Long wait if you buy direct from China in late December.

KohanMike

KohanMike

Los Angeles, Beverly Grove West
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On Dec. 28th I ordered an Aklot bamboo tenor cutaway uke on eBay from a Chinese dealer. On Jan. 2nd I ordered an Oriental Cherry brand bass uke from a dealer on Alibaba. Both showed the items are in stock. I thought I made the orders in time to have them shipped before the Lunar New Year celebrations, but boy was I wrong. Since Jan. 3, tracking on both shows shipping is being prepared.

Since China celebrates the New Year for weeks with no one working, I don't expect the actual shipping to happen for at least a week, if not longer, and transport time to be from 2 to 3 more weeks, so most likely I'll see the items at the end of February or early March. Have to put them out of my mind until then.

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 6 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 41)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
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Hi Michael,

Yes you're right that it takes a long time especially with people going back home to celebrate the Lunar New Year with family. Also, there's the current nationwide emergency they're facing with the Wuhan coronavirus that has also spread past their country's borders, with flights in/ out of China cancelled indefinitely... so until things settle down, I think you're right that patience is key.

Fingers crossed!
 
Ah, yes, I didn't think of the virus too, don't watch the news anymore, only go by what I hear from people. Maybe I should plan even longer.

I also have a custom mini SG bass guitar coming from South Africa, which started March 14th and was supposed to take 6-8 weeks, he ran into a number of problems, but it finally shipped Jan. 6th and tracking now shows it departed Lubbock, Texas with USPS. Hopefully that will only take a few more days and quell my anticipation all around.
 
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I ordered some stuff from China on eBay last year, and received a tracking number that it was shipped from some shipping company. So the anticipated delivery date got changed several times and I checked out the shipping company. It seems that the Chinese, and possibly sellers from other Asian countries, use these dedicated bulk shipping companies where they cram a lot of stuff into containers, and then it is re-distributed in North America. This is how they are able to offer free or super cheap shipping rates. Anyway after waiting for several months the items never arrived and I requested and received a prompt refund. You definitely need patience and with free/cheap shipping you get what you pay for.
 
I paid $70 shipping for the bass uke, they created a FedEx label on Jan. 2nd and said the bass will be shipped that day, but they never sent the package to FedEx, which tells me it actually wasn't in stock. Now I have to wait until someone comes back to work, who knows when, to get it going. Of course they charged my bank account and by the time I can get in touch with someone in China, I won't be able to dispute the charge.
 
I wonder, don't the platforms you purchase from (Aliexpress, Alibaba, eBay etc) offer consumer protection? If anything you can just call your bank or credit card to cancel? Or refute it accordingly on PayPal?

But yes, China seems to be struggling right now with this viral epidemic which appears to be claiming more lives and spreading further every day. Wishing those and their families affected by the illness the very best.
 
I have never ordered a Uke or Guitar from China, but order from China extensively for my other main hobby, Archery. Much of the equipment is made in China anyway and as someone has already said, why not cut out the middleman. The delivery system is a mystery, but the stuff (so far) has always made it to my home although often after I had forgotten exactly what I had ordered. One last thing, it has just occurred to me that most of the stuff I order is small and can be posted. I have no idea how long something bigger would take.
 
To my surprise the Oriental Cherry bass uke arrived today, but it's not the one I ordered, I specifically asked the sales person if it's fretted, it's not, and will it have the swish style sound hole, it does not. I started a dispute process with PayPal to get my $164 back, luckily that's all it cost.

The Fanner custom bass from South Africa also arrived, neither one on USPS tracking had any up-to-date info. That one came out really nice, but I'll change the strings to La Bella Deep Talkin' flatwound.

As I think about the empty hole in my group of acoustic basses, I'm considering buying a short scale resonator guitar and converting it to a bass like I've done with other guitars. Looks like a little simpler process and could very well be worth spending $361 plus $100 shipping, but again it is coming from China via AliExpress, though upfront it says arrival about March 18. This is a mockup of the finished bass adding tuners and fret marker stickers.

Jonathan 17 resonator.jpg
 
bummer that it didn't have frets. Out of curiosity, why did you order from China instead of Amazon?
 
Harmony Smurf said:
bummer that it didn't have frets. Out of curiosity, why did you order from China instead of Amazon?
Click to expand...

It was $160 total, Amazon it's $250. What I've discovered is it's only made fretless, which isn't disclosed in most listings so I would have had the same problem.
 
I bought it from Alibaba, Guangzhou Huayi Musical Instruments Co., Ltd., they also list themselves as Devisormusic.com. My personal opinion is they don't care one bit what I asked for, they just wanted a sale and told me what I wanted to hear.
 
Jerryc41 said:
I contacted the eBay seller about my Aklot Bamboo, and she said it was probably - somewhere. I could re-order, but I cancelled it.
Click to expand...

My Aklot seller made a mistake with the tracking number for my bamboo uke, it was for a bridge I did receive. When he checked the correct number last night, he said it must have been lost along the way and will send another, which of course will take another month to arrive. Too bad the bamboo uke with cutaway is only available direct from China, none in the US.
 
The global economic fallout may be much more significant than the health implications, we will see in the next weeks/months. So far I have heard that Hyundai has shut down production in all plants because they can't get wire harnesses from China anymore. Cathay Airlines has asked thousands of employees to take unpaid vacation and may collapse. The price of crude oil is in a free fall because demand in China has plummeted. These are just a few of the headlines that I have seen pop up. Not getting cheap ukes may be a small problem compared to what's to come if China won't recover soon.
 
kohanmike said:
To my surprise the Oriental Cherry bass uke arrived today, but it's not the one I ordered, I specifically asked the sales person if it's fretted, it's not, and will it have the swish style sound hole, it does not. I started a dispute process with PayPal to get my $164 back, luckily that's all it cost.

The Fanner custom bass from South Africa also arrived, neither one on USPS tracking had any up-to-date info. That one came out really nice, but I'll change the strings to La Bella Deep Talkin' flatwound.

As I think about the empty hole in my group of acoustic basses, I'm considering buying a short scale resonator guitar and converting it to a bass like I've done with other guitars. Looks like a little simpler process and could very well be worth spending $361 plus $100 shipping, but again it is coming from China via AliExpress, though upfront it says arrival about March 18. This is a mockup of the finished bass adding tuners and fret marker stickers.
Click to expand...

Going through a trial to get a reply about returning the Oriental Cherry, so I'm escalating the PayPal Dispute. Also, I listened to a couple of samples of resonator basses and I don't like the sound. So after a bit more search, I decided to go with an Oscar Schmidt Flame Maple Comfort bass that I've been seeing often on eBay. It's different enough from my other acoustics that it will fit in. I'm going to change the strings to black Road Toad Pahoehoe.

Oscar Schmidt OUB800K-A-U.jpg
 
kohanmike said:
My Aklot seller made a mistake with the tracking number for my bamboo uke, it was for a bridge I did receive. When he checked the correct number last night, he said it must have been lost along the way and will send another, which of course will take another month to arrive. Too bad the bamboo uke with cutaway is only available direct from China, none in the US.
Click to expand...

My seller replied that they're replacing the missing shipment. Probably another month wait.
 
kohanmike said:
My seller replied that they're replacing the missing shipment. Probably another month wait.
Click to expand...

I received an email today from the eBay seller in China of the Aklot bamboo cutaway tenor uke, purestore, they're out of stock and will not have more until March 20, plus weeks of shipping time and offered a refund if I didn't want to wait, I said to refund the $70.07.

I then found one on Amazon sold by AklotM for $99 free shipping by the middle to the end of March, or $25 shipping by Feb. 19. I contacted AklotM, who just replied that Amazon warehouse has them in stock, so I ordered for Feb. 19 delivery. Worth it after all the hassles I've been through. I'm going to add a black fret markers, nut, saddle and strap buttons.

PS - The Oscar Schmidt bass uke is 4 days away out of Kansas.

Aklot bamboo cutaway.jpg
 
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kohanmike said:
I received an email today from the eBay seller in China of the Aklot bamboo cutaway tenor uke, purestore, they're out of stock and will not have more until March 20, plus weeks of shipping time and offered a refund if I didn't want to wait, I said to refund the $70.07.

I then found one on Amazon sold by AklotM for $99 free shipping by the middle to the end of March, or $25 shipping by Feb. 19. I contacted AklotM, who just replied that Amazon warehouse has them in stock, so I ordered for Feb. 19 delivery. Worth it after all the hassles I've been through. I'm going to add a black fret markers, nut, saddle and strap buttons.

PS - The Oscar Schmidt bass uke is 4 days away out of Kansas.

Aklot bamboo cutaway.jpg
Click to expand...

No Aklots with cutouts listed now, but there is free delivery with Prime.

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=aklot+bamboo+uke&ref=nb_sb_noss
 
Bad news, I received an email from Alex at AklotM that he was wrong, he says the bamboo ukes are not in stock but on their way to the Amazon warehouse. He said I can cancel the order and when it's in stock they will give me a 20% discount. My reply was that I have no choice to but to cancel, and in my disappointment said I actually don't believe they're on the way either, that I expect it to be another 2 months before I would ever see one.
 
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