EEVblog #1248 - INSANE A 0.02% Process Meter for $9? WTF

[maginnovision]

2 of my AliExpress meters "shipped" yesterday. Tracking numbers are legitimate.

[Nusa]

Yep,

Now asking for  additional $65.36 to help him cover a loss.

yaseri 2019-09-29 14:44

Dear friends
Then are you willing to help us make up the difference?
Because our system had an error before
The price before the purchase of this product was wrong.
We just recommend you the product at the same price as the one you paid for.
If you want this product
Can you help us make up $65.36?
This is the lowest price we can give you.
The remaining loss is paid by us
Is this okay?
Please open the link below and put in the number 86
And complete the payment
We will arrange the delivery for you right away.
Thank you
https://www.dhgate.com/product/roadlover-additional-postage-for-express/476686118.html

What does 86 mean there? 86$? The asked for 65$ and then told you to input 86$?

They are asking you to buy quantity 86 at $0.76 each, which adds up to $65.36.
I wouldn't do it.

[CheckOne Two]

2 of my AliExpress meters "shipped" yesterday. Tracking numbers are legitimate.

Are you one of the original patreon buyers?

[epigramx]

It appears the video urls redirect for life to the subdomain best.aliexpress.com instead of regular aliexpress.com. This is considered invasive by many.
To prevent that behavior clean all your cookies of the main domain and for the future, block the subdomain.

[BravoV]

Looking at the situation now, especially the sellers are in super excited mood now, imo its pointless to pursue this DMM, just wait till things settled.

[BFX]

This is how those shops looks like 

Usually they don't have any and they run to near by shops and grab some.
It happen to me in Shanghai when I was asking for two UT210E:)
And I was even able to negotiate for a lower price because of two (around 23$ per/one).

[beanflying]

And the counter offer to not being prepared to renegotiate the sale. Time to chat to Dhgate about their 'trusted' seller.

Dear friends
very sorry
We only recommended you to give you the same price as you.
We found that our product price has gone wrong.
And put it off the shelf and reset the price.
I hope you can understand
If you are not willing to pay more prices
We can help you with the refund
Please open the dispute and choose the reason: item now not required
Only for this reason can we help you with a refund
Please understand
Thank you

[maginnovision]

2 of my AliExpress meters "shipped" yesterday. Tracking numbers are legitimate.

Are you one of the original patreon buyers?

They were ordered on the 26th, from My Cozy Life Store and House of Happiness Store. Just now one order from KingPet Market Store is requesting a cancellation.

Dear friend,
Sorry, we just got the information from the warehouse when packing the parcels
there is some quality problems for this batch of this item, can not be shipped out .
We tried our best to correct it , but still can't  fix it totally .
So we suggest to refund to you in case you have to wait too long
How about you cancel the order first?
And you can place the new order later if we figure the problems out.
Once again, we send our sincere apology and hope to hear from you soon.
if you want to cancel the order, could you choose the reason 1 or 2
for example : "buyer does not want to buy"or "other reason" for faster refund
There is not effect on you to choose which reason
Best regards

I replied with a smiley face and let them know I'd probably be able to fix any issues it has and they can go ahead and send it.

[CheckOne Two]

And the counter offer to not being prepared to renegotiate the sale. Time to chat to Dhgate about their 'trusted' seller.

Dear friends
very sorry
We only recommended you to give you the same price as you.
We found that our product price has gone wrong.
And put it off the shelf and reset the price.
I hope you can understand
If you are not willing to pay more prices
We can help you with the refund
Please open the dispute and choose the reason: item now not required
Only for this reason can we help you with a refund
Please understand
Thank you

I got the same and one further message following that saying that if I didn't choose "item now not required" then the refund would not be quick:

"If you choose another reason
We won't refund you soon".

[all_repair]

The online small sellers almost all do not have a physical store.  Most are teens learning English or with some English ability.  They help to list the item, do the description and then do customer service.  They do not have stock also.  And these teens do not have to in, or from, China.
Got a friend's daughter doing that as a sideline while she was doing her A level last two years.   And she paid for some pop up advertisement and was making quite good pocket money.

[amspire]

They were ordered on the 26th, from My Cozy Life Store and House of Happiness Store.

I have a meter ordered from My Cozy Life Store on the 26th, so I have my fingers crossed. They haven't sent it yet.

 The other orders are from the Hey, Living Store and the Manbo Life Store.

[TurboTom]

2 of my AliExpress meters "shipped" yesterday. Tracking numbers are legitimate.

Same with my order from last thursday after I figured out about the offer by myself. Probably placed my order before the "big hype" and went below the radar... I hope all the other orders will also get delivered.

P.S. The shop where I placed my order was "Cozy Life Store" as well.

[CheckOne Two]

The online small sellers almost all do not have a physical store.  Most are teens learning English or with some English ability.  They help to list the item, do the description and then do customer service.  They do not have stock also.  And these teens do not have to in, or from, China.
Got a friend's daughter doing that as a sideline while she was doing her A level last two years.   And she paid for some pop up advertisement and was making quite good pocket money.

Then trying to railroad customers by threatening to withhold money is not how they should be dealing with the situation.

[all_repair]

No movement yet for my 3 pcs from my cozy store placed on 27 1700hr.  If the store came back and asked for help, I would let her (most likely) off.  This is big adnormality created after Dave video came out.  Hit them out of the blue.  Don't think they are trying to make more, but trying not to be penalized.

[beanflying]

And the counter offer to not being prepared to renegotiate the sale. Time to chat to Dhgate about their 'trusted' seller.

Dear friends
very sorry
We only recommended you to give you the same price as you.
We found that our product price has gone wrong.
And put it off the shelf and reset the price.
I hope you can understand
If you are not willing to pay more prices
We can help you with the refund
Please open the dispute and choose the reason: item now not required
Only for this reason can we help you with a refund
Please understand
Thank you

I got the same and one further message following that saying that if I didn't choose "item now not required" then the refund would not be quick:

"If you choose another reason
We won't refund you soon".

The refund option seems quite clear 8-10 days to approve and a few more days for the transfer. so not unreasonable and having the seller involved shouldn't have a bearing on this.

Sent Dhgate a notice with some details asking them to get involved so see what comes back tomorrow.

[maginnovision]

No movement yet for my 3 pcs from my cozy store placed on 27 1700hr.  If the store came back and asked for help, I would let her (most likely) off.  This is big adnormality created after Dave video came out.  Hit them out of the blue.  Don't think they are trying to make more, but trying not to be penalized.

I'd be perfectly fine with it... If they weren't lying to me. This also doesn't seem to be a Dave thing other than he helped drive demand. These people obviously weren't LOSING money or they wouldn't have listed them at these prices. Instead it seems they've decided they can get more money for them.

[member_xyz]

Sent Dhgate a notice with some details asking them to get involved so see what comes back tomorrow.

Have sent message to DHgate customer service.
Stating that seller changed mind after the sale and wants much more money now to ship the product, breach of sales contract.

Not expecting anything more than a refund.

Nothing personal about these sellers, but they need to learn and pay consequences for dishonest behavior.

[all_repair]

No movement yet for my 3 pcs from my cozy store placed on 27 1700hr.  If the store came back and asked for help, I would let her (most likely) off.  This is big adnormality created after Dave video came out.  Hit them out of the blue.  Don't think they are trying to make more, but trying not to be penalized.

I'd be perfectly fine with it... If they weren't lying to me. This also doesn't seem to be a Dave thing other than he helped drive demand. These people obviously weren't LOSING money or they wouldn't have listed them at these prices. Instead it seems they've decided they can get more money for them.

Dhgate is further down the supply chain.  Likely they are resellers of resellers.  My feel is either there is no stock, they can't deliver and have to pay the non-delivery penalty, or their sources have only the more expensive goods to offer.  The rejects have tiers too.  Lowest tiers are only good for part savage.

[Sigurd]

I encourage you to take mercy on your reluctant sellers, they aren't to blame in any of this. I understand your disappointment, I wasn't even nearly quickly enough.

[beanflying]

I encourage you to take mercy on your reluctant sellers, they aren't to blame in any of this. I understand your disappointment, I wasn't even nearly quickly enough.

Err NO.

Simply put if in business you offer to sell product X for Y this is an offer to contract a sale. Given the widespread low pricing and a spread over a range of platforms the seller/s are at fault either in company with the OEM or without them. If it was a typo or a decimal point slip on one site is one thing this is another entirely.

Trying to get more $ post sale is completely out of order and adding the threat of 'slow refund or else' to cancel a sale shows morally dubious character by the seller/s.

[sokoloff]

I encourage you to take mercy on your reluctant sellers, they aren't to blame in any of this. I understand your disappointment, I wasn't even nearly quickly enough.

That mercy takes the form of whatever the platform policy on refunds from a seller unilaterally canceling the sale after they chose the product, chose the price, made the offer, and took the order.

I won’t be canceling the order as “no longer required” or paying more. If they discover that their supply chain isn’t equipped to complete the offer they proposed and I accepted, they can take their lumps from their error.

IMO, they are absolutely responsible for their listings.

Every bit like they’d take their profits when things go to plan. It’s part of being in business. At the very end of the chain are credit card chargebacks as the ultimate backstop, but I suspect it won’t come to that because I’m sure Ali is much harder on sellers who have successful chargebacks than those who simply cancel orders as “choose not to fulfill”.

[amspire]

Dhgate is further down the supply chain.  Likely they are resellers of resellers.  My feel is either there is no stock, they can't deliver and have to pay the non-delivery penalty, or their sources have only the more expensive goods to offer.  The rejects have tiers too.  Lowest tiers are only good for part savage.

The different AliExpress stores seem to have the same items on offer. Of the stores I have tested, if I search for "meters", I get exactly the same result. All the Stores look like they are based on the same design. They all look like the same company.

The DHGate store (Yaseri ) seems to have different items, so it does look like it is different from the AliExpress stores. It is possible Yaseri is completely independent of the AliExpress seller, and could have been screwed by the supplier.

I have now got two of my 26th Sept meters marked as sent (My Cozy Life Store and Hey, Living Store). I order another one on the 27th and one on the 28th and they have not been sent yet, but there is another 8 days of shipping time to go yet.

[FrankBuss]

They have a website but Google hates it it seems  http://www.aimometer.com

and http://www.aimometer.cn/

Clicking on the link for the meter, which they advertise in the image slideshow on their main page, leads to a 404 webpage. And looks like in "products" it is not listed.

Yep that's what I found too. Seems they have some sort of MASTEK relationship there is some AIMO branded Mastek products out in the wild in particular the anemometer, the Mastek process calibrator is available by the links. Maybe they have considered them slow sellers from a 2015 release or build and have dropped them?

So looks like they are discontinued. This might be the reason why they are sold so cheap. It was probably remainder of stock, unsupported by the manufacturer, and with some flaws, so they got it cheap. This could explain as well why the label was scraped off, because the original company didn't want to get a bad reputation for something that doesn't work perfectly. The expensive eBay shops probably bought it when it was still in production and more expensive.

[Psi]

They were ordered on the 26th, from My Cozy Life Store and House of Happiness Store.

I have a meter ordered from My Cozy Life Store on the 26th, so I have my fingers crossed. They haven't sent it yet.

Same, my 2 were from My Cozy Life Store and on 26th around 11pm.
Not shipped yet either.

[wilfred]

I encourage you to take mercy on your reluctant sellers, they aren't to blame in any of this. I understand your disappointment, I wasn't even nearly quickly enough.

I didn't apply pressure to them to make the sale listing. They did completely of their own free will.