PROBLEM VENDORS

Comprehensive member driven guide to vendors of all teas


User avatar
Aug 1st, '11, 07:00
Posts: 2794
Joined: Oct 16th, '08, 21:01
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Arlington, VA
Been thanked: 2 times
Contact: Drax

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Drax » Aug 1st, '11, 07:00

Gentilitea wrote:Is there any way to report a fraudulent online site so that the information will reach anyone/everyone considering a transaction at that site?
That's a good question....! I don't know if there's a BBB for internet sites? Hopefully there's better ways out there than just this thread...

It's a shame, that site has some interesting stuff that would be neat to order. Aside from peoples' recent experiences, I always thought it was suspicious that they hadn't updated their 'news' since 2009.......

User avatar
Aug 18th, '11, 00:29
Posts: 317
Joined: Nov 21st, '10, 20:00

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by SlientSipper » Aug 18th, '11, 00:29

I might have to say that Plymouth teas should be on this list.
MAYBE.
So, I ordered a couple of teas from them and they did deliver in a timely manner. They even sent me a free sample of some green.
but, so far all the teas have been extremely bland.
Like they sold me a bunch of stale tea.
Unless there is some kind of super subtle/bland Yunnan
I'm beginning to doubt that I'll ever want to do business with this place again. :?

User avatar
Mar 4th, '12, 13:53
Posts: 682
Joined: Mar 10th, '11, 08:17
Location: on top of a mountain.

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by gasninja » Mar 4th, '12, 13:53

Two recent problem vendors Tea http://www.horseroadtea.com/ my Mother ordered a 96 fenqing tuocha from them as my christmas present at the begining of December. They have suposedly sent it twice. We have never recieved the Tea or a refund. She claims they are still claiming to work it out but it has been almost four months.

A new Ebay Vendor selling a 98 brick tea vendor ilya79. I won a brick for .99cents with free shipping . My money was refunded. I sent a letter asking why this was and resent the money. The seller told me that I owed 49 dollars for shipping . It states in three places on the page free international shipping.I would have agreed to pay a reasonable shipping charge as I understoood that they did not want to sell the item for this price with free shipping. I would have even accepted not getting the item had the vendor aproached me and discussed it in an open manner. Instead I was lied to about a made up 49 dollar shipping charge and then insulted when I tried to resolve the matter in this message

pay me goods 49$ be a man and don't cry me for 0.99$ and don't tell scared me with your stories.good luck!- ilya79

User avatar
Mar 5th, '12, 00:08
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Chip » Mar 5th, '12, 00:08

gasninja wrote:pay me goods 49$ be a man and don't cry me for 0.99$ and don't tell scared me with your stories.good luck!- ilya79
So this Ilya79 guy actually said that ... I don't think he will do well on ebay with the feedback he will get if he continues in this manner. Obviously he must not know what he is doing on ebay either.

User avatar
Mar 5th, '12, 06:46
Posts: 2794
Joined: Oct 16th, '08, 21:01
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Arlington, VA
Been thanked: 2 times
Contact: Drax

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Drax » Mar 5th, '12, 06:46

Why sell a brick for $0.99 when you can sell it for $55? He has re-listed the brick (though he's done it twice, at two different prices).

UGH. Sorry to hear about the troubles, and thank you for the warning(s)!

User avatar
Mar 5th, '12, 18:27
Posts: 749
Joined: May 2nd, '10, 02:03
Location: Shaker Heights, Ohio USA
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by BioHorn » Mar 5th, '12, 18:27

Drax wrote:Why sell a brick for $0.99 when you can sell it for $55? He has re-listed the brick (though he's done it twice, at two different prices).

UGH. Sorry to hear about the troubles, and thank you for the warning(s)!
He is trying to save on eBay fees by charging the majority in shipping.

http://www.ebay.co.uk:80/itm/ws/eBayISA ... &viewitem=
It also looks like he is simply reselling at a higher price. This seems to be a tea bought from fengyuan-teashop for £15.99.

User avatar
Mar 5th, '12, 18:40
Posts: 749
Joined: May 2nd, '10, 02:03
Location: Shaker Heights, Ohio USA
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by BioHorn » Mar 5th, '12, 18:40

gasninja wrote: pay me goods 49$ be a man and don't cry me for 0.99$ and don't tell scared me with your stories.good luck!- ilya79
Lol. Don't cry for me...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMNmP1o0tzg

User avatar
Mar 19th, '12, 12:54
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Chip » Mar 19th, '12, 12:54

Moderator post. The two posts by a new member have been placed in a non public area of TeaChat for further review since they violated TeaVendor Forum guideline #9.

Chip
Immoderate TeaDrinker who happens to Moderate

User avatar
Jun 7th, '12, 16:36
Posts: 34
Joined: Jul 8th, '09, 00:27
Location: Norrköping, Sweden

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Komsip » Jun 7th, '12, 16:36

My first order of better teas and chinese teaware was from FunAlliance in 2009, had great experience then, there was something which he had mistakenly not removed from his page although he didn't have it in stock anymore and i was given a choice of something else for almost free. And the conversation was friendly and much. And he really seemed interested not just a businessman.
Last summer I tried again, wanting a gaiwan and smaller size yixing pot. This time he didn't answer any of my questions, seemed not to want questions, I did order it anyway but the yixing pot "ear" was broken on arrival. I wrote to him about it but has heard nothing more...

Very strange... total change in personality and service.
I have had personal experience with 2 things that can do that:
Mental illness (specially bipolar or depression)
or drug abuse. Those things are very unfortunate i feel very bad for Kam if he got any of them, as I'm just coming out of a long term opiate addiction. It makes you care and work and be nice but only when you have the drug, when you don't have the drug you can barely be bothered to do your work. This is of course just speculation. But I mean to say I doubt he suddenly decided "i'm going to be a really bad businessman who nobody respects and people shy away from", it has to be some life changes. Divorce can also make you loose interest in everything in life. I'm not accusing him of using drugs or being mentally ill, i have absolutely no way of knowing that, I'm just saying it might be something like that, which is really out of his control, so i don't want him to be judged hard.

User avatar
Jun 7th, '12, 21:00
Posts: 199
Joined: Jul 2nd, '08, 15:44
Location: Brooklyn, NY

PROBLEM VENDORS

by Abracadaver! » Jun 7th, '12, 21:00

RE: Fun Alliance--

I placed an order for a teapot a while back, received notification of shipping within 36 hours then just waited (opted for the slow boat).

After about two weeks, Kam emailed me to inform me that they were just now packing my order and discovered that the teapot I ordered was broken and would I like another? I asked for a refund and received no reply. Multiple emails without response later, I opened a claim with PayPal and got a refund after two weeks or so. The refund was issued by PayPal directly, as Fun Alliance never replied to PayPal's emails either.

I'm not sure what happened. Buyer beware I guess.

BTW, it's been a couple of months with no reply, and my "broken" teapot is still listed as available on their website.

User avatar
Jun 7th, '12, 23:47
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Chip » Jun 7th, '12, 23:47

Although there have been numerous problems with this vendor for some time now ... and it would be wise to steer clear, it is best not to speculate too much on the reasons. There could be many possible reasons.

But yeah, stear clear of this one!!!

User avatar
Jun 8th, '12, 10:05
Posts: 68
Joined: Apr 25th, '09, 01:20
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS 'kokusenya' EBAY

by robbie_olive » Jun 8th, '12, 10:05

I too have had a problem with a vendor on Ebay, and I didn't know whether to run it by you first or just put it out there, as I didn't want to get into trouble. The Ebay seller I refer to goes by the name 'kokusenya', who I think is based in Germany. He usually sells tea ceremony items, such as chawan, mizusashi (cold water containers), chaire (tea caddies), etc...

Anyway, I have purchased twice from him; the first time I bought a mizusashi, which thankfully arrived and was intact, but was poorly packed, and took over 6 weeks to get to Australia, when usually it only takes less than 1 week. Unfortunately, the tomobako that came with the mizusashi had broken, so I had to glue that up. The seller made no attempt to package the item carefully, only a single layer of bubblewrap in a carton box that could barely fit the tomobako!! I wrote an angry letter and gave him negative feedback, but no response.

It gets worse....

The second time I bought from 'kokusenya', I bought a chawan by Living National Treasure Miwa Kyusetsu X (basically, the god of Hagiyaki!) I paid for it, it arrived pretty quickly, but when I opened the package, the chawan was broken!! I was devastated, as you could imagine!!!

Rather than getting depressed about the amount of money I had just spent on it, I decided that it had to be restored. I took it to a Japanese friend of mine, who is an expert restorer, and showed him the damaged goods. He said he could fix it, but it would take about a month. I said that was fine.

A month later, my friend came around to my place and handed me the restored chawan, almost good as new, BUT, he told me that there were a couple of very small pieces that had been missing from the chawan. I said to him that all the pieces that were in the tomobako were the pieces I received in the mail. To which he replied that if that was the case, then the chawan was broken before it left Germany, even though the chawan shown on the website was fully intact!

I also gave 'kokusenya' a second negative feedback, plus a an angry letter, but have heard no response since. I have taken it up with Ebay too, but they're as useless as a toothless tiger!!

Sorry to have ranted, but I had to give you some background briefing as to why I nominate 'kokusenya' from Ebay as a problem vendor. I have definitely learned my lesson NOT to buy from this person ever again.

Cheers!

User avatar
Jun 8th, '12, 10:45
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Chip » Jun 8th, '12, 10:45

I have also had a negative experience with this ebay seller. I am adding them to the "TeaChat Wall of Shame."

Having had time to consider, I also add Yuuki-Cha to this wall of shame. Yuuki-Cha has the ability to get this straightened out by simply contacting me. But since Yuuki-Cha refuses to reply and based on my previous experiences with them, I am going with Chesslover's recommendation to add them to the list.

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 7&start=30

User avatar
Jun 8th, '12, 12:25
Posts: 644
Joined: Jan 9th, '10, 19:38
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by sherubtse » Jun 8th, '12, 12:25

Chip wrote:I have also had a negative experience with this ebay seller. I am adding them to the "TeaChat Wall of Shame."
Is there is a list somewhere on TC listing the vendors who comprise this "Wall of Shame"?

Thanks.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

User avatar
Jun 8th, '12, 13:26
Posts: 20891
Joined: Apr 22nd, '06, 20:52
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Back in the TeaCave atop Mt. Fuji
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: PROBLEM VENDORS

by Chip » Jun 8th, '12, 13:26

sherubtse wrote:
Chip wrote:I have also had a negative experience with this ebay seller. I am adding them to the "TeaChat Wall of Shame."
Is there is a list somewhere on TC listing the vendors who comprise this "Wall of Shame"?

Thanks.

Best wishes,
sherubtse
I had started this list in the original post ... updated today.

This list is amendable!

+ Post Reply