Just thought I'd let people know about what happens if an item you buy from 'Banggood' goes astray. This company is a sort of Chinese Amazon and you can buy cheap stuff from Chine if you are prepared to wait a bit.

I bought a power unit from them on 30th November. and was pleased to find that by 7th of December it had made it from the far east to Liverpool where it was 'Manifested for delivery' There it has remained for the whole of December and on contacting Messrs Banggood was told that nothing can be done until 60 days have elapsed since it was ordered, despite being told that delivery would be 20 days!

It is still 'Manifested for delivery' but nobody seems to know where in Liverpool this is, or the identity of the courier.

Whilst not advising people not to buy from this company, be prepared for the runaround if things go wrong. I will certainly avoid them in future. It's probably better to pay a few pounds more on Amazon if they have the same items.

I agree Ex ,different company but similar problem. Ordered item for Xmas on 31st October ,started panicking towards the end of November only to be told it was held up in customs but was given a refund & told to keep the item if it ever arrived That was nice except when it did arrive it wasnt working. Sods law but at least Im not out of pocket.

I have a few friends that order through Alibaba but I never risk it, if I'm buying from China etc I buy through ebay/paypal.

I've stopped buying anything expensive from abroad, trying to return stuff to the USA has been a nightmare as you should do the correct customs forms to cancel the import duty and VAT that has been paid otherwise you can end up out of pocket.

Import duty and VAT is another problem with goods coming from China or anywhere outside the EU, the customs label is often complete fiction and you can get landed with a much larger bill than you anticipate.

Bought through Aliexpress and Alibaba. No problems really. Couple wrong items but excellent customer service and problems fixed. Keep the wrong items they sent the right ones. No problem with customs at all. There is a wait as it does come from China but the value is unbeatable. I have bought on these sites and resold in my ebay shop and made 300% and more and still keeping the prices low. It is the way forward.