Ordering a laptop from China

[paramonovich]

Hello everyone,

I see a lot of websites offering cheap electronics from China.

Want to buy a laptop but don't know is it's safe? They usually ask for Paypal.

Does anybody have experience of ordering stuff from China ? How to avoid fraud ?

Will appreciate some advise and tips.

Thanks in advance.

[gato]

Don't know where you are from, but computers are NOT cheaper in China than in the U.S. (at least in California). If you see a computer offered at a huge discount, it's probably bogus. The electronic products that I can think of that are more reliably cheaper here in China are Chinese-brand MP3/4 players. There's no single way of avoid fraud. If you have a website you are thinking of, you can post here, and we can let you what we think.

[roddy]

How to avoid fraud ?

Don't buy cheap electronics, online, from overseas.

[muyongshi]

To give yourself a comparison head to dell's website for China and check out the REAL prices....

(some of those great deals are without an operating system....)

[imron]

See also this post.

[paramonovich]

I was looking at this site:

bestdealwithyou.com

Do you think that's fraud ?

PS. I'm from Holland. Here in Europe the price difference is much larger than in US..

[pijiu]

I wouldn't bet on the parts inside the machine you buy from China being the same as described.

[gato]

A VAIO dual core for 380 euro. That's a steal!

bestdealwithyou.com/fenleiview.asp?lx=news

Sony VAIO VGN-N220E/W Notebook LAPTOP Dual Core NEW

now:380 EUR

[imron]

Do you think that's fraud ?

Yes. I wouldn't order anything from these guys if I were you. There are many fraudulent sites almost exactly the same as this one. They offer electronic goods at well below market prices because they know there will always be people tempted by these prices to actually send them money. They will happily take your money, and then not send you what they ordered because they don't have warehouses and they don't have stock, all they have is a website full of nice pictures and low prices. If something seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

[Lu]

Looks decidedly fishy. Nevermind the fact that they have bad English and a hotmail address, that doesn't mean much in China. But the place has only a postal code, no address. Ik zou 't niet doen als ik jou was. Try Dell if you want a cheap computer.

[roddy]

It's not safe. Don't buy anything from that site, or any site like it.

I've added their MSN. I'm going to see if I can get them to promise to sell me a 7GB Ipod Kluntch if I offer to send payment by Western Union.

[paramonovich]

Thank you guys.

I was too optimistic...

[ipsi()]

Yeah... don't really recommend ordering stuff online from places like China. Although I did love the ludicrous price they were charging for the Palm Z22 - 800+ Euros! Heh. I got my 680 for less than that .

[flameproof]

bestdealwithyou.com[/url]

Do you think that's fraud ?

YES, it's 100% fraud! There are 1000's of similar fraudulent sites. The close probably 100 a day. Here are a few ways to spot fraud:

1. Name brands are on offer

2. Prices are WAY lower then in your place

3. Don't accept credit cards

4. No company name

5. No wire transfer to company account possible

6. Use @hotmail address

7. Websites often new registered (but many idle for month before use)

There is plenty of fraud, spam and scams coming out of China and the incompetent police does not take action since scamming foreigners is not really a crime in China, more something to be proud of.

Here is a list with a few more fraud shop sites: http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?p=20922

And in case you bought something:

http://resources.alibaba.com/topic/191584/How_to_deal_with_online_scammers_located_in_China_.htm

2 online links to report fraud in/from China: http://net.china.cn + http://cyberpolice.cn (you have to use Chinese to report)

[adrianlondon]

scamming foreigners is not really a crime in China

They may well end up getting even more money scamming the locals. The Chinese seem to believe what they read online. Not sure if it's because this bright-light capitalism is a bit new to them, but ...

A couple of friends of mine, beijing-ren, told me they were sending money to an address somewhere in Europe as they'd gotten a (spam) email saying they'd won a lottery in the Netherlands. The fact neitehr of them had been to the Netherlands, or ever played a lottery, or knew anything about that lottery didn't bother them.

"I must have won. The email was sent to me!" and "it's only €50, I will send it tomorrow". I managed to persuade them not to, but they weren't happy with me.

[roddy]

Am editing out the clickable links to the site, would rather not have the people running it turning up to post here . . .

[flameproof]

adrianlondon

Chinese people design other scams to scam each other. I doubt a Chinese will fall for that scam. Seems to obvious, a Chinese website not in Chinese, address not complete......

[adrianlondon]

ok - I didn't look at that specific website; I'm just pointing out that China-originating internet scams are probably tagretting the locals as well as foreigners.

[flameproof]

well, a Beijing girl that I met on QQ tried to scam me wanted to get me into one of those rip off bars. She was only looking for "locals" as she didn't spoke any English. There are probably completely different and for us unknown local frauds going on in China.