What is the general vibe like with ordering from China these days?

[Takiyaki]

I'm looking to get a Dengfu R06 rim brake frame next year, probably after the Chinese New Year. I know things have grown more and more tense there over the last few months but I was wondering if any repeat customers saw a degradation in customer service. I want to get a custom paint job so there will def be some back and forth. I had no problems with my FM208 order probably 3-4 years ago.

[madmax]

I'm looking to get a Dengfu R06 rim brake frame next year, probably after the Chinese New Year. I know things have grown more and more tense there over the last few months but I was wondering if any repeat customers saw a degradation in customer service. I want to get a custom paint job so there will def be some back and forth. I had no problems with my FM208 order probably 3-4 years ago.

Velobuild was quick to respond to emails and placing an order was not an issue and showed up within 3 weeks of ordering, though I had to email them multiple times to get the tracking information

Apparently, either everyone is named Chris there or there is one person that never sleeps and responds within a few hours and is pretty nice to work with

Loose parts may or may not show up because they don’t put those in a plastic bag, so while my frame/handlebar/fork were ok, I was missing the top cap and some spacers and still waiting for those to show up


Elite wheels shipping was incredibly fast and they had automated tracking emails and their support is much better than Velobuilds

[1Sigma]

Apparently, either everyone is named Chris there or there is one person that never sleeps and responds within a few hours and is pretty nice to work with

I've come to the conclusion that Chris is an idea. A mindset. A philosophy...

[dreddie]

I recently ordered a frame and parts from Carbonda. I found the service was excellent and received delivery 2 weeks after my order was finalised.

[hazzer19]

I've come to the conclusion that Chris is an idea. A mindset. A philosophy...

I think it actually stands for (C)ustomer (H)as the (R)ight to (I)mpressive (S)ervice 

[coffeebreak]

Loose parts may or may not show up because they don’t put those in a plastic bag, so while my frame/handlebar/fork were ok, I was missing the top cap and some spacers and still waiting for those to show up

I was missing the bottom bracket. Sent a mail to one of the Chrises there and one of them sent the BB to me promptly. In fact, another of the Chris sent one more out of nowhere and I ended up with two BBs. The second one came long after my build was done.

Yes the idea that Chris might be an entire support operation of a compnay is worth discussing.

[carbonazza]

... Sent a mail to one of the Chrises...

Back to the thread, I'm getting normal shipping from my usual providers: Carbonda and Lightbicycle. With WXY like shipping companies.

[RDY]

Just a note, for some reason Nextie barely get mentioned here.  But customer service was outstanding when I recently ordered an AGX45 rim for the front and ARX49 rim for the rear of a new gravel wheel build.    Product seems very good quality too.  They went out of their way to be helpful, great communication, and even upgraded my service from EMS to FedEx for free, as things were time limited.

In my experience thus far, customer service and overall experience tier list:

Outstanding - Nextie.
Very good - Speeder.
Good - Carbonda, FarSports - end result good but can take a bit longer to get there if you need to resolve any issues.
OK - LightBicycle, OG Evkin - end result also fine, but can take a LONG time to get there, and information accuracy not always 100%.
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VeloBuild

[kbike]

Last 4 frame purchases have been expensive for shipping. 
Time frame of shipping has been 4-6 weeks no matter the shipping costs.
Missing accessories is pretty regular.
Sellers are difficult to impossible to get true warranty services. So these higher priced frames and wheels aren't getting you much more post sale.
Paypal and Ali pay are not going to protect you.
Frames rarely come close to what they claim in weight even with accessories off.

Cable routing doesn't seem like it's ever been tested. I seem to find poor exits to pinching on every frame. 

Loose to poor headsets seems to be a constant issue. The last frame I got needed a thicker bearing for the fork without binding.

[carbonazza]

Last 4 frame purchases...

Not from the same seller then? Some more details?

[kbike]

Nope not same seller but via aliexpress for 3.   Sellers for the cr51(aethos copy/onirii frame) the airwolf/cwind sellers. The speed cycle wheels.
The tideance gravel frame. This frame at least was nicely done and came with everything. It still pinches cables like other hidden cable frames.

So that's 3 frames and 1 wheelset off the top of my head.
It just not safe dealing with ali sellers for large purchases. You pay with $100+ shipping then they message you saying send us 30-40% more shipping. They hide behind Ali when they mess up either from pricing, missing parts, or just unusable. I know velo has high shipping to me but at least I can see that before hand.

I'm still dealing with a issue and don't want to talk about it til finish.

I'm still not happy how elite wheels dealt with me on the bearing/hub issue.  I am glad I worked with sigma but elite let me down. Was it fixed? Even if the hub never warps anymore the hub needs specially milled bearings now. There was a new revised hub available but they refused to replace it.

[jonathanf2]

I must be lucky, most my purchases from AliEx have been solid. Either that or I have really low expectations! 

[Tines]

Nope not same seller but via aliexpress for 3.   Sellers for the cr51(aethos copy/onirii frame) the airwolf/cwind sellers. The speed cycle wheels.
The tideance gravel frame. This frame at least was nicely done and came with everything. It still pinches cables like other hidden cable frames.

So that's 3 frames and 1 wheelset off the top of my head.
It just not safe dealing with ali sellers for large purchases. You pay with $100+ shipping then they message you saying send us 30-40% more shipping. They hide behind Ali when they mess up either from pricing, missing parts, or just unusable. I know velo has high shipping to me but at least I can see that before hand.

I'm still dealing with a issue and don't want to talk about it til finish.

I'm still not happy how elite wheels dealt with me on the bearing/hub issue.  I am glad I worked with sigma but elite let me down. Was it fixed? Even if the hub never warps anymore the hub needs specially milled bearings now. There was a new revised hub available but they refused to replace it.

Is it speede cycle or speeder cycling? You ordered a wheelset there?

[Tijoe]

I have been a member of Aliexpress since 2014.   Over the years, at least 200 purchases.   My biggest loss was from Trifox, over a year ago.  They sent me a defective Carbon Fork.  Only wanted to credit me $40 or I had to send it back on my nickle.   Would have cost more to ship it back than it cost. 
Besides that, I have had several lost items, and received full money back, and a few low cost items that were really poor quality. 
During Covid times, I had many orders cancelled by the store and my money refunded right away.
I have yet (cross fingers) to receive a damaged item due to the shipping or poor packaging.

Probably 70% of my orders have been bicycle parts, cycling clothing and bikepacking gear.  The others, mainly electronics like security cameras for my van, house, along with a couple NRV recorders.
(All of the camera items have been really high quality and have performed well over the years.)

[kbike]

Checked it was speedsafe. Hard to keep track with all the shell seller names.