How long are we ebay buyers going to be subjected to false claims regarding postage times?

[ibmfella]

I, like I'm sure many others, am becoming increasingly frustrated with postage anomalies when ordering items from China. Projected delivery dates mean nothing, tracking is limited to the Chinese mainland, and inquiries as to the whereabouts of orders are answered with condescending generalisations from sellers. How is it that we can buy goods from all over the world and receive excellent delivery , packaging and charges, yet from China we are subjected to low cost 'delivery' which continues to be the weakest link in any such purchase.

[kopenhagen5]

Don't buy from China. Simples.

You will probably also get a better quality product elsewhere.

And while we're at it, keep jobs local. 

[lyndal1838]

You get what you pay for in this life.

If you want cheap items from China with low postage costs then you have to expect minimal service levels too.

[enigmabear]

As long as buyers keep insisting on buying ultra low quality, potentially dangerous items from sellers with horibble feedback it will keep happening

The estimated delivery dates are stuff of ebay fantasy no matter what country you buy from yet sadly, most people think the dates mean something. They do not

[springyzone]

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@ibmfella wrote:

I, like I'm sure many others, am becoming increasingly frustrated with postage anomalies when ordering items from China. Projected delivery dates mean nothing, tracking is limited to the Chinese mainland, and inquiries as to the whereabouts of orders are answered with condescending generalisations from sellers. How is it that we can buy goods from all over the world and receive excellent delivery , packaging and charges, yet from China we are subjected to low cost 'delivery' which continues to be the weakest link in any such purchase.

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It is probably not going to change any time soon. Ebay isn't in control of the Chinese postal services.

There are 3 things that could happen or you could do to improve things

-ebay could extend the estimated dates for products coming from China

-you could only buy when the item isn't something you need by any set date, where it won't matter if there is a delay. Still frustrating I suppose but you won't be stressing out

-you could buy from sellers based in Australia. You may pay a bit more but I could almost guarantee that in 99% of cases, the items will arrive quickly.

[digital*ghost]

It depends on the service the seller uses. 

The really (really) cheap ways to send from China is to either send bulk packages to Singapore (or Malaysia), where they are then sent on individually - adds an average of 2 weeks to the transit time. Or there's sea mail, and similarly, your purchase might be 'shipped' within 24 hours, but it could be in storage for a while, then on a cargo ship for a longer while, then in customs etc.

There's plenty of other methods available which are much faster, and trackable in China and Australia, but they cost more (starting from about the same as domestic parcels here, so you won't find these methods being used for items under about $15, unless it's offered as an upgrade).

[lyndal1838]

Digi, nice to see you back.  Where have you been hiding yourself?

As I see the problem, you get what you pay for.   Most Chinese sellers offer a quicker postage service.....if you want to pay for it.

[imastawka]

Welcome back. Digi.  Thought you had abandoned us.

Paying for an upgrade from China gets it here within a week to ten days.  So worth it

If I don't need it in a hurry, it can take a sightseeing tour to Singapore

[lyndal1838]

I only buy from China when I want the cheapest price and time is not critical.

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

Thanks (to both 🙂 ). 

Not a conscious decision or anything, but I ened up taking an extended break while focussing on a couple of other things. Even managed to get a couple of books read. 

Re: postage options from China, express options (which from there can mean anything from 3-15 day transit time, depending on the service used) can actually be pretty cheap, all things considered. For lower value orders, I'll usually upgrade to a service called UBI line, which averages about 2 weeks - eliminates the 20-30+ day timeframes, and doesn't cost anywhere near as much as couriers for small packages. The last one I selected that for was a package about 1kg and cost me $14-odd in postage (economy rates from couriers like DHL and TNT are better than most other parcel services once your parcel is 10kg+ though, they'll usually take 7-10 days).