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

[Brumby]

Insisting to get the order is a very unfair thing to do to the shop owners.

Sorry.  I simply cannot agree with that.

 1. The argument of a pricing error just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.  Too many sellers were offering this thing in a similar price range.
 2. Any seller that presents a certain quantity as being available should be prepared to honour that.  If the cost go down, have no doubt that they would keep the extra.  Likewise, if the cost goes up, they should wear it.

Purchasing your stock is THE most important part of running a business - and if I have gone to the effort of finding a product, choosing a seller, placing an order and paying it in full, then I am expecting the product offered to be delivered.  If not, then WHAT is the point of even trying?

Most of those who ordered placed their order not because they were actively looking for a calibrator, but because knowing/hoping they'll get some undeserved advantage.

What undeserved advantage?

It would seem there are likely going to be some issues.  Dave's experience indicates that.  As such, a product with such flakiness would not have been able to command full retail - and the batch was probably relegated to a couple of pallets in the back of the warehouse for a few years until someone said "get rid of them".  Flogged off in Shenzhen for a fistful of dollars, subsequent sellers will try and get whatever they can for them.

Those wanting to renegotiate the price are the greedy ones who now find there is a demand and are trying to squeeze more out of the customer.  Either that or they're trying to scare the customer into backing out.

I have no problems calling such people out.

Legal?  Yes.

Obviously.

Ethical?  No.

What?  Our insistence on them delivering what was offered?

Sorry.

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.

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

Completely agree with both of these comments.

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.

My theory as well.

[TurboTom]

BTW, the CS7721CN main multimeter chip used in this instrument appears to be identical with the Fortune Semiconductor FS9721LP3 for which a datasheet is available. In case anybody wants to know... 

[Bud]

You guys never learn, do you. There was a whole Cole Palmer fiasco and before, did not seem to stop you.

[Mr_Auto]

Just want to point that it's probably one guy, or group of people running multiple stores, they not make much of profit on the items but when they get high reputation on aliexpress they can sell the store itself

[beanflying]

You guys never learn, do you. There was a whole Cole Palmer fiasco and before, did not seem to stop you.

That was a very different case, single supplier and an obvious mis price. Take your attempts at morals and put them and you in a cold shower before it starts!

[Bud]

It falls in the same category of free cheese. I am just saying my observation, not teaching morals.

[sokoloff]

I'm not going to jump off a bridge if I just get the order(s) refunded, but I do think that it's much murkier for a customer to determine what the "proper" price is for a below-B-stock partially faulty product on Chinese third-party selling platforms than A-stock from a UK distributor.

[finos]

hello from Greece all gone , as i see

[Ismsanmar]

Just want to point that it's probably one guy, or group of people running multiple stores, they not make much of profit on the items but when they get high reputation on aliexpress they can sell the store itself

More reasons to vote negative to the seller if they don't send the meter tomorrow.

[edy]

Thank you Dave for sharing this awesome find!  Nice video!

While I did not take advantage of this opportunity, please keep sharing such discoveries! I don’t know if maybe there can be a thread started or even a place where we can share good bargains like this as people find them.

I sometimes find some good deals at local electronics and surplus places but seeing a product that many of us can buy globally is always nice.

[Brumby]

It falls in the same category of free cheese. I am just saying my observation, not teaching morals.

Pay closer attention, then.  These units have been shown by Dave to have issues.

Your so-called "free cheese" comment only has any substance if these were first quality items.  Since they do not appear to be first quality - and their de-badging massively reinforces this expectation - then the "free" tag does not represent anything.  They are "cheap cheese" with a price to match.

It's only the reaction to the massive interest (driven by the EEVblog effect) which has woken up the greedy.  They will be in for a massive headache if they ask premium prices for flawed merchandise ... the returns and dissatisfied customers will present a huge impact on their business.

[alex-sh]

The cheapest available right now is £185 %)
Not a chance I would pay this money for a cheesy calibrator.

[ebclr]

They shipped to dave Why they will not ship to us. ?

I'm expecting my shipment to be honored, and case not, A negative for sure, and everybody must do the same.

The unique reason they will not ship is greed, due to some latter johnny paying 60 USD instead of 9, I think 3 times to pay 9, I will never pay 60

It's quite obvious that all this crowd are on emotional buy status, due to the influence of Davie, 80 % of us buyers does not need that and will not pay a higher price, sooner or later they will come back until the miracle stock was gone, for sure somebody is already burned on this thing, And the actual group of sellers for sure have a profit even on the 9 USD range, otherwise they will not advertise.

Don't forget that Chinese hollydays can extend the expectations a little

[nctnico]

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

Yes exact same message going to everybody it seems ..... as I detailed in my last post  I just replied saying with the high chance of faults I wasn't willing to pay more than the original price and didn't think the majority of others would either ...... so he was probably looking at a very high % of returns by trying to raise the price ......

So the whole thing is just a mistake in pricing  You can't blame the seller for not sending the item. In the EU a seller isn't obliged to deliver an item if the price is obviously wrong. There have been several court cases where the buyers lost.

[madires]

I think it's a case of overbooking. Some reseller has maybe 100 units of the unbranded meter and all the tiny side business shops list the same amount to be in stock, or even more to pretend to be a larger shop. For example, if you have 10 tiny shops they list 10 * 100 = 1000 units in total. After Dave's video a lot of viewers started ordering the meter and the 100 units in stock at the reseller were sold out very quickly. But since each tiny shop lists 100 units they sold more units than available. Not to lose face the tiny shops come up with the "quality issue" or whatever story as excuse. The new price of around US$ 100 is possibly the price of the branded version of the meter for resellers.

[madires]

So the whole thing is just a mistake in pricing  You can't blame the seller for not sending the item. In the EU a seller isn't obliged to deliver an item if the price is obviously wrong. There have been several court cases where the buyers lost.

There are two models of the meter, the expensive branded one and a cheap unbranded version (branding removed, possibly units which failed QA checks). Have you noticed the cheap meter's quirks in Dave's video?

[LaserEng]

Congrats to anyone who bought this hunk of junk, calibrator  Was working in process control calibration back in the 90's with higher specc'd gear than this, it's nothing more than a toy, a cheap toy at that 

[The Doktor]

In case anyone is interested, this is the lowest I was able to find earlier:
https://www.wish.com/product/5d82eea61ac87a107be9016f
Use the promo code XMRDZNK.

How much discount with that code?

[ataradov]

How much discount with that code?

100%. Wish is basically guaranteed scam. Seriously, don't give them any money, you won't see it back.

[The Doktor]

How much discount with that code?

100%. Wish is basically guaranteed scam. Seriously, don't give them any money, you won't see it back.

Advice taken. Thank you!

[MT]

So the whole thing is just a mistake in pricing  You can't blame the seller for not sending the item. In the EU a seller isn't obliged to deliver an item if the price is obviously wrong. There have been several court cases where the buyers lost.

There are also laws in Europe against "happy pricing practicing" (a tool to lure prospected buyers into place bides then seller trims up pricing process in current bid process and or over time in multiple process). And there are laws against the opposite practice called "usury". Then you have the 14 day regret of purchase EU law (distant purchasing) that Batronix and others use in which purchaser have no idea if the device you bought is new from the factory or a circulated B-stock. I have had correspondence with EU law people who deals with this law and it is confirmed by them to be a gray zone law.
A deal is a deal when both seller and buyer are in agreement.

[ciccio]

About www.dhgate.com :
Never heard of them, so I was trying to access the site, just for curiosity.
 I had access problems, (the page did not open) then this new homepage appeared (see attached image) :
Translation : Access to this site from Italy has been locked by Guardia di Finanza (Italy's Financial Police) - Special Unit for Technological Fraud

I hope Dave will appreciate the knife in Police's logo.
Best regards

[John Forsters Son]

multifuction process calibrator Dave. I bout a new  Hantek Dso5102p  on Ebay For $20.00 on Jun 8th. Frome someone in Hong Kong. Did you buy this clibraitor at about that time or just after? If so I think I know the story!

[John Forsters Son]

Dave. I bout a new  Hantek Dso5102p  on Ebay For $20.00 on Jun 8th. Frome someone in Hong Kong. Did you buy this clibraitor at about that time or just after? If so I think I know the story!

[jancumps]

AliExpress and other small online shops does not have stock.

- The end customer place an online order to a small shop.
- After the payment was approved, the small shop place a centralized order to the warehouse.

At this point it is very clear that the warehouse changed the price, so the price jumped about 5-10 times over night.  A small shop will not have money to take the hit, so they will try to mitigate the loss.  No matter what, the shop will take some damage, either in money or in reputation.

Insisting to get the order is a very unfair thing to do to the shop owners.  Most of those who ordered placed their order not because they were actively looking for a calibrator, but because knowing/hoping they'll get some undeserved advantage.

Legal?  Yes.
Ethical?  No.

I think it’s ethical as a customer to buy online from small shops and keep them accountable for the price + shipment costs they published online.