Cheap Chinese mercandise with free shipping.
For years now I have used Ebay to buy cheap Chinese merchndise with free or minimal shipping, never have I had a problem, items arrived in relatively short time, very rarely more than a month to Canada. Since the fall of 2016 I have purchased a dozen or so items from China, very few have ever arrived. Any other country no issues, so its not my mail being stolen. The sellers have provided tracking numbers that never worked, they all have had very positive feedback, and had thousands of items for sale. It seems to have gotten progressively worse, resulting in none of the last 6 items I have purchased arriving. Sellers have issued refunds with little to no excuses.
Whats going on here, and why? Has anyone else noticed this trend?
Comments
As for the actual topic, I've noticed it too, but in my experience, stuff from China has always been super slow. Always 1 month minimum, usually 2 or sometimes 3. It's always been like that. I always seem to get my stuff eventually, often some time after the eBay feedback window has closed.
What I find more out of the ordinary is Japan mail to Canada being super slow as well. It's hitting China levels lately. Must be all those damn Yamatoku auctions sucking all the classic gaming goodness out of Japan.
I honestly try not purchase cheap merchandise. I like to support my local economy, and if not local then national, and if not national then I try to purchase from countries with decent labor laws.
Along those same lines, "free shipping" cheap items from China, specifically, abuse the hell out of our postal system.
The situation of why you are able to get free shipping, from China, on an item that cost $1, is a pretty fucked up thing.
Basically, China subsidizes their shippers/sellers with super-cheap shipping rates.
THEN, they have a reciprocal agreement with other mail services to hand things off at the border/customs without any additional shipping transfer-of-payment.
(so the guy that ships for nearly free within China pays NOTHING to use our domestic postal service)
I don't konw the full background of why other countries accepted such a shitty scenario, but it really distorts who can compete in the online marketplace by giving shippers from China a competitive advantage that they really shouldn't possess.
I honestly try not purchase cheap merchandise. I like to support my local economy, and if not local then national, and if not national then I try to purchase from countries with decent labor laws. I've heard both pro and contra arguments as to my purchasing decisions, and I strongly favor pro. Of course you can't do that with everything, and in fact many things are made overseas. Still, most items -clothes, food, other necessities are not that difficult (although you may have to purchase online to get made in the USA clothes) and are worth it, in my opinion. I think that ultimately with cheap merchandise, and to be honest non-cheap merchandise that is made in countries with poor labor laws you ultimately have very few people making a profit -basically the 1%. And those guys make HUGE profits while other people suffer.
What I buy 5 of for $1.99 with free shipping would cost me $29.99 plus 13% tax at London Drugs or BestBuy. My paycheck is also dinged with a 40% income tax. No reason for big box retailers to be getting my money, and the government taxing me on the money they already took tax from, besides it all comes from China in the first place. I'm just cutting out multiple middlemen and greedy polititions.
My buying locally funds go to groceries at local smaller grocery stores, treats at local bakeries, restraunts that are locally owned, farmers markets on Sundays and live music shows buy local bands.
But I'm not above buying cheaper items. I've bought dollar store things and have been surprised at the quality. Or I've bought stuff from Target's $5 and under bins and again, good quality. And a lot of that stuff is made in China...I guess it depends on what you're buying. Don't buy electronic stuff like wires and expect good quality.