Model Engine Maker
General Category => Chatterbox => Topic started by: Jo on May 23, 2020, 07:22:48 PM
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I was wondering if anyone else was having problems with getting things delivered from China?
I have had a number of reliable and fast deliveries but of late too many of these "China Post" deliveries, which have a timescale of 2 to 12 weeks delivery time, at the end of the duration the tracking show they never left the seller's premises >:(
This is particularly annoying on Fleabay as anything over the 60 days falls off your purchase list and you can forget that you ever ordered the stuff. So you have paid your money and nothing comes of it :Mad: and they hope you forget about the items so its win, win for them :rant:
Has anyone else suffered with this :censored: service from China ?
Jo
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Hello Jo,
Sorry to hear about these problems.
Unfortunately, I think it's now about time we should all try and be less dependant on the tempting low prices from the Far East and be prepared to pay more for home produced kit.
Lets hope our home industries respond.
Mike
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I try not to buy too much direct from there particularly in these times where our own suppliers need as much support as possible.
However my man says that container space is very hard to find at the moment and costs more so the small 2 bit companies are unlikely to want to pay more for delivery when charging so little in the first place.
Also with far fewer flights there is not much freight being carried in passenger aircraft again putting costs up as what space there is at a premium.
Bigger factories are still on restricted production and their smaller suppliers are also not at full production so less rejects to be sold of cheaply ;)
It's just one of the risks along with the item possibly being below par but the ones that are OK will keep people buying that way.
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Interestingly our plant in China is currently running over budget and as Jason says the number of flights is much reduced so deliveries are going to be a problem. If they are offering cheap deliveries on passenger flight cargo that will not happen at the moment.
I am waiting for some Sherline chucks from the USA that are slowly making there way here ::)
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Hello, I am pleased to see that there is some kind of consensus developing concerning our over reliance on Chinese imports. The recent PPE fiasco in the UK has shown the ultimate price we pay for over reliance on imports. Thankfully UK industry has been mobilised to solve the PPE and ventilator problem.
By continuing to buy cheap items from China we are killing off our home industry.When it is all gone guess where the price of the Chinese imports will go? Upwards, possibly with other political strings attached.
I try when ever possible, and there is an option, not to buy from China.
This maybe a bit too Political for the this forum, i will let the moderators decide.
TrevorC
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I try when ever possible, and there is an option, not to buy from China.
With my recent experiences I am currently planning to not buy anything made in China in the future but I suspect it might be difficult :thinking:
Jo
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I can't speak for the UK as I no longer spend half the year there, but here in Canada the free shipping of the past disappeared when a new agreement between Canada and China caused costs to increase for China. When this first happened, deliveries were much quicker, but that has since changed to the same old month long waits and prices for shipping now often exceed the price of the item shipped.
It is hopeless to avoid Chinese goods for the most part, but one can support local importers who have stock and can ship with reasonable speed.
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I have avoided anything on Fleabay from sellers in China this past year, always quite slow. Just about any imports into the US is pretty slow at the moment, have ordered some old books and some radio parts from England since all the virus shutdowns, and things are taking about 4 weeks just to get through customs and back into the postal stream - they may be leaving things to age and decontaminate a few weeks, or they just have too many people out.
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I had a lot of trouble with chinese products and shipping even before the covid poped up. Now i only order from sellers in the country and try to avoid chinese products if possible. Either I never got what I order or it gets here and the quality is so poor it is unuseable. I did just purchase a 5C collet chuck that lived up to all that was promised after I remachined a few pieces. But that is very rare in my experience.
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Just a little off track, but last week I ordered via e-bay 20 pieces of 22 diameter stainless wire rotary brushes from HK @ US$6.54 with free delivery to Australia
It was only when into the second page that Paypal said the seller would not ship to my default Post Office box...the direction was to contact the seller to resolve the delivery location site...I did this which was ignored.......
Three [3] days later I receive an e-bay :Director: demand for payment :cussing: as I had committed to purchase the goods for US$6.54........
I communicate back to the seller, who in broken written English advise 'cannot understand why I will not use my physical home address?'
To date, I have no acknowledgement that my order has been cancelled and the demand for payment rescinded
So, my gripe is if Sellers decline to post to a PO Box, they should state this on their first electronic page
Derek
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They are getting paid in advance, silly that they won't ship to any address that PayPal accepts, even "#3, Left Side of Donkey" should be fine.
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At this time the same is true for just about any country. I ordered a MESA card from MESA in the US at the end of March and I am still waiting for it. Tracking says it is in transit and has been since the 7th April.
I always use Aliexpress now as I have had no problems with their dispute resolution.
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Yes Chris....I stated this to the Seller in the second e-mail :hellno:
However I have backed down and ordered/paid by Pay-pal with my home address as the delivery point, as these two [originally the 22 diameter] wire wheels are just about past their use by date :lolb: ...[stainless wire on the left, brass wire on the right]
Oh....when I went to the e-bay site I found my previous order still active and alive on line, so I deleted 20 x stainless wheels + a second set of 20 x stainless wheels, then selected & paid US $5.49 converted to AU$7.63 for 10 x pieces of the brass wire
Strangely enough, brass wire removes soft solder traces from brass surfaces/tube more effectively than the stainless wire :noidea:
Derek
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Hi all,
Another aspect of eBay is that I have found that numerous sellers state that they are in London or somewhere else in the UK and then when the item arrives, quite often after a fairly long delivery period, it can be seen that it has come directly from China :hammerbash:.
There does not seem to be an easy way to ascertain the exact location of the sellers, but they are certainly not in the UK.
Mike
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Hi Jo,
We had an article on our local news channel, currently 29 countries aren’t posting to New Zealand! With the massive reduction of international flight, our carrier is down 95%! it’s now likely that stuff will be like the good old days & come by sea, that used to be 3 months from the UK!
I haven’t had a Model Engineering mag for some weeks, thank goodness for the internet!
Hope all else is well.
Cheers Kerrin
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It's not only China. I have a package slowly on it's way from Sherline. In 14 days it has reached Belgium.
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Me too. One of my orders timed out last Monday and I raised a non delivery dispute wanting an refund. They had refunded me by the end of the following day. Not the usual run around they give you.
Another order timed out today and I'll be raising a dispute tomorrow. That item appears to have got to the exit point in China but there is no record of it arriving in NZ.
Likewise I've not seen a copy of Model Engineer since issue 4634
Pete
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I try when ever possible, and there is an option, not to buy from China.
With my recent experiences I am currently planning to not buy anything made in China in the future but I suspect it might be difficult :thinking:
Jo
The future problem will be when the UK suppliers run out of stock they won't be able to re-stock as they get their stuff from China themselves. Going direct cuts out the middlemen. Then again the sellers on Ebay are usually just middlemen.
Alibaba and Aliexpress is the place to go. Not that they don't have issues from time to time. I could bore you with a 12 week saga of dealing with an Ebay and getting the run around by the vendor, Ebay and Paypal. Eventually I got a refund and re-purchased direct from the manufacturer on Aliexpress. A far better quality item arrived within a week.
Pete
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I can trump you on that one Roger. The supplier is telling me this is in transit >:(
Deliveries with-in the UK seem to be working ok: On Sunday I contacted CBR Electronics for another DRO read head, said I was in no rush so it was sent as a second class parcel on Monday when the post office opened. It arrived Wednesday morning 8)
I have an outstanding pair of deliveries from Aliexpress but I have every confidence that I will get my money back from them.
Likewise I've not seen a copy of Model Engineer since issue 4634
I haven't seen a modern paper copy of the magazine since before the lockdown mid March but that is because I haven't been to our "clubhouse" to pick anything up ::) . It the old days the guys used to want to take the mags home to read stuff from it so it used to be touch and go if you got to see it but that has not been a problem for a few years you could normally find it to have a quick flick through while you drink a cuppa.
Jo
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ME & MEW are not being sent overseas at the moment so you won't be getting anything until deliveries are getting back to normal, subscriptions will be extended so you won't be charged for what you don't get.
The UK suppliers tend to have bigger orders that come by container rather than jiffy bags, still a premium to find container space.
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Hi All , I am still getting the magazines through the post...but the advertising pages are getting a bit thinner at the moment
Willy
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I reply to Mike's comment about eBay sellers supposedly in UK but not. I think it is about time that eBay stepped in to stop this practice but as they are making money they do not give a d***. I always look at how long delivery is if it is 14 days chances are it is a scam. Also look at the sellers other items very often they all say from China!!!!!
Stay safe all John
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There are some Chinese suppliers that have a shared warehouse in the UK and ship out of those. They have UK postage others have China Post :Mad:
I normally go on delivery time: if it is less than 7 days it should be UK Warehouse stock if not then prepare for months and months. One of the reasons I now check that things turn up on time and demand refunds from Ebay if they fail their delivery timescales. If they later turn up then the supplier can arrange collection ;)
Jo
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...................... One of the reasons I now check that things turn up on time and demand refunds from Ebay if they fail their delivery timescales. If they later turn up then the supplier can arrange collection ;)
Jo
That is a "must do" as soon as the end deadline arrives open a case. You'll get the "have you contacted the seller" or "have you checked with the local post office" but a timer starts and if you miss a dealine the case will go against you.
In my extended case I had the run around from the vendor which caused my Ebay deadline to be missed and was passed over to Paypal who wanted to me to go to my credit card company. All the time the vendor was making false promises. My case got closed and calls to Paypal in the USA reopened it, only for Paypal India to close it again a couple of days later. This went on and on until the vendor missed one of the arbrutary deadlines and the case then went my way and I got a refund.
The lesson learned is always raise a case as soon as the shipping deadline is missed and then stick with it. Keep a close eye on deadlines they are managed by software not people, that applies to Ebay, Paypal, Alibaba, Aliexpress and Alipay.
Notwithstanding my 12 week drama I still buy a lot of stuff from Ebay and Ali and I'm pretty happy with their service. But, as with anything, there are those out there who will game the system.
Pete
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ME & MEW are not being sent overseas at the moment so you won't be getting anything until deliveries are getting back to normal, subscriptions will be extended so you won't be charged for what you don't get.
Does that mean we are never going to see the missing issues or are they on hold pending shipment? I think most would preffer getting the back issues late rather than an extended subscription. As far as I'm concerned gaps in the collection devalue it for me and would be a reason for not re-subscribing when it comes round again.
Unless, of course we are going to get both ;D
Pete
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Neil's post on ME Forum
https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=151891
martin's Editorial attached.
I would say you won't be getting the missed issues unless you have digital. Any questions best asked on ME Forum.
Other titles have been stopped completely.
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Neil's post on ME Forum
https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=151891
martin's Editorial attached.
I would say you won't be getting the missed issues unless you have digital. Any questions best asked on ME Forum.
Other titles have been stopped completely.
Done- on the ME Forum https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=164735 (https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=164735) I've suggested that at the minimum we get access to the digital copies back dated to March.
Pete
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There are some Chinese suppliers that have a shared warehouse in the UK and ship out of those. They have UK postage others have China Post :Mad:
Jo
Yup. quite happy with this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333459029023
Arrived almost on time. ( Tracking showed item was at DHL on time ).
Practically zero run-out, lot cheaper than UK suppliers, ( I paid £14.95 BTW. :) )
None left now it seems.
Dave
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Hi Pete,
For what its worth, as I backed out the drive tonight to come to wxxk, I noticed magazines in the post box. Very happy my 1st ME mag since March! Mind you it was a March issue, 4365! Maybe just maybe we might start seeing stuff arrive. Wonder if it came by boat, it would be a just about 3 months!
Cheers Kerrin