Polida - Buyer Beware

[GermanCdn]

So, first off, up until this point I've had pretty good success with POLIDA, as I've mentioned in a number of other posts, so this one came as a little bit of a surprise.

About three months ago, I ordered ( on three separate orders on three separate, non consecutive days) some LM13600, LM308s, and some TL062s.  Not huge orders by any means, I ordered a couple of hundred bucks worth of ICs a few months back, but nonetheless orders.

So a month went by, and nothing comes.  Everything else I ordered from China arrived, except the stuff from them.  Send them a nice email saying hadn't received my stuff, got the standard "sometime it takes longer" email, yaddayadda, blah blah.

Another two weeks go by (we're now rapidly approaching the Evilbay 45 day limit), and still nothing.  Another nice email sent, another standard reply, along with "If you don't receive it soon, we'll refund you the money or ship you new."

Another three weeks pass, still nothing.  Now, if they'd all been ordered on the same day or on consecutive days, I'd say maybe they got lost, but given that the orders went over an 8 day period with shipping notices prior to the next order being placed, I'd have to say the odds of three separate orders getting lost is pretty low, and much more likely that they were never shipped.  So I send another email, asking for a refund as promised, as I had gone and ordered the parts from other places as available in order to complete some builds.  Nope, they won't refund now, only replace.  Demanded a refund as previously promised, and no further communication from them since, no product, and no refund.

Clearly something in their customer service department has changed, as I've had a couple of other shipments from them that never made it that they were happy to refund on (and I don't make false claims against sellers, not my style).   Needless to say, I've moved my non Tayda IC orders to companies other than Polida.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Dont be afraid to contact eBAy and/or Paypal CS (even if you are outside the 45 day window)

Tell them you have the messages promising a refund. They might stick up for you  

[pickdropper]

I've always found their customer service lacking, even though most of the purchases I had with them went fine.

One one occasion, I got a bad MN3005, so I shipped it back to China.  They wouldn't refund my money until I gave them a positive review, despite the fact that they had my money and the returned product.  I told the I absolutely would NOT give them a positive review beforehand but that I would give them a positive review if they processed my refund.

In hindsight, I should've just told them to shove off and given them a negative review.  If they had just processed the refund like a normal customer service person would have then I would have given them a positive review based on the fact that some of the chips were good and it is understandable that there may be an odd defect here or there.

[PimpMyTone]

Good luck ! I think they dont ship to Canada now . In fact I cant even see  their store if Im logged with my canadian account .

[stevie1556]

Go through paypal as they will always finding the buyers favour in a dispute and you will get your refund.

Sent from my thumbs using Tapatalk!

[BillyBoy]

Old thread, but a newer data point...

I had several successful deals with polida/polida2008.  Then they shipped me some dead BBDs.  Before I ordered the BBDs, I contacted them and asked about their supply and testing, noting that even good sellers like them could get fake/dead BBDs from their suppliers.  They told me they were on top of all that and that I had no worries.  Since my previous 10-15 orders with them had been OK, I ordered a small quantity. 

When I received the dead BBDs, I followed ebay rules to open a request for refund or replacement.  polida immediately blocked me as a buyer and ranted at me for asking for refund or exchange and damaging their reputation and ebay standing.  I hadn't even left feedback, just opened a request for replacement.  I had spent $100's with them prior to that order.  That order was for nearly $400.  The dead chips were about $20 of that $400.  They were only interested in not getting a negative review on ebay.  I wasn't going to give them one – several good deals, and one small problem on a large order.  I just wanted the bad chips replaced or refunded, not a big deal. 

They strung me along with questions and demands for photos and all sorts of nonsense.  I immediately realized this wasn't going to work out, but I played along, being extremely polite and extremely cooperative just to see what would happen.  We exchanged somewhere around 50 messages over the course of about 4 months.  Yup, all that for $20 worth of dead chips.  They asked for more money several times to "offset their losses" on the deal.  Obviously it was my fault that they shipped dead chips and they shouldn't be expected to lose money on them.  I explained my repeat business and size of order, etc.  They said they couldn't allow a loss on any item on any order.  At one point, I agreed to pay postage for them to send replacements.  So they tripled their normal postage cost, stating that they had to do that to offset those losses.  The replacements were also dead.  So they offered to send more replacements for more postage.  Basically I could buy as many dead chips as I wanted :^)  I declined to pay any additional amounts at that point, of course. 

The listing said the chips were "new and tested".  They were not new and they were clearly not tested.  Other chips I got from them that worked were also used, although listed as new.  The seller had no idea how to test them or what they did.  Their emails were very defensive and hostile – absolutely no concept of customer support at all.  So for $20 on nearly $1000 of my business, they stomped on me.  They broke all sorts of ebay rules in the process.  They even went back to other previous transactions that had gone fine, and cancelled them to get ebay fees back to "offset their losses" on the bad BBDs.  And I hadn't even left negative feedback!  To this day, I've not received any refund, I've not received any working replacements, and I've been blocked from buying from them.  Of course, they refused to offer replacement or refund if they thought I would leave negative feedback.  They strung this all along until the feedback date had expired, along with all other ebay resolution processes.  I'm both a buyer and seller on ebay, so I know how all this works.  I knew I was screwed as soon as I contacted them the first time.  It was just curiosity that kept me going to see what they would do for a highly cooperative, extremely polite and patient, repeat customer.  Now I know - and so do you!

[cooder]

Well that's a bit of a wake up story...

[rullywowr]

That sounds like a bunch of cock.  Sorry you had to endure this major shit.  I appreciate you sharing your experiences for the sake of other potential buyers.  Thanks! 

[alanp]

For the amount of shit they spread over you, I'd repost this account over every DIY pedal forum you're on. Bloody owner-operators.

[pickdropper]

For the amount of shit they spread over you, I'd repost this account over every DIY pedal forum you're on. Bloody owner-operators.

First thing I'd do is report it to eBay, if you haven't already.

[BillyBoy]

Reporting it to ebay - that's the weirdest part of this whole thing.  That's what I fully intended to do.  I figured I could at least get them suspended for a while.  Every communication they made with me was done in eBay messages (not email, like I sloppily said).  I have all their comments about canceling transactions to avoid fees, threats about leaving feedback, and all their other violations clearly documented right inside ebay.  In fact, I was counting on being able to use all that to get this resolved.  Once I finally decided enough was enough, I spent over an hour trying to figure out how to report it and couldn't find a way.  I cannot open cases or anything like that.  I thought there used to be a way to flag a message and report it, but I can't.  I can't even find a general Customer Support contact, other than to maybe call them.  After an hour of searching, I didn't feel like another hour waiting on the phone for someone that wasn't going to be interested in going through all that.  Maybe I'll still try that.  I think eBay lost about as much in fees (through cancellation of valid transactions) as I did on merchandise.  Anyway, eBay has a lot of problems, so I don't feel too sorry for them.  It would be nice to do something about this seller.  But I think posting in places like this is more helpful than eBay actions.  Sellers just shutdown and popup with a new name if eBay does anything.  As long as they keep the same name, you know who to avoid :^)

[chromesphere]

Old thread, but a newer data point...

I had several successful deals with polida/polida2008.  Then they shipped me some dead BBDs.  Before I ordered the BBDs, I contacted them and asked about their supply and testing, noting that even good sellers like them could get fake/dead BBDs from their suppliers.  They told me they were on top of all that and that I had no worries.  Since my previous 10-15 orders with them had been OK, I ordered a small quantity. 

When I received the dead BBDs, I followed ebay rules to open a request for refund or replacement.  polida immediately blocked me as a buyer and ranted at me for asking for refund or exchange and damaging their reputation and ebay standing.  I hadn't even left feedback, just opened a request for replacement.  I had spent $100's with them prior to that order.  That order was for nearly $400.  The dead chips were about $20 of that $400.  They were only interested in not getting a negative review on ebay.  I wasn't going to give them one – several good deals, and one small problem on a large order.  I just wanted the bad chips replaced or refunded, not a big deal. 

They strung me along with questions and demands for photos and all sorts of nonsense.  I immediately realized this wasn't going to work out, but I played along, being extremely polite and extremely cooperative just to see what would happen.  We exchanged somewhere around 50 messages over the course of about 4 months.  Yup, all that for $20 worth of dead chips.  They asked for more money several times to "offset their losses" on the deal.  Obviously it was my fault that they shipped dead chips and they shouldn't be expected to lose money on them.  I explained my repeat business and size of order, etc.  They said they couldn't allow a loss on any item on any order.  At one point, I agreed to pay postage for them to send replacements.  So they tripled their normal postage cost, stating that they had to do that to offset those losses.  The replacements were also dead.  So they offered to send more replacements for more postage.  Basically I could buy as many dead chips as I wanted :^)  I declined to pay any additional amounts at that point, of course. 

The listing said the chips were "new and tested".  They were not new and they were clearly not tested.  Other chips I got from them that worked were also used, although listed as new.  The seller had no idea how to test them or what they did.  Their emails were very defensive and hostile – absolutely no concept of customer support at all.  So for $20 on nearly $1000 of my business, they stomped on me.  They broke all sorts of ebay rules in the process.  They even went back to other previous transactions that had gone fine, and cancelled them to get ebay fees back to "offset their losses" on the bad BBDs.  And I hadn't even left negative feedback!  To this day, I've not received any refund, I've not received any working replacements, and I've been blocked from buying from them.  Of course, they refused to offer replacement or refund if they thought I would leave negative feedback.  They strung this all along until the feedback date had expired, along with all other ebay resolution processes.  I'm both a buyer and seller on ebay, so I know how all this works.  I knew I was screwed as soon as I contacted them the first time.  It was just curiosity that kept me going to see what they would do for a highly cooperative, extremely polite and patient, repeat customer.  Now I know - and so do you!

Pretty well exact thing happened to me once.

A piece of advice guys, don't communicate with polida or any of these chinese sellers through ebay directly, they are sharks.  Go immediately to paypal and open a case against them.  Write an honest note why you are asking for a refund and let paypal sort out the dispute.  They WILL screw you over if you try to negotiate with them directly.  Avoid it at all costs.

[juansolo]

Stopped using Polida a couple of years ago. They've always been like this. Your first couple of orders will be solid, then you'll get some dead ICs and have to deal with their customer service, which is always like the above.

Also they ramp up the shipping fees outside ebay on EVERY order. They're shisters with a few good ICs.

Personally I welcome when some analogue delays are built that don't require MN3005s to sound good (A 4x BL3208 Aquaboy might even get me building one). Until then, I'll stick with PT2399s. I'm done with BBDs because of the bullshit hoops you have to jump through with arseholes like Polida to get them.

[BillyBoy]

Yes, definitely not people I want to deal with.  Even after all this, and blocking me from dealing with them on eBay, they were trying to encourage me to do more business with them outside of eBay.  Like that's ever gonna happen.

There are lots of ways to approach doing business with people I suspect may be scumbags.  That's a whole discussion in itself, but sometimes cost and availability start you down that path.  It's best to just avoid it.  Life is too short to waste time and happiness on that sort of stuff, not to mention funding them.  If you stick to the known good vendors, you'll pay a bit more for some stuff, but they won't let you down when honest problems happen, and you know you're getting quality gear.  SmallBear, BYOC, GGG, Mouser, and MadBean (of course!) are good people I know I can trust and enjoy working with.  I'm sure there are others, too.  Related, although not really parts dealers, Keeley, EuroTubes, Kinman, and Sweetwater have all been very good for me.  Tayda has also been solid in my numerous dealings with them, but you have to know what you're getting because quality is a bit uneven on some items.  I also have quantity mistakes with them more often than any other dealer, but the stuff is so cheap and goes in my favor as often as it goes against me, so I just let that slide.

I've done business with dozens of sellers (ebay or websites) in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ceylon, Malaysia, India, UK, Ireland, Canada, Germany, Spain, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, US, and others.  I have problems in only about 1-2% of the transactions I do, but I'm very careful and have also been pretty lucky.  Some of those sellers I've done business with multiple times and never had any problems.  I feel comfortable enough to do repeat business with them, but I probably wouldn't recommend them until I have a problem and learn how they handle it or I develop more history with them.  That's when you find out the real deal.  I'm pretty sure some of them are solid, though. 

Some other sellers besides polida that didn't work out for me:

                Mammoth Electronics (website)
one of the worst customer support experiences I've had.  After a couple of OK orders, I received unacceptably awful quality on painted/drilled enclosures and wrong parts.  After weeks/months got problem kinda resolved when I found contact info for the owner/manager so I could get past the completely dysfunctional customer support.  Seemed more like a customer service competence issue than intentional badness, but difficult to tell because the "support" was extremely bad 

                utsource (ebay) – They list items they don't have in stock, take your money, and then go shopping to see if they can find some.  Not every time, but often enough to be a problem.  They don't take those non-stocked listings down, so it is intentional.

                futurelec (website) – take your money for items not stocked, shop around, try to string you along for a billing cycle or two on your credit card.  Charge hits card when you place order and before they go shopping (if they ever do).  big pain to get refund, took a long time.  Had to get credit card company involved.  Seemed like calculated bad behavior, not just incompetence

               "good-buy", "parts-pipe", and "cole-0520" (ebay) – there are some other seller names in this category.  I can't tell if they are different sellers or the same.  Probably multiple sellers using multiple IDs.  Often use the same pictures, descriptions, listing details, etc.  Sell such obviously fake parts that there is no other possible excuse other than a blatant attempt to rip you off.  Did get money back, though.  Even though I've already written a novel here, I'll share some detail about this so you know the kind of people that sit on the other side of those ebay seller IDs (mostly in China).  I was buying Ge diodes – nothing exotic  34As and 270s.  Those are still pretty easy to find in quantity at low prices, so it didn't seem especially risky to me.  Should have thought about it some more, but I made a few purchases from different sellers because I was hoping to get some different values of forward voltage (and of course few sellers have any knowledge of that).  Anyway, I received fake Ge diodes from these dealers.  I forget the actual per diode cost, but it was somewhere around 25 cents or something.  I was buying in lots of 100.  The fakes were pathetic.  Someone had melted little pieces of glass and very crudely shaped them like a Ge diode.  They were all different shapes, but sort of diode-shaped.  They had also attached two wires to each one, on roughly opposite sides of each piece of glass.  And a black ring had been hand-painted round the glass.  So someone gathered together glass, wire, and paint, spent a little effort melting the glass and trying to shape it, sticking wires in it/to it, and hand-painting stripes on them, counting them, bagging them up, packing and shipping them.  No effort whatsoever to make them have any sort of electrical function.  Hundreds of them for a few cents each.  AND THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD MAKE MONEY DOING THAT!!!  That's the kind of thing that is hard to anticipate. 

[cooder]

The fakes were pathetic.  Someone had melted little pieces of glass and very crudely shaped them like a Ge diode.  They were all different shapes, but sort of diode-shaped.  They had also attached two wires to each one, on roughly opposite sides of each piece of glass.  And a black ring had been hand-painted round the glass.  So someone gathered together glass, wire, and paint, spent a little effort melting the glass and trying to shape it, sticking wires in it/to it, and hand-painting stripes on them, counting them, bagging them up, packing and shipping them.  No effort whatsoever to make them have any sort of electrical function.  Hundreds of them for a few cents each.  AND THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD MAKE MONEY DOING THAT!!!  That's the kind of thing that is hard to anticipate. 

Feckin' unreal...
Thanks for sharing your experience!

I bought high power MOSFETs for VVR tube amp circuits from Utsource on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/380549593771?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
and they turned out to be re-labelled. They worked briefly and then went up in smoke, so obviously much lower speced ones for lower voltages, sold for better money as high spec ones.
PITA.