Banking costs when ordering small items from China

[john banks]

After a post on here where a new Shenhui machine was being supplied with a longer cone, I asked them if they could do the same for us.

They could, quote was very good, although the shipping was about the same price as the item. However, they tell me they get charged $38 for every bank transfer or Paypal, even if small, and to do international transfer our bank charge effectively about $32.

So my wife went to the bank but misunderstood and had them take our charges off the amount, to fix it would end up with a further $70 charges on top of the $30 difference, so the end result would be $200 for a $40 part, with $120 of banking fees.

I've suggested that Shenhui sort out their banking and have an online shop with parts, specs, prices (because there are all sorts of things I might buy but don't know about and rely on lots of emails to discuss what I want) but it seems they are tied into a horrible banking situation that effectively stops them from selling low value parts.

OTOH, on Ebay as I pointed out on another thread I can buy less than $5 items (including delivery) from Hong Kong that arrive in a few days.

Does anyone understand what is going on?

[Dan Hintz]

Places like that are not set up to accept credit cards, only bank transfers, as they typically deal in large dollar amounts. Because of that, they use their banks to handle the transactions, and therefore also have to deal with the associated bank fees.

It is what it is...

[Michael Hunter]

I have seen a similar thing when dealing with a South Korean firm. The firm was selected by their government as a "flier" and was then entitled to get very cheap loans from their bank. The bank then clawed back some of the lost interest by making very high transaction charges. To add to this, their bank demanded payments be made by wire transfer for which the British bank added an extortionate charge.

The upside was that the paperwork was so complicated at the Korean end that if we needed spare parts we got them free with our next order.

[Tom Schulze]

I wonder it we can talk one of the Sales reps into opening a paypal account and have them acquire the parts for us for a bit of a mark up to make it worth their while yet give us cheaper access to parts?

[john banks]

That would be great, or some kind of system where they collect money up before withdrawing it in one go to their bank. Would make it easier to get replacement parts and feel like your machine had somone that could supply bits and pieces in future. Sometimes a good and simple idea doesn't get through the motions in China though, and there are probably barriers we haven't considered.

[Marc Pod]

I'm using paypal for all deals with Shenhui and nobody ever mentioned anything about additonal fees.