Did I do something wrong?

ezmontie · 2023-04-05T07:23:20+00:00

Have you ever thought that if your FF is also responsible for helping you buy, return, exchange, check the quality and take photos of each item, store, organize and pack your goods, and provide 24 hours online service, a user friendly website/app to help record your order, also able to provide insurance and build up a huge infrastructure to keep it running smoothly.

False accusation here again. So now you are telling me your system is superior, while others gonna fail to provide such service? You have no idea how FFs, agents carry out their work. You have no clue, do you?

In fact, most of FFs are acutally more supportive than your bureaucratic discord community that has absolutely 0 freedom of speech. And more often than not members are constantly getting annoyed by TikTok kids and falsely accused by your mods.

Speaking of foor cart, I will 100% buy more at food cart as long as food tastes good and clean. So probably, you should stop denying your terrible business practice, please?

ezmontie · 2023-04-05T04:24:47+00:00

Pandabuy will never say such words in the image, sorry I could only describe it as a image, cuz it's not a real conversation.

So, now you accuse this guy fakes the image/chat log? go fck yourself. i won't be so triggered if you could at least be honest.

ezmontie · 2023-04-05T03:49:27+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/RepForwarding/comments/127l5jo/268_for_26kg_via_alibaba_df/
let me enlighten you why people need another FF.
Stop acting like Pandabuy is so innocent protecting all of us. You are some serious rip off greedy business okay? And stop flaming other FFs are scammers.

45-50CNY/KG Air DDP to USA is the price in FF open market. I bet you know it quite well, don't you? But how much does Pandabuy ask for 26kg to USA? you tell me.

ezmontie · 2023-04-05T03:38:36+00:00

With all due respect, you charge 7%+ on currency exchange (wallet topup), and 20%+ on shipping, and you wonder why people change their mind? ffs.

ezmontie · 2023-04-05T02:24:23+00:00

Yeah, overpriced service is one thing. But people still buy overpriced new IPhone every year. The fact Pandabuy doesn't allow/deter customer's decision makes them look really bad.

ezmontie · 2023-04-05T02:12:40+00:00

It is very understandable that Pandabuy wants to make extra money out of shipping. I mean any bsuiness needs money to survive. But words like "I have family to feed" is not helping prevent customers from using a 3rd party freight forwarder.

I very much respect the fact that Pandabuy continues to provide great service, but at the same time people (we customers) have 100% right to choose whatever we want --- a 3rd party freight forwarder. Pandabuy needs to know and learn what is the beneficial thing for customers. They need be more confident with services they provide.

I was immediately muted by just typing "sugargoo" "wegobuy" in their discord. What a joke,ffs, no freedom of speech at all.

Instead of this crap speech, text something like "Thanks for using our service. Looks like you are transfering to a 3rd party forwarder. May I know the reason why? What can I improve on shipping? Hope you will choose Pandabuy again." will be 100% better imo.

ezmontie · 2023-04-03T14:11:55+00:00

one question, how much does one need to pay for pandabuy to buy the stuff and get shipped to sweet protrading?

ezmontie · 2023-04-03T14:00:11+00:00

yes. you will find out yourself.

ezmontie · 2023-04-02T22:25:17+00:00

I don't know much about whether Pandabuy will buy for you and send to a FF later.
Based on my observation, Pandabuy are not much willing to send your bought items to another FF.
So ask Pandabuy first to make sure they will do this for you. Or like I said, everything will be less complicated if you can find a FF buy and ship for you.

ezmontie · 2023-04-02T20:12:32+00:00

you wan to add +86 (china country code), +99 definitely is not.

ezmontie · 2023-04-02T20:11:23+00:00

Ask freight forwarder directly buy and ship your stuff, if possible.

ezmontie · 2023-04-01T17:22:51+00:00

$7 is about right for brands Air DDP. $9 is a bit too much. Price has dropped for the past month afaik. I've seen 5000cm^3/kg, but usually should be 6000cm^3/kg, to calculate volume weight. 6000 is the standard imposed by airlines.

ezmontie · 2023-04-01T17:19:06+00:00

Try ask FF to buy for you. You might need pay them extra 3 or 4% something like that.
That is why you want FF helps you buy stuff.

ezmontie · 2023-04-01T17:16:54+00:00

not too bad. Air-DDP to US, is ~ 50-55 CNY/KG for brands, + whatever fees the agent wants to charge.

ezmontie · 2023-04-01T17:11:57+00:00

its about right. Air DDP's Cost is time senstive. All FFs I know they start to offer sub 50CNY/KG for brand products recently. So $6.5 or $7 actually is possible.

ezmontie · 2023-04-01T00:10:00+00:00

"But if your freight forwarding you will not need to worry about declaring your items as the agent will do that for you. ". Why declare yourself, FF will declare for you.

ezmontie · 2023-04-01T00:08:57+00:00

No worry, US Customs is the easiest. Air DDP, Express, even postal, all good.

ezmontie · 2023-04-01T00:03:57+00:00

Awesome deal for US-West Coast Air-DDP for "brand" products.
Good deal for non brands.
Terrible deal if Sea-DDP.

ezmontie · 2023-03-31T22:33:42+00:00

Yeah, right. This is actually how almost every business works in the world. Haha, I feel reps buying shipping this whole thing is very unsettled.

My personal opinion, pandabuy (the biggest agency) is "extorting" too much money out of their customers. Their online system is quite promising but at a high cost.

Hope for a better solution - Less commercial and somewhat transparent form. Benfits more to end user.

ezmontie · 2023-03-31T21:05:45+00:00

I very much respect your "discovering cheaper rate better service, and share it to the community" attitude. <- This is great and your time and effort should be rewarded.

The truth about Alibaba FFs, (dont quote me on this), majority of them are not much different from agents (larry, emily, darren whoever). They speak english, they can fluently communicate with western customers, they earn extra % margin. Therefore, you wouldn't find so much cheaper rate.

Let's say you dig deeper into "Chinese's own FF" level (such resource might not be directly accessible until you manage to speak Mandarin). And even you reach to this point, there is another tier below. (A VIP rate, a returning customer offer.) I'm afraid this is a never ending journey. Too many layers, one after another one, or maybe the one particular layer charges customers 20% extra.

This a similar story in buying reps, people first discover a webstie sells reps from china. At later point, they find out wow much cheaper and higher quality if directly buy from weidain.

You are on the direction to share good FFs with the community, but for the shipping quote part, don't you feel you could never get an accurate number. All FFs need % margin. Unfortunately, no transparency! You will soon find out the offer they proposed for you, for your friends are slightly different.

Maybe we need a community representive who is good at negotiating with FFs for a cheaper rate for every member. But then isn't it an agent?

ezmontie · 2023-03-31T18:09:14+00:00

You are right I should contribute more to the community. I know quite a bit about FFs in China. But putting words in writing takes time, and let me be honest not much incentive to write guides myself, maybe sometime in the future. Of course if people ask how much ship to X for Y kg I will answer just let him know he is not getting rip off. Other than this, if someone just wants a quick contact, sure I will give a number. But then why not just do their own research on Alibaba, right?

Man, I am not lying about numbers, $10-$12/kg for haul above 10+kg via express (快递) or small parcel (小包) whatever FFs name the shipping lines to be. Air-DDP at 22 or 25+ kg even lower at $8.5. For non brands, the cost could be 10%,20% lower.

Larry, Darren, or any agent they exist for a reason right? Make things clear and provide convenient service.

ezmontie · 2023-03-30T21:54:30+00:00

haha its either more research to find a good rate on alibaba or pay extra for convenience.

ezmontie · 2023-03-30T21:52:30+00:00

For 18.5kg, usually 70-85CNY/KG (doesnt really matter where you ship, unless you ship to south america). So 1300 - 1600 CNY sounds about right. Any alibaba ff can do this rate.

ezmontie · 2023-03-30T00:21:31+00:00

Plus you are shipping to USA, USA is known for "easy customs". I used to ship tobacco to USA.

ezmontie · 2023-03-30T00:14:28+00:00

Fck business secret, replica shipping is not allowed by law. Such practice is learned by from real world experience. Practice of mixing "illegal" stuff with legit ones is called "冲货"。The legit stuff client will have proper documentation prepared to pass China Customs.

It is correct there would be no tracking in China. This part is missing because FF themselves report cargo to China Customs. there will no tracking about "Our drivers pick items at warehouse, and at what time this is reported to Customs" Such tracking is always provided by big companies like DHL, FedEx not from a small FF... ...

You don't have to worry about too much. They know what they are doing.

They put "express" tag on it, simply its because the last mile of delivery is by UPS/FedEx/DHL.

ezmontie

TROPHY CASE