I mean a full refund including paid for return shipping is good customer service imo, obviously would have been better if it was caught in QC before being sent out.

I agree with this. If they end up giving me a refund for the frame I will say my experience with the company (though not the actual product) was comparable to working with a company in NA. Much better so far than my previous experience with European companies.

+ I had customer service support through WhatsApp
+ Shipping time here was on par domestic products (though cost is a lot more)
- Their service hours were not as convenient for me due to time difference
- Return shipping was slightly more inconvenient (but was still free)

I am actually surprised they wanted the frame back. I can't imagine they would try to sell it again. So either it is an attempt to refute my dispute, or they will analyze it to see what went wrong in the manufacturing process. I am hoping it is the latter.

And yes obviously the QC check could be more strict, and from my personal standpoint it was inconvenient. But if ICAN sells mostly domestically within China (or does mostly OEM), the loss from product returns may be less than you think. Maybe hiring more QC technicians would cost more.

I tried the PayPal route in a similar case, and was instructed by PayPal to mail it back at my expense. I hope you manage to get something back.

I'm sorry that happened, how did your build turn out? May I ask what was the defect you experienced? and would ICAN allow you to send it to their US warehouse?

That's bloody horrible, my ICAN p9 frame was finished to a completely different level, what are they saying?

In regards to the two holes in the steerer tube, ICAN said that was normal. The frame also has only one set of water bottle cages drilled in. Their remark was that due to the small size (it is under 50cm) that they could not place two water bottle cages on the frame. Which is funny considering my CAAD8 and old Cervelo were both 48cm and both have two sets of water bottle cages. In regards to the headtube, they have not said anything (but the message was read and they have had 2 days to respond now). Oh and did I mention the BB shell is not quite circular and will not fit even a nylon bottom bracket? A far cry from Hambini's "bang on"

I have decided to take this matter to Paypal and see what they say. If you guys have any recommendations for resolving a dispute, that would be helpful. My goal is not to slander the company (seems like they do mostly put out good products) but I do expect to get a refund for the cost of the frame/fork and the cost of shipping a defective product from China.

I have not yet decided on a frameset for the build I'm doing but after this experience I will probably stick with large manufacturers. Maybe a TIME or LOOK

I would definitely not say it's 'normal' ... unless their forks are all the rejects from when the factory workers are drunk at 4pm on a Friday and start drilling the holes on the side of the fork instead of the front.  Also there's generally very high porosity (loads of small voids) - suggesting something wrong with the resin - and the join below (in photo) or above (on steerer) looks really bad.   In general this looks like it's really bad quality.

Yeah it is a bit odd isn't it... the "official" hole is on the side which is consistent with what I've seen on other forks with internal routing. It is just that pocket of resin that looks like a filled hole that worries me. I doubt you could even call the pores "voids" since whatever fills that hole was placed after the initial vacuum.

My frameset came about a week ago and I was giving it a look over today. Something caught my eye which I wonder if anyone else ever experienced. There is a hole drilled into the fork for internal routing of hydraulic brakes (nothing wrong with that, quite ordinary). Right next to it is what appears to be another hole that was drilled, and then filled with some sort of resin. Has anyone seen a fork like this? I'm worried that it's not safe to use, though I can't imaging ICAN would knowingly patch over a hole and then drill another one if they didn't think it was out of safety tolerances.