28 Day’s To Better Zzz’s Guarantee T&C apply
By Steve Dalloway – Sept 2022
As a manufacturer of Earthing Bed Sheets here in the UK, we are increasingly seeing Chinese companies trying to sell direct to the general public online via Google / Amazon / eBay etc.
Whilst you may think as a consumer that’s a great idea because its maybe a little cheaper than goods sold from registered UK companies, let me just fill you in as to some of the pitfalls you may encounter by going down that path.
As a fairly savvy MD of two internet companies with 20 years of e-commerce experience, I was completely seduced by a Chinese company called “Light In The Box” as I needed a new pair of swimming shorts for my holidays.
This company was all over the web when I searched and “WOW” they had just what I wanted.
The pictures looked fantastic and the website was snazzy and professional (ish), but they didn’t make it look that easy to organise returns if the goods were faulty or the wrong size. ( That’s important ! )
But hey I thought, they look great and you know what I’m going to buy them ! What could possibly go wrong ?
I mentioned it to the guys in the office before I purchased and they said – “we’ve heard of those guys and we recommend you don’t do it…..” Apparently there were many horror stories about product quality and not being able to return goods and no refunds being made to clients.
But I went ahead ! Stupidly as it turns out, as I purchased from their sizing guide and three pairs of dreadful quality and poorly sized bathers arrived 2 weeks later.
The guys in the office laughed like hyenas and I was eating humble pie for the rest of the day. The shorts were so big, they literally fell off me even when tightened up.
So now I thought, lets see how we can return the goods ? Fair play, I had to pay for the return all the way to China, but the Chinese made sending them back a complete nightmare and very time consuming. In the end I gave up, swallowed the £55.00 for 3 pairs of bathing shorts and walked away.
I did leave them a stinging review though, which made me feel marginally better…….
Look nice don’t they ? Well that’s nice seductive images for you……
I read later on Trustpilot and Reviews.io just how poor they were when stuff was sent back to China and some people just didn’t get refunds at all.
Lesson learned for me now on buying consumer goods directly from China….
Don’t do it unless you research the company well and they have a 90% + approval rating.
The Chinese have woken up and have now realised that they can make more money from us gullible Brits selling direct to us and they can.
However, you as the consumer have to really gamble on all of the below being 100% perfect. If not, you’ve really no place to go if its not up to scratch.
Plus you have to wait 2-3 weeks for your purchase to arrive.
- Quality is good
- Product is fit for purpose
- The size is correct
- It wasn’t faulty or damaged
- You don’t need any spares
- You don’t want or need any technical support
See these links below to see what I mean when Chinese web companies don’t live up to their hype……
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.lightinthebox.com
https://www.reviews.io/company-reviews/store/lightinthebox
And then there are Sleep Earthed Reviews which we are very proud of……. https://www.reviews.co.uk/company-reviews/store/www.sleepearthed.co.uk
But what’s all this got to do with our UK Made Earthing Bed Sheets ?
Well after dealing with the Chinese in our other business Byretech Ltd since 2002, the Chinese see transactions as only one way. East to West.
They sell it, you buy it and that’s the end of the story for them.
They don’t really get the customer service side of the business at all, even though they have flashy websites and nice images.
They see it as an irritation and an inconvenience if you need to complain about quality or faults or basically anything at all.
Its not treated as an important issue like it is in the UK, US and Europe.
Basically what tends to happen is you start a dialogue and it ends up in them ignoring you – It usually takes about three e mails in our experience.
West & East – Totally different cultures when it comes to e commerce and customer service. Are you getting the picture now ?
Plus you have almost zero recourse with the Chinese….. You have no consumer rights and even if you send the goods back, its a gamble if you will ever get a refund.
Basically it’s a risky transaction and if it goes wrong its very stressful indeed.
But buying from a UK company you have a barrage of consumer rights on your side and rightly so.
Here at Sleep Earthed we manufacture in our Herefordshire factory a complete range of Earthing Bed Sheets and Pillows.
We even have a Made To Measure section, so if you have an unusually sized bed, we can make something for you that will fit like a glove.
We are 100% on the ball when it comes to attention to detail and unlike these Chinese companies, we are here in the UK and you can pick the phone up and speak to us in working hours Monday – Friday. You will see we make it really easy to contact us too and we are always here to help.
We take a huge amount of pride in what we do and how we do it and our product quality is world beating.
We are truthful and tell you like it is, which is exactly how it should be and our customer reviews speak for themselves.
We also offer a 28 Day Money Back Sleep Guarantee, so if the pillows or sheets don’t make a difference to your sleep, we will take them back no questions asked and refund you. Imagine getting that from a seller on eBay in the Far East ?
Super stress free too, just how internet purchasing should be…..
Our reviews which can only be written by genuine customers who have purchased form us can be found below – No Fake News here guaranteed.
https://www.reviews.co.uk/company-reviews/store/www.sleepearthed.co.uk
I hope you’ve found this interesting as its written from a wealth of experience in the field.
So how can we help you get more quality sleep ? Have a question ? No problem, just call on 01527 522 522 or e mail us……. info@sleepearthed.co.uk
Sleep Longer – Sleep Deeper – Sleep Earthed
