Can anyone read Chinese?

fadingathedges

So I bought these memory sticks from someone in china through a risky site and got burnt with fraudulent knockoff goods. Surprise! I'm a silly goose, etc etc... I knew the risk and decided to test the waters. Now I'm working on recovering my money, and it's really hard for me to read Chinese because I don't know how. Oh, Achewood.

Please translate the bits of this shipping label as you can - to me it looks like company name and signer are mostly it, but maybe there is something else of use there?

Note: I love how the sender's address and phone number - the stuff I really need - are missing.

Thank you in advance.
I would love to have a GIS of the place to show them in my dispute, complete with route from local police authority, but whatever is glean-able is a start.

Tofystedeth

Well shit. My wife is chinese and was online on gmail just a few minutes ago. I was gonna show her, but apparently now she is not. If she gets back on before someone else answers you I'll toss it at her.

fadingathedges

Thank you Mr & Mrs Tofystedeth

Tofystedeth

No prob.

She didn't take my name tho.

defreak

Unfortunately, I don't think there's any additional information on there that can help you.

The sender's name is pronounced "Wen Ling".

The stamp on the bottom left is a customs stamp, all it says is who did the inspection, the weight of the package, and it has passed inspection.

One thing to note is, the declared value of the package is $5 USD, and it looks like you paid $27 USD for it.

You got the company name at least.

fadingathedges

It was more than that - a little over $100.

Can you read the company name?

fadingathedges

I submitted these pics under the "upload evidence" button on the site.

I think I make a pretty compelling case.

bowen

That actually looks legit.

bowen

After some quick browsing, that style of packaging is very common in the Asian market, whereas the American one is side-by-side with the adapter.

Makes me wonder if the two versions differ in what you can use them in. Similar to PAL/NTSC TVs. That doesn't make much sense, but it'd explain it.

fadingathedges

It was advertised as PSP compatible... and my PC should really read pretty much anything, I would think. "Windows" draws with a pretty broad brush with stuff like this, I feel. And if it's labelled MagicGate, my PSP should have detected MagicGate.

bowen

They might be Asian market linked, like DVDs. Though, like I said, that doesn't make much sense for something like this card. You've probably been had, though, do crooks really go through the effort to get plastic molding machines to trick a few americans out of $100 ?

fadingathedges

It adds up. These are wholesale items, and I bought one of the smallest lots available as a test. I read that people had varied results through this site and it seems to depend on seller - like eBay. I will probably try again with a more reputable site I found after already committing to this.

wmelon

One of my coworkers that reads chinese says that it says Shanghai XinYan Commerical Service Ltd. Company(Shanghai XinYan Shangwu Fuwu YouXian GongSi)

fadingathedges

Thanks wmelon & co.

Tofystedeth

bowen wrote: »

do crooks really go through the effort to get plastic molding machines to trick a few americans out of $100 ?

Yes, they do.

bowen

I remember that, but those look like they were from other products (the molding). The one he linked looked like it was sealed.

Quid

Bah. I don't know the 3rd and fourth characters. But it's Shang Hai __ __ limited business services company.

I think that's what it's trying to say anyway.

vonPoonBurGer

bowen wrote: »

That actually looks legit.

I don't think it is. "MagicGate: Unknown" is apparently a telltale sign that it's a counterfeit product. In addition to having only 8GB of capacity (and possibly even less despite what the PSP info screen says), it may also have very poor performance compared to a legit part.

Tofystedeth

Quid wrote: »

Bah. I don't know the 3rd and fourth characters. But it's Shang Hai __ __ limited business services company.

I think that's what it's trying to say anyway.

My wife confirms this. She says she doesn't know how to translate the other two characters, and couldn't find a website for it. She did say "The Pinyin of the company's name is XIN (1) Yan (4)" If that helps any.

tinwhiskers

SanDisk Ultra 16GB Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo
76.99
GL getting your money back
What inspired you to try and buy it from some Chinese site for $100 ? Also as an aside 16GB normally means 16,000 MB. They started cheating at giga and switched to base 10.

Quid

OP, if you can get a better scan of the 3rd and 4th I might be able to help you, but right now I can't make out parts of the characters so can't really look them up.

Edit: Actually, the second would be the most important. The third apparently means wild goose.

Quid

Ah ha!

It is Prosperous Wild Goose Limited Business Services Company. Also, it looks like it's an actual company. Thanks to Tofy's wife for the pinyin.

Though if they do have a Western name I doubt it's the above.

UrQuanLord88

Uh, a google search for 上海鑫雁商务服务有限公司 doesn't turn up much. The first link is a forums post on the 7th of April asking for the address of the said company.
The second link gives you some details about another company with a similar name, 上海新雁商务服务有限公司, so not much there.

According to the shipping site, your package did come from Songjiang -> Shanghai -> USA, so I guess you can be sure that it was definitely from China. Also, if you want, you can look up their postal code they left you.

atma

Songjiang is Shanghai, at least a suburb of it.

Dude, it sucks that you got ripped trying to save a few bucks, I appreciate the notion of trying to get a better deal than most. If you could find someone who is fluent, ordering off of Taobao.com is imho the only way to do business, it's like ebay to the third power here. 150 million users and lots of big sellers. Not sure how many are willing to ship internationally though.

I think my point is, be really really careful buying from anybody speaking english selling from China. You're vulnerable and they know it, and I would as a general rule not buy from anyone that can't prove their reputation.

edit: ugh, by the way, if shipping was really $26 dollars for you from China via EMS, I don't think it's actually possible to "save money" ordering a single piece of anything like this, ever. I shop around here in Mainland China and while some things like memory cards are usually cheaper, cuz of heavy competition and lower taxes &etc, they're not ever that much cheaper.

so this old truism :
if it sounds too good to be true

it usually is

edit2: hahaha, forgot to ask, what was this "risky site"? I'm gonna guess it was actually taobao.com? (and personally, I don't think it's inherently riskier than say, Ebay)

fadingathedges

tinwhiskers wrote: »

SanDisk Ultra 16GB Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo
76.99
GL getting your money back
What inspired you to try and buy it from some Chinese site for $100 ?

I got ten of them for $128.00, free shipping. I was planning to keep two and resell 8. I thought I had some measure of protection through PayPal, but they are total butts about anything you don't buy on eBay... and because I paid from my PayPal account balance, I could not file a claim against PayPal through my bank and/or Visa.

Quid wrote: »

Ah ha!

It is Prosperous Wild Goose Limited Business Services Company. Also, it looks like it's an actual company. Thanks to Tofy's wife for the pinyin.

Thanks Quid & Tofy's! This is a great name for a company. Dang.


As it turns out, the Prosperous Geese have agreed to give me a full refund! after seeing my compelling artwork which I posted above. I'd like to think it was 100% me breaking down language barriers with my masterful photoshop abilities, but in reality I think the ability to suddenly address them with a first name at the beginning and mention customs at the end probably helped as well.

Thanks again to de freak on the name and everyone who helped out. Once they money lands back in my PayPal from escrow I will throw a [solved] in the title.


e~ The site was DHGate.com... I don't recommend it ;D

atma

I'm sorry but TEN of them for maybe the price of two? 16 GB?

I want to go on the record as saying; Dude you were getting greedy there.

Chalkbot

Meh, I think it was worth a try, haha. Even if he didn't come out on top financially, the experience is certainly worth something. I do stuff like this all the time, and it is a valueble skill to have.

fadingathedges

Yeah, I intend to try again with another vendor or product. Greedy? Maybe... I really don't know what tiny pieces of plastic cost to make in places like China. Materially what I received isn't that much different than what I asked for. I dunno about greedy though.

I mean shit... I know this guy, he's a mason. Builds bricks and shit. Motherfucker makes his own schedule, he could stay home on Fridays... but does he? No! He works.
I bet he's in it for the money.


Protip to self: Sony is made in Japan, shit head.

atma

Sony is Made in China (I honestly don't know what isn't these days), and you're not a shit head. But if you're getting into a financial deal that puts ten of something in your hand for the price of one thing, you should always question the motivations of the seller.

like, I live in the city that assembles iphones and nintendo wiis, but I can't go into the streets and expect to buy one at half price- those factories have tight controls and actually since neither of those products are for the chinese market, I have to go to a big electronics store just like you and probably pay a small premium on what they cost either in Hong Kong or Japan, respectively. But then, of course, someone will have opened them up and done me a favour under the hood (like unlocking and things I can't get into here) so the value of paying a little extra is worth it.

Now if you want, and you'd like to experience another interesting deal, I'll EMS ship you a wii for fifty dollars that's really just a toaster circuit inside of white casing. You can plug it in and tell your friends all about your theories on saving money by extraordinary deals.

Or you can realize that you almost always get what you pay for.

just caveat freaking emptor, man

mooshoepork

Dhgate is really hit and miss. What was the sellers feedback like? You gotta be real careful with electronics.

I've had a guitar built for me which is great, and I've ordered 100 iphone cases which I sold to make a profit, so it isn't all bad.

His feedback though, was it good? If so, that's a bit worrying.