UK Marketplace..Amazon promised to reimburse me for the rest but nothing ever materialised. They're still on Amazon too, which makes it all the worse). I was naive, but I never let that happen again!

Bought a UV gel lamp from ebay, which fizzed and coughed out smoke..! But, in saying that, I have bought some things that were pretty good from DealExtreme. Never anything expensive, though, just bits and pieces.

johnnyboyrebel

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. China produces (for example) a range of Android tablets under brand names that are totally unknoiwn here in the West - Onda, Windows, Ainol, Haipad... And from my experience, they're often surprisingly good, particularly considering their low cost.

Buying a totally unknown brand of something that - even if comparatively cheap is nonetheless quite costly - from a retailer on the far side of the planet can be pretty un-nerving the first time you do it. What if the retailer takes your money and doesn't come up with the goods?!

I'd like to hear from anyone who I've encouraged and DID buy direct from China how they got on. Was it easier than you expected? Were the goods of acceptable quality? How was the price? My own experiences have all been positive, as have those of my friends. If you've ordered something from CHina because I suggested it and encouraged you to make the jump... please share what you learned from the experience. That way, it won't just be ME saying "There are some real BARGAINS to be had here", and other posters responding with spurious gossip about how terrible Chinese products are, and how risky is is to buy things direct.

We dealt with various suppliers in China on a wholesale basis and i personally have bought many things from the far east over the years. All of which I had no issues with.

At the end of the day, this kind of post is pointless on here as all you will get is 'china = fake' so you are wasting your time on these kind of people and if they feel the need to spend over the odds in the UK nothing you or anyone says will change that.

LouLou

Funnily enough, after reading this thread, I caught a review of an S3-lookalike, (STAR B92M), though it is dual-core, and dual-SIM. Got it from HUKD's mobiles page, Mobot. It retails for around £135.

http://www.gizchina.com/2012/11/03/exclusive-complete-comprensive-star-b92m-hdc-galaxy-s3-ex-review/

I'd be interested in tackling a cheaper, "no-name" brand if it had good review. The fact that they've now reduced the ram to 512MB from 1GB and the reviewer's other reservations (ie, it crashing quite regularly, and what about the warranty?) would make me go with a more established brand.

I bought a Huawei G300 for my mum quite recently, though they're hardly a no-name.

paddyrg

Its funny, there are some business items I have been pricing up, and aliexpress has such wildly varying prices - all of which were higher than buying off the shelf in the UK! And that is before shipping or duty or VAT. Incredible really, but worth knowing not to assume you have a bargain and to really really do your homework!