buying from china

dawn_rose

Hiya I have seen some items I like on eBay they are in China. Has anyone bought from China before? Is it safe etc? It is PayPal only which I use anyway I would be grateful for your experiences. They have 97% feedback. Thanks dawn.

Flyonthewall

People buy from China all the time. The main problems with buying from there are a lot of cheap quality products or fakes and you can be waiting weeks for the item to arrive. This is fine if the item comes and is as expected, but due to ebay time limits for cases you have to be careful if things don't go right.

Never buy electronics from China and I would suggest not buying anything expensive as there's a good chance of it not being the quality you expected.

Aside from that there's really no problem with buying from China (or at least, not that I know of).

dawn_rose

Many thanks it is metal bookmarks I'm after buying so I think I should be Ok based on what you have said.

Brooker_Dave

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Never buy electronics from China and I would suggest not buying anything expensive as there's a good chance of it not being the quality you expected.

I've had a phone, 2 tablets, a pair of headphones and 2 memory cards from China, they all appeared when they were supposed to and work fine.

Given almost anything electrical is made in china anyway, what's the problem?

Flyonthewall

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

I've had a phone, 2 tablets, a pair of headphones and 2 memory cards from China, they all appeared when they were supposed to and work fine.

Given almost anything electrical is made in china anyway, what's the problem?

A lot are fakes or of cheaper quality, like I said above. I'm not saying all are dodgy, just that you have to be more careful with electronics.

Brooker_Dave

Flyonthewall wrote: »

A lot are fakes or of cheaper quality, like I said above. I'm not saying all are dodgy, just that you have to be more careful with electronics.

The Nike trainers are good value, £100 in the shops here £12 inc shipping from China...

mrcol1000

A lot of "fakes" are actually made in the same factory that makes the originals under contract.

I have brought low value items from China. Often the total selling price is cheaper than what you'd pay a UK seller for the postage, let alone for the item.

iammumtoone

Just be careful that you don't spend over the amount that you will be liable for import tax (I think it is now £15 but hopefully someone will be able to confirm) otherwise you may get caught having to pay RM the tax plus £8 handling fee.

In certain categories alot of the items sold by UK sellers are imported from china so if you are prepared to wait for the item you can usually get it cheaper direct.

forgotmyname

What appear to be the same items may actually be of a lesser quality.

All too often you see a review of something then others order the same item and find the spec is not the same.

My stuff usually takes about 15 days. But sometimes it can be much longer.

Meadows

dawn_rose wrote: »

Hiya I have seen some items I like on eBay they are in China. Has anyone bought from China before? Is it safe etc? It is PayPal only which I use anyway I would be grateful for your experiences. They have 97% feedback. Thanks dawn.

I have only ever ordered cheap items for craft projects and most came quite quickly, some can insist you wait weeks but don't forget there is a cut off time for claims (You open the case no later than 45 calendar days from the date of your PayPal payment).

steveo3002

almost perfect track record for me , once got stiffed on a small item and fell for the tale of them sending another then it went over 45 days

so make sure you start a claim for a refund if no goods before 45 days

and remember return postage will be ££ so take that into account when buying if theres a chance you want to return

postage can take anything from 1 -5weeks