Its not really true what you can see on ebay
Negative Reports to crashing down competitor sellers is 99 % Fraud
There are companies in the market ONLINE & REPUTATION SERVICE
they have stuff buy items to leave negative Feedbacks
In Germany there are many specialised service companys
they will crashing down ebay and amazon competitor business
with fraudulent feedbacks amd you can do nothings.
Cheap rework station
impossibile to import for private Buyers in EU and pass EU costum,
Many things must be changed.
Carton mus have CE
Carton must have Importer Adress in EU /EEA
Chinese must add Importer Adress in EU /EEA Sticker ar carton
Othewise never buyer will get goods.
pass EU costum in Germany
Seller thinking,
I ship chinese carton and provide tracking ID !
no no way this not work for ship to EU !
Private Buyer never get goods
I had before big problem to get out my goods from EU costum.
When chinese supplier cant costumized shipping with additional sticker I dont buy.
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I must be living in a different EU, as I've never had any issues buying electronics from China, including mains powered stuff. Not only that, but there are numerous European YouTubers doing this stuff almost for a living. If a cheap Chinese item has a CE stamp on the box, it is almost guaranteed to be BS. The items are often nowhere near compliant and they still pass customs just fine. The box itself is almost never even visible through the packaging. You think that the customs regularly tear open the boxes and check the item is compliant? Yeah...
The only thing I buy from China is bare PCB's.
Very, very cheap and good quality.
I have been bitten numerous times with cheap Chinese junk and just gave up on them.
IRFP240 that lasted 10 minutes until I unplugged soldering iron and the amp blew up. Replaced with IRFP240 from RS Components and despite trying very hard couldn't get the amp to blow up.
Bought 4 flash drives that took 3 months to arrive and none worked.
Bough some nail scissors that just ben taround my nails instead of cutting them.
Etc etc etc
I have been receiving a few packages a week for maybe ten years. From time to time a real trash comes but the price suggested so, I can hardly expect good quality if an item costs one dollar incl. shipping to Europe. But even that is not a trash automatically, I have bought countless arduino/STM32 boards for $1.50 and they all worked fine (one time had I to resolder the chip). All my 3D printer components come from chinese ebay, dirt cheap, good quality. Every general-use 3D printer manufacturer buys their parts in China...
But it takes a bit of know-how though, like everything. Most brand-new electronic components from China are fake, like your IRFP240 was. There is simply no way a seller could get hold of a new item at the price they advertise. Unless you buy pre-owned and tested, from a reputable seller (this forum as well as eevblog has reliable lists of them). I cannot complain about these. They are not dirt cheap, but are genuine, extracted from all the electronic trash the whole world dumps to China. Priced about one third of new item price and work fine.
From the many hundreds of packages I have ordered, I have lost money on maybe one or two. Almost always have I received a full refund in case of a problem, or the seller resent a new item. They usually offer a refund or resend. Resending a correct/working item is quite common. Yes, it takes an extra month, but I can do anything else in between, or buy it locally for multiple of price, if needed.
If in doubt about the item, talk to the seller before ordering. Sometimes you will learn he is incompetent (e.g. if the item description contains obvious nonsenses, he speaks hardly any English) and you will order from someone else.
Really I have no problem with ebay stuff from china, when chosen with a little bit of care. Ebay is generally cheaper than aliexpress and usually offers larger selection. But some stuff is on aliexpress only.
But it takes a bit of know-how though, like everything. Most brand-new electronic components from China are fake, like your IRFP240 was. There is simply no way a seller could get hold of a new item at the price they advertise. Unless you buy pre-owned and tested, from a reputable seller (this forum as well as eevblog has reliable lists of them). I cannot complain about these. They are not dirt cheap, but are genuine, extracted from all the electronic trash the whole world dumps to China. Priced about one third of new item price and work fine.
From the many hundreds of packages I have ordered, I have lost money on maybe one or two. Almost always have I received a full refund in case of a problem, or the seller resent a new item. They usually offer a refund or resend. Resending a correct/working item is quite common. Yes, it takes an extra month, but I can do anything else in between, or buy it locally for multiple of price, if needed.
If in doubt about the item, talk to the seller before ordering. Sometimes you will learn he is incompetent (e.g. if the item description contains obvious nonsenses, he speaks hardly any English) and you will order from someone else.
Really I have no problem with ebay stuff from china, when chosen with a little bit of care. Ebay is generally cheaper than aliexpress and usually offers larger selection. But some stuff is on aliexpress only.
I can only pass on my experiences which haven't been good.
After poor quality its the postage time that kills it for me.
On the other hand I can get pcb's in 5 days from China but I do pay through the nose for postage via DHL.
I bought 4 mains adaptors and after 3 weeks all 4 are dead despite being run well under max power. I cant pass those sort of components on to customers.
After poor quality its the postage time that kills it for me.
On the other hand I can get pcb's in 5 days from China but I do pay through the nose for postage via DHL.
I bought 4 mains adaptors and after 3 weeks all 4 are dead despite being run well under max power. I cant pass those sort of components on to customers.
Definitely. I am not selling the stuff I get from ebay/China to my customers, that would take a very different procurement procedure. Especially power adapters
We all are selling to our local customers at european/western prices, not chinese. There is price room for local suppliers of trustworthy products.I use all the chinese stuff in my company (mostly IT items) and for myself and my friends.
As of power adapters - these are perhaps the least reliable items to buy on ebay from china, no way. I have bought DC/DC converters for our servers from a UK ebay seller. Of course they are selling chinese items (everything is manufactured in China), but have been selling this particular brand for years and with long track of reliability. The price was double, but still very good. The convertors have been running for several years now (knock knock ). The UK company is still selling them, one for another server arrived recently.
If it is critical, the stuff must be manufactured (not only re-sold) by a company that has an up-to-date website (even in chinese, google translator is OK) and has been active in this area for a few years. An email to their sales department, they usually respond even about single-quantities and recommend an ebay/aliexpress seller (often these manufacturers have their own accounts). I purchased all window sun-shade motors for my house directly from their chinese manufacturer, also a large central vacuum cleaner unit from a company manufacturing the same motors for Electrolux vacuum cleaners (the rest of the cleaner is just a sheet metal, nothing to be unreliable).
It takes a bit of searching, emaling, but it works. Everything around us is from China, low as well as high quality, it's just a question of finding the right manufacturer. And being ready to pay a fair price, not one dollar. Still much cheaper than buying it locally with fat margin of four resellers along the chain.
). The UK company is still selling them, one for another server arrived recently.If it is critical, the stuff must be manufactured (not only re-sold) by a company that has an up-to-date website (even in chinese, google translator is OK) and has been active in this area for a few years. An email to their sales department, they usually respond even about single-quantities and recommend an ebay/aliexpress seller (often these manufacturers have their own accounts). I purchased all window sun-shade motors for my house directly from their chinese manufacturer, also a large central vacuum cleaner unit from a company manufacturing the same motors for Electrolux vacuum cleaners (the rest of the cleaner is just a sheet metal, nothing to be unreliable).
It takes a bit of searching, emaling, but it works. Everything around us is from China, low as well as high quality, it's just a question of finding the right manufacturer. And being ready to pay a fair price, not one dollar. Still much cheaper than buying it locally with fat margin of four resellers along the chain.
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