Beware when ordering from China I learned a hard lesson this week

Blindowl1234

Since I'm just starting to experiment with solar on a small scale I'm not ready to put lots of money into it. A few weeks ago
I ordered a small part direct from Ecoworthy China. I'd looked to see what taxes, fees etc might be charged. 2.7% duty tax should've been all. Yesterday I got a bill from the shipping company for an additional $95 for a $50 part. Needless to say I learned a fast lesson on where to order solar items from, and it's not China. I just want to pass the story along to any other newbie's....beware when ordering outside of the country you live in. I'm sure I hear the seasoned veterans saying I could've told you so. Well lesson learned and the shipping company will be out $95 as I won't be paying it lol. Guess I'm ordering from NAWS from now on.

mike74820

if ordering from ebay, i always check the usa tab on the left or use your own home country. so i dont get my self into trouble with stuff like this

zoneblue

You do learn something about importing gear thats for sure. In NZ theres no duty on electronics, but you pay 15% GST if the total including frieght is over NZD400.

westbranch

lesson should be do NOT use any of the standard courier (robber) services, up here we use USPS to Canada, no added surprises , just the tax...

Vic

When "we" order directly form some vendor outside our country,  what almost always happens,  is that the shipment needs to be Imported to the country.

So there are often several third-parties involved,  each of which probably has some fixed-costs and or minimum fees.

Often  the Mail system is the best equipped to handle small,  low-ish value items.

When larger shipments are brought into the USA,  it is not uncommon for US Customs to cause a fairly lengthy delay in Clearance.   There are always Customs Brokers involved,  and would bet that were not for these brokers,  nothing would ever move through Customs,  here,  and it would take much more personal involvement ...   IMO.

FWIW,   Vic

Blindowl1234

Vic said:

When "we" order directly form some vendor outside our country,  what almost always happens,  is that the shipment needs to be Imported to the country.

So there are often several third-parties involved,  each of which probably has some fixed-costs and or minimum fees.

Often  the Mail system is the best equipped to handle small,  low-ish value items.

When larger shipments are brought into the USA,  it is not uncommon for US Customs to cause a fairly lengthy delay in Clearance.   There are always Customs Brokers involved,  and would bet that were not for these brokers,  nothing would ever move through Customs,  here,  and it would take much more personal involvement ...   IMO.

FWIW,   Vic

Vic, I agree with your comments. Actually I get better service priority mail than any other service. This item was stuck in customs one day and Fed X got involved. Not sure if their brokers are in house or third party but I'm sure that was the issue and the added cost involved. Of course they never mentioned any added fees etc... lol. I've ordered a few non electronic things from China in the past without issue. I always try and order from a U.S shipper and normally if it's ebay I will check U.S only too. As always if the deal is too good to be true it probably is lol.

Johann

I ordered many things from China so far and never had any problems and never had to pay an extra free.
I never ordered from ecoworthy either because I felt that their products are way overpriced for the quality they offer.

arby

I live in Canada, and EBAY's global shipping program is stopping me from ordering from US vendors. The charges are out of sight and the service is terrible. On the same day I ordered something from China with free shipping and received it two weeks before I received something  I ordered from Florida and paid more for shipping and duties than the part cost. One month from Florida to Toronto.

Photowhit

Shipping is an interesting subject, I've order many things from China over the years through eBay, often a long delay. a couple years ago It took10 weeks to get some torx screw drivers. I Emailed them and they sent a 2nd shipment and a week later the first arrived and a week after that the 2nd.

Last fall I ordered 2 sets of 5 stainless 6" rulers, $3-4 shipped. They never showed up and a single contact refunded my money from each of them.

I've shipped a $1000 camera to Japan, also through eBay. They paid $150 extra to have delivery in 7-10 days rather than just $40 for 4-6 weeks.

Blindowl1234

Photowhit said:

Shipping is an interesting subject, I've order many things from China over the years through eBay, often a long delay. a couple years ago It took10 weeks to get some torx screw drivers. I Emailed them and they sent a 2nd shipment and a week later the first arrived and a week after that the 2nd.

Last fall I ordered 2 sets of 5 stainless 6" rulers, $3-4 shipped. They never showed up and a single contact refunded my money from each of them.

I've shipped a $1000 camera to Japan, also through eBay. They paid $150 extra to have delivery in 7-10 days rather than just $40 for 4-6 weeks.

I agree the global way of doing business is messed up for the little guy. I've heard of people ordering items and they never get them too. 

mike95490

And here's a new twist on shipping from out of country, to (California at least) we got a letter last week from the Calif Tax Board, that Customs reported a shipment to them and that they (tax board) needed a copy of the invoice since their copy showed no sales tax!
 What a mess this is turning out to be,  Even with Amazon, (or without) hungry tax loosing states are searching all sources for revenue,