I bought a $45 hub motor kit from EBAY

skeetab5780

skeetab5780

1 MW
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
2,746
Location
MA
This is a first for me. I found a 48v 1000w complete hub motor kit on EBAY from a new untrusted seller with no ratings... I jumped on it and bought it just because. Now the question is...will they actually ship me anything??? The biggest problem when you buy anything from China is typically the lead time. They say it can take between 3 weeks to 2 months for the item to arrive so by the time it acutally shows up you've missed your chance to file a claim with Paypal or EBAY to get your money back.

I seem to have a really good relationship with Paypal so I took the chance anyway...since I feel I will get reimbursed if it doesn't show up. I am also going to document it here just incase it does actually show up and its the cheapest motor ever!

Here are the pictures of the kit!
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222307130610
 
If it's too good to be true....
I fell for it earlier last year. A Chinese seller on Ebay had brand new $400 frame for $45 shipped! After I paid for it I realized the seller had 0 review 0 sales - major red flag...
3 months later I got nothing and the seller had closed the account.
I complained to Ebay and got my money back. So no real harm just a $45 opportunity cost and disappointment.
Otherwise I order stuff from China all the time and generally get good service/product, you just have to watch out for scams and that one was pretty obvious...
 
Haha! Just got an email from the person saying this

"Hi my friend
The new products have been shipping for you
would you please patience to wait for 25 to 35 days arrive you.
because we need the money now
so I very cheap sale my favorite products
so I can not use expensive shipping method to obtain the tracking number.
But do not worry
I use Hong Kong postal.
Your product I can check your products by post now arrived in position
you can always find me understand your product arrived in position.
thank you very much"

A lot of that doesn't mean much, but he is already telling me im not getting a tracking number ever... and to wait over a month...

This is getting better by the minute! I cant wait to wait for nothing!
 
Hi Skeetabs -- Link to listing please? Can't find it and it would be interesting to see. Assuming it is a scam -- it sure looks like one -- it is kind of strange. A super-ultra-mega-low price like $45 feels like it would just scare away a lot of potential buyers as too good to be true. If seller is a crook doing a scam, might be smarter to price it say 25% below legit kits from legit sellers so it seemed at least plausible? Lot of legit kits going for ~$160... so price the scam kit (if it is one) at say $119.95?

Hope it does arrive and you got the deal of the year!
 
I also just noticed the pictures say Vpower on the kit listing. I'm not sure if anyone if familiar... But i bought my first Ebike battery ever from Vpower about 7 years ago. It was a 48v 10ah lifepo4 battery made of 18650 cells. i think it was 14s10p. It took about 45 days to get to USA and then DHL lost it for another month before i got it!

It was a nice battery overall for what i used it for. But they have a pretty bad rep on the forum for having bad packs/designs. Was not aware they sold kits, hmmm
 
I bought a common motorcycle fuel petcock for $4 delivered (eBay) just to see what would happen. The same petcocks were going for $13 shipped from the USA. The listing said to report non-delivery after 30 days, so I did and got a refund. 60 days later, it arrived and had been postmarked when I ordered it, so must have been lost in delivery. It was first quality, so because it really wasn't the vendor's fault I sent a fee-free paypal payment with an explanation about it being lost in shipment.

The price makes me wonder if some stuff from China is stolen merchandise. I have a hard time believing the petcock could have been manufactured, merchandised, and shipped while making a profit.
 
Alibaba is geared towards volume wholesale dealers, and Aliexpress is the Chinese "ebay". That being said, the owners of Aliexpress knew from the start that scam artists would be a constant issue. As a result, they have an "escrow" feature where the money paid into escrow is not send onwards to the vendor until the customer verifies they actually received a product that is at least similar to what was advertised.

In spite of that, the old adage still applies "Caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware), which translates into "if its too good to be true, it probably is"

The current standard for generic hub kits is the Yescomusa $220 ebay kit. Buy from a vendor that has a lot of customers, and a "more than" 95% rating of satisfaction.
 
skeetab5780 said:
I also just noticed the pictures say Vpower on the kit listing. I'm not sure if anyone if familiar... But i bought my first Ebike battery ever from Vpower about 7 years ago. It was a 48v 10ah lifepo4 battery made of 18650 cells. i think it was 14s10p. It took about 45 days to get to USA and then DHL lost it for another month before i got it!

It was a nice battery overall for what i used it for. But they have a pretty bad rep on the forum for having bad packs/designs. Was not aware they sold kits, hmmm
Click to expand...
IT says used and sale over.

DAN
 
I ordered a relatively small frame pack for $5.00; required about two months to arrive, but nice product --- just as ordered.
 
This way to the Egress.
 
spinningmagnets said:
Alibaba is geared towards volume wholesale dealers, and Aliexpress is the Chinese "ebay". That being said, the owners of Aliexpress knew from the start that scam artists would be a constant issue. As a result, they have an "escrow" feature where the money paid into escrow is not send onwards to the vendor until the customer verifies they actually received a product that is at least similar to what was advertised.

In spite of that, the old adage still applies "Caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware), which translates into "if its too good to be true, it probably is"

The current standard for generic hub kits is the Yescomusa $220 ebay kit. Buy from a vendor that has a lot of customers, and a "more than" 95% rating of satisfaction.
Click to expand...

Ive been running a generic hub motor kit that I bought off EBAY on my FUTR Beta build and it was only $169.00 shipped from CA so you know what that means.. Its from china but sold out of CA.

Prices are dropping for these kits since there are a million vendors all selling the same exact thing. I wouldn't set the threshold at $220
 
DAND214 said:
skeetab5780 said:
I also just noticed the pictures say Vpower on the kit listing. I'm not sure if anyone if familiar... But i bought my first Ebike battery ever from Vpower about 7 years ago. It was a 48v 10ah lifepo4 battery made of 18650 cells. i think it was 14s10p. It took about 45 days to get to USA and then DHL lost it for another month before i got it!

It was a nice battery overall for what i used it for. But they have a pretty bad rep on the forum for having bad packs/designs. Was not aware they sold kits, hmmm
Click to expand...
IT says used and sale over.

DAN
Click to expand...

I actually didn't even notice it said used. But this almost makes me think it could actually be real! Maybe I will get a "Like New" item! Or nothing!
 
2old said:
I ordered a relatively small frame pack for $5.00; required about two months to arrive, but nice product --- just as ordered.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling that if I wait 2 months I will definitely be losing the $45...But like I said its so worth it to me!
 
Wait about 2 to 3 weeks. If nothing contact ebay. They will reimburse you.

Sent from my SM-G925I using Tapatalk
 
Zero prior sales. Complete jibberrish. No tracking number. I think it's on the boat without a paddle...

Lots of Chinese think they can just post an item for sale, get paid through PayPal and have access to the money. But what they find out real fast is eBay puts a hold on the funds. I don't know if it is until the item is received for international stuff or a specific time period for new sellers. Personally I'd contact eBay now to express your concerns. Maybe they can put a hold on the funds until you receive the item, if they don't already.

You can always just request eBay to cancel the transaction because there is no shipping number that can be validated. Odds are the item wasn't shipped at all.

I went through this with a crankset. Stupid cheap and obviously too good to be true, but I got suckered in thinking I found a golden nugget. Ended up canceling when no tracking number was given and a month had passed.

Good luck!
 
Recently I have noticed a surprising number of listings from vendors with supposed US locations whose products are delivered via China Post. Said listings usually have descriptions that are written by someone who obviously has difficulty with the English language. However ... I have been dealing with EBAY and PayPal since 1999. In that entire time I can recall only twice that I had problems fraudulent listings. Once with a Chinese vendor and once with an an US vendor.
 
Oh geez this is looking worse by the day...Looks like the user has either cancelled his account with EBAY or got kicked off.


We had to remove this listing from the site and you're not required to complete the transaction. If you've already sent payment, the sale should process as normal and you don't have anything to worry about. If you have any questions about delivery, please check tracking or contact your seller. If you run into any trouble along the way eBay is here to help. Please visit the Resolution Center to help resolve any problems you may encounter.



This user is no longer registered on eBay.

Haha I am still going to wait another month or so to see what happens for the fun of it...I have a feeling nothing is coming tho
 
skeetab5780 said:
Oh geez this is looking worse by the day...Looks like the user has either cancelled his account with EBAY or got kicked off.


We had to remove this listing from the site and you're not required to complete the transaction. If you've already sent payment, the sale should process as normal and you don't have anything to worry about. If you have any questions about delivery, please check tracking or contact your seller. If you run into any trouble along the way eBay is here to help. Please visit the Resolution Center to help resolve any problems you may encounter.



This user is no longer registered on eBay.

Haha I am still going to wait another month or so to see what happens for the fun of it...I have a feeling nothing is coming tho
Click to expand...

That's exactly what happened to me (see my previous comment). You'll have to wait until the expected shipping time expires and then make a claim.
Interesting fact is that they gave me a tracking number (which made me hopeful) but it showed that it never left China, I wonder how they did that.
Did you also get a tracking #?
 
No i have no tracking, seller sent one message saying to wait patiently! Hah

Happy turkey day ES
 
Update, it is finally past its delivery window and nothing has shown up...big surprise! I now have a claim open for the refund. Too bad was hoping to get a cheap hub for a frame i had kicking around.

Lets see how long it takes to get the money back
 
HA ha
I've done things Like This numerous times expecting to be burned.

My expectations have always been fulfilled.

...the one time it proved disastrous was when my spouse answered one of ads in the back of one of those Pop science magazines. (obvious scam)
- after which our household was forever the target for every world-wide scam operation every year until the household was no more.

I never realized there were so many Nigerian princes. :wink:
 
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