Is anyone else having trouble receiving their orders from China? Out of 5 I got 1

[lens8094]

I have bought successfully from China for several years. It took awhile for their stuff to get to me, but I always got it. But throughout the 2016 year, most orders are not getting to me. I am now avoiding them even though I have to pay more for the same thing else where.

[reallynicestamps]

It's being reported , but that is anecdote and not data.

There could be several reasons.

• One often mentioned is that Canada Post, in reaction to the low fees they get from China (through the Universal Postal Union) put a low priority on shipments from there to Canada.
• Another is that many sellers are using the cheapest Surface shipping services which can take two or three months to arrive.
• And yet another is that scammers have learned that on very low cost items. if they don't send anything, most of their customers won't remember that they ordered, many will accept an offer of a 'replacement' which will never be sent either, and the rest will be satisfied with a refund.

The UPU was holding their international conference this past fall, but I haven't heard if the China problem had been corrected.

[lens8094]

Thank you, and that all makes sense. I have been buying stuff from China for years now. Mostly stuff I know I can find locally, but it is made in China and often much cheaper. I have only been having problems this past year. My higher value stuff arrives quickly but the cheaper stuff takes forever and often doesn't even arrive. So I have been paying a bit more and buying from more reliable sources. I always buy from sellers with high ratings, but this past year that doesn't work either. 

[tech2perf]

Exact same thing is happening to me.  Things like 3.5mm Audio cables,  Micro-USB cables, a spare battery for my sons phone, etc. (typical low priced items with heavy China based sellers)     I've had the odd random issue here and there in the past, but in the last 5 China purchases, I've received 1 item!   This is going back well over 2 months.

I just purchased a rear view camera and avoided China like the plague, paying more for it it hopes of it actually showing up.

Does this mean China purchases to be avoided at all cost from now on?

[reallynicestamps]

Some posters claim that China should be avoided entirely, due to problems with delivery and quality, as well as the difficulty of resolving an Item Not As Described dispute.

I've been fairly successful with such purchases, starting with low expectations, but it is useful to factor in the cost of disposing of a badly described but unreturnable item, since there is no* method of doing so at reasonable cost.

But in reality how much cheaper does an item have to be to exchange immediate gratification from buying locally with a delay of several weeks when buying internationally?

It seems penny wise and pound foolish to me.

*This is an ongoing problem for any transaction between ANY  two countries. There is no way of enforcing the eBay decree that the seller must provide Return Shipping when the transaction.

[lens8094]

Where I live, I don't have any stores that stock the supplies I need. I have to resupply by shopping online. If I could get the supplies locally for a fair price I most certainly would. I can get the very common stuff here like the special plywood. But not the other stuff. 

[explorer4567]

I have exactly same problem for about 5 months. It's was to me so suspicion to me that over sudden nothing is coming from China anymore. E Bay should do something about it !!! After 60 days of purchase the link disappears from My eBay page and nobody can leave FEEDBACK anymore and that is only thing Seller from China care for. Like you said they can email you back and forth just to get more time. I'm also wonder who sets ESTIMATED DELIVERY TIME ? Tried to contact e Bay with no lack to get answer to my question. It's important to make a claim but you CANNOT do it before the estimated time passed (and now is set for some purchase even almost 3 months!!!) and you don't know that only after you make a purchase. YES e Bay eventually will refund your money but ONLY if you make a claim. I read other post and lots of Buyers who shared  same thoughts :  maybe some dishonest sellers from China don't even send anything counting for that someone will not make a claim.  WHAT if you forget to make a claim in the limited time e Bay set? It's so sad that something like this is happening.  For a moment I thought  maybe Canada Post has something to do with it. After I read so many posts about other Buyers from Canada  having same problem I finally  realized that's much bigger problem.  Just recently (before I read those posts) I bought some stuff from China and that will be my last purchase unless e Bay will do something about it.

[lens8094]

I had to make several claims through PayPal to get my money back last year. It was one right after the other. Right after I got money back from the last seller, I had to use the claims centre or whatever they call it. Anyway I got an email from PayPal telling me that they noticed I made a more than usual number of claims and if it continued that I could have my account closed. I thought the Resolution centre was to help us when the sellers were making us go around in circles as they were buying time for the time to run out for me to make a claim. I lost money once. So I am much more careful about buying from China now. I would rather buy from a lot closer to home and pay a bit more than take a chance on not getting stuff from China. Some sellers from there are very good, but so many crooks now, and Ebay is really full of crooks now. They don't do anything hardly to sift them out. Recently though, I had an order from the UK not make it. I am beginning to think there is someone somewhere in the postal system stealing mail. It gets into Canada and disappears. Only affects untracked mail, so I am getting suspicious. 

[i.am.vivian]

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@lens8094 wrote:

 I thought the Resolution centre was to help us when the sellers were making us go around in circles as they were buying time for the time to run out for me to make a claim. I lost money once. So I am much more careful about buying from China now. I would rather buy from a lot closer to home and pay a bit more than take a chance on not getting stuff from China. 

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It makes so much sense to buy from North America.  It might cost a bit more but you get your item, as described, and quickly.  These message boards are littered with people having unbelievably long delays from China.  

The problem is that deadly drugs are coming in from that country.  A minuscule amount can kill a person but it is actually legal to buy in China.  Naturally there will be people willing to export it for a price, and people eager to pay.  

Our border guards have to check all the mail coming in from China.  If it can be smuggled in disguised as printer ink, anything is possible.  It causes unusually long delays,

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/carfentanil-exports-china-ap-investigation-1.3795415

When Searching, go to the left side of the page and find Item Location and click on NORTH AMERICA.  Then do all your shopping that way, it'll save a lot of grief.  

[zee-chan]

Hmm, interesting about carfentanil from China.

Recently I just bought a screen protector from a Chinese seller here. I didn't buy it locally as my phone is an uncommon model so it's hard to find one for a reasonable price... it arrived today, took 3.5 weeks, and it was shipped from *Turkey* with no return address on the package. It was definitely a first for me... my older purchases from China were all shipped either from China or Hong Kong, and most of them do have return address. I don't really care where my item was from as long as it works as intended (it fitted my phone well), but seeing it from Turkey was surprising.

I'm still waiting for my phone case bought from another Chinese seller the same day. I wonder if it'll actually be from China or Hong Kong, or somewhere else...  Otherwise, I haven't had any missing packages form China. I did have a few SAL packages from Japan that were delayed over a month last Oct-Dec, though. I'm not sure if that's related. 

[i.am.vivian]

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zee-chan wrote:

Recently I just bought a screen protector from a Chinese seller here. I didn't buy it locally as my phone is an uncommon model so it's hard to find one for a reasonable price... it arrived today, took 3.5 weeks, and it was shipped from *Turkey* with no return address on the package.

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I guess that will be how some of them are hoping to get around the border delays on items from China.  It is sad for all the honest sellers just mailing out their cheap little items, business as usual.  Containers full of these items waiting to get sorted and delivered but obviously Canada's border guards can never stop doing it.  

They do sometimes (CBS) find a stash, like this one where they found 10 Million doses, 

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=1180229

so at least its not a pointless search, and when it is put this way in terms of the damage it can do, no wonder Border Services have to be very vigilant, 

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/08/10/seized-drugs-in-calgary-had-potential-to-wipe-out-canadas-popul...

I don't blame ordinary decent sellers from setting up a mailing depot in a place like Turkey, I just hope the scoundrels don't think to do the same.  It would be a matter of time until NO incoming mail can be delivered without inspection.

At least if anything you order is taking too long you have an idea why.  And as you know, PayPal gives you 180 days to file a claim for non-delivery, so just how long you are willing to wait is up to you.  

[lens8094]

They do give you 180 days to file a claim, however the order just drops off the buyers list soon after the latest due date. So you have to start the claim very soon after the latest due date or lose your money anyway. It happened to me once. I was being very patient with the seller and it ended up being a crook. I don't give them much time now. 

[i.am.vivian]

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@lens8094 wrote:

They do give you 180 days to file a claim, however the order just drops off the buyers list soon after the latest due date. So you have to start the claim very soon after the latest due date or lose your money anyway. 

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What do you mean 'the order just drops off the buyers list'?  Can you not find it in your PayPal transactions like all the rest?  I didn't think purchases  'dropped off'  the PayPal transactions at all, or has this changed?