|
Agree Trevor - have not bought a single electrical item from China off eBay that worked for longer than 6 months apart from ONE memory card reader that has been solid for 8 years now. I sometimes feel the online stuff is their non-QC or rebadger QC rejects.
I did even get caught on the 1GB USB memory stick scam - back when 1GB for one of these was unheard of, my wife saw one for $18, and bought it for a present for me. Plug it in, windows sees it. Then you try to explore it or add anything to it. NADA. You open it up... just a USB plug with a simple circuit that is obviously enough to tell Windows it is there. I often wonder how many THOUSANDS of dollars they scammed from people. We got our $18 back anyway.
I also got caught with a portrait ring speedlight (ring flash). Didn't work at all. Open it up, and just a battery connected to a switch and an LED. Got every cent back through Paypal.
Or the more recent Chinese seller that sold GoPro cams - well, he sold the cases rejected at manufacture anyway, with NIL internals! Made a fortune and disappeared just before Xmas last year...
The funnier ones was a recent GIFT from Virgin for loyal membership for so many years. It was a mobile battery pack - just plug it in to your flat phone and away you went. 1 week after they sent it out, they sent urgent emails and letters urging everyone to dispose of them since they were faulty and liable to overheat and ignite! Seems even a big corporation can get caught out with dodgy merchandise.
You can get some good Chinese stuff off eBay...but you can get an awful lot of crap too.
|