HgDinis25
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Registered: 14-3-2014
Location: Portugal
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Mood: Who drank my mercury?
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Opinion about an Ebay Seller
Hey everyone!
I've been searching ebay trying to find good deals on glassware, mostly ground glass joints. A few days ago I found this seller, from China:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/ben0315?_trksid=p2047675.l2559
He has lots of inexpensive glassware like this addition funnel:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250ml-Addition-Pressure-Equalizing...
He also only charges for shipping once, the shipping from other items in the same order beeing free.
What I wanted to know is if this seems legit to you. His prices just seem a little bit too good. As anyone dealed with this seller? Or bought equally
priced glassware that doesn't break just by looking at it?
Ah, and I'm from Europe, if this helps in anything...
[Edited on 10-11-2014 by HgDinis25]
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Little_Ghost_again
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In the UK you now have to add 20% vat on orders over £30 (inc the post), plus £10 admin fee and £4 customs fee. Go over £45 and the charges can
ramp up, most postal services are taking the piss charging £8-£10 in admin charges, the best deals now are to choose the sellers who charge for
customs upfront, that way you avoid the admin fees etc and get the goods faster, I learnt this the hard way earlier this year.
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DrMario
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I'm from the EU and I've purchased a ton of glassware from Chinese eBay sellers. I was _never_ disappointed. I can't claim the same thing for
reagents, where I did have a slightly disappointing experience, but never with glassware.
I have not done any business with ben0315 specifically, but his glassware prices seem pretty standard. Which means cheap and still you get really
good borosilicate glassware.
Also... I'll probably get one of his smaller Buchner funnels and a few thermometers. And maybe a couple of those 250 ml glass-stopper reagent bottles.
I really shouldn't go impulse buying this month, though...
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woelen
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Many chinese sellers offer free shipping or shipping at low cost. I am careful not to have the total value in a single order exceed EUR 22 (excl.
shipping), which is the limit for foreign orders in the Netherlands. If you go above EUR 22, then you have to pay EUR 17 plus a certain percentage
over the value of the order. Especially for orders just over EUR 22, the fixed part of EUR 17 is very high. If you order from the same seller with
free shipping, then you must also assure that there is sufficient time between orders, otherwise the seller combines them in a single parcel and you
go over EUR 22 total value.
The above strategy works fine for relatively cheap items (e.g. certain reagents, electronics parts, small pieces of glassware).
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Oxirane
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What kind of reagents have you ordered outside EU and have you had any customs intervention?
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diddi
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I made a big order with this seller and he elected to send me a sample first before we negotiated the shipping. as it turned out the product did not
suit my needs and he refunded me all my money including the price for the sample, so I can vouch for his honesty at least in my case. he does offer a
lot of stuff and includes free shipping if you order a lot. I will be looking back to buy some different glassware in the future.
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aga
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I've had some stuff from ben0315, and it's arrived pretty fast, been good quality (not that i'm an expert on glass perfection).
I've ordered several items on several occasions with no problems.
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Little_Ghost_again
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Quote: Originally posted by woelen  | Many chinese sellers offer free shipping or shipping at low cost. I am careful not to have the total value in a single order exceed EUR 22 (excl.
shipping), which is the limit for foreign orders in the Netherlands. If you go above EUR 22, then you have to pay EUR 17 plus a certain percentage
over the value of the order. Especially for orders just over EUR 22, the fixed part of EUR 17 is very high. If you order from the same seller with
free shipping, then you must also assure that there is sufficient time between orders, otherwise the seller combines them in a single parcel and you
go over EUR 22 total value.
The above strategy works fine for relatively cheap items (e.g. certain reagents, electronics parts, small pieces of glassware).
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Thanks Woelen, that kind of ties in with the UK, I have resorted to asking some sellers to split larger orders and send separately and at a few days
apart, the worse part in the UK isnt the actual tax its the admin fee charged by the courier
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HgDinis25
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Registered: 14-3-2014
Location: Portugal
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Mood: Who drank my mercury?
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Yeah, I'm a bit worried about customs fees. In my country they are kind of random but if they choose my package and it costed 100€ then I would have
to pay ~30€ more, wich I simply can't.
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