[Closed] I think I am done with HK suppliers

I guess I've been lucky, have had no problems so far.

Yes, I've had a couple of problems too....

One HK dealer sent the wrong model. A model that I had no desire to own and one that was cheaper than the one I had ordered. When I complained, they offered to sell me the model that I had originally ordered, at a slightly discounted rate. I said that wasn't good enough. They said to ship the wrong model back to them (at my expense and they would send the right model. I complained to eBay, they said that the dealers offer sounded reasonable, so therefore they dropped the dispute. This was about two years ago.
The other dealer, sent a model with missing parts. I complained, sent him photes of the unopened model and the missing parts. He said the parts must be in the box. They weren't. He offered a $5 discount towards the purchase of another model.
Once again eBay sided with the seller and dropped the complaint. I haven't ordered from either seller since.The last one was just a few months ago. I left negative feed back for both. What little good that did.
I've been ordering through European dealers, lately, without any problems, thus far.

I've also been lucky. Question: Would it be correct / acceptable to post the name or names here of such dealers? I do not have a candidate, but I do wonder.

A friend of mine just had the exact same problem...

with HK seller recently. I personaly had to wait more than 3 months for a couple of GLM's Cadillacs last year. I am still buying from the same seller sometimes without any problems ( for now and I pray it stays the same ), even if half the time tracking numbers are completely fake.
Problem is sometimes you can't not buy from them !
HK Guys selling models far too earlier and not even released by factories is becoming quite common now.
But if now, items are damaged, wrong, never shipped, lost, with false tracking numbers etc, this is the cherry on the sunday !.

GLM doesn't have anything to do with this and shipping problems.
But I also guess they don't want to have crooks for sellers, especially when it seems to be a recurrent problem.

Crooks should be named at least to the companies to help any of us not to be stolen. What do you think ?

Absolutely !

Probable Dealers: Mini Car Fan & Busy Bee Toys (over 2 yearts ago) I forget. They are hopeless at e-whatever. Sucks! Both Dealers tried to sell outside of E-Bay and then blocked me from communicating or bidding. Real Schmucks! My orders were both in excess of $600.00 but they provided no protection. E-Bay read all of the correspondence and prevented (after many calls) of them giving negative feedback to my account. E-Bay is so stupid they could not figure out what the dealer tried to do was CUT THEM (e-bay) OUT of the sale or commission. My feedback is 100% Positive with some 700 transactions. The feedback stating, please buy again and excellent payer, No Problems with this buyer.

Pandavia models is another one....

I have bought hundreds of dollars of cars from them. Didn't ship 2 cars after months of waiting while other dealers...European....were shipping. Refunded one. Ignored me on the second and blocked me from further purchases. What a joke! Also had issues with mini car fan.

On the other hand I have bought from modelenium in the uK and they are great. But the currency conversions and shipping just about killed me!

So far, good luck with 3 HK purchases. I did get one smashed flat from Canada, but the seller gave a refund (I think Canadians may be used to this).

My experience with HK sellers (and with eBay) has generally been more positive and I'm surprised to hear of some of these problems, and about eBay's apparent lack of support.

I have had a model "not as described" from a HK dealer and after checking against my original order the correct model was supplied (without having to return the wrong item!). I have had 2 models damaged in transit and after I sent photos of the damage, again replacements were shipped without any official dispute being raised or any demand that I return the faulty item first at my expense.

As for eBay supporting sellers who are in the wrong, well, I have had a couple of problems with sellers and in both cases when I pointed out to eBay that the seller's terms seems to breach the original terms of sale, eBay agreed and the sellers had to toe the line. In one case the seller wanted to oblige me to register for an alternative payment systemto after claiming they would accept PayPal, and I refused. Far from saying "Well, the seller seems to be offering you a reasonable alternative", eBay removed the black mark against my name for non-paymnent and agreed I didn't have to proceed with the purchase - and a week later the seller was no longer listed on eBay. The other must have been contacted by eBay about a long-delayed delivery because they suddenly offered a full refund via PayPal.

That also raises the point someone made about eBay not giving a damn about sellers trying to deal with buyers outside of eBay. Even when I have tried to make contact with a seller "by the back door" to check on delivery of an order, eBay seemed to be so concerned about losing their grip on the transaction they insisted on acting as the intermediary for messages, and automatically converted my unofficial contact into an official dispute and required the seller to try and resolve the problem with me.

Yes. there is the problem of fake Hong Kong Post tracking numbers. This has been discussed before on the Forum. It seems the Chinese regard it as shameful not to be able to say "Yes, can do", so if the availability of an expected model is delayed, they make a pretence of having shipped your item anyway, presumably to keep you happy until they can actually ship! Annoying, but no criminal intent I don't think. The only problem is if the delay is likely to take you past the 45-day point where you could raise a dispute for non-receipt or "item not as described". On one occasion when it looked like that deadline might pass, I tried to contact the seller informally. Once again eBay stepped in and made it an official dispute (although I didn't actually want to make a "dispute" out of it at that stage). The dealer gave an immediate refund and e-mailed to say sorry, he would let me know when he had the model in hand, to see if I wanted to place a new order.

Incidentally have dealt successfully with both Pandavia and Mini Car Fan (although Pandavia was the one with the long-delayed shipment, but I successfully bought the model from him in the end and after the initial problem his communication was good). In no case where I have had to raise any point with a HK seller have they ever turned around and said "Why are you complaining? We won't let you bid on any more items" or anything like that.

Funnily enough, my most annoying and expensive problem was not with Hong Kong but with Model Car World in Germany. Two models arrived badly damaged. I sent photos of the models and the inadequate packaging, so they knew I was a regular, reliable customer with a genuine problem. Unfortunately my return shipment of the damaged model was never received (or so they said) and they would not give replacements or even do me a price deal on the re-purchase.

Problems are always going to arise from time to time, but I don't think HK sellers should be singled out. Given that they might be tempted to think they are "beyond the reach of the law", so to speak, the one's I've dealt with seem pretty fair operators on the whole.

p.s. I have 2 models on order from Mini Car Fan at the moment. I have been given a tracking number and it seems to be "active", so fingers crossed.

Pandavia Models is Mini Car Fan. I buy Ebbro Models from him, which he does have...

...in stock and he actually sent me a message saying to check out his other store, which was Pandavia Models.

Depends on the country, Randy.

For example, I've never once had a problem pre-ordering from the UK, Germany, the Ukraine, Croatia, Poland, or Russia. Quite the opposite; these guys kept me in the loop and went out of their way to do so.