Chinese products :Be aware of the pitfalls

[spektrum1 10]

It should be noted that buying Chinese products might be very risky. I've bought a lot of Chinese products for my shop (due to competive pricing) via bidorbuy and wish to share my experiences.

 

1. As can be expected, mass production results in inadequate quality control, resulting in a lot of faulty/poor products. Up to now I have had endless frustrations by corresponding with sellers and forever returning faulty products. The return shipping fee of such items results in a costly price for a cheap product !

2. Buyin directly from the Chinese supplier has additional head-aches : Corresponding with them in English (complaining about a faulty item) is mostly a nightmare . Their response shows that they did not understand you correctly, or that you do not understand them correctly.

3. Although prices of Chinese products seem good, their high shipping fees tell another story. (R 1.00 for a cell phone and R 350 for shipping !) Although the return shipping fees of a faulty item might not be R 350, it is nevertheless well over R 100. Imagine what such an item eventually costs you. Having the seller refund you, is obvious madness, because of the original shipping fee (not refunded) along with the return shipping fee .

4. Buying cell phones from China is specially risky, even if they are advertised as unlocked and open to all South African networks. Some Chinese phones (e.g. Blackberries) do not have all the network functions (e.g. requesting airtime balance, loading airtime, sending a "please call me".) I have an overload of Chinese Blackberries (selling at good prices) in my shop... which no-one is interested in.

[Fashion Star 10]

Cheap stuff is not good, the good stuff is not cheap

[kyle2 10]

Fine print, especially with these chinese importers is best read many times before completing a bid, more often than not, they make up their item cost in the shipping charges to you, it is very difficult to prove, 'If it looks too good to be true, it probably is....'

What good is winning a bid for R1 on an item which would cost R200 when you end up paying R350 on shipping?:hm: