Considering the slow shipping, lack of response and orders that are simply never shipped, should they be an avoided seller until they get their act together?
I won’t be avoiding them any time soon. Average delivery time is around 8-10 days.
Their CS is a bit slow. Taking 1-3 days to reply to tickets; however, they refunded my 2 battery orders that were returned to sender. These were ordered during the battery ban.
Other than those two orders I never had an issue with them.
I’ve had no problem with three orders from FastTech; just placed a fourth order (knowing about the expected Chinese New Year delays that happen predictably).
They don't seem to be scamming. Mostly slow shipping and customer service that gives canned idiot answers instead of making an effort. Things work out in the end...that is, when you finally get there.
I still consider FT at/near the top of the retailers based out of China/HK.
I just put in an order last week that I hope to have in the next two weeks. I never expect to get orders from other Chinese sellers in less than 6 weeks but Fastech cuts that time in half every time. RMM is great at getting orders out but nobody beats IS (1-2days). Sometimes email doesn’t get where it’s supposed to go and this may not be the fault of the company. Sometimes it is and you just have to deal with it.
In a word, no. For me, 10 orders in the last year, with a couple of warranty issues that ended up with me being completely satisfied. They are a little slow on tickets (2-3 days between responses), but never awful.
I suspect that part of the problem is that FT was so frikkin’ awesome initially; now, they’re merely very good.
While not living up to their namesake. ( like when they began ). I’ve had no issues with orders apart from ship time.
I had one order returned to seller, and one never arrived, got a refund for both. It took once 6 days for them to reply to a ticket. . Nothing too terrible to put “avoid” label on them. Lately I have been receiving their orders faster, and getting faster responses from them.
IS is closer to you.
I wish every member would "read this and heed this". If you want something fast, pay the $75 for fast shipping. If you want it cheap with free shipping, never count on getting it faster than 6 weeks. If you do, then you will be disappointed sooner or later, Guaranteed!
EVERY overseas seller I have ever worked with can and will mess up. Things can fall through the cracks, especially when the seller gets too big and they loose control, due to too many orders and too many people processing them. It happened to DX and now to Fasttech and to a bunch of others. As far as CS, well, remember most of the time, your requests are being translated into Chinese and there is a LOT that is lost in the translation. Try using Google translate to read a Chinese web site and see how ridiculous it comes out and then realize they are trying to figure out your English that has been turned into Chinese and they can't understand you any better than you can understand them.
For anyone wanting fast shipping every time, do not buy overseas. It really is that simple. The mail services in China have been a mess for quite some time and they are not getting any better. Most of the time, that is the root of the problem. Once any seller sends their package to the post, it is OUR OF THEIR CONTROL, just as it is out of your control when you send a package through your mail service and they loose it or stuff it in a back corner of the post office for a few weeks. Also, many times it's our own incoming customs that are at fault. I have seen packages sit in my customs office for three weeks, but there was no record of it ever coming in.
Another thing, remember that many times these "sellers" are not carrying the stock, but simply waiting till you order and then they send a courier out to pick up the item from someone else who may or may not have it "in stock". They do not always stock all of their inventory themselves.
That brings up another issue. You got a lemon? Well, most likely it came from point A via courier and point B sold it, but they never looked at it, because point A was supposed to do that, so when it got to point C, (which is you), it's damaged, broken or missing something. Just remember that many times high volume sellers do not look at what they ship. They just ship boxes, or pack items that came from bulk bins and do not inspect them. DX is notorious for that, because they have gotten way too big in volume, to check before shipping.
Many of our own sellers in our own countries do that too and problems can happen, but returning something to your local seller is a lot different than returning something 3,000 miles away! Now come on, tell me the truth, you got a lemon from an overseas seller and you want them to pay the return shipping? Do you really believe that the low cost item you bought from China, that was shipped to you for free in the first place, should be pre-paid by the seller for return shipping? If you do, then you are either very naive or totally self-centered in believing that the world revolves around you. (Let me clarify, I mean you as you, me, us, all of us).
If you buy from China, just think of it as money thrown away and then you will not feel so bad if it does not come, or if it comes damaged or not working. If you believe it will come pristine or come in 7 working days, then you are not being realistic and wishful thinking just leads to disappointment. I know, been there, done that, many times and I have many negative feelings about buying from overseas, but I realize now that my expectations are based on my local purchases in a country that demands high quality and fast shipping. That is not the reality in China and in many other countries, so I have learned to moderate those feelings with the reality of overseas shipping.
I have sent items that have been lost for good and that was when I really realized just how helpless anyone shipping overseas is. There's no way to know where it went or what really happened to it.
I can tell you this one thing. ALWAYS DEMAND registered mail, even if you have to pay extra. ALWAYS DEMAND that tracking number for the registered package. DO NOT ever accept non-registered shipping. If you do, then no one can ever track it if it is lost or stolen. If the seller will not go registered, do not buy from them and if they want you to pay for registered, just remember it costs them, why should it not cost you a little to get it sent registered?
Also, I manage my orders, by never purchasing overseas between the first of December and the first of March. Why? Because between Christmas, regular New Years and the Chinese New Years, they are up to their elbows in orders and away from their shops half the time, as well as the post offices who are in the same position, so literally nothing moves for a long time, during that period. It's just not worth the hassle during that time of the year.
I'm done, backing off the soap box now...
Most articulate and pertinent post about how to deal with CN e-commerce tribulations I have seen in a long time.
Bravo !
__philippe
This Old-Lumens post deserves to become a sticky :exmark:
I have over 8 pages of orders from fasttech, had a few issues they immediately addressed and corrected, I have no problems or complaints about their service
IS is usually 2-3 days to Texas also so I don’t think it is location as much as fantastic customer service on their part. RMM is very fast as well and has awesome customer service. I never had any problems from FastTech either but I have not bought from them in about 6 months so I can not say how they are doing now.
Does RMM not ship the same or next day like IS? He did with my order that didn't include a custom light. It took a little longer, but that was all due to the postal service and being twice as far away. I'm not going to knock Richard for that when he's getting shipments out the door just as quickly. They're both good vendors. Hopefully it stays that way.
I’ve purchased several times from FT in the past 6 months. No problems & speedy shipping to Virginia, USA when using the “USPS” option. Shipping is normal for a Chinese vendor when using their regular shipping. I did have some interactions with customer service when FT decided to stop attempting to ship batteries. Customer service was fine.
This is a non issue for me. I have NEVER bought anything from an overseas vendor. If I can’t get it here, I don’t bother. Good and timely service is everything and it’s hard to get that from somebody that is half a planet away. My purchases are from highly reputable vendors that have always shined brightly if an issue raised it’s ugly head - without fail. Does it cost me a few dollars more to do it this way? Yep. I place a value on my time and I make every effort not to waste it. I bill my time out at $50 per hour so I figure that as soon as I have an issue with the $4 ‘special’ I ordered and have to deal with extra shipping, emails, and phone calls - that $4 ‘special’ now cost me at least $54 plus shipping. What a deal!
Like Old-Lumens said: “For anyone wanting fast shipping every time, do not buy overseas. It really is that simple”. I couldn’t agree more.
To me the most important quality is honor, and they have that.
They definitely are not as fast as they used to be. Also with their expanded stock, there is a lot of JUNK listed. Prices are still good and the quality of the flashlights is still good. I now get faster shipping with the average EBay or Amazon vendor than I do with FastTech. I order from them often, and when I have a problem they do respond, though it is VERY difficult to communicate with them.
I’ve never had any issues with Fasttech, and I’ve ordered from them several times. Though, I’ve received everything that I’ve ordered from them, and so far everything’s worked, so I’ve never had to deal with their customer support.
My experience with DX has been far worse, Kaidomain’s been great (though I’ve only ever ordered once from them), and I just ordered a laptop battery from Tmart so we’ll see how that goes.
I think that people should be aware that if they want better service they need to wait and order at least $20 worth of stuff or pay for the better shipping.
As many of you know I was an early fan of FT and have done a boatload of business with them. However I will no longer order from them unless I have at least $20 worth of stuff to buy.
My last four orders went like this.
Batteries, Never received and they told me they would refund my money after 180 days if they didn’t get them back from customs. I filed a paypal after 44 days that they never responded to. Eventually got my money back but not the batteries.
Second order, e-cig stuff. Never received, got my money back from paypal and never got my stuff.
Third order E-cig stuff. Got my money back after 90 days, no paypal because it was a credit from an order that I decided to change and accepted store credit. I won’t take store credit again because there is then no paypal protection.
Fourth order, Drivers. I ordered 5 drivers they substituted 3 drivers out of the five. The refunded for three drivers after sending them pics.
Will I avoid them? No but I will make sure I have paypal protection and buy at least $20 worth of stuff and keep an eye on them just like I do with any other company. They are slipping that is for sure and people should know that.
I read a bunch of their blog stuff and apparently they had a lot of problems with a couple employees. They are now gone and I’m hopeful that this year they will get back to having the service that they did in the past.
Just my two cents.