Something is not right with banggood and shipping times..

Wait, did you send them a design?

I don’t think it’s too good of an idea to send all of the detailed drawing and samples to a company that you may not have trust over of.

One problem with your theory is in 1978 and well beyond knockoffs were already being made by the Japanese. Japan Knockoffs.
Please see Gibson guitar lawsuits of Ibanez and countless others at that time. Worst part is some of those Ibanez guitars were better than Gibsons of the same time and that is why they were so worried and filed lawsuits.
That is just one sector of the marketplace at that time.
Find me a China made mass produced toy from 1978-1985 other than dollar store stuff and even that will be scarce.

Knockoffs and the “race to the bottom” can actually be traced back to the US companies looking to use and exploit cheap labor from wherever they could.
The stock market and greedy investors led us to China, they had the lowest wages for years, that is not always the case now. Other countries are now undercutting the Chinese.

I collect old toys from the 1960’s and 1970’s and there is a pattern of made in Japan, then in Singapore, then into Hong Kong for quite a few years, Same product just less cost for the manufacturer/vendor/seller.
The US companies did this to cut costs, nothing new there.

It’s funny that in the late 1960’s and 1970’s saying something was “Made in Japan” was a slam on an item, fast forward to the 1980’s and it was said this way
“Proudly made in Mainland Japan”
And low and behold items from Yamaha, Nakamichi and others suddenly became recognized as top shelf audio equipment.
So the Japan stuff was not junk, it was just made to the cost/spec of the buyers. Garbage in/garbage out.

Patent law is a murky mess when it comes to the worldwide stage.
Does China infringe, you bet your azz they do and that needs to change.
Enforcement is another matter.

We will complain about China products but will still buy them until US manufacturers put their money where their mouth is and actually bite the bullet and produce things here for less profit and still make a killing.
YMMV, just my view from here.
Later,

Keith

This happened to me. It took several days to a week of the order sitting in the “processing” stage before they sent me the out of stock email. I chose to cancel those orders (this happened to three of my orders in total) and it took another 10-14 days for Banggood to actually issue my refunds. Having the refund processed, I then had to wait another 5 days or so for Paypal to process the refund, although that’s Paypal’s policy and has nothing to do with BG.

I’ve been hearing lots of reports of this happening in large scale. My theory is that the company needs cash, but instead of securing a business loan, they have constructed this scam to “borrow” money from their customers, which they then pay back after 2-3 weeks at a 0% interest rate.

Well I will say one thing. As a rule I normally don’t order anything from China, December through February. I broke my own rule this year and paid the price. Nothing out of pocket mind you, just a bit of a hassle. If I would have stuck to my own rule I probably wouldn’t have anything to complain about. I know I said before that I won’t be ordering from them again but, I have to take my share of the blame in it. I have a sneaking suspicion that had I listened to my inner voice I wouldn’t have gotten all fired up about it.

This is the only year I broke my own rule. Many orders through the years and not a single problem that wasn’t taken care of fairly. So I will just wait a bit longer and if I need anything I won’t hesitate to order from BG again. I don’t know if you are new to ordering from China but right before and after CNY isn’t a good time to order anything, so I just don’t.

Sometimes I am quick to judge, I am working on that, slowly it seems. :slight_smile:

I forgot to add. I have been treated worse by Amazon last year than I have BG. I quit Amazon cold turkey in January. Haven’t really missed it much either.

Me too, I guess they’re getting over their new year’s hangover finally :wink:

I’ve been waiting for two months to send the last order - Amutorch AX2. Ordered and paid on January 6, sent on March 3rd. Really long time.

ehh and u still waiting ? something tells me u will never get that order sadly, just make a dispute…

Banggood has postponed the order for several times. If I canceled the order and ordered another store (Neal) I would have waited another month…

Neal ships out stuff rather quickly if the items u order are in stock.

edit:
I line with the BLF rules I have decided to delete the contents of my post. Apologies if this offended anyone.

My, my…… wonder if they’ll have Group Buys & Flash Sales?? :smiley:

My HT35 went from: Shipps in 24h when i bought it to Processing time 9 busines days now.
Contacted Support to switch to the warm white version (product page says that it shipps in 24h).
They changed to warm white and told me that it will shipp in 1-3days.
Will see.

i sent mail on my fireflies order, date now says march 12 getting ridicilous when i placed order feb 19 it said feb 28 so it seems better cancel the order then… they shouldnt be on the list if they cant get stock in reasonable time… no point placing order if u gonna wait that long maybe i will buy it from neal instead.

but my other order is sent out now tho i saw, no 24hours but atleast some things are moving….

Bangbad…. After waiting for !3months they will cancel. Wtf

Auto, I don’t know that your post contradicts anything that I shared. Knock-offs certainly didn’t start in 1978, but it’s when the world market was getting flooded with them (this according to the Dean of the school of Political Science at Texas A&M, a friend). I don’t have first-hand experience like you (toy collecting), but I trust my friends knowledge.
Regardless, the point was not about knockoffs, but more about the mentality of the Chinese business culture which was more about getting your money quickly. The status of the buyer in Chinese trade is simply significantly lower than in normal western free-markets.
I thought someone above put it well - instead of taking out a business loan which has a ton of legal restrictions and deadlines, just sell a product online which Is more or less vaporware to generate capitol, then follow up as minimally as possible, ignoring the angry customers while moving into the next project.

There are certainly signs that this is changing, but I think at this point it’s still “buyer beware”. I think the exceptions are the very small one man sort of operations like Emisar. Hank seems dedicated to creating a good product and meeting good customer care standards.

Totally agree about the culture, run fast, break things, ignore the law and cash the checks and it’s game on to the next grift.
Unfortunately they are not alone in this with both people and businesses.
That Kickstarter bunch is known to be haven for these types to get their feet wet in the “The Art of the Grift”

No, I didn’t mean to contradict your info, just wanted to bring the fact that the Chinese did not invent knockoffs, they may have Perfected them however. :slight_smile:

It has long been said that the first automobile race was run the minute the second automobile was finished.
Likewise in the same time period, some other auto manufacturer was gleaning as much tech and inspiration from the first company so they could catch up and build their own brand. And so it goes.
The good part of all this it makes the originator work harder for the newest improvement to stay ahead of the copy cats, it speeds innovation.
Rock And Roll is the biggest borrower/stealer/cloner of music to ever come down the pike but that is also what makes it so great.

Enough from me, thanks for the lively facts and banter.
Light On,

Keith

Great posts TSO & Muto!! Thanks for sharing the interesting reading, I learned a few things & my memory was refreshed on a few more. :+1:

They saw the 3D, loved it and were not sure how to make it. No problem, i had thought out the machining process and head attachment details.

I wanted an agreement in place before i would send any details. Nope…they just wanted the detail drawings, machining method AND a sample. Then they will think about it.

Hilarious that they didn’t know how to make it….but they may have an existing design or wait for it….pending patents.

GFY was the only answer i could think of.

My prefered company, Sofirn didn’t respond at all.

So sadly, the BLF Sabre and even more unique and radical designs, really radical, will go nowhere but in my imgination.

If it was 10 years ago and i hadn’t retired….

I agree that ordering from Aliexpress, Banggood, or most Chinese vendors is frustrating but I wish buyers would do a little more research and have some sense of respect of other cultures instead of being so isolated to westernized points of view. There are so many, lets face it cheapskates, on here that both want to buy from China for incredibly cheap prices, but also refuse to accept the simple ideas like “gasp the country shuts down for a few weeks each year for Lunar New Year” or “gasp, a ship takes a long time to get to the US and has to clear customs”. I have seen Youtube videos where Americans both trash a Chinese product for bad manual translations but at the same time the person is too cheap to buy an American made equivalent or there simply isn’t an American company that even makes the product. BLF’s soul (in regards to special edition flashlights) seem to be made exclusively by Chinese manufacturers. It sucks that your orders got delayed or cancelled but you’re going to the lowest bidder and paying sometimes $1-2 for shipping FROM CHINA and you are complaining. If you want it quick, try buying from an American vendor. You can go to eBay and try to find the same product that is shipping from US sellers and just pay more for it.

/\ …. Good post sygyzy, very interesting perspective. :+1:
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cheapskate noun

cheap·​skate | \ ˈchēp-ˌskāt \ Definition of cheapskate

: a miserly or stingy person

especially : one who tries to avoid paying a fair share of costs or expenses
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:open_mouth: … hmmm…. :wink: