buying from china

Frugalsod

iammumtoone wrote: »

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.

Yes the £8 handling fee is what really annoys me.

paulwellerfan

i bought a bargain puppy coat for 3.99, on the 6th dec. ( from ebay- via china)
i am still waiting for it to arrive. ( the puppy will be to big for it by the time it gets here.)
My daughter also bought a leather jacket in november and that still hasnt arrived either.

so buying from China may seem like a bargain but they do take forever to get here.

Flyonthewall

campdave wrote: »

There are plenty of UK based sellers selling imported Chinese tat as well. I've bought some items successfully from China and Hong Kong (cheap cables and a few cheap electrical items) and a few cheap items from a UK seller that went kaput pretty quickly. It's not possible to have a blanket UK Good, China bad attitude - it's up to the buyer to research seller's feedback and see how they react to issues or if there is a suggestion the items they sell are poor quality regardless of where the seller is located.

Yeah but you don't have to wait so long for that to be delivered and it's far easier to send back if anything is wrong as you'd be sending it to someone in the UK, not China. I do agree that buyers need to research, read properly and check feedback though regardless of who or where the seller is.

Stoke wrote: »

To be fair, yes, to both questions and as such, I tend to have good experiences. I do know what to look out for, what questions to ask, and where to find limited feedback even on products that may seem very unheard of. That allows me to base a decision as to whether to buy it on a decent ground.

Also, I favour a number of sellers. I find Chinese sellers are a lot like English ones, the more you buy with them, the more they do favours for you and even discounts if you email them personally. I've had some very good experiences with sellers, and such, I tend to favour them over new ones. The only time I ever had an issue, i bought a Stereo off one of the sellers I use often, it arrived and worked fine, but the IR remote did not seem to work properly. I emailed them, and told them of my issue but of my reluctance to send it back due to the postage costs: they sent me a new remote and a new front IR receiver and some instructions in broken English. Yes, I had to take part of the Stereo casing off to fit the new receiver, but it took roughly 1 hour I'd say and it's worked fine ever since. An equivalent stereo in this country would cost in excess of £800, what with the number of features it has... this one?

£150

Exactly. Proves that Chinese sellers can generally be fine if you know what you're doing but sadly not everyone does know. Always best to warn and advise people just in case. Far too many do get caught out by just assuming they're getting brand named bargains, the real thing or whatever when they're actually not.

Sounds like you got a great deal with the stereo.

DSLK

I buy very cheap unbranded photo accessories lens caps, lens hoods, stepping rings and nearly all have been better than expected and arrived in 2-3 weeks on the free shipping option, usually China or Hong Kong Post.

I use the % feedback as a guide to the sellers reliability but more importantly look at the written comments to see if there is any implied indication of quality for the item I am buying.

The customs documentation is not always spot on but at such low value items it doesn't really matter providing it is there and the declared value is below £15. Above this I would worry that I would have to pay more import charges than necessary or worse not receive the goods if they are misdeclared.

steveo3002

paulwellerfan wrote: »

i bought a bargain puppy coat for 3.99, on the 6th dec. ( from ebay- via china)
i am still waiting for it to arrive. ( the puppy will be to big for it by the time it gets here.)
My daughter also bought a leather jacket in november and that still hasnt arrived either.

so buying from China may seem like a bargain but they do take forever to get here.

had one from aliexpress paid for nov 6th arrive this week , had started the dispute process but it all turned out fine

i did think xmas may well slow things down

barmonkey

paulwellerfan wrote: »

so buying from China may seem like a bargain but they do take forever to get here.

not always, the last order i placed from aliexpress was for 6 items from 6 sellers, 4 of the items arrived within 10 days the others within 21 days

andydiysaver

I've got a huge 27 inch beautiful quality monitor from Korea which is pixel perfect and the spec of an apple thunderbolt display.......for under $300 plus import/export coming to just under £100


still £600+ up on the deal - branded US companies do what I did themselves, apply their brand then mark it up £600...


so I'm in favour of electronics from the far east argument. I've bought from China also - and also excellent quality


In my mind it's just about homework and your import export sums. Agreed there are tonnes of dodgy people out there, but these days relatively easy to research/weed these out on the net

theonlywayisup

andydiysaver wrote: »

I've got a huge 27 inch beautiful quality monitor from Korea which is pixel perfect and the spec of an apple thunderbolt display.......for under $300 plus import/export coming to just under £100


still £600+ up on the deal - branded US companies do what I did themselves, apply their brand then mark it up £600...


so I'm in favour of electronics from the far east argument. I've bought from China also - and also excellent quality


In my mind it's just about homework and your import export sums. Agreed there are tonnes of dodgy people out there, but these days relatively easy to research/weed these out on the net

Not just about homework but comparing the various EU safety marks and legislation, it's there for a reason.

gld73

I wouldn't buy from China again - but that's just from personal experience. First was a mask for a Xmas party (in 2012) - never arrived, and seller didn't reply to my emails. Second was a cable for a printer, which arrived, but didn't work, and sending it back for a refund was more expense than the cable was worth. So 2 bad transactions with no refunds.

Neither were expensive purchases, so I didn't raise formal ebay action or anything ... just wrote it off to experience.

Both sellers had feedback in the thousands, of which a couple of percent or so was negative.

campdave

gld73 wrote: »

Neither were expensive purchases, so I didn't raise formal ebay action or anything ... just wrote it off to experience.

More fool you