What would you like China vendors to do differently?

[freemind]

I start this thread, to give people a place to sound off, and MAYBE some of the vendors in China could pay attention to.

Anyone who has bought from a vendor in China KNOWS, it's not like buying from one in the USA. From the way customer service is handled, to packaging, to even shipping off and item, whatever it is, what do you wish Chinese vendors would do differently?

A few of mine would be:

Operate your customer service, MORE like it is in America. Quicker response times, and get your PLAN together what you need a customer to do when they have a problem. Issues should take no more than 2 days to get resolved. If it takes a week, you failed.

Pack the packages BETTER. This stuff is traveling thousands of miles, and being handled and slammed around by LOTS of people. I don't like getting BROKEN stuff. It actually pisses me off.

If you have to refund my money because something isn't right or it's broke, refund my damn shipping and insurance money too. American companies do it, why shouldn't YOU?

How about better prices? All too often I see items on one of the vendors I use, I find it here in America on EBay or Amazon for the same price or less. Why mark it up so high and then we have to wait weeks (as in 4-6) to get our item? We can buy it here for the same or less, and only wait a week to get it.

 

[marco67]

Bigger & more legible user guides,, or supply a free microscope.

Cut down the vacation time for Chinese New Year.

Raise QC on threads..

 

[Nailz]

Be truthful on ship dates, don't say it is in stock when it isn't really.

 

[UncleRJ]

Much better communication for a start.

HIre some folks that can understand and read and write in English.

Fluent English!

And much better shipment tracking information!

Also, if your item arrives DOA or damaged, don't demand a freaking amount of Video Footage to prove that it does not work

How the hell does a video of non functioning RDA help in anyway, shape or form!

No insult intended. Chinese folks and American folks think differently.

As do German and French folks.

And on and on.

But if you wish to deal with Americans, at least try to understand us!

And service us accordingly!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[The Cromwell]

Send me free stuff!

 

[AndriaD]

HIre some folks that can understand and read and write in English.

Fluent English!

This is EXACTLY what I was going to say -- USE CORRECT ENGLISH because "chinglish" is just ANNOYING, and completely non-understandable. There is no way that English, with 26 letters, can be anything like as hard as Chinese, with its thousands of pictogram squiggles, so "English is hard" is NOT a valid excuse. If they're going to do business with the English-speaking world, THEY NEED TO SPEAK, WRITE, AND UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE.

Andria

 

[Ryedan]

I kinda think along the lines of - you can have it fast, you can have quality, you can have it cheap - pick any 2 out of 3. Customer service should probably be in there too ... but whoever first said or wrote that just stuck with those 3

I always consider those options for everything I buy. If I want the ultimate buying experience for some reason I expect to pay for it. Mostly I don't need everything and am happy to lose something that's not as important to me to gain what I prefer.

So ya, it would be nice to have it all, but I'm pretty satisfied with the options I have now.

 

[Synphul]

I'm kinda torn, it would be nice to have all the perks like great customer service but the reason people go with china based shipments from the u.s. is for low prices. Can't really have the cake and eat it too, there are plenty of great u.s. shops with good customer service who speak excellent english. It costs more though, customer service isn't free. I don't like having to constantly press 1 for english and can find it frustrating dealing with people who either don't speak my language or do so horribly in my country, not really fair to expect different from other countries. Broken english may suck but it sure as hell beats me trying to speak chinese.

 

[nightshard]

Wish customer service would stop pretending of having american names.

 

[freemind]

I'm kinda torn, it would be nice to have all the perks like great customer service but the reason people go with china based shipments from the u.s. is for low prices. Can't really have the cake and eat it too, there are plenty of great u.s. shops with good customer service who speak excellent english. It costs more though, customer service isn't free. I don't like having to constantly press 1 for english and can find it frustrating dealing with people who either don't speak my language or do so horribly in my country, not really fair to expect different from other countries. Broken english may suck but it sure as hell beats me trying to speak chinese.

See, that's the thing. If you shop around and look, you can usually find prices for something here, as cheap as it is in China. So that means most if not all retailers in China are marking stuff up SO high that there is little difference in price.

While I can't blame them for wanting to make more, it takes away the incentive for me to buy from them, wait many times longer, and put up with half assed customer service.

And IF you HAVE to be the guy that just has to have something as soon as it hits, well, you are going to wait and pay more.

 

[f1r3b1rd]

I would love for them to work on their language.
Talking to an American in English, like they actually know the language. Maybe outsource part of their csr.

I had a shipment from the fastest tech, that was lost in shipping for 6 weeks before I said anything. My responses were always, " we hope you can be patient to wait another 60days for us to investigate". Or, 'thank you for being patient'
It was like I was living this:

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[freemind]

I would love for them to work on their language.
Talking to an American in English, like they actually know the language. Maybe outsource part of their csr.

I had a shipment from the fastest tech, that was lost in shipping for 6 weeks before I said anything. My responses were always, " we hope you can be patient to wait another 60days for us to investigate". Or, 'thank you for being patient'
It was like I was living this:

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

I've had the same deal, but it was 30 days. I told them I would file a dispute with Paypal. Fuck them, that's why I ONLY pay with PayPal because of the protection. I don't want to give my CC numbers out, so paypal offers me that protection too. No worry about Chinese hackers getting my numbers.

 

[f1r3b1rd]

I've had the same deal, but it was 30 days. I told them I would file a dispute with Paypal. Fuck them, that's why I ONLY pay with PayPal because of the protection. I don't want to give my CC numbers out, so paypal offers me that protection too. No worry about Chinese hackers getting my numbers.

That's what I ended up doing. Finally three weeks later the shipment showed up and I went ahead and paid for it again.

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[Johnnytraveler]

I would love for them to work on their language.
Talking to an American in English, like they actually know the language. Maybe outsource part of their csr.


Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

I wonder if the Irish, Brits, Scots, Afrikaners, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadiens, et al. say the same thing? That they want to speak to an Chinese rep in English with accents matching theirs?

Outsource CS to where? India or the Philippines like American companies have done for the last decade?

We shop China stores for primarily cost savings and maybe selection. That's it. They know it and we know it.

So let's all go have a vape!

Sent from somewhere in Vietnam.

 

[nightshard]

It's not about them not having the same accent as you, it's about not being sure that they fully understand what you're saying.

 

[f1r3b1rd]

I wonder if the Irish, Brits, Scots, Afrikaners, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadiens, et al. say the same thing? That they want to speak to an Chinese rep in English with accents matching theirs?

Outsource CS to where? India or the Philippines like American companies have done for the last decade?

We shop China stores for primarily cost savings and maybe selection. That's it. They know it and we know it.

So let's all go have a vape!

Sent from somewhere in Vietnam.

So why not outsource to a place like India where the populus speaks a variety of languages well.
The point of the thread is to discuss what we don't like.
I don't like asking for what I paid for, months after I paid for it and being told to patiently wait for the China vendor fairy months later.
Which is why I stopped ordering from China. Those vendors lost a guy that spent upwards of 300$ a month on hardware.

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[nightshard]

Outsourcing CS would mean a rise in expenses which in turn would mean higher prices.
That not so good Chinese CS English may not sound good enough to you, but it seems good enough as far as they are concerned.

 

[AndriaD]

It's not about them not having the same accent as you, it's about not being sure that they fully understand what you're saying.

This exactly. A strange accent can be difficult, but there needs to be an *understanding* of English, which is definitely NOT present in most of those chinese vendors who claim to speak english. They may know some english words, they may even have a rough grasp of how to say them, but understand them, and how to put english syntax together properly? Not hardly!

I can pronounce any spanish word I encounter, and do it pretty accurately.... but I may or may not know what that word actually MEANS.

Andria

 

[nightshard]

Most customers only interact with CS through e-mail, chat or other form of texting, so their accent is irrelevant.

It's their broken syntax, not their accent that gives them away.

 

[f1r3b1rd]

Most customers only interact with CS through e-mail, chat or other form of texting, so their accent is irrelevant.

That makes it an even bigger problem.
The fact that they can't teach them how to USE the language of their customer and instead, in this case use chinglish is insulting.
" We hope you don't mind the waiting patiently"
Receiving that from 8 messages in sync when an item is 6 weeks late is not OK with me.
Or
'Can you please do the contacting USPS and Inquiry about parcel' when it shows that it is still in Beijing.... Is also not OK with me.



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[nightshard]

Dear Mr. f1r3b1rd
Hope you no get lot angry.
Have a nice day

 

[Synphul]

I think when it comes to accents people who are in charge of CS just like fucking with customers. If I get CS based in the U.S. I'm always talking to miss daisy down in the south, the DEEEEP south. If I call CS for my internet I get Mexico and end up talking to Consuela from "Family Guy" (nooo, nooo.. noo..). If I call other places I get India. I swear if I had to deal with CS from the UK I wouldn't just get London or something, I'd get some sort of cockney. It's a cosmic joke. The one common thread of all CS, they never have a full grasp of the service or product so beyond telling you to turn it off then back on again or look at the manual they're absolutely useless in all languages.

 

[UncleRJ]

How about an attempt at a sense of urgency and ship the orders within 1 to 2 business days MAX?

 

[f1r3b1rd]

Dear Mr. f1r3b1rd
Hope you no get lot angry.
Have a nice day

Bahaha!!

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[Canadian Vaper]

I've been ordering from China for many many years, long before I started vaping honestly things have gotten better...

What would I like to see? I'd love to see a Canadian Warehouse so I could skip the whole overseas/import duties thing even if they marked it up 10-15% I'd be fine with that......

 

[nightshard]

I've been ordering from China for many many years, long before I started vaping honestly things have gotten better

Would have to agree on that, both the quality of service and products, a vast improvement.

Don't forget that it's a communist totalitarian country that was not used to dealing with outside customers (or outsiders in general) and that their local customers used to be happy getting anything at all and never complain about it.
So it's a process.

 

[TrackDay]

My only gripe with chinese manufactured clones is my my mini buddha RDA came with a bent center pin. Lucky enough the B&M I bought it from gave me a full refund including the shipping price.

 

[freemind]

How about actually knowing what you are selling?

I have bought two phones now, recently, and I am sending the second one BACK also. They are NOT what they are advertised to be. WTF?!

All our phones are made over there now, don't care what brand it is. How fucking hard IS it to make a damn phone that works in America?

When I made the ticket over the first one, they claimed they had never had that problem with the phones they sell. Two in a row, and two different brands, same problem. Obviously they have had that problem before.

 

[Canadian Vaper]

How about actually knowing what you are selling?

I have bought two phones now, recently, and I am sending the second one BACK also. They are NOT what they are advertised to be. WTF?!

All our phones are made over there now, don't care what brand it is. How fucking hard IS it to make a damn phone that works in America?

When I made the ticket over the first one, they claimed they had never had that problem with the phones they sell. Two in a row, and two different brands, same problem. Obviously they have had that problem before.

Did you check what bands/frequencies they are on? A lot of US carriers don't support Asian bands...

 

[AndriaD]

Would have to agree on that, both the quality of service and products, a vast improvement.

Don't forget that it's a communist totalitarian country that was not used to dealing with outside customers (or outsiders in general) and that their local customers used to be happy getting anything at all and never complain about it.
So it's a process.

I imagine the whole "consumer is king" aspect of free enterprise is quite a surprise to them.

Andria

 

[freemind]

Did you check what bands/frequencies they are on? A lot of US carriers don't support Asian bands...

Yes. ATT supports them. I checked.

 

[ShishkaBerry]

Let me choose the color of a drip tip etc, it can't be that hard to pick the right color out of the box.

 

[SnapDragon NY]

I have only started purchasing vape gear from GearBest and Fasttech since October and Only because some of the pricing is so great ! If you are down to your last coil or my only mod broke, why would you order from China? I know not to be in any hurry for anything I order,usually stocking up, like coils,spare glass tanks and drip tips. I know not to order batteries from China and that things can get confiscated here. I hate the wait, especially when you get notice your package has shipped, but can actually sit at the warehouse for days until scanned and pick up by the shipping agent.
I think that's where things fall down in China, GearBest and Fasttech can get my order out very quickly- it is the slow pick up and then the 2-6 week trek that my package takes to get to my door.
The shipping process is where the biggest problems are, we, as well as they are at the mercy of the shipping company, with sucky tracking and most of the time it is better to forget about your package until it magically arrives.
I have been lucky in not having to deal with customer service, so I cannot comment on that. The only small problem I had with GearBest, again with shipping, I PM'd them here and they were very quick to respond.China had a Tsunami and my package sat for a week before shipping, when that was explained to me, I knew that my package would come sometime, they couldn't ship because of a Tsunami.

 

[nightshard]

You can't really blame the supplier for the quality of the mail service provider, China mail is what it is.

China E-packet really seems to speed thing up, just lately I got 2 packages from China that arrived faster then a US package that was stuck in a mail sorting center somewhere.

 

[Whiskeywarrior]

Would have to agree on that, both the quality of service and products, a vast improvement.

Don't forget that it's a communist totalitarian country that was not used to dealing with outside customers (or outsiders in general) and that their local customers used to be happy getting anything at all and never complain about it.
So it's a process.

They have been selling crap to the US for a very long time, it's nothing new. I could understand if they just started dealing with out of country customers last year but, it's been at least a decade of transaction business like this. There are plenty of buisiness models to look at.

As for the locals being happy about getting anything at all is rubbish. It's not a hand out or breadline. I guarantee that if they paid for something and it didn't work they would complain.

 

[SnapDragon NY]

You can't really blame the supplier for the quality of the mail service provider, China mail is what it is.

China E-packet really seems to speed thing up, just lately I got 2 packages from China that arrive faster then a US package that was stuck in a mail sorting center somewhere.

Exactly- that is where I read I will never buy or don't buy from this vendor- because of 95%shipping issues, not so much the vendor, but shipping it took a month or more to get to my door. It is what it is, and your package is coming from around the world, For the most part, I have been lucky in that most of my packages come under 3 weeks and I get what I ordered and everything works, and so far am satisfied.

 

[freemind]

Exactly- that is where I read I will never buy or don't buy from this vendor- because of 95%shipping issues, not so much the vendor, but shipping it took a month or more to get to my door. It is what it is, and your package is coming from around the world, For the most part, I have been lucky in that most of my packages come under 3 weeks and I get what I ordered and everything works, and so far am satisfied.

Eventually, you'll get something that isn't right.

I remember ordering a clone crown from FastTech. Because of the piss poor packaging (literally packed in a plastic envelope) the tank glass came broke. They would not refund my money unless I sent it back to China ($35 bucks) and the tank cost me like 15 bucks. Instead they offered a 2 dollar credit which I purchased a replacement glass with, that did not fit the tank. It was a piss poor clone that was NOT the same size as the authentic and no replacement glass could be had.

One thing I have learned over the time dealing with China:
If the same item is NOT available in the U.S., you are probably better off not buying it, no matter how cool or cheap it seems. It likely will be absolute shit. A U.S. vendor will try to avoid selling stuff they have to pay refunds/returns on because it costs them money. China tends not to give a shit about selling junk, because most people won't hassle with it when the return shipping we have to pay is more than the item.

 

[nightshard]

They have been selling crap to the US for a very long time, it's nothing new. I could understand if they just started dealing with out of country customers last year but, it's been at least a decade of transaction business like this. There are plenty of business models to look at.

Old habits die hard.
For example, some east European countries still have corruption, lack of initiative and a communist vibe to them, even though the communist occupation has ended a long time ago.

As for the locals being happy about getting anything at all is rubbish. It's not a hand out or breadline. I guarantee that if they paid for something and it didn't work they would complain.

Hasn't been like this for quite a while, but has been in the past.

 

[marco67]

Wish customer service would stop pretending of having american names.

I wouldn't want to attempt pronouncing their Real names..

 

[Canadian Vaper]

Because of the piss poor packaging (literally packed in a plastic envelope) the tank glass came broke. They would not refund my money unless I sent it back to China ($35 bucks) and the tank cost me like 15 bucks. Instead they offered a 2 dollar credit which I purchased a replacement glass with

Never had issues like this, I have gotten broken glass but they sent me replacement glass right away no issues whatsoever..

If you get a package with something broken, take a picture of it on the packing slip with the opened envelope next to it and attach the picture to your ticket...

 

[SnapDragon NY]

Let me choose the color of a drip tip etc, it can't be that hard to pick the right color out of the box.

Wow and you are just talking about a $2.00-$5.00 drip tip- how about the stabwood mods that are $200.00- $400.00 each, No choice in what you are getting either(random).That is why I choose Admodus Distribution to purchase mine, I could pick the exact one I wanted, shipped in the US and they can repair it if there is any problem.

 

[ShishkaBerry]

Lol Jesus I had no idea the color blindness went past the $10 range, that's ridiculous. They probably get 500 pink ones nobody wants

 

[SnapDragon NY]

Lol Jesus I had no idea the color blindness went past the $10 range, that's ridiculous. They probably get 500 pink ones nobody wants

Haha that's for sure! That has been my luck with the random color choices! Luckily I am a girl so that is not to bad, I just think it is ridiculous to spend that kind of money and not be able to chose what you want. I would be more likely to purchase my next stabwood from China, if I could choose the exact one I want! Since that isn't going to happen I will stick with Asmodus Distribution!