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Customer Feedback

Check the sellers negative feedback

97% positive means 3 out of 100 customers are unhappy. It could be that 97% of customers receive satisfactory products, but the 3% who don’t are ignored by the seller (who may be a middleman – see below).

Choice

You may end up buying from a supplier you could have used direct for less
e.g. Banggood sells the iNew i6000 for $319 on NewEgg but only $259 on its own site.

The seller may be a middleman with no stock.

You are dependent on both seller AND supplier. After you’ve paid, the seller buys the item from a supplier who ships it to you (the package won’t identify the real supplier). The seller may even buy from a site you could use (all shortlisted stores offer dropshipping for sellers).

Even this article for sellers states dropshipping “will result in more fulfilment errors, mistakes, and logistical problems“. Examples: Fulfilment – the seller finds his supplier is out of stock. Resolving problems: the seller has to relay messages to & fro between you and the supplier.

Should you use these sites?

Feedback on these sites:

Prices

If you buy Chinese goods from a reputable site you might save yourself hundreds of dollars. I think the pros outweigh the cons, but you do need to be aware that:

1. Items apparently in stock are sometimes not. Despatch/delivery are always slow – with normal post it could be over a month before you receive your item. So pay for express delivery but even then don’t expect to get your item in under 8 days.
2. Manufacturer quality control is unlikely to reach Samsung levels.
3. Sites selling goods from China have a bad reputation for resolving after sales problems.
4. Even a “good” company with positive feedback (because the majority of customers receive satisfactory products), may not be so wonderful in resolving problems for the minority who receive faulty products and you may end up out of pocket.
5. Even if the store is willing to help with your faulty/missing item; distance, timezones, Chinglish, and having to return the item make it a difficult process.
6. Don’t buy counterfeits or well known brands – they might be fakes. If your delivery is intercepted the item will be seized and you could be in trouble. Also, items produced for the Chinese market may not be certified for use in your country. The phablets I was interested in were marked FC(USA) and CE(Europe) indicating compliance, but you can’t be sure this really is the case. I’ve heard of large commercial consignments being seized for non compliance/safety; so I guess if you are very unlucky and your small item is checked and does not have appropriate marking then import may be refused.
7. Typical free delivery won’t include customs handling by the shipper, this might mean you avoid paying import taxes, alternatively the package may be “intercepted” adding considerable delay whilst you are notified taxes are due and make your payment. With “express” delivery the shipper will probably handle Customs paperwork on your behalf and bill you; this means you will pay tax and a shipping admin charge. My Phablet’s tax & admin was £19; the Delivery Section of this link explains how this worked for me.

These issues also apply to shops on Amazon, NewEgg and other market sites. See “Buying from Marketplace sites” below.

A multitude of websites sell Chinese goods. I used these methods to shortlist the stores I’d be prepared to use. Obviously, I can’t guarantee these steps will identify every bad site or eliminate all chance of receiving bad service.

1. Ignore any site not green rated by Web of Trust (WOT): Security sites/addons warn you if a site contains malware, but they don’t identify whether a site has unhappy customers – WOT will.

You can check a website’s “scorecard” on WOT’s site, but better still install their browser addon it will display a green blob in your browser toolbar (and warn you if a site is red rated).  The browser addon saved me loads of time as I ruled out non green rated sites immediately.

2. Ignore any site where WOT’s rating is based on a low volume of responses: I ruled out sites with less than 3 people icons. With a small volume of scorers unethical sites can more easily influence their rating. Also, read WOT Scorecard comments – but remember that unhappy customers are more likely to post.

3. Check customer feedback on TrustPilot & ResellerRatings.Com

4. If you are buying a pahablet or smartphone these may also be of use:

GizChina store ratings, GizChina “Where to buy” forum, DroidChina “Where to buy” forum. There are only a small number of ratings and posts, but some of the members are knowledgable and their comments are useful.

5.(Lastly): does it have competitive prices for the items I want?