I'm not exactly sure how, but my latest order from DB somehow found it's way to Vancouver, BC, Canada (wrong country, but still, thanks for sending it to someone who could make sense of the correct address on the label), before someone in Canada's customs service helpfully send it on to me.
As far as I can see, this is entirely HKP's fault since DB put my address on the label, so I'm not blaming them but I can see why so much stuff gets lost on the way to the intended recipient.
You're right, FlashPilot; the prices are the same. Which reminds me, a couple weeks ago I noticed that DB had two different prices for the Ganzo G704. Here are the two HotDealings links:
I haven't ordered either one, but $16 is a decent price for a G704, and I like the one I got from ExDuct. Also, I don't think that "HotDealings" rolls off the tongue very well.
I don't think it's a great choice of name either, but I guess that's the reality of doing business in China. Get big enough and sell enough potentially questionable stuff (sex toys, lasers, knives, RE magnets, you name it) and you're bound to have PP disputes roll in before you know it. Add to that their weird way of handling orders, not to mention the pointless address mangling, and you've got some explaining to do. At that point, you can either try to clean up your act or you close up shop, rename the place which isn't a lot of work since they still have the whole shop and backend in place and start over. There are some HK-based shops that have gone through five or six reincarnations because it's easier.
Oh, and about the G704: that could simply be an oversight. Or they're selling the new and the old version but forgot to update the specs.
I just received a new Ganzo G704 from Exduct. I had my choice of the old or new version. I think it was a dollar more. While it certainly is a cool looking knife, every single SRM and Enlan I own completely blow it away in materials & workmanship. IMO, the 704 is akin to most of the junky knives you'll find at DX or MF... etc. Maybe Enlan will copy it some day and make it what it should have been in the first place.
I ordered lots of stuff from them and found their service to be reliable.I received everything I ordered from them, faster than DX extreme .Their website leaves much to be desired, and they keep jacking the prices on their popular sellers.Every seller could do better in some ways, but DB gets and OK in my books.
Yesterday I ordered a knife from "hotdealings", but wasn't able to pay via PayPal, since their account seems to be suspended.
Today I've noticed that the titlebar didn't say "hotdealings" anymore, but "hoursbuy" ... they've changed their name again, this time to hoursbuying.com.
So I went to the new site, was able to log into my HD account and pay for my order.
PayPal accepted the payment, but it says: "The recipient of this payment is unregistered"
Others here have commented in other threads that share my observations, and these knives are cheap enough to buy several. My suggestion is to buy a few and compare for yourself. If you dont have a selection of better knives to compare to the G704, you will never know what you are missing.
They now have a banner at the top of every page that says: "Dear Honored customer, After a long time painful consideration, We decide to accept payment by credit card instead of Paypal, so sorry for inconvenience caused; Besides, in order to bring you the safe purchasing experience, we will install Secure socket layer(SSL) to protect your payment privacy. Wish you happy purchasing on hotdealings.com and thank you for you support in advance.
Yours sincerely
Hotdeailngs team"
I am certainly no fan of Paypal's but at least their website works, which is more than I can say for a lot of other CC processing platforms Chinese sites like to use (Aliexpress, I am looking at you, too). Besides, I really don't feel like spending hours on the phone with my credit card company, just because some random site got compromised.
Slowly but surely discoverybargain/hotdealings/hoursbuying does deserve an "AVOID"-label. Constant company name change. A system that forgets half the shipping address, sometimes ultra-long shipping times (45+ days) and now the lack of PP buyers protection. Yep... "AVOID" indeed.
I emailed them about that and they replied that they'd bring all their inventory back eventually, which it seems like they're doing now. Still, I can't say I'm too crazy about ordering from them without Paypal's purchase protection.
If it wasn't for the post office, even more orders of mine would have been lost somewhere between here in HK. Going through Paypal when they go incommunicado (which they tend to do), has been really convenient in those cases. I guess I could still threaten a chargeback and go to my credit company, but in any case, I'd rather not give them my credit card number.
Say what you will about Paypal: I don't like them, but Paypal is pretty convenient. It's just that PP and eBay desperately need competition. When the DOJ is done doing whatever they're doing all day long, maybe they could look into that. Yeah, right...