Beaware of Fasttech free shipping!

[teacher]

@Hellie112

“Could come in handy in cases where non-delivery is an issue, though.”

If you order with PayPal you don’t need tracking. The shop needs to proof that you received the order. If they can’t PayPal will rule in favor of the customer. So if you pay for tracking you do the shop a favor. It’s the same with Banggood who tries to let the customer pay for insurance. Meanwhile the customer isn’t responsible for the order to arrive in good condition…

@Pavlo

Good insight, thanks for sharing!

+1 … Thanks for that info Hellie112. I never buy the insurance on Banggood or GearBest orders, but I was unaware of the PayPal info you shared. Good to know…. :+1:
_

@Gebe

FT is about the only Chinese dealer I’ll order from. Sure, I’ve had some slow orders but the majority have been very quickly received and I’ve received every order from them.

I don’t order a lot from FastTec, but every time I have the shipping has been very fast. Faster than BG & GB… especially lately.

[tekwyzrd]

@Lightbringer

Wellp, there’s no such thing as a Fasttech Warehouse from what I can tell, and stuff’s drop-shipped from other suppliers. That’s why they carry everything from XHP50s to plant-seeds to naughty toys. So if their supplier says “Hey, we got 5000 in stock!” and FT sells ’em, but the supplier comes up dry, yeah, FT’s on the hook, but there ain’t much they can do about it other than cancel the order and issue a refund, and the culture over yonder considers that about as appealing as donating a kidney on a park-bench using a rusty spork.

So most days you’re the windshield, but some (thankfully rare) days you’re the bug.

It would be nice if they informed potential buyers if they operate as a drop ship portal and not an actual retailer. After the cny I placed an order for reflectors that were supposedly ‘in stock’. A few days after paying the inventory status changed to expected arrival in 4 days. This expected restock date changed five times while my inquiries were met with ‘please wait a few more days’ before finally receiving a refund. After the refund was issued I went back to the item listing and found it again showed the item ‘in stock’. I contacted fasttech support asking if the item was really in stock and was informed the ‘front desk is incorrect and will be corrected’ and the item was restocking. A week later I received another reply that there were two of the reflectors available. Two reflectors… who restocks just two items? I wanted six. In summary, don’t believe when fasttech lists an item as ‘in stock’ and if shipping is delayed check the item’s page. You’ll probably find it’s awaiting restock.

[Hellie112]

Although Paypal offers buyers protection, you also pay extra for it. Recently I calculated I paid around 4% extra through the bad exchange rate they use.

[korkfoto]

I”m not using the paypal conversion rate, but the one of the bank that emitted my debit card (in my national currency). Always lower than paypal’s.

[Paradise]

I have just received my first ever ft order, it took a total of 71 days. Is this normal for their cheapest/free shipping option? And why is everyone else faster?

The tracking on the free packet works, they just won’t tell you the tracking ID - which is a bit unfair I think.

[Hellie112]

I started documenting shipping times of all my orders since Jan.
I placed 17 orders at FT (and I’m still waiting on 5).
The average shipping time of those 12 orders (that I received) is 37 days.
The longest did 51 days and the shortest 22 days to arrive.
I have some tracked and non-tracked orders and I don’t think there is any difference in shipping speed.

[Paradise]

I only shopped via Aliexpress, ebay and Gearbest before. While none of them were really fast, the quickest was 14 days (Aexp) and the average was also 32 days (close to your number). Only the Ft order, which was my first ever, took this long (71).

My spreadsheets app covers all shipped items including ebay.

Not sure why Fasttech is this slow.

[teacher]

No matter which vendor…. GB, BG, AE, FT, shipping time varies greatly from order to order & vendor to vendor. No rhyme or reason to it usually, just the nature of ordering from China.