Merkur Futur Clone....My thoughts.

Hello everyone. Just signed up here to comment on this thread.

Did anyone else order from eBay seller 'talkquikly'? (who, for some reason, does not ship to USA).

On April 30th, I ordered the Futur clone from 'talkquikly' (eBay Feedback score: 38,266 at the time). The Item Location was stated as Malaysia. PayPal payment was received by Aukey International Limited, just like everyone else reported for 'toptop' and 'uncle ding'.

At the time of ordering, I sent the seller a message asking for confirmation of where the item would ship from, explaining that I'd recently experienced another "Item Location: Malaysia" seller who actually shipped from China, without ever mentioning it. Shipping from China had caused that item to be severely delayed in arriving here in Canada* (see the asterisked explanation below). 'talkquikly' replied and said: "Hi dear, Item location:Malaysia. We will ship it from Malaysia. Thank you for asking".

I haven't received my package yet but after discovering this thread and seeing that other 'futur clone' sellers taking payments for Aukey International have changed their listings, shipped a different product, and shipped from China rather than the originally stated Item Location, I suspect 'talkquikly' would be no different. Based on my previous recent dealings with Aukey sellers, they can't be trusted (and what they confirm in private messages is not necessarily so). It will be interesting to see when my razor arrives, what I get, and if it did indeed ship from Malaysia.

* Getting items from China has become a big problem for Canadians as there is a high incidence of illegal/counterfeit goods entering the country from China and also most Chinese vendors/senders have a habit of undervaluing the contents or marking 'gift' on the customs declaration to "help" the receiver evade import tariff and local tax (we have a pitiful CAD$20 postal import threshold; for comparison, in the USA, you have USD$800 threshold). As a result, ALL postal imports from China are scrutinized by Canadian customs inspection, and as so many cheap goods come from China direct, for over a year now, there has been an ongoing backlog with China-sent items. 3-months delivery time is normal, 2 is "fast" and 4 is not abnormal.

 

This may be why two of the sellers I've been dealing with are claiming that customs has been 'slow'. They may not fully understand the difference between Canada and the US. I know that the US customs can't have been that slow, as I've received other packages from China in the time that their two packages have been caught up.

It looks like I've received my refund for the 'adjustable' razors. I'll know better later today.

 

Got this in my inbox on eBay today, from seller "uncle_ding":

Hey my friend,
This is janina from eBay seller,
We try our best to make every customer satisfied with our product and our service.
But sometimes things happen out of control and we are willing to do what we can do to correct our mistakes.
We do appreciate your kind information about this incident so that we could improve ourselves.
In order to make up for your loss, we would like to offer you full refund or send you the replacement as the compensation.
Hoping you can give us a chance to correct this mistake and to help you out of the problem asap.
As a seller, we regard credit as our life, when we help you solve the problem, you help us change the feedback to positive,ok?
We sincerely apologize for all the inconvenience this incident may have caused to you.
We beg your understanding and forgiveness.
Look forward to your reply.
Best regards.
Janina ❤

I already received my refund and left feedback, before this message was sent to me...
Underneath the message was a link to the auction, with the words "You have committed to buy this item" and a "pay now" button???
Is this just eBay being wonky?

 

Yes, ebay is wonky. When I've received a refund, it then shows the item as needing to be paid for, for some stupid reason.

 

Well, I did receive my refund today - from "Mybuddy Ecommerce Group" I'm guessing that's toptop14. I'm not sure what kind of feedback to leave - I mean, they DID refund the money, but it doesn't excuse the original mess-up, especially with not even sending three razors.

 

If you kept the razors, why a refund?
And if you keep the money and the product (albeit the wrong product) why slam the guy, he's out.
I think eBay is requesting them try to resolve the negative remarks.

 

1) I ordered 3 razors. I was sent 2.
2) The razors ordered were not what was shipped.
3) They don't want them returned, because shipping _to_ China isn't subsidized, and they have to eat the return fees.

Remember, this is a batch of bait and switch, across multiple sellers.

 

I left negative feedback for Uncle Ding and now they're pleading for me to reverse it. I did get my refund.

Serious question... What would you do?

 

I've been following, i haven't figured the end game. It could be as simple as bait and switch. Or more sinister. It could be their banking on multitudes just keeping what they were sent.
I know they don't want returns, but that's what I'd insist on. If i got the money back, and left a bad review, I'd raise Kane until i got a shipping return label.
But I would not keep the product.
If i got a refund and kept their product, i'd shut up about it. I'd have got something for nothing, how is that a bad deal for me?
If they're a simple buy and sell, why would they offer the ming she's or whatever at such a low price? Or did a supply run out, with no way of making more?
Or worse were they sub manufactured for another company, and these were seconds (sub par or denied for some other reason)?
I don't see the hook, but i doubt they believed they could make money at 4 bucks a pop.
I think someone ended up with a warehouse full, and just tried to minimize their losses. Once they were sold, they had orders for more, so they tried to switch out.
None if this is anything i know, but just guessing.
I do know a that a Brazilian company made slides for a certain 9mm, the named company couldn't meet the demands so thry had the south American company make their product, but then the SA company was allowed to make some using the first companies specs (and sold them as their own) i won't say names, but big order and 9mm should be enough clues.

 

In a negative review, leave the details of why you are giving a less than positive review. Will it affect future sales for that vendor, or in this case a "Puppet Vendor"? I would hope so. Two possible effects; they shut down the multiple false fronts for the bad reviews, and they stop doing bait & switch sales. As a buyer you are doing a service to other future buyers alerting them to this issue.
Bad service doesn't deserve sympathy.

 

What if it were some average Joe that messed up and the boss told him to fix it or else? I'm no bleeding heart and I would consider myself a tough boss at work, but did this get someone fired? Ah, maybe I'm thinking into it too much.

 

Maybe, but if i got something for nothing, I'd let it slide.
If i was out, I'd review the snot out of them.

I would like to know how they came up with them to start with. I'm sure it cost big money to tool a factory to make them to begin with.

 

Well i checked and now have in paypal the money refunded, it even says "refund" next to the transaction. As long as they can't reverse that I'm leaving a scathing review.

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I'll leave positive feedback if I get a refund in a timely matter. Communication up until this point has been good. He said if I recieve a different razor he'll make it right. As long as he sticks to that I'm happy. It would be very different if there was a lot more money on the line and I had to wait a month just to get it back.

I'm thinking this was an honest mistake. He's pretty much sending out free razors to people at this point.

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Well that how refunds show up. There's no way to reverse that. That's a just how PayPal displays it in your transaction log when there is a refund....since you were......refunded.....

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Just as an FYI - the Nanji razors when bought -new- with free shipping generally cost no more than $2.71. I understand that the US postal service is heavily subsidizing shipping _from_ China to the US, for some reason. So, the $3 sale price for the razor would _not_ be a loss leader if people accepted it and just went "Well, that's China".

 

My taxpayer dollars hard at work. We wonder why we have a jobs issue!

 

So I'm free to unleash the wrath of Almighty God in a sermon on dishonesty and ethics and our responsibility to avoid doing business with such persons as a product review?

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Metalhead88, buddy don't fall for it. Ebay allows a 30 day time period to do a refund then you have to go through paypal which gives an additional 30 days after eBay's window expires. I've read dozens of horror stories of people waiting 4-5 weeks for something to arrive and the chinese seller swears they'll replace or refund if an item is nit right then refuse to do so and ebay won't make them. That's one reason why paypal gives the extra 30 days. If he does send you the wrong item then give him one chance for a refund, but if he tries to sweet talk you with a replacement then tell him it's negative feedback and reviews or a refund. If he still doesn't wanna do the refund open the case with ebay if you can or paypal if the boat has sailed on that.

I'm not a jerk, I've had many wonderful sellers make an honest mistake and correct it and I've given them the greatest possible reviews. But I've also ran across a few that try to use ebay to scam folks lile us. The worst part is that ebay does what they can to protect scammers and exploit sellers. That's one reason why paypal, which was started by ebay, split away from ebay. It was to expand their own business which it has, and it gave them the ability to hold ebay more accountable. I'm not a fan of ebay or PayPal and honestly i just give my mom or sister money for stuff and they order it for me. But I've gotten screwed a few times and scammed a few times thanks to paypal, or ebay, or some other online place that uses ebay.

I know it's only a few bucks, but it's the principle of the thing.

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You guys can leave whatever type of feedback you wish. I would only say, as a buyer and seller on ebay since 1999, I have found the most effect feedback is that which simply sticks to the facts. i.e. "Received incorrect item; refunded promptly; would advise future buyers to communicate BEFORE purchasing".
And if I got a refund with decent communication, the worst I would leave would be a neutral. BTW, you don't have enough character count to leave a scathing litany of insults. For those that received the wrong product and a refund, I find it in poor taste to leave a negative feedback. JMO folks.