Hi there,
I've been lurking around the boards here for a few weeks reading all the stuff I can find about Hantek and Rigol scopes with a view to buying my first scope and maybe modding it up etc. A friend of mine has a Rigol 1052E which I was able to hack up to 100Mhz very easily thanks to a post I came across round here when researching Hanteks
Long story short in the end I decided to go for a Hantek DSO5102B - the best I could afford for my budget (£250) - unfortunately I made the silly mistake of ordering one from a seller on ebay from Hong Kong. What an absolute mistake! I've had nothing but grief since I laid my eyes on that listing. Some my fault for being too hasty but the rest has been sheer avoidable hell.
Stupidly thinking to myself that I'd thought of everything, I hastily placed my order with the seller on Feb 17th. Out of all the listings on Ebay this one had the best price with the quickest dispatch (within 1 day of cleared payment) and delivery between 25th Feb and 4th March. By Feb 18th the scope hadn't been shipped so I contacted the seller to see if they were planning on shipping it that day. By Feb 19th the item hadn't been shipped and I'd had no reply from the seller.
In the mean time I'd been further reading and had come across some rather nasty stories regarding buying scopes from Hong Kong - particularly how they were offering free shipping to certain countries and then charging an additional $40 for shipping. I'd also read of issues people have had with warranties and quite frankly all of this and the fact the item hand't been dispatched yet put me off.
So on the 19th of Feb, I contacted the seller and told them to cancel the order and refund the money and that in a nutshell I wanted to order it somewhere else local instead.
At some point on the same day (Feb 19th) I conveniently got a response from the seller appologising for not responding and stating that he had shipped the item and provided a DHL tracking number and a little message stating he had marked the item down in value to $49 for shipping purposes. Needless to say my brain went into immediate worry mode. Firstly it appeared I had missed my opportunity to cancel but also that being DHL I was expecting all sorts of customs issues owing to the falsely declared value.
At this point I did nothing. I didn't even respond. I didn't see the point if he had shipped it already. I'd just got to suck it and see and then deal with returning it.
So, I took the tracking number and tried it in the DHL tracking system but nothing came up. I presumed at that point it was too early. I've never dealt with DHL before so I don't know what I should see or when.
Two days later, 21st Feb the tracking number finally works in DHL and what should I see but DHL tracking telling me the parcel was picked up from the seller on the 21st!
What's wrong with that I hear you ask? Well, I issued a request to cancel the sale through ebay on the 19th and the seller responded to that very cancellation request stating it had been dispatched when clearly it hadn't. Not only that but he had taken it upon himself to fraudulently claim the item was worth less than it actually was. Rather than listen to my instructions he thought I'll tell him it's been shipped, give him a tracking number and he'll think it's too late to cancel - and he was right - that's what happened.
Fast forward to yesterday 23rd Feb and the item is now within reach but is being held pending a DHL
release charge ransom (which is conveniently the same everywhere I read of £16 no matter the value of the item). And if you think that's the end of it, OH NO!
Seeing that the item was being held to ransom, last night I contacted the seller to finally lodge my complaint that he'd disregarded my request to cancel and that I'd clearly cancelled in time before the item was physically shipped, that I had proof of all of this and that I wont be accepting it and that I want a refund. Needless to say this morning there were no replys from the seller so I looked to ebay to help.
What a waste of time.
To make matters worse, at the time I ordered, I didn't have enough funds in the bank account associated with our paypal acount (my girlfriend and I share an ebay and paypal account but it's connected to her card and bank) so I paid through the ebay account, using the paypal form but with my own debit card stupidly thinking I'd still get the same protection. WRONG... That's just the excuse they need to wash their hands of the matter. Ebay wont even discuss the matter. There's no option to raise a dispute of any sort. They tell me to see paypal. Because I paid on my card there is no paypal account it's a guest payment. At this point I ring paypal and ask them why I'm not covered. They tell me first I need to create my own paypal account for the card I paid with else they can't deal with it. So I do this and then they tell me basically I'm screwed. I should just accept the item and pay the customs money even though I can prove 100% I cancelled before the item was even shipped.
As far as paypal are concerned the transaction through ebay is nothing to do with them even though I have evidence on ebay that I cancelled within good time. And of course ebay are washing their hands by passing it off to paypal. So all in all, ZERO protection from them even though it was a registered ebay account and all the evidence lies therein. At that point in time I went off for a think.
Then earlier this afternoon while I was out, I get a phone call from my mum saying that DHL tried delivering and wanted £16 so when I got home a couple of hours ago, I rang them to inform them of the situation and asked how I could get the item returned to the sender. Aparently I either have to accept it, contact the seller to recall it or keep refusing it until it's returned to sender automatically in 30 days. The problem here is that if I don't accept the item now it will dissapear back into transit and I'll have no proof it ever got returned and so will lose any chance of a refund.
I explained to the DHL rep that I had initally ordered the item but had cancelled 2 days before DHL picked it up for shipping and that the seller had given a false declaration / value for the item and that I wasn't comfortable with that idea. I explained that I'd tried since to contact the seller who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth and all they could advise me to do was to either pay and accept the item or wait 30 days and I'll never see it again.
So, I get back on the phone to paypal to re-appeal my case and explain that DHL have informed me I need to accept it or get it returned but to get it returned would mean I have no proof it was returned.
Paypal informed me that I would have no protection at all in that case and again made it clear there was nothing they could or would do since the item is pending delivery and I'm refusing it.
The paypal rep did suggest that I either pay the ransom or do a charge back on my visa debit so that's what I've been forced to do.
I rang my bank last of all and explained the situation to them and they've requested a charge back but I'm still not out of the woods. The charge back can take up to a week and I've got a £250 scope floating around between DHL and my house and it's looking like I'm going to be forced to pay the ransom and accept delivery or lose it altogether. The problem is if I accept the delivery, it looks like I'm trying to have my cake and eat it. I've requested a charge back but I've had the item. The seller will say I've accepted delivery therefore I've had the item when in reality I've got absolutely no choice in the matter. I either pay it or lose out.
So that's where I'm at right now. A £250 scope I didn't want stuck in the hands of DHL with a ransom on it's head and no means of cancelling the order without it costing me more money for an item I didn't want.
I can tell anyone reading this that I'm going to have the last laugh in the long run. I've been utterly honest, I'm not trying to con anyone and I'm getting p00ped all over and I'm not happy.
So if I sign for this here scope tomorrow and pay the ransom and I then get the charge back done successfully, Mr Seller is going to be getting a lovely email from me stating if he wants his scope back he can pay all the shipping, all the duties and taxes both ways and any other costs I've incured as a result. See how he likes it!
And as for ebay and Paypal, they can both take a running jump from now on. All the money I've put through their hands over the years and the first chance they get to wriggle out of something... Pfft.
Disgusting.
And for anyone wondering what horrific seller I've been dealing with on ebay, they go by the seller name ameliazhou and if I were anyone thinking of buying from them, I'd avoid them completely.
Knowing what I know now I would avoid buying any items above £20 in value from Hong Kong / China in the future. In fact it's made me think twice about ebay and paypal if I'm honest. In this case they offer me no help at all despite the weighted evidence they are willfully ignoring.
Ultimately I've been denied my right to cancel and I'm not at all happy. Ebay and Paypal have both let me down despite proof I cancelled this order and now I'm having all this grief.
Yes, I should have known better. Less haste, more brain in future. I'm as angry with myself as I am with Ebay, Paypal and this shoddy seller.
For anyone reading this, I will update the outcome. I may also if time permits grab screen shots of the emails with the sensitive date removed obviously which shows my instructions to the seller telling them to cancel the order on Feb 19th, the reply from the seller on the same day saying the item had been sent and finally a screen shot of the DHL tracking which states clearly the package was picked up on Feb 21st - 2 days after I cancelled and he responded directly to my cancellation request so he can't deny I cancelled.
Cheers! Hope this saves someone else from this hassle. Buy from UK / Europe!!!