Ordering stuff from China *sigh*

[MaggieTheCat]

On November 1, I found an Etsy seller who sells black satin necklace cords for DIRT cheap. I can get them from an online retailer for about $1.50 each. The Etsy seller I found sells them for about $.15-$.25 (depending on how many you order) each before shipping. I use a lot of necklace cords since I make polymer clay charms and make necklaces out of some of them, so I was pretty excited to find a deal like this.

The seller is located in China, and even with the relatively high shipping prices from there to here, the necklace straps still came out to less than $.50 each, so I decided to order some. I didn't want to risk a huge order on my first time ordering from this seller, so I just ordered a set of 20 necklace straps, and with shipping it came out to less than $10. I figured this would give me a chance to see what the quality was like before I order in bulk.

And also to see what the shipping is like, which obviously isn't very good since I haven't gotten my order yet.

I'm not quite sure how to proceed. This seller has a lot of positive feedback on their shop. I think they have around 450+ feedbacks total and all but about 5 of them are positive. People ordering from the states have said that orders take a while to arrive, but they arrive in good condition when they show up and the quality of the items is good. The seller did tell me that it would take 10-25 business days to receive my order. It's now been around 33 business days (not counting Thanksgiving) and I still haven't received anything.

I did contact the seller last Friday to let them know I was still waiting on the order. She asked me to be patient as orders could be delayed due to holidays, and she said she'd check with the shipping company for some tracking info. I haven't heard back from her yet.

I really want to like this seller, because her prices are so good, and she has a lot of positive feedback which makes me think this might just be a fluke. I think I'll see if I get anything in the mail tomorrow and if not, I'll contact her again, but I'm not sure if I should just give it more time or start demanding a refund/replacement.

[GiggityGiggityGoo]

You used paypal, yea?

[DeltaSierra]

I'd be patient - I ordered a stopwatch of Ebay on Oct 2 from China and I got it in the mail today. Its SLOW during the holidays.

[kpzra]

Everything is slow to ship this time of year. It took 5 weeks to get a card my sister had sent me, and that was just from Michigan to Alaska. I would remind her you are still waiting for the tracking info from her.

[alcaholjunkie]

It also takes different amounts of time to deliver to different countries too, I've known to get stuff from china within a week (I'm in the UK), where as it took 3 weeks for someone I know in America to get their stuff. (Not a clue what state)

Although lately it took bang on 4 weeks to get a flag from china, feck knows why though, was an envelope sized package rather than the usual parcel, lol.

Also stuff from china can be delayed by customs and whatnot. ^_^

And back to lurking for me. ^_^

[MaggieTheCat]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Makes me a little more confident my order is floating around somewhere but still on it's way here.

I did pay with Paypal, yes.

I will probably contact the seller again this weekend (if I don't get the order) just to let her know I'm still waiting for it and see what she says.

[thansal]

I will chime in on this:

You payed about $5 in S&H from China to the US (I assume US as your reference Thanksgiving). The only thing I would say (initially) as a negative about this seller is that 25 days is a low ball estimate for that type of delivery in my experience. It takes a damn long time to get stuff from China to the US unless you pay approximately and arm and a leg.

Well, good luck, I hope it works out, and I hope the quality is good. I know how tough it can be for people who make hand crafted goods to source their materials at reasonable prices (and thus charge any where near 'competitively').

[Mystic]

I sent some shoes to Australia back in November and took nearly a month to get to the destination. I'm pretty sure the mailing system is borked at the moment.

[Sapphire Silk]

For shipping that cheap, it has to be coming by boat.

From China, that usually means 3-4 weeks, assuming holidays (which WILL slow things down) or customs aren't added in. 10-25 business days was probably too liberal.

If they're good quality, try another small order and see how long it takes. If you can live with the ship times, and they're good in other respects, I could probably live with the wait.

[ThirdGenRetail]

Hey, on the bright side, if they prove very reliable, wait time aside, you could plan your necklace work around that shipping - Order more if you know your work on the current batch will take X number of weeks, so that hopefully the new shipment will arrive in time for you to be about done.

[wagegoth]

I ordered some gloves on eBay from China, and paid $5.99 shipping. They arrived less than three weeks after I ordered them.

[Sparky]

I once ordered something on Ebay from Hong Kong. The listing cautioned that it would take something like 4 - 6 weeks, and it did take a long time, but it arrived as promised.

What tickled me is that a couple of days after I placed the order, the seller emailed me a short video showing my box, with my correct address, and his hand dropping it into a mailbox.

[Andara Bledin]

What tickled me is that a couple of days after I placed the order, the seller emailed me a short video showing my box, with my correct address, and his hand dropping it into a mailbox.

Considering how freaked out eBay buyers sometimes get when things don't show up a week after they pay, I'm not at all surprised that this seller has resorted to making video records of posting packages.

I generally expect an average of 6 weeks for "slow boat" delivery from Asia. I don't start wondering where stuff is until it passes the 8 week mark.

^-.-^

[sirwired]

It's kind of weird... it seems to depend on where in China it's coming from. I've ordered small, dirt-cheap electronics from a couple places in Hong Kong, got free shipping, and the order arrived in something like 10 days. It was not only shipped air-mail, it arrived Registered Mail (which is a quite expensive, and highly secure, way to ship stuff.) I guess it all depends on what the seller is willing to pay for.

[MaggieTheCat]

I got my order today! It's very nice, I'm quite pleased with the quality of the necklace cords. I went ahead and ordered a bunch more now that I know I like the quality. Once I get the new order, I should have enough to last me for a while. I'll just have to remember to order before I completely run out next time.