Internet shopping - the scales have just fallen
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 0
Internet shopping - the scales have just fallen
Having been cast with the rest of the nation into a limbo of uncertainty, I've elected - on my own - to refit a small sailboat. This has led me into uncharted waters (pun intended). When buying equipment, I belong to the see, touch and feel school. At the moment that is not possible as all the retail outlets are closed. Which brings me to the shopping internet but, not for long.
I ordered two interior cabin lights. When they arrived it was obvious, after just a cursory examination that they were cheap crap with all the inherent longevity of a May fly plus no wiring diagram. Almost needless to write; Made in China. The cost was a round figure of £32 inc. VAT for two, plus almost £9 courier charge. I e-mailed the sellers and expressed my rejection. They said send back the items and I'd be re-funded. Post Office cost for despatch; £4.
Total costs of the abortive transaction: £45. Irrecoverable costs approximately £13 or 30%. It has cost me 30% for two bits of information; shopping internet doesn't work - sometimes, and I intend to start a courier business.
I ordered two interior cabin lights. When they arrived it was obvious, after just a cursory examination that they were cheap crap with all the inherent longevity of a May fly plus no wiring diagram. Almost needless to write; Made in China. The cost was a round figure of £32 inc. VAT for two, plus almost £9 courier charge. I e-mailed the sellers and expressed my rejection. They said send back the items and I'd be re-funded. Post Office cost for despatch; £4.
Total costs of the abortive transaction: £45. Irrecoverable costs approximately £13 or 30%. It has cost me 30% for two bits of information; shopping internet doesn't work - sometimes, and I intend to start a courier business.
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Only occasionally above FL50
Age: 68
Posts: 135
Sorry to hear of your unsatisfactory transaction Capt Kremmen. I’ve bought lots of stuff on eBay. These days almost everything is listed with free postage. Read the description carefully and check the business details of the seller carefully if you want to avoid buying Chinese rubbish. If you get something that is not as described say you want to return it for that reason. eBay will provide you with a return label which is charged to the seller. Total cost of transaction to you - zero.
Also check feedback rating of the seller. If they sell a lot of rubbish that should be clear from the comments.
And, as always, If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Not saying that applies to your lights though!
Also check feedback rating of the seller. If they sell a lot of rubbish that should be clear from the comments.
And, as always, If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Not saying that applies to your lights though!
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: UK Scotland
Age: 59
Posts: 181
Hi CK. sorry to hear this was a bad experience for you.
I’m a technical kind who repairs and mods lots of boaty and other machines.
I do shop online a lot as often the touchy feely stores don’t have exactly what I need but I get your point
Some advice. If you want specific brands etc try good suppliers like I think they are called ASAP marine
in UK. Also read small print like sizes etc. Also look at reviews and and YouTube to get a feel for product
before buying. i usually end up with what I need.
Hope you get what you need.
R
My post similar to Andrews.
I’m a technical kind who repairs and mods lots of boaty and other machines.
I do shop online a lot as often the touchy feely stores don’t have exactly what I need but I get your point
Some advice. If you want specific brands etc try good suppliers like I think they are called ASAP marine
in UK. Also read small print like sizes etc. Also look at reviews and and YouTube to get a feel for product
before buying. i usually end up with what I need.
Hope you get what you need.
R
My post similar to Andrews.
Last edited by RINKER; 19th Apr 2020 at 11:50. Reason: Similar post
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: back out to Grasse
Posts: 333
Also, be very cautious about the original manufacturer of a product. A very recent experience with the Big River and a seller with a very English name, turned out be a China based manufacturer. The clue was a delivery time of 5 to 15 days, not identified until delivery address was entered and the estimated delivery date suddenly changed to a much longer period. Order cancelled and fortunately refunded by the River since the order had not made it out to China. I guess if the delivery address had been Hong Kong then it might have been more realistic
Take care,
IG.
Take care,
IG.
Controversial, moi?
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 1,595
I restore the odd motorcycle and repair odd bits of machinery as a hobby. The beauty of the internet is the ability to trawl many suppliers without leaving my desk BUT it is imperative to not just blindly buy the first item that seems to meet you needs. Price is often a good indication of what you are liklely to get!
A little research is time well spent although just occasionally a product is found to be rubbish. It is a small effort and price to return an unsatisfactory item for the concvenience overall.
A little research is time well spent although just occasionally a product is found to be rubbish. It is a small effort and price to return an unsatisfactory item for the concvenience overall.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,505
Buying things online seems to be vary by company.
Went online with M&S to try and buy some underwear for delivery. I can get to check ou, but their system freezes up at the credit card validation stage.
On the other hand 4 days ago I ordered and bought a £1400 TV online, including using interest free credit through another company. Everything went straight through. As did buying a new AV receiver elsewhere and UHD HDMI leads via Amazon Prime. All delivered with 48 hours and system up and running within 48 hours.
Lodger bought himself a gaming PC online at the same time from a specialist supplier. They can’t keep up with demand and are working overtime building systems to ship the next day. Also delivered and up and running. (Had to point him at an optical Tx/Rx pair of boxes and cable to get a feed from the router to his room.)
But all from reputable UK companies.
Went online with M&S to try and buy some underwear for delivery. I can get to check ou, but their system freezes up at the credit card validation stage.
On the other hand 4 days ago I ordered and bought a £1400 TV online, including using interest free credit through another company. Everything went straight through. As did buying a new AV receiver elsewhere and UHD HDMI leads via Amazon Prime. All delivered with 48 hours and system up and running within 48 hours.
Lodger bought himself a gaming PC online at the same time from a specialist supplier. They can’t keep up with demand and are working overtime building systems to ship the next day. Also delivered and up and running. (Had to point him at an optical Tx/Rx pair of boxes and cable to get a feed from the router to his room.)
But all from reputable UK companies.
Registered User *
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Here 'n' there!
Posts: 569
Originally Posted by ORAC
...... Went online with M&S to try and buy some underwear for delivery. ........
H 'n' H
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Southwater
Age: 70
Posts: 0
Originally Posted by Capt Kremmen
Having been cast with the rest of the nation into a limbo of uncertainty, I've elected - on my own - to refit a small sailboat. This has led me into uncharted waters (pun intended). When buying equipment, I belong to the see, touch and feel school. At the moment that is not possible as all the retail outlets are closed. Which brings me to the shopping internet but, not for long.
I ordered two interior cabin lights. When they arrived it was obvious, after just a cursory examination that they were cheap crap with all the inherent longevity of a May fly plus no wiring diagram. Almost needless to write; Made in China. The cost was a round figure of £32 inc. VAT for two, plus almost £9 courier charge. I e-mailed the sellers and expressed my rejection. They said send back the items and I'd be re-funded. Post Office cost for despatch; £4.
Total costs of the abortive transaction: £45. Irrecoverable costs approximately £13 or 30%. It has cost me 30% for two bits of information; shopping internet doesn't work - sometimes, and I intend to start a courier business.
I ordered two interior cabin lights. When they arrived it was obvious, after just a cursory examination that they were cheap crap with all the inherent longevity of a May fly plus no wiring diagram. Almost needless to write; Made in China. The cost was a round figure of £32 inc. VAT for two, plus almost £9 courier charge. I e-mailed the sellers and expressed my rejection. They said send back the items and I'd be re-funded. Post Office cost for despatch; £4.
Total costs of the abortive transaction: £45. Irrecoverable costs approximately £13 or 30%. It has cost me 30% for two bits of information; shopping internet doesn't work - sometimes, and I intend to start a courier business.
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: West Wiltshire, UK
Age: 68
Posts: 412
Originally Posted by RedhillPhil
Story in the "can you help me" bit in the Sunday Times today. Woman bought an oxygen concentrator (yes really) from the bay of E and it arrived with all the instructions in Chinese.
Similar story here. I bought a hypochlorous acid generator on eBay, as much as an experiment as anything else (if it worked it would be a bonus). It arrived with all the instructions in Chinese. I spent a happy hour or two doing a crash course in trying to understand simplified Chinese characters, which only worked because I managed to guess what one of them might be, then work backwards from there. Rather surprisingly the thing actually works rather well, and produces hypochlorous acid at a concentration of about 150ppm, plenty good enough for disinfecting stuff. It just needs filling with water, adding a teaspoon full of salt and plugging into USB power for 8 minutes, to make 300ml of the stuff. As hypochlorous acid normally sells for about £5 for a 100ml bottle, and the machine cost about £20, it seems reasonable value, as I've already made a few litres of the stuff and bottled it up for use by others.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,505
Similar story here. I bought a hypochlorous acid generator on eBay, as much as an experiment as anything else (if it worked it would be a bonus). It arrived with all the instructions in Chinese. I spent a happy hour or two doing a crash course in trying to understand simplified Chinese characters, which only worked because I managed to guess what one of them might be, then work backwards from there
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: West Wiltshire, UK
Age: 68
Posts: 412
Originally Posted by ORAC
I bought one as well, also arrived with Chinese instructions. However I noted that the seller had the same instructions in english on their ad and just printed it off without needing any language lessons.....
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 11,505
Came with a scoop. I follow the instructions of 7.5g for low concentration, 15g for medium, 22.g high. Wash it out in the evening, refill in the morning.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hypochlor...-/353048998601
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hypochlor...-/353048998601
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: FL450
Posts: 484
I bought a 30 quid cat climbing tree and paid with paypal. What arrived was a 50p pet tunnel! It seems that was what everyone who ordered was sent. Paypal offered a refund but only when the item had been returned to an address in CHINA. And the address given was in Chinese! It needed to be sent tracked delivery and I was to give paypal the tracking details. The cost of this was 16 quid! Or, it would have been if the post office had accepted it for delivery. They refused as all post to China has been stopped. No amount of reasoning over many weeks with paypal would see sense and they eventually refused me a refund. That is the second time in 4 months that paypal has stolen from me. Previously I was the seller and the buyer stole all the value off the item and then returned it for a refund! Again paypal ruled against me. From now on I will endevour to avoid paypal.
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: West Wiltshire, UK
Age: 68
Posts: 412
Originally Posted by ORAC
Came with a scoop. I follow the instructions of 7.5g for low concentration, 15g for medium, 22.g high. Wash it out in the evening, refill in the morning.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hypochlor...-/353048998601
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hypochlor...-/353048998601
Same as mine. That's way too much salt, and 90% of it won't be used in the reaction at all. There will be a great deal of salt in the solution after it's reacted. I can only assume that there's some sort of translation error that's mixed up units somehow. If you want confirmation, have a look at the amount of salt used by other very similar devices. For example, the one in these instructions uses 1g per half litre:
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Redding CA, or on a fire somewhere
Posts: 1,839
Originally Posted by Capt Kremmen
Having been cast with the rest of the nation into a limbo of uncertainty, I've elected - on my own - to refit a small sailboat. This has led me into uncharted waters (pun intended). When buying equipment, I belong to the see, touch and feel school.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 19,679
Simple checks, when you find Something to buy, come off the website and Google a review of that object that will in turn give you what people think of them.
Other things to do is to google the item purchase wise because often you will find sellers on eBay simply do that task for you and bang on 10% or even more to the final price they sell it for, And you think because it is on eBay it is cheaper, but often it is not. They order it from the likes of Amazon direct to you cheaper and add their fees.
some items on eBay are actually very cheap, a general use jacket for work cost me 10 quid and is made in the UK and is also excellent quality, it surprised me because I was just expecting it to be cheap and nasty, something you don’t mind getting dirty or oily, see below.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MENS-HARR...r=522659529244
Other things to do is to google the item purchase wise because often you will find sellers on eBay simply do that task for you and bang on 10% or even more to the final price they sell it for, And you think because it is on eBay it is cheaper, but often it is not. They order it from the likes of Amazon direct to you cheaper and add their fees.
some items on eBay are actually very cheap, a general use jacket for work cost me 10 quid and is made in the UK and is also excellent quality, it surprised me because I was just expecting it to be cheap and nasty, something you don’t mind getting dirty or oily, see below.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MENS-HARR...r=522659529244
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 19,679
Capt K these guys do salvage and I’ve had the odd item off them, here is the lighting..
https://www.trinitymarine.co.uk/prod...tage-lighting/
https://www.trinitymarine.co.uk/prod...tage-lighting/
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: uk
Age: 64
Posts: 67
Originally Posted by Capt Kremmen
Having been cast with the rest of the nation into a limbo of uncertainty, I've elected - on my own - to refit a small sailboat. This has led me into uncharted waters (pun intended). When buying equipment, I belong to the see, touch and feel school. At the moment that is not possible as all the retail outlets are closed. Which brings me to the shopping internet but, not for long.
I ordered two interior cabin lights. When they arrived it was obvious, after just a cursory examination that they were cheap crap with all the inherent longevity of a May fly plus no wiring diagram.
I ordered two interior cabin lights. When they arrived it was obvious, after just a cursory examination that they were cheap crap with all the inherent longevity of a May fly plus no wiring diagram.
Enjoy your refit. Cheers. Al
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: La Rochelle.
Age: 45
Posts: 518
Just because something is made in China doesn't mean it's necessarily poor quality. Odds are the computer you are using, the smartphone in your pocket, clothes you are wearing, air conditioning in your car etc etc are all quality made in China. However, none of that will stop resellers (online or in a store) finding the cheapest product they can and passing it on to you at a few hundred percent mark-up. If you buy on ebay or Amazon et al, you can get some good deals but you still have to do basic homework.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 0
Originally Posted by clareprop
Just because something is made in China doesn't mean it's necessarily poor quality. Odds are the computer you are using, the smartphone in your pocket, clothes you are wearing, air conditioning in your car etc etc are all quality made in China. However, none of that will stop resellers (online or in a store) finding the cheapest product they can and passing it on to you at a few hundred percent mark-up. If you buy on ebay or Amazon et al, you can get some good deals but you still have to do basic homework.
My grateful thanks to one and all for your helpful advice to a newbie at internet shopping. I guess that a re-action would be not to let the process sour me and apply at least some investigation prior to signing up.
