Yes.

No, I contacted the seller and mentioned the error, and apologized. I said that I would keep the item and would give him a negative feedback, and did that.

 

That's a strange way to proceed. Be aware that he can leave you negative feedback too.

 

Well, there's more to it in fact, he erroneously sent me a message and gave me some information that I was searching for, so I ended up making this quits. And yeah, I know he can leave a negative feedback to me too, but there's no way around it, from what I gather, right?

 

In retrospect, though, I should have tried to send it back, because now with the shipping prices it's not interesting to send the item to Brazil (I'm trying to sell the item, but if not, I will probably end up discarding it).

 

What's that?

Usually the seller will ask you to send it back or offer a partial refund.

If you aren't seeking a refund, it means the item he sent is of same or higher value?

A seller would usually try to avoid getting negative feedback.

 

Yes, it's the same value. But I did find it strange that he just seemed ok with the negative feedback.

 

Anyway, he did not even gave me a negative score (which is the correct thing to do anyway, in my opinion).

 

Anyway, I just noted that I bought from 25 different shops in Taobao already, and the one above is the only one that something weird happened.

 

Looks like the seller didn't manage to get any (or enough) units from FansToys, so he got from other sources to fulfill his pre-orders.

Other sellers ask you to wait for the second batch.

It's not a good situation if you order late.

Shipping wrong item is rare, but it can happen. Nothing weird about it.

 

Well, that's basically what happened in the other case I mentioned, the seller said he had the item, but then he erroneously send me a message (which he meant to send to another seller) confirming if I had the item and confirming the price (which was the interesting info for me).

I know that these things can happen, but I'm against this conduct in general. So that's why I think a warning is deserved (no one has to follow, obviously  ).

 

Now I'm more paranoid about buying from those not so well-known sellers. I now wonder if anything I had bought before was actually 2nd hand...


Anyway, does anyone have a preferred seller for accessories and upgrade kits? I see these same few sellers pop up in my searches:

TFLAND toy store (seems like this seller has quite a wide variety)
Uncle Billy's toy castle
Mong Kok Animation
Wanhe Animation
eMandu

Wondering which one people here patronize the most and why. Thanks in advance.

 

Just to make it clear, this type of thing can and does happen worldwide, not only in China.

I think the problem in these discussions is how do you approach the topic. For me, it's something like this:

1 - Stores in China (Taobao), as in any part of the world, should be in principle be viewed initially as as good business.
2 - Usually, again as can happen anywhere, most will be good business, and some will be crooks.
3 - Crook business are "usually" easy to identify, be it due to not selling well, complaints (including automatic feedback systems) and other ways.
4 - You can try and prevent buying from crook business by creating and following certain rules (in Taobao, the 4-plus star, the minimum 4.9 ascending feedback, etc.).
5 - Item 3 and 4 will prevent you deal with crook business most of the time, but they do not guarantee a 100 % reliability, as some (usually very small) number of crook business can, for several reason, comply with all the things above.
6 - In the cases where you DO buy from a seller which turns out to be a crook, the simple way is to not buy from them anymore (and alert others, if possible).
7 - All of this means that you have to approach this knowing that you WILL have to deal with crook business from time to time, so there's no surprise here.
8 - On the other hand, buying from Taobao can have so many benefits that the incidental harm that crook business WILL give you are outweighed by the general benefits of the good business (in my case, I've spend so less in TFs buying in Taobao that losing some money in one or two ventures (maybe even more, depending on circumstances) will still be acceptable).
9 - If all of this is true and acceptable for you, there's no need to be paranoid or whatever, it's simply a matter of following your own rules and don't get mad from the instances where you will get screwed, because you already know that you will get screwed from time to time, and it's acceptable because the rewards are worth it.
10 - You can certainly improve your risk management (because the above is simply an application of risk management for buying Tis) like creating more rules for detection of crook business, or changing your rules on buying, but the general approach will always be like this.

 

I have had to have my money refunded quite a few times when I started using Superbuy to buy stuff on Taobao from stores that did not have the items they claimed to have. I have always gotten my money back and Superbuy has stopped and warned me when I attempted to use some stores. I do know that when SB purchases items they are using a corporate account and I have wondered if that fact and their size pretty much prevents scammers from trying to pull anything.

@Hougangkid I have ordered from Uncle Billy's, Tfland and Mong Kok.

I have found Uncle Billy to charge more for items and for shipping. There has also been some negative rumblings about Uncle Billy's on the boards, but unsure how prevalent those issue are. Its enough for me to order from others if I can.

Mong Kok is one of my favorite places to order from. They charge for shipping sometimes though and that will usually have me trying other stores.

No issues with Tvland, except I believe they have a lower crown rating so I'll only order there if they are the best price.

 

Uncle Billy has exclusive Dr Wu stuff, like off-color version of their TR guns. TFland commissions painted versions of otherwise raw 3D printed kits. Not sure about the rest. Many 3D Print accessory makers also have their own shops on Taobao(e.g. Shockwave Labs) or xianyu(Tim_Heada)

 

It can happen to the best of shops.

Some returned items are re-sold as new, if the shop thinks it has not been opened, but that may not be the case.

I have gotten one such item from LBP before. Boycott?

 

It can happen to any shop.

I myself would not have a problem with a returned item sold as new. What I would have a problem (and that seems to be the case with the one I mentioned before) is to get used items that have marks or even are broken parts.

 

so question if there is a problem what is the dispute process and can we get our money back. I have been reading the english and chinese and I do not get a clear idea

 

If I'm not familiar with a seller, I'd usually go his best selling products and see what the buyer reviews are like.

I've never bought from Uncle Billy, but he does seem to have harder to find stuff. What were the rumblings about?

Any particular reason why you like them?

Thanks for the info. Forgot about the dedicated stores.

What was the giveaway?

I've had 1 or 2 figures that had dust on them. Since they were otherwise still in good shape, I just let it go.

 

There's a whole thread for their overseas site on this forum. Never used that so no comment. For the Taobao shop:

• They use yunda? Yuanda? for domestic delivery, it's one of the cheaper but problematic couriers in China. Seems ok for smaller items but larger items may get damaged.
• Their TB shop is poorly maintained, the front page hasn't been updated for like 4 years and there are a lot of expired POs still up, but somehow they are still functioning efficiently (dispatch in 24h, 小二 answers Aliwangwang promptly) and they still have exclusives with some makers.
• They are similar in scale to ZW Toys we discussed earlier, the 小二 might not understand that you're an international customer.

Used them quite a few times for legends and addons. Haven't tried buying big items from them. They've sent me the wrong item once so far.

 

首页-比利大叔的玩具城堡 上海刚丝厂特许店-淘宝网

this uncle billy? no prob so far