delta76 an additional perspective.
I’ve bought seven grinders from df64coffee and had nothing but superb after sales support. They’ve responded clearly to my technical questions as well as requests for advice on non-DF accessories and they have3 sent spare parts as requested and under warranty and without further shipping costs. The response time is transparently slow in that you’ll receive an email automatically in response to an inquiry which tells you that their standard response time is 3 days, but that includes weekends.
I’ve also imported over 70 items directly from China over the last 12 months and also had top notch customer support and after sales service including on item costing $150 that was replaced entirely without cost with no need to return the original product or pay for shipping.
On another occaision and in response to a request for clarity around their “non-instruction” manual invlolving a packing machine purhased direct from the Chinese manufacturer, one of the office staff went down to the factory, used her phone to video an engineer demonstrating how to adjust the settings, had it transcribed and translated from Mandarin into English and sent it to me. Not too shabby at all. (But granted, more clarity in the manual would have circumvented the need for my support ticket.)
The first big order I placed in China way back in 2005 was for custom job costing $20,000+ I paid a 50% deposit with great trependation. But they delivered before time and to specification.
A lot has changed since online stores began to feature customer reviews.
I offer this to provide an up to date experience of dealing with multiple Chinese suppliers.
Someone on this forum posted “yes, but if you buy direct online from China, they want you to send it back if there is an issue”. Sometimes thats true. But its the same if you buy direct online from Germany or Italy or the USA. The globally standard support response for remote support is:
- ask you questions about the issue
- ask you for a video if that is required
- send instructions and if necessary parts to recify the fault
- as a last resort, require that the product be returned to base.
And because I don’t live in a city, I get the same level of support from an Australian reseller of coffee kit as I do from China. No difference.
If a return to base is required, then I believe the seller should cover the cost of shipping but many don’t regardless of the country of origin. That said, those “many” are not identified by geographical location but rather by brand e.g. Decent will pay for shipping on a warranty, return to base issue.