Recent problems with items coming from China?

[theguardianangels]

Hello, have any of you guys been having problems with items coming from China? About 90% of the products that I have order from China (Free Shipping) have never arrived. I've been waiting 2 or three + months and nothing.

It's not just from Ebay but other sites like Alibaba, the unusual thing about it is some of my purchases were from my Trusted Sellers and it has only started happening within the past 4 months.

Before this I've received nearly all of my orders from China and the most I've waiting was about 1 1/2 months.

Christmas Gifts that I ordered at the start of November haven't arrived... 

[prodetecting]

I have been having the same issue as well. And what have noticed with regards to the "trusted seller" aspect is when I contact the seller they refund the money which does not leave me the option to rate their service or lack of service. So because of that, their rating does not drop.

[reallynicestamps]

You can open a Dispute through Paypal for 180 days after payment, which is earlier than eBay's 'after last estimated date for delivery'.

The explanation is basically that the seller is choosing the cheapest and slowest shipping service coupled with the disinclination of First World postal services to continue losing money on China Post's subsidized postal rates.

Here's a longer explanation including a (very) short history of international delivery cooperation.

http://fortune.com/2015/03/11/united-nations-subsidy-chinese-shipping/

[dale1448]

Like yourself, I too have been experiencing problems recently with items ordered from China, mostly with free shipping items. Although I never had this problem with previous sales, it's happening about 75% of the time in the last three or four months. Sellers have been good about refunding my money but I would like to know the origins of the problem and how it might be solved.
Is the problem with:
Chinese merchants?
China mail?
Canada customs?
Canadian mail?
If the problem can't be solved, it will be useless to place further orders via ebay to China.
FWIW

[i.am.vivian]

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@dale1448 wrote:

Like yourself, I too have been experiencing problems recently with items ordered from China, mostly with free shipping items. Although I never had this problem with previous sales, it's happening about 75% of the time in the last three or four months. Sellers have been good about refunding my money but I would like to know the origins of the problem and how it might be solved.
Is the problem with:
Chinese merchants?
China mail?
Canada customs?
Canadian mail?
If the problem can't be solved, it will be useless to place further orders via ebay to China.
FWIW

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If you are in a hurry, stick to shopping in North America.  You do have 180 days (sounds small, but is nearly 6 months) to file a claim from a PayPal account for an Item Not Received.   

So many many posts lately about items taking 2 months or more to arrive.  Did you read the article above?  It explains about how China's mail is subsidized by Western nations, and no wonder that some of those countries are trying to find ways of moving the large volume of items, for which they get no money, in a way that will be most cost-efficient.  

Once the post-Christmas backlog is cleared up, speed might improve a little.  Or not, if Canada Post is fed-up with the high volumes of mail that they are basically having to pay to deliver.  You think you get free shipping?  You don't, Canada Post pays to get you those cheap items.