Red Lantern Tea

[mr mopu]

Given that AllanK originally posted his concern 4 months ago, perhaps it would be more appropriate to ask him at this point whether his order arrived or not?

The items were eventually delivered, after about two months. I had already received a refund from Ebay because they did not track until 35 or 40 days. I paid the seller the amount for the items minus the shipping fee (he agreed to this as he wanted to keep his 100% positive feedback record) as I had already received a refund well before the package tracked to prove it had been shipped.

I later learned the seller uses a courier to ship his items to Hong Kong. It is just possible the courier was extremely slow to move the items to the post office in Hong Kong. Perhaps the courier spent three weeks celebrating and forgot to ship the item. Whatever the reason, the items were delivered something like 55 or 58 days after they were shipped. He does not use the better E-Packet shipping but the slow China Post, perhaps the former is too expensive from his part of China.

Once I finally got the items they were very good teas, I will give him that. As a rule I prefer Berylleb for the shipping speed but might consider Red Lantern for something I could not get elsewhere, but not during the Chinese holiday season and not if another order took 40 days to have active tracking, that is why we pay for tracking.

Berylleb will source items too. If you ever need something they don't carry contact me and I will get them to get the info for you.

[MEversbergII]

Man, a week or two long holiday? How does anyone afford that!

M.

[AllanK]

I am having a new problem with Red Lantern Tea. This is a problem that they created for no apparent reason. Having purchased again successfully several months ago I recently attempted to buy from their store and the computer would not let me.

I contacted Red Lantern Tea and they assured me it was a glitch. After a while it became apparent that they had placed a block on my account. This is strange as I have given them nothing but positive feedback and generally five star ratings. Are they preemptively punishing customers who might give them poor ratings?

I just want to warn people of this dishonest seller on Ebay. They claim they never block sellers yet if it is a glitch they won't fix it. I gave them nothing but positive feedback despite the problems I had with their shipping and they block me to show their thanks. They clearly feel that I have to earn the right to shop at their store not that they have to earn a customer.

[Cwyn]

I spent a number of years as an EBay power seller dealing in vintage Americana. As a result I have seen every customer issue possible. Doesn't take long before I started deciding what customers are in the Not Worth It category. For a time I stopped international shipping, the headaches with it are numerous, slower shipping than the customer wants or expects, customers who don't pay duties in their country to retrieve a package, or who don't respond to delivery notifications, leading to packages sitting in customs that I can't get delivered nor returned. Buyer's remorse, delivered packages but the customer waits until the last day to file a "not as described," customers who want a refund but don't return the item, items coming back filthy or with something else in the box, charge backs with no explanation. As a seller, I may only have one of an item, and money I am out on that item. I am doing a lot of business and want to ship and forget whenever possible.

There is a weariness that sets in, as you can tell. Guessing they are trying to be friendly but aren't saying directly to bugger off, but they might prefer it if you did.

[Balthazar]

There is a weariness that sets in, as you can tell. Guessing they are trying to be friendly but aren't saying directly to bugger off, but they might prefer it if you did.

Agreed, after skimming through this thread just now... Must be annoying for the vendor to have to take the blame for the snail's pace shipping that they can't do anything about.

AllanK, I'd suggest you just go with another vendor, if it's the case that they are no longer interested in having you as a customer... (And after this experience, and the more recent tuochatea one, I guess the bar has been raised regarding how long to expect the delivery of some packages to be.)

[AllanK]

There is a weariness that sets in, as you can tell. Guessing they are trying to be friendly but aren't saying directly to bugger off, but they might prefer it if you did.

Agreed, after skimming through this thread just now... Must be annoying for the vendor to have to take the blame for the snail's pace shipping that they can't do anything about.

AllanK, I'd suggest you just go with another vendor, if it's the case that they are no longer interested in having you as a customer... (And after this experience, and the more recent tuochatea one, I guess the bar has been raised regarding how long to expect the delivery of some packages to be.)

The Tuocha tea package showed up on tracking. I had proof it had been shipped. For this one there was no proof it had been shipped because they apparently used a courier who was very slow to get it to Hong Kong. There was no proof it had been shipped. They were not honest with me at that point. They could have explained that they chose an unreliable shipping service and that it might track after 30 days or more. They did not want to admit they chose a bad shipping service.

The basic point is they have no right to treat customers like this or they will have no customers. I would be unlikely to order from them if they unblocked me but I would like them to stop lying to me. I do not appreciate being lied to. The least they could do is admit they have blocked me. They lied to me before and they are lying to me now. They are clearly the worst seller in the business.