Hi guys,
An order that I ordered, which I had a problem with a Chinese supplier on Aliexpress for the first time ever in using it, took 56 days to arrive for an item that I dropshipped from China to a customer in Russia who was furious and who could blame her.
I had sold the items on Ebay on November 1st 2012 and they sat in the Chinese Customs Depot apparantly for 43 days as the status had not changed on their website tracking of the parcel. I know the Chinese had brought some new Customs procedures in for exporting and importing but what the heck are they doing with the items while they sit there, loading up Angry Birds and having a few games at break time on them?
If every package took that long to send out from China then the country would be back logged for years as items I ordered from other suppliers and the same supplier as well all arrived within 14 days of ordering.
Even though the customer wanted a refund, when the items were released again from customs I asked if she still wanted them and she said yes she would take them but at a reduced cost so I gave her them for the price I bought them for minus about £5 off each one again. So she got 2 tablets for £60 and will be sending my the money on the 4th February. Overall I lost £10 in the transaction but would be better than losing the entire £70 altogether.
My advice would be even if it does take a long time to get something despatched and your dropshipping an item to someone, if anything goes wrong, try and contact the customer even if they have cancelled their order to try and recoup some of your losses. As the supplier kept saying he isn't refunding my order until the customer refused delivery of the items and he got them back, which could take another month due to China's slowish methods when and item from outside the country enters their customs system.
The worst part about the whole ordeal was, the items where not as described either as the specs of teh tablets did not match what the Android OS brought up in its settings so that was another salt into the wounds and thats where I gave the customer an extra £5 back on each tablet.
The rule here is its best to buy the items first instead of dropshipping I would advise, as relying on a foreign supplier, not just Chinese, it could befrom anywhere in the world, can seriously wreck your Ebay reputation big time.
Thanks guys, hope this was a help to you.
Regards,
Henry
