My regular readers have surely noticed that my posting frequency went down significantly in the past several months. This is largely due to all the long hours I put into my new project. This leaves fewer and fewer time for my blogging. The good news however is that with my new hobby (and responsibilities that come with it) I now get exposed to a lot more deals which come from many different sources.
Yesterday we got a submission (which I in fact rejected) from a website called TradeTang. To give you an idea what TradeTang is, the best US alternative would probably be Amazon Marketplace. Sellers offer merchandise (new and used) at a fixed price and TradeTang acts as a proxy processing payments and order tracking.
The submitted deal was for an iPhone for just $176 shipped. You know the saying, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. So I went on and researched it a little bit online. It turned out that TradeTang as probably many places in China doesn’t bother to complicate itself with international copyright laws and as the result you can find there pretty much anything from a fake iPhones to counterfeit watches to “almost” brand name jeans for a fraction of what “the real thing” will cost you. Consider it an online extension of what a typical Chinese market would probably look.
However not all is gloom at TradeTang. Mixed with counterfeit brands sellers offer legitimate merchandise usually sold in wholesale lots starting from 5 or 10 items. The prices are much lower than in the US but shipping can by somewhat costly. There is for example a huge variety of wedding apparel and lingerie.
Is it safe to buy? I spent about an hour reading comments and reviews from multiple sources and opinions seem to vary greatly. Some reviewers are convinced it is scam and should be stayed away from while others claim you can find many good bargains if you are cautious (e.g. pick a seller with reputation points and ask questions before placing a purchase order).
I personally don’t think I will be ordering anything from TradeTang any time soon but I can see where some businesses would be interested to take a closer look at what this place has to offer even if the financial rewards come with a certain risk. What is your opinion about TradeTang? Please tell me in the comments
TradeTang is a scam. I recently purchased 2 electric guitars on a site hosted by wanglaoj117 that clearly showed photos and written descriptions of 2 American made electric guitars.
After verifying availability and receiving the message “what you see in my pictuer is what I send” I placed the order for one of each model shown never thinking that I would receive anything but what was shown in the ad. In this case, a Ventures model Mosrite and a Rickenbacker 370-12 string guitars, both top of the line musical instruments. My thoughts were to buy the guitar of my dreams and sell off the other to pay for both.
What I actually received once the order had been placed however, were 2 counterfeit knockoff Rickenbacker guitars without any warning that a substitution had been made.
Evidently, the English words “Truth in Advertising” and “Bait and Switch” are freely interchangeable in Cantonese. “Consumer Protection” and “Complete Refund” do not translate at all.
On a nearly $800 purchase, their “generous offer” of a refund amounted to $300 and I would be obligated to return the fakes at my own expense ($450 via UPS International). You do the math. $300 is what the cunterfeit guitars were probably really worth, the remainder was to cover the merchants “Free Shipping”.
Needless to say. I am stuck with 2 guitars that are blatent counterfeits.
Paypal and your credit card company will not help you because it jeopardises their fees. U.S. customs never once physically opened the package for visual inspection of the merchandise. They were content to pass along 2 guitars that violate U.S. copyright infringement laws based solely on the shipping declaration alone written in broken English and Chinese characters.
Had they done their job and physically inspected the package, the fakes would have ben stopped at the border and this would all be a moot point. My NY State Cousumer Prootection Board thinks this is not their jurisdiction. Say what? Did I miss something here in their title? (Your tax dollars hard at work folks).
The bottom line is this. The Chinese pay little or no attention to copyright infringement laws or in using bait and switch tactics designed to separate you from your hard earned U.S. dollars. Buyer beware. Be very aware and stay away from this site.