What's The Deal With China???

Hello everyone,

I keep reading posts on the forum and other places about all of the problems around shipping ebay auction stamps to China. It sounds like a nightmare! What's the deal with China? Why is it such a pain to sell and ship to people over there??? Are there a lot of scammers and if so, why China???

I've shipped several items into china. I haven't had a problem yet. I did have problems with bidders not paying. From what I've read is the Chinese culture is very different from the western culture. They are in the midst of rebuilding their modern culture after the cultural revolution and purging from past leaders. That is why auctions have brought high prices and will continue to do so. Along with all of this it brings in a certain criminal element. China still doesn't have an open society and there is a lack of safe guards to protect sellers from these criminals. Once an item is within their borders you have to hope and prey that you have an honest buyer. I have noticed that many Chinese buyers are having their purchases sent to US addresses and then sent on. This will be the wave of the future for auctions. Also, sending items by registered mail and insured is a real problem. Registered mail enters the regular first class mail stream. The markings them act a huge neon sign that says "STEAL ME".

Two words:

Different culture.

On most occasions I have not had any problems. There was one time though that mail from China to me had stamps ripped off the cover right in China. I know this because the sender told me that he literally 'caught' a postal employee taking the stamp off of the cover after it had already been applied.

If I remember correctly, I still have that cover.

Chimo

Bujutsu

I'm going to have to have to disagree with you, Smauggie. Yes, the cultures are different, but there is NOTHING in Chinese culture that would promote scamming or suggest that scamming is OK.

Regarding the original post by Byrdste...

Quite frankly, from a long-term or historical perspective, it's really no contest compared to some of the things Western powers have done to many 3rd world countries. If we are going to go for comparisons regarding how we treat each other, I'm afraid that from a historical perspective the US will lose out pretty badly.

Most Western nations pretty much gloss over the atrocities and gross legal violations committed by us in the past (some of which, actually continue to this day). At the same time, atrocities committed by those in the 3rd world countries are often the topic of derisive conversations. Things have gotten better with the internet, as some Westerners get better acquainted with other viewpoints. But we, in the US, have an amazingly isolated view/understanding of the cultures of the world and how they view us and how they view the manner in which the US interacts with them. While there is much admiration in the 3rd world countries of the advancements of Western cultures over the past few centuries, there is also deep resentment over past/current grievances.

Going back on topic, specifically, scammers exist everywhere, including the US. I've been scammed by one person from China and 2 people from the US. I would agree that we are likely seeing a relatively greater percentage of Chinese stamp scammers than US. However, that doesn't Chinese are more likely scammers than Americans. I get a lot of Nigerian scam email -- does that mean that most Nigerians are scammers? No, it just means that Nigerian scammers have discovered that the internet is an effective way of promoting their scams. And, quite frankly, I get a lot more US scam mail than I do from other nations. What you are seeing, is simply that Chinese scammers have been using ebay as an effective fishing pond. You are not seeing a real representation of the Chinese culture. My opinion.

I've had that happen twice in the US. One time the stamps were returned, but not the other time. Based on the cancellations and the subsequent postal markings where the stamps WERE, the postmaster agreed that the stamps were removed while the package was in the hands of the US postal service (they had clearly been carefully sliced out). I didn't want anybody reprimanded, I just wanted the stamps back -- it was a BEP S/S with double transfer, which the collector who sent it on cover wanted back as a genuine postally used S/S.

I deal with and regularly talk with a chinese company for my fishing tackle. It is a very different world to say the least. The Gov't control is still alot higher than what you might think and the reason they are thriving is they export and do it well. Basically anything that is addressed to western / european countries from china is expected to make it or else but China from a gov't perspective really does't want its funds spent anywhere but in China. Incoming items are not really appreciated and really are fair game for theft. Ideally if you could write in chinese items would have a better chance or strictly depend on UPS/ FEd ex ect... There are companies that specialize in shipping to Russia and redirect things in their language to assist and know how to assure deliveries . No simple answer other than be careful and cover yourself no matter what.

Also have to agree with KHJ - To assume that chinese (or any other nationality) in general are scammers is unfair. Population can also mislead judgement and with the internet opening so many doors the bad weeds will crawl out from any walk of life. There is just as much postal theft in CAn/ US as anywhere else . Fortunatly when its something within our domain we can usually do something about it but when items cross oceans we are sort of at the mercy of their system. Dad used to say There's bad apples in every bushel!

My experience is that items shipped WITHIN China usually have no problems. I have been told that items shipped INTO China can be problematic. Therefore, for items that are no rush, we typically have someone take it into China (nothing illegal, just don't want it disappearing) and then ship it from a post office inside China.

I've actually never lost anything mailed to China. What I mentioned above was simply precautions on items that don't really have any retail value, but cannot or are not easily replaced.

I'm guessing that the reason I've never lost anything mailed to China in the past 30+ years is that we do put Chinese writing on the envelope. I'm guessing they are targeting non-Chinese mailings?

Ironically, I have had items mailed from China and physically received in the US that have disappeared or were damaged and then subsequently disappeared when I submitted the insurance claims.

Also, other friends have run into problems with mailings from China being confiscated for investigation by customs. This typically takes several months to clear up and US customs gives you no notice whatsoever. USPS is the one that tracked it down as being confiscated. So basically, there are problems with mail coming INTO the US as well. It's a problem (although maybe different in nature) both ways.

I missed your post as I was typing mine. Yes, I agree that is very likely the case. As I noted, in 30+ years of mailings to China, I have lost NOTHING. However, I may be the exception rather than the rule.

I should note that I cannot write Chinese script. I find somebody who can, to write it for me on the envelope. Of course, you will need the name/address of the receiver in Chinese script -- you can't simply translate it phonetically. If you already have the name/address in Chinese script, nowadays you can simply print it out. The customs form, however, they won't let you attach a label. So it is better to get a buddy to fill out the name/address part in Chinese.

khj is right. Ask your buyer to send you a copy of their address in Chinese to you in a message. Then print out that address in the correct size as a mailing label. Also include the English version too, but verify that address too with the buyer as sometimes it's not entered correctly with Ebay/Paypal.

I have had many dealing with buyers from China. I no longer will sell to China, I have been burned too many times.
Mail just seems to disappear in thin air.
One buyer bought quite a few items from me over a 3 week period in total 7 lots I sent them to him in 4 packages so out of those 4 packages 4 were lost.
I had him send me both his chinese address ( characters) and English address thinking this would help.

A few days after I sent him the last package he was bidding on a penny black I had on ebay and he won the stamp for 125 dollars.
As I will not ship anything over $100 with out being registrar and insure with signature he was not happy about this.
I charge a extra $14 for insurance on top of regular shipping costs.
He made a stink over this and refused to pay for insurance, I told him its not me but ebay's policy about items over $100 must be insured in order to be protected.
As I had sent him 4 packages with a value total of over $350 I wanted to be nice to him, I had a gut feeling if I pushed the insurance something might go bad with the 4 letters I just had sent. I knew that he did not receive them yet as they would still be in the mail.
The buyer asked if I could Cancel the sale of the penny black as he thought the cost of shipping was to high. I gladly cancel the sale.
A few weeks later Pay pal open up a case saying item not received, then a few days later again another case was open and two more the following week. I tried to contact the buyer over and over but he would not reply back, I was mad so decided to take a good look at his feed back 100%. This guy also sold stamps so I thought maybe he was just looking for free stock. I contacted a few sellers that had left him pos feedback ( Most sellers leave feedback once paid I also left him great feedback) Out of the 10 sellers I contacted 6 replied back having the very same problem I was having.

I could write a book, And don't get me started about the guys that say item not as described. I sold a few kilo ware lot to China and they open up a claim saying item not as described.

Well long story short a few of use contacted ebay and pay pal about this buyer and we did get our money returned, they did a investigation into him he must have done a lot of this scam.

This is the guy if he ever wins anything from you beware
http://myworld.ebay.com/qd_stamps

Sorry to hear about the problems you ran into, Irishjack. You certainly have every right to limit who you are willing to sell to.

If someone is intent on scamming you, then nothing you do will prevent it short of stopping the sale before any money/items are transacted.

The person in the US that scammed me, actually sent me the package that was both insured and tracked. Inside was a bunch of partially crumpled self-adhesive liners; no stamps. They pretended to be inquiring and filing a claim with the post office, but only as a delaying tactic. I had previously bought some items from them without a problem. They put up some higher value items, played their cards, and starting scamming all their current customers. They used various delaying tactics. In the end, they accused me of lying about not getting the stamps. Different excuses with others. By then, it was too late to make a claim with PayPal. Apparently, that was their end game when they wanted to exit from an auction site.

I thought I had done it all correctly -- make small purchases to establish a seller's quality and reliability. Then increase the purchases over time accordingly. Every scammer has their method.

Some people just do not think it is any good unless they have stolen, scammed or lied to gain it for what very short term profit, if any at all.

It is a sickness full of disease and has a stench that is totally rotten to the core!

This sickness is all around the world. No country is free of it.

What happened to the good old tar and feathering approach.

We ran out of tar and feathers.

I also had problems posting to China. Repeatedly, buyers told me they had not received their stamps. This entitled them to Paypal refunds, so I lost both the stamps and the money. The packages could have been delivered to the wrong address or simply stolen. The buyers could have been lying. I had no way of knowing. After this happened to me four times, I decided to get out of Chinese stamps altogether. I have never had a problem with buyers from any other country.