Help me understand this sales strategy

[Saayuq]

Twice now I have ordered Purple Bud cakes from KungFu teas on eBay. Both times now I received e-mail correspondence from the company in the following order:
1) notification that the item has shipped
2) item has shipped 12 days ago, please provide us 100% positive feedback (which I didn't since I didn't have the tea yet)
3) request to cancel the purchase, item defective (not sure how they were able to retrieve the tea back from the postal system but it never arrived)

The first time I agreed to cancel the transaction, but I reordered right away because I wanted the tea. Can anybody enlighten me on what is happening here?

[tst]

No idea, but the easiest decision would be to shop for a new vendor.

Plenty of good ones with great customer service who would love your business and won't pull that monkey-business **** on you.

[Drax]

I think the strategy is "screw you out of your purchase?"

If you left positive feedback, as they requested, would you have any leg to stand on if you tried to go to eBay and say you didn't get the tea? I actually don't know.

But it's very odd, because even if that was their tactic, it would eventually elicit enough complaints from buyers that eBay would like notice and take action (I would hope, at least).

There is always a slight chance that they're just idiots and some automated software they're using is triggering steps of the transaction when it shouldn't.

Either way, I'd do as tst suggests and find another vendor!

[mr mopu]

Simple answer, find another seller. There are some good ones on Ebay and bad ones also. If you have a specific item I know some good sellers with proven track records there. Message me if you think there is something I may know of.

[Puerlife]

I've just ordered two bings from Kungfu Tea at the U.S. amazon.com because I have lots of credit built up from gift certificates and it's extremely difficult to find a seller on that site that ships to Thailand. Not even the Yunnan Sourcing and Dragon Tea House storefronts there ship to Thailand. I'll report back if/when I receive my package.

[Tead Off]

I've just ordered two bings from Kungfu Tea at the U.S. amazon.com because I have lots of credit built up from gift certificates and it's extremely difficult to find a seller on that site that ships to Thailand. Not even the Yunnan Sourcing and Dragon Tea House storefronts there ship to Thailand. I'll report back if/when I receive my package.

You might want to drop a note to the seller and plead your case.

I wonder what they are thinking when they say will not ship to Thailand. Personally, I've never had any problem shipping or receiving from here.

[Puerlife]

I think I will try that with one of YS and DTH. It's been a weird experience looking through obscure Amazon storefronts. One is asking hundreds of dollars for a new 7572 lol.

[mr mopu]

I've just ordered two bings from Kungfu Tea at the U.S. amazon.com because I have lots of credit built up from gift certificates and it's extremely difficult to find a seller on that site that ships to Thailand. Not even the Yunnan Sourcing and Dragon Tea House storefronts there ship to Thailand. I'll report back if/when I receive my package.

I think Berylleb King Tea on Ebay ships to Thailand if I read their listing correctly.

[AllanK]

Twice now I have ordered Purple Bud cakes from KungFu teas on eBay. Both times now I received e-mail correspondence from the company in the following order:
1) notification that the item has shipped
2) item has shipped 12 days ago, please provide us 100% positive feedback (which I didn't since I didn't have the tea yet)
3) request to cancel the purchase, item defective (not sure how they were able to retrieve the tea back from the postal system but it never arrived)

The first time I agreed to cancel the transaction, but I reordered right away because I wanted the tea. Can anybody enlighten me on what is happening here?

Did you ever have active tracking on the tea? If not it may never have been shipped. Normally, EMS packages track after 2-5 days. If you did have tracking, it may have been returned to them. They may not have wanted to have the item arrive very late and get negative feedback.

I put in an order with KungFu teas a few months ago and had no problems.

[ClarG]

Contact the seller. Leave them neutral or negative feedback if they don't refund you and you have to file a claim on ebay. I looked up the company and they ship from Hong Kong so given that you are in AK it may take awhile from something from HK to arrive to you?

[MarshalN]

China Post does funny things that nobody understands. I have a friend who tried to ship me tea in Hong Kong from Beijing and was rejected by the post office and sent back to him three weeks later. They said he can't export tea, which is of course a load of crap.

I don't know what your case is, but if this is something the seller does routinely he would've been shut down by now.

[Tead Off]

+1. By far, the most unreliable and unpredictable Postal Service I've ever come across.

[wert]

China Post does funny things that nobody understands. I have a friend who tried to ship me tea in Hong Kong from Beijing and was rejected by the post office and sent back to him three weeks later. They said he can't export tea, which is of course a load of crap.

I don't know what your case is, but if this is something the seller does routinely he would've been shut down by now.

That part is true, tea is defined as a "restricted" item. The freight companies are not supposed to take them either, but if your quantity isn't high (1-2kg), some might help you pass the customs.

Best not declared the package as tea. The surest way to ship it out is EMS.

[kyarazen]

recently one of my purchases from taiwan was rejected by the taiwan postal office but i told the vendor to re-declare it as something else like tea brick for display, tea accessories and misc, etc and it went through

[Puerlife]

This is a followup to my Feb 13th post. Yesterday the package still hadn't arrived so I emailed Kungfu through Amazon.com, asking them what they intended to do. I got this back just a couple of hours later: "sorry . it's loss .let me send again ok ?"
Fine, so I replied "OK, thanks" but this morning this email from Amazon was waiting for me:
Unreceived message
Unreceived message: "Recipient's email address is invalid: Due to a problem with the recipient's email system, we were not able to send this message to them."
That's all I know. Will follow up when I know more.