BUYER BEWARE : Fei Bao shipping from China
 

Headup for people eventually interested in buying a jet from Fei Bao directly in China :

Bought a Hunter kit last July, agreed on a sea shipping quote for 480$ (air shipping is crazy expensive these days) Terms of shipping agreed upon are box to be shipped in my city in duty free zone, and I was to clear custom myself which I am entitled to. (Shipping companies will gladly do it for you because they usually charge for this service). But beeing the end customer you are entitled to have your shipment remitted to you in duty free zone, and then you clear custom yourself.

Back forward to January '23 : my box is stuck in another city 220 miles away, shipper is unable to send to my city dutee free without me having to contract another shipper from my city port for handling custom, thus creating extra costs, and shipping company request me to pay extra charges for transhipment occured somewhere between China and my country for another 470$...

Not only that, they also want to charge more than 400$ for so called "arrival fees" that nobody is able to explain and justify, and this even when the shipment is held stuck 220 miles away from where it was supposed to be delivered to me.

As of now I have been taken into a hostage situation where I have to pay "whatever cost they want" or I don't get my shipment. I paid the jet and orignal shipping charges upfront in July.

Fei Bao China unable to explain these transhipment costs and why they are charged seperately to me as they are not at all matching their contractual obligations. They are unable to explain why I will have to pay almost 3 times the original shipping quotation we agreed upon in what I believed was a good faith discussion.

So I would say be careful when discussing shipping with Fei Bao China, and be prepared to pay 3 times their original shipping quotation and also be taken into a hostage situation.

Sad.

I got clipped for extra charges on my T-One. In my case, it looked like the added cost was US Customs Fees and then the shipper added more $s too. I decided that I am not buying any more toys from offshore, period. If I can't find it in the USA and/or get it shipped for a reasonable price, I can live w/o it. If I run out of toys, then maybe, it is time to move on to a different hobby! It is a shame too. I was going to pick up another Rebel and another T-One. But after the last rip off, no way. My experience was not as bad as yours. But is still was close to $1000. I know other folks are paying a lot more. I guess they must have a lot more $s or they really want their toys worse than I do!

"Bought a Hunter kit last July, agreed on a see shiping quote for 480$ (air shipping is crazy expensive these days) "

That's not bad... I paid around $800 for DHL air freight from China to the US eight years ago...
All countries charge different duties and fees, did you verify that upfront?
Exporters typically have disclaimers stating that they are not responsible for duties and fee's.
Sorry for your pain, it seems to be everywhere now a days and no sign of improving...

Google search
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...71035686cc.jpg



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Be very careful with that situation. Last year I had a large scale glider in a similar situation. It was shipped from Germany but they wanted to deliver in Seattle which over 4h away from me. After a couple of weeks that started to charge me crazy daily fees for just holding the package. If it is 2h away or, my recommendation is to just go there and get your package even if it means paying those questionable fees. The holding fees will quickly run into thousand of $$

Buying direct always has it's risks when dealing with these Chinese's RC companies, buying from a rep is always the best way do you can avoid these issues as they have some type of relationship with them and they order often. I'm not saying its smooth sailing all the time but once your money goes to direct to China it's a one way street and your at their mercy.

For what it's worth; I have only one experience with buying direct from a manufacturer, but it wen okay. Bear in mind that this was a number of years ago and it came from Germany not China.

i had it shipped to the nearest terminal with a US Customs facility. It got there, I was notified it was in US Customs possession. I went up there to retrieve the beastie and found out that the USA, at least at that time, did not charge any duty for model airplanes or their components.

All I had to do was sign some forms and recruit some volunteers to help me load it in the back of my pickup truck.

As I said, this was a number of years ago. Today there are no doubt individuals who profit from these transactions. Once in the clutches of these folks, you are basically scr*wed.

While my experience worked out okay, I would not do it again especially from a Chinese manufacturer........ JMHO......

Yes I am done buying also. If it ain’t in stock in the USA, then it’s game over. If I do order anything from abroad, it will be from BVM. I like their special order policy and I feel safe with them. My next kit is straight from them. I did buy from FeiBao many years ago directly and dealt with Catherine it was flawless.

RCISFUN, I probably didn't wrote it clearly enough, but my quote for 480$ was sea shipping. There is now way I would have accepted the quoted air freight shipping charge of around 1'800$.

I will try to edit my comment.

I did also buy from Fei Bao previously directly from China around 2007 (Hornet and MB-339) and don't recall anything bad happened. Freight is gonna be more a less expensive anyway, (these kits takes volume) but my greef is about beeing given a quote that at the end is multiplied by 3 x without any justification. Sadly they think they can get away with it (Fei Bao China and the various shipping companies) because they know we european or U.S. customers have no power to rectify this. I doubt anyone is able to litigate that in a China court lol.

Shippers fraud

I saw it on discovery a case such as that , shipper holding the goods hostage asking for ransom… this is a federal offense I’d talk to the police about it .

I'm not sure what kind of discount you get from ordering Feibao products directly from China. But as an option you can order all Feibao products through Global Jet Club, here in the U.S.A.. They handle all shipping and import logistics, I've never had a problem as all my FB items arrived safely with no shipping problems.

Just as an update, I finally ended paying whatever the shipping company asked me, including the bogus charges that they never could explain and/or justify. I was ready not to pay and have the box returned to China and forget about the jet, but then realized I had 6000$ tied to this jet so asked Feibao to reimburse me the jet if they choose to have it returned to China, but they flat out refused to do so. I was ready to go to court if that would have happened with any european manufacturer but with China forget about it. I have to say that Fei Bao accepted a very minimal participation of 200$ of the overrun charges so ended up paying and I got the jet. Last time I order from them as far as I am concerned.