1
29er / Re: Buyer BEWARE: Hongfu bikes
« on: November 13, 2018, 09:37:48 PM »
I ordered a FM258 from Hung Fu back on June 20th. They were up front with me that my size was not in stock, and that it could be about 50 days before shipping. I told them that would be fine as long as I had it by Aug 15th for an upcoming race in Sept. At 40 days I emailed them to make sure everything was on schedule. At 50 days I emailed again and the frame was ready and shipped on 8/10. It shipped to me in AZ and was received Aug. 18th. Very happy with how "Jenny/Vicky" handled the transaction. Very happy with the frame and the quality. Had a great race. In fact I just ordered their FM008 road frame from them today.
Obviously your experience was not the same. I agree. Hong Fu should have communicated better with you. They should have refunded you the purchase (had the frame not been painted prior). They could have easily put the frame back into inventor for resale. Although, if they couldn't resale your frame quickly, they would have most likely taken a loss on it. These Chinese companies don't have huge margins in their products.
I just wanted to share my experience. I think just about every Chinese vendor has communication screw ups like yours. The minute they realize they couldn't get your order to you as promised they should have let you know. But the fear of them losing the sale probably convinced them to not do so. So they used tactics to try to stretch the time frame. This is a common practice with all goods from China. Look at all the stretched out deliver dates on Aliexpress. 10-30 days is not uncommon for delivery. And I've had vendors ask for extensions on top of that, even after purchase. This, unfortunately, is the cost of getting discounts of 60-75% off the big name brands. As an American that loves his fast food, fast cars, and Amazon Prime shipping.... its really hard to wait, but knowing I saved $2000++ on a build that I personally selected the parts/paint for, makes it much easier.
Obviously your experience was not the same. I agree. Hong Fu should have communicated better with you. They should have refunded you the purchase (had the frame not been painted prior). They could have easily put the frame back into inventor for resale. Although, if they couldn't resale your frame quickly, they would have most likely taken a loss on it. These Chinese companies don't have huge margins in their products.
I just wanted to share my experience. I think just about every Chinese vendor has communication screw ups like yours. The minute they realize they couldn't get your order to you as promised they should have let you know. But the fear of them losing the sale probably convinced them to not do so. So they used tactics to try to stretch the time frame. This is a common practice with all goods from China. Look at all the stretched out deliver dates on Aliexpress. 10-30 days is not uncommon for delivery. And I've had vendors ask for extensions on top of that, even after purchase. This, unfortunately, is the cost of getting discounts of 60-75% off the big name brands. As an American that loves his fast food, fast cars, and Amazon Prime shipping.... its really hard to wait, but knowing I saved $2000++ on a build that I personally selected the parts/paint for, makes it much easier.