The trouble is finding the right words to find them.
EXACTLY!
I find so many times I don't know how to describe what I am looking for and can't figure out what they mean either.
Just this morning I was looking at something that was clearly a thermostat and it was described as a "Voltage controller". I spose in that way you could call a switch a voltage controller.... or a diode..... or a transistor....or....
Your supposition about getting money out the country could explain something.
I have noticed a LOT of sellers lately not delivering goods ordered. Had a couple last month. They refunded almost instantly I complained.
I was a bit slack with looking at feedback. Looked at the numbers rather than the individual comments. It seems anyone not in the 99.5%+ Range with the volumes they sell could be suspect.
As well as me not getting the things I ordered, over 200 other people didn't get theirs that month either. The fact I have been buying a bit of electronic stuff from China and some of it is here in a fortnight and others is here in a month or never tells me its not the post that's at fault when you see numbers that high from one seller and the occasional one from a bunch of others.
It's clearly some sort of a scam or deliberate but I could not work out what the benefit would be.
I guessed there would always be a percentage of people that would forget what they ordered or would never ask for a refund anyway and this would be worthwhile for the sellers. When they literally make an issue of 5% discount if you buy 3 $4 items, they must be scratching for every cent.
I worked for a Chinese run company for a while and they would certainly haggle over a $3 discount on a $300 bit of gear and that was on retail prices here!
I really don't think the owner of the place could understand why the customer shouldn't be charged a 2nd lot of delivery fees when the warehouse stuffed up and sent the wrong item. There were many things they just did not understand and EVERYTHING was about price.
I started selling on the incomprehensible basis of service and reliability ( which was a constant uphill battle with them) and added a margin to the existing price list to cover the extra things I did. Took about a week for them to think I had some sort of sales super powers as I went out and revived one dead account after another and brought back an order from each one on the first visit but it was nothing more than doing everything they didn't. Basic rule of sales, they buy the person, the product and the price in that order.
I left over an argument with the Boss. He was smart in that he always sourced new and useful products. He got onto this one thing and secured all the distribution rights and straight away I could see it was a real winner. As usual, he had next to no margin on it. I gave one to one of my clients on loan to test and priced it 4X what the boss listed it at. Client comes back the next day and orders 20 of them. This was almost $500 a pop, not a $2 thing.
Week later he orders another 20 and so it goes. My profit ratio is over 32% across the board, (Some things we made less than 1% on) the next best in the company was 6%. The other jealous order takers complained and the boss said I could no longer sell at higher prices I had been. His reasoning, because the other "sales" people whom were nothing more than order takers couldn't do it and were giving him a hard time because it wasn't fair to them. Clients knew I sold at higher prices than the others and were requesting that I handle their accounts regardless and the other slackers didn't like that. How the hell he worked out that me being able to do what they couldn't and make more money for the company was " unfair" was beyond me.
I offered to train the rest of the order takers how to do the job for which they were there for but was told they didn't need to know how to sell.
Yeah, Right!
I asked For a base pay rise that would equal what I had been getting and increasing, to cover what I'd loose in commissions and was of course denied so I walked. About a year later the guy rang me to come in for a chat. He had started up a new company and couldn't get it off the ground.
He wanted to know If I would go out and rep it for him? He wasn't prepared to let me run it for him my way on the back end so having to work his way was not something I felt I could do and make the enterprise fly so I had to pass. I would have liked to give it a go very much. The idea was solid, I just knew the execution would shoot it in the foot.
The owner was a nice, decent guy and personally we got on well, but his ingrained business ideas were just not right in the western market which I still don't know how a smart fella like him couldn't see.
Working for that company wasn't just a job, it was a life experience I'll never forget. Every day was like living in the twilight Zone and looking over your shoulder because there HAD to be a candid camera Hidden somewhere. Sadly, there wasn't.
I'm trying to go back and buy from sellers that have proven reliable even if they do rip me off for .50C more than the other guy is offering them for. :0)