Chinese Imports - a warning

[paulears]

Buying stock from China has always been fairly easy for me, but the Corona Virus has wrecked it badly. I've a number of outstanding orders since the new year.

 

Most people use Alibaba or Aliexpress. As a bit of background, Aliexpress tend to feature small businesses who buy their stock from the bigger factories, and when you buy it, they feature air freight prices, pre-arranged - so like any other on-line store you get a price and a shipping price, and you click buy now. Very simple. Often, they then have to source the parts to make the product, and this takes a few days, they pop them together and ship them out. You can save money by cutting them out and using Alibaba - here you have to ask for what you want and they will come back with a price, based on how many and little details. They then send you the invoice and you can pay for it either from your bank, by doing one electronic transfer, or more often now, via a debit/credit card and occasionally PayPal. There is a customer assurance system where if you are not happy, you can get a refund from Alibaba if the supplier goes over the date, or can't dispatch. Alibaba is often slower, dispatch wise, but cheaper - however, they prefer sea freight - which is of course cheaper, but takes maybe 40-50 days to arrive at a port here, and then you can go and collect it with paperwork. However - sometimes the delivery to felixstowe doesn't happen and the ship docks at Liverpool instead. This can be tricky. Some suppliers can arrange with a freight forwarder so the goods end up at your door, with a little extra cost.

 

Normally the clock starts ticking with 30 days on it. Due to Corona Virus, this has increased to 60 days. I've got a large order placed with one supplier since January - two weeks ago they gave in trying to source the components and started the refund process (another 30 days). Today, one shipment of around 140Kg just went wrong. I've been waiting 6 weeks, and they emailed to say the goods are due to be assembled and packed tomorrow - but when they booked the Fedex collection the $860 fee I've already paid has increased to $1450! I've waited months so far, and an extra 600 Dollars wipes out the profit. DHL have matched Fedex's price. Now the factories are getting back to production there is a huge backlog and the freight people are taking advantage big time. They've come up with a freight by sea option - $200, with a refund of the difference but hopefully Felixstowe will be kind to me. Last time collecting goods NOT in an artic was a real pain. Plus - it's at least another month and a half. Order January - get the product in April/early May.

 

If you are buying anything expensive at the moment - make sure you get a goods in stock quote. If they place an order and a week goes by, the freight will have gone up! Beware.

[paulears]

Well - the package by sea arrived on a lorry today - so that's nearly two months end to end on a ship vs a few days by air freight.