TeaChat

I have placed a couple orders with Red Lantern and never had an issue. I have also had several orders from China that never recieved any tracking info. With the holiday you have to expect some delay. In all my Tea orders from china I have had many sometimes long delays. But i have never had one lost. If for some reason you don't recieve your package I don't doubt they will send another or refund your money. Relax

I would always give the vendor a chance. I think Ebay rules if paid through Paypal would allow a refund if you did not receive your items. The feedback shows good and I have purchased from them before with no issues. I have a yixing cloth I am waiting on that hasn't moved in tracking for over a week but I am sure this is because of the postal holiday jam up.

mr mopu wrote:I would always give the vendor a chance. I think Ebay rules if paid through Paypal would allow a refund if you did not receive your items. The feedback shows good and I have purchased from them before with no issues. I have a yixing cloth I am waiting on that hasn't moved in tracking for over a week but I am sure this is because of the postal holiday jam up.

Mine is still not "showing up" in tracking. There is nothing to indicate they shipped the product. Ebay is very serious about tracking information. I will win my dispute if it doesn't show up at my apartment. It would not bother me if it was not "moving". It annoys me that it does not show up on tracking. Those holidays ended nearly ten days ago and it doesn't show up on tracking. Maybe the seller uses a courier service to bring the package to the post office and the courier is laughing and drinking a Dayi!

AllanK wrote:

mr mopu wrote:I would always give the vendor a chance. I think Ebay rules if paid through Paypal would allow a refund if you did not receive your items. The feedback shows good and I have purchased from them before with no issues. I have a yixing cloth I am waiting on that hasn't moved in tracking for over a week but I am sure this is because of the postal holiday jam up.

Mine is still not "showing up" in tracking. There is nothing to indicate they shipped the product. Ebay is very serious about tracking information. I will win my dispute if it doesn't show up at my apartment. It would not bother me if it was not "moving". It annoys me that it does not show up on tracking. Those holidays ended nearly ten days ago and it doesn't show up on tracking. Maybe the seller uses a courier service to bring the package to the post office and the courier is laughing and drinking a Dayi!

in this case, i'll probably "inform" the vendor that i'm filing a complain to ebay in 3 days unless there is useful information that this order is being fulfilled.

AllanK wrote:Ebay is very serious about tracking information.

While eBay may be serious about tracking information, the vendor still has to enter the information.

I got something off of eBay in the mail last week. Just yesterday (that is, about 5 or 6 days after the product arrived), the vendor marked it as shipped (and I got an email saying that, too).

As others have said, I wouldn't worry until the 4-6 week mark.

AllanK wrote:

mr mopu wrote:I would always give the vendor a chance. I think Ebay rules if paid through Paypal would allow a refund if you did not receive your items. The feedback shows good and I have purchased from them before with no issues. I have a yixing cloth I am waiting on that hasn't moved in tracking for over a week but I am sure this is because of the postal holiday jam up.

Mine is still not "showing up" in tracking. There is nothing to indicate they shipped the product. Ebay is very serious about tracking information. I will win my dispute if it doesn't show up at my apartment. It would not bother me if it was not "moving". It annoys me that it does not show up on tracking. Those holidays ended nearly ten days ago and it doesn't show up on tracking. Maybe the seller uses a courier service to bring the package to the post office and the courier is laughing and drinking a Dayi!

Hope that is not the case in this. Hopefully it will show soon. And I agree Ebay will protect you if you don't get it.

mr mopu wrote:

AllanK wrote:

mr mopu wrote:I would always give the vendor a chance. I think Ebay rules if paid through Paypal would allow a refund if you did not receive your items. The feedback shows good and I have purchased from them before with no issues. I have a yixing cloth I am waiting on that hasn't moved in tracking for over a week but I am sure this is because of the postal holiday jam up.

Mine is still not "showing up" in tracking. There is nothing to indicate they shipped the product. Ebay is very serious about tracking information. I will win my dispute if it doesn't show up at my apartment. It would not bother me if it was not "moving". It annoys me that it does not show up on tracking. Those holidays ended nearly ten days ago and it doesn't show up on tracking. Maybe the seller uses a courier service to bring the package to the post office and the courier is laughing and drinking a Dayi!

Hope that is not the case in this. Hopefully it will show soon. And I agree Ebay will protect you if you don't get it.

If it shows up without tracking I may never know. Packages left unattended by the postman are often stolen. My regular postman would probably have the sense to take the package back to the post office if I wasn't home. A person filling in probably won't. I have had packages stolen before. If I have tracking ahead of time I can make sure this doesn't happen. This is why it is a serious matter to me to have no tracking.

There is still no tracking on the package after 14 days now. I ordered another package from the Dragon Tea House three days ago. It is already showing up on tracking. If both show up I guess I will have to have a tea party with a lot of Dayi tea.

AllanK, I think you can ask the post office to keep your packages at the post office. Good luck.

ethan wrote:AllanK, I think you can ask the post office to keep your packages at the post office. Good luck.

Unfortunately, I have been told that holds have to be all or nothing. On the other hand, that would mean no bills . . .

So I recently bought two cakes from them and it went very well. He responded very quickly and was quite forthcoming.

The only strange thing was that the cakes were just wrapped in bubble foil and placed in a paper box, but not vacuum sealed in a zip bag... I figure that this wouldn't be the best thing to do to tea that comes via air freight, with the difference in air pressure, the weird storing places and all...but it didn't seem to have done any damage.

Wasn't the most expensive stuff though, but its totally fine.

AllanK wrote:Mine is still not "showing up" in tracking. There is nothing to indicate they shipped the product. Ebay is very serious about tracking information.

As posted above: sit down and enjoy the view.

I have (and am waiting) purchased from this reliable vendor over 10 times. Never had an issue and will purchase from him in the future.

With the upcoming Year of the Horse (Chinese NY) things are in turmoil in China and Chinese colonies (Taiwan, Singapore, etc.). It is a highly impetuous and quick-witted "animal" so take it easy. It will arrive...eventually.

Edit:

A person filling in probably won't. I have had packages stolen before. If I have tracking ahead of time I can make sure this doesn't happen. This is why it is a serious matter to me to have no tracking.

I just read now this part. Hmm, thieves, this is bad news. In the future ask the vendor to write a note on the parcel saying: "don't leave parcel unattended if no one is home during delivery, please leave at Post Office X for collection."

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?

So, Allan, did you get your things yet? If not, i'm sure you'll get a refund... they say they refund if the package hasn't arrived in 47 days.

He sent me tracking numbers for my order which didn't work, thats right.
Wasn't a big thing for me as the tea arrived in less than two weeks. I always wait four weeks before even thinking about the package.. once I got one after 35 days, but usually it takes about 3 weeks.

miig wrote: The only strange thing was that the cakes were just wrapped in bubble foil and placed in a paper box, but not vacuum sealed in a zip bag... I figure that this wouldn't be the best thing to do to tea that comes via air freight, with the difference in air pressure, the weird storing places and all...but it didn't seem to have done any damage.

Wasn't the most expensive stuff though, but its totally fine.

You shouldn't worry about the difference in air pressure, rather you should be more concern about the freezing temperature during the shipment.

My suggestion is to avoid ordering something from China 2-3 weeks before and after the chinese new year, and also not to get it sent through a standard post or ems. You might need courier shipping like DHL for this.

Drax wrote: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.