Why does delivery take so long?

I have been an avid eBay customer for years. You might even say it is a hobby much like collecting torches! But I have noticed two things with buying torches that does not seem to occur with eBay. One is delivery time, and the other is warranty.

I have bought a few torches recently, and a few other things - hobby chargers, batteries, etc.

I have followed the recommendations from members if this forum, and used suppliers as suggested here. Buying from Manafont, Lightake, DinoDirect, etc is terrible. You would think that they would use the same delivery system inside ebay as outside, but it does not seem to be the case.

When I buy things on Ebay from China (virtually everything), I have never had to wait for more than 2 weeks for an item. 3 weeks might have happened once or twice - but I cannot think when, it is so rare. Why is the delivery time so much faster 'in the ebay world'?

The other HUGE problem is warranty. I have never had a problem with ebay. If it arrives faulty, you get a full refund. No quibbling - it is done with a single email. You do not have to send back and forth emails, videos, birth certificates. Try doing that with Manafont, Lightake, etc. No - outside of ebay, there is basically no warranty.

I think the issue is that on ebay suppliers value their reputation. A few disgruntled customers can do them a lot of damage. So they are forced to provide good service. Of course, that is the reason why ebay is so successful. Outside of ebay, suppliers can do whatever they want, and generally get away with it. A few forums like this one certainly help to highlight the worst suppliers, and hopefully get the rest to lift their games a bit.

I am about to give up getting torches and things from these 'outside' websites. It simply costs too much. And life is simply too short to wait 3-4 weeks for each purchase. With those time frames I have almost forgotten about the original purchase.

Two words... "negative feedback" It will break a seller faster than anything else. If your selling on ebay their is no reason not to give a refund. Paypal will take the sellers money and give the refund if there is any complaint.

After the buyer gets their money back they normally leave negative feedback. So the seller is out the money of the item, out the cost of ebay fee's and gets negative feedback.... Not too appealing for someone who is trying to make a living.

Manafont, Lightake, DinoDirect, etc... I have never actually had any problems with them so I can't speak on their customer service. As an international shipper myself I know Items get misdirected, lost, stolen and held in customs. So it may be where their shipping it from, some city's in China are slower to ship. They may take a week before its actually shipped out. Or it may just be bad luck.


feedback keeps the barstards honest !!

I disagree. I would not give negative feedback simply because of a problem that was resolved. If I got a refund (as I have on a number of occasions), then I would leave a glowing positive report (as I have). I have never not received a refund, so do not know what I would do in that situation - depends on the situation, I guess. When I look at negative feedback comments, I see what the dispute was. Often (almost always) it seems that the customer was at fault. So I ignore that feedback. I look for patterns. If a number of comments are negative…then I stay away. If there are only the odd one or two, and it seems like the seller did his best, then no problems. That is what is wrong with dealing with the standalone stores - there is no feedback. This forums is a great help in that regard, of source. My experience with my Skyray purchase (and others like me) voiced in this forum probably helped a lot of people.

Sure - I can accept the odd stuff-up. As I said - I have bought hundreds of items on the Internet. Most deals are great, or at least acceptable. Ebay is great,I have to say. It adds the layer of trust that you need. When you are dealing with the likes of Lightake (Manafont, etc, etc) you are basically at their mercy. If they feel like correcting a problem, then you are ok. If they do not, there is very little you can do except wear the cost. I accept that - it is a cost of doing business with China.

And if it takes them a week to ship an item out - then they should not be in this business. Plain and simple. That is one thing that will make me give negative (or at least neutral) feedback on ebay. There is no excuse for that (especially on ebay, as all items MUST be in stock when listed).

Well , ebay has not always been flash ...

Several items vanishing in the post - and Ebay ? belidgerent .

Some sellers do try hard , and bravo to them , others not so much .

As for the non Ebay sellers , over all a better experiance ...

Ok , some times you have to wait .. several reasons for this :

1/ Item is not in stock

2/ Manufacturer has no stock

3/ Seller has to wait for the manufacturer to actually make the product

4/ All this means , you may need to wait ..

5/ And lastly , shit happens .

A lot of these sellers are after volume , they dont sell huge ticket items , there margins are small , so it comes down to volume of sales , getting personnal attention when you might be one of 10,000 customers that week , may be trying at times , but understanding that the seller may be a little busy can go a long way .

I still fondly remember KD never replying to my emails !

That reminds me , I should post a product review on KD

Not on ebay. It is a stipulation that the item for sale must be in stock at the time of listing. Perhaps that is one reason why ebay items seem to arrive a lot quicker?

I surely understand. I just don’t accept it. If they are in business to sell items on the Internet, then they should do it properly. If they have 10,000 customers, then they need the systems and staff to cope with that. I was in a company once that sold boxes (and labels, etc). It was our policy to ship items on the same day it was ordered (if before 4pm). ie SHIP…the courier would have it that same day. And it cost us no more - still $6 for the courier, or whatever it was. We just made the effort. If we did not have stock, we let the customer know that same day.

So no - I do not accept several days wait from these businesses. This is the business they chose to get into - Internet customers want things NOW! If they cannot deliver, then they should do something else.

For example - I ordered a Trustfire 3T6 from Manafont (on 1/8 - still not here). They processed the order the same day, and shipped it the next day. That is fine by me, and it is what I expect. What China Post has done with the parcel is a mystery....

"After the buyer gets their money back they normally leave negative feedback. So the seller is out the money of the item, out the cost of ebay fee's and gets negative feedback.... Not too appealing for someone who is trying to make a living."

What I was trying to say is if a buyer has to go through the process of filing a complaint with Paypal, the seller does nothing, and paypal has to give the refund then yes the buyer normally leaves negative feedback.

So basically if a seller has half a brain he will give the refund because everything that comes back to him will be negative, Paypal keeps a record of all the disputes and will close your account if you have to many, Ebay keeps their fee's and the seller gets negative feedback.

So basically what Im saying is normally the ebay seller is held more accountable than buying off a website. Now this is obviously not always the case but from being on ebay for the last 12? years this is about how it goes.

EDIT... one exception to the rule is big time sellers... sellers with a billion feedback score. Sometimes these sellers wont reply or do any customer service because its not worth their time. If one person gives them negative feedback its like .00001% Yes it adds up but their volume is so high it does not effect them.

Sure, I agree. Which is why they do it, I guess. But on at least two occasions I have been offered a full refund and never took it. Both times it was kind of my fault (not reading the description closely enough). I think the thing is you want the seller to talk to you - to at least want to fix your problem. In both of these situations the seller explained the issue, I then realised I had not read the description well enough, and situation resolved.

I have never had to file a Paypal dispute with any ebay seller - not in 10 years of being on ebay (or however long it has been going).

I have been in the torch hobby only a few months, and already I am about to start my 2nd Paypal dispute. I think I will scoot back to ebay after all this!

I believe it's a combination of no stock and lowest priority mail, both to cut costs for the customer.

I never order anything urgent from abroad. Sometimes even items from Europe or North America take weeks to arrive (but normally it takes less than a week), so HK/Chinese shipments surely take longer. It's curious that shipments from Singapore, Thailand and South Korea arrive here very fast, maybe thanks to a lower volume of shipments or better transportation management.

Anyway, there are independent rating sites for the independent sellers, and you can leave feedback there (both positive and negative). Sometimes the sellers even respond to feedback. Some sellers, like SuntekStore, actively ask for customers to rate them; others don't.

One such ratings site is http://www.resellerratings.com .

The problem with these rating sites is that most feedback there is more negative than should be, as happy customers usually don't feel an urge to look for a rating site. Many stores don't have, or have very little, feedback.

But it is helpful at times.

Don't give up, you can try HKequipment, they have web store and Ebay. Email for best price.

It is also very difficult to comment, as different people have different expectations. There are people who complain that the seller does not reply to emails 2 days, and then he replies the 3rd day (out for biz trip) and the item arrives the 4th day via EMS.

You know i even have had one item completely missing from the package from one vendor here, but absolutely excellent service ensued, the item was resent via DHL! (what the...). So it's difficult to say. Actually i really should record down the opening of packages process, so that there is absolutely no arguments. Another vendor forgot to pack 2 cells into the package, i emailed them and they sent them out with my next order.

I just remembered a knife I purchased from the USA ...

It went to Sweden , then back to the USA , then to me !

And free HK post , now Im not 100% , but does it sit around waiting for space , while reg or priority mail goes first ?

I suspect that is the case......especially with larger items. I've actually had a small parcel delivered earlier than a larger one despite being 'posted' a week later.

So how long should it take to receive an item from ebay or a vendor in China or Hong Kong?

Is there a difference between China and Honk Kong?

I just got a light from hkequipment that I purchased on ebay on the 9th. I don't think that is 5 star material, but maybe I'm wrong?