Webstore Review: Armorcast Ebay store

[Brother-serpent Tylydox]

I like to browse from time to time some of the webstores I have in my bookmarks for deals.  One of this days I was looking through Armorcast website and didn't find any "bone terrain" section it previously had.  On the main page there was a news update saying that the owner will stop selling some of lines completely and will be selling off the remainder of the stock on its Ebay store.  Since I wanted to buy his "skull road" sections for a long time, I rushed to the store and bought what I wanted.   I red the FAQ and although it was saying that "it takes up to 10 days for S&H" I was O.K. with it.  In the description it also said that the owner would consolidate multiple purchases in one package if multiple items would be ordered by one customer.  I wanted to contact the seller in order to make sure that he would send the order by USPS and not by UPS or FedEx.  Unfortunately there is n way to contact the seller at all before making the purchase and you can send a message through Ebay only after 7 days since the order has been shipped. 

 

Three days into my waiting 10 day period after I paid money in full, I get a message from the Ebay with a tracking code which only tracks the shipping progress on the Ebay site only.  When I tried to find out which company is supposed to deliver the items, I've got the names of four shipping companies in the South Asia.  Luckily the shipping was going rather fast so I decided to wait on the delivery.  Unfortunately the tracking stopped after it reached the Canadian border.  After waiting for a week (I live not that far from the US/Canad border) I finally got my order in three packages: two envelopes and one box.  One of the envelopes contained the t-shape junction and another one had the two c-shape turns and in the box I got the four straight pieces.  The envelopes had huge Ebay seals on them and the box looked like it was opened previously. 

 

When I was able to contact the seller, I've asked him if he combined the shipping.  He said "yes" and issued me a refund for $20 US.  Looking at how much I've payed for the items and the shipping, I think I got ripped off.  Here are the scans of my shipping invoices:

 

 

 

 

I think the owner of the Armorcast either has never shipped outside of US or he just doesn't give rats ass about his customers getting ripped off with the shipping charges.  Together with no possibility of contacting him before making a purchase makes me think that it's the latter.  I really like the product so I left him a neutral feedback.  Here is what I've got:

 

 

Edited September 23, 2017 by Tylydox

[Brother-serpent Tylydox]

 

 

Also an update on the Armocast website.  Since My purchase a month ago the "bone terrain" section has returned to main website.  I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing.  Buyer beware.

Edited September 23, 2017 by Tylydox

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

I didn't see any mention of these in your post, but

 

- Never pay on eBay without PayPal if you can help it

- Never pay for a combined order until you "Request Total/Invoice" so they can properly update the amount to reflect the combined shipping. Then, when the total amount is to your satisfaction, you pay.

- Try not to complicate the transaction. If you are already buying international, that's already two layers of complexity: export and import customs. Then you want him to pick a specific carrier too?

 

I'm not saying you're at fault here, I'm just saying sometimes if you want a smooth ride on eBay, you gotta try to use those methods.

[Brother-serpent Tylydox]

I couldn't contact the seller prior to buying at all.  In my experience (and I've dealt a lot with the sellers from US) they always combine the shipping cost even if you buy and pay for the items separately.  Also PayPal is only paying method on Ebay and since I've got what I wanted I couldn't open a dispute with either PayPal or Ebay anyways.

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

I'm from the US, so I don't know if it's different for other countries, but I found that eBay is dumb and doesn't let me use the shopping cart (the shopping cart lets you demand they combine shipping, or sometimes does it automatically for you to begin with) if the items are from other countries. I buy a lot of FW stuff from Australia, Germany, and the UK, so what I usually do if there is no USD option, I replace the .com or .ca or whatever in ebay.com to their country's site, and that will let me use their shopping cart.

 

This way you can use the shopping cart tool to combine their shipping instead of being at their mercy after committing to buy.

[marine7312000]

In my experience, ebay transactions go like this:

1. Add items to cart from seller.

2. Once everything is added, ebay normally combines shipping if the seller offers discounted shipping on multiple items.

3. I click the Proceed to checkout button.

4. The next page give you an option to pay now. If you do not select this option, it allows the seller to combine shipping if it wasn't done so automatically.

*If you wait to receive the invoice before actually paying for the items, you can easily start a conversation with them about shipping.

** If you skip waiting on the invoice before paying, its at the seller's discretion if they combine shipping.

[GAZ_AV_NZ]

US postal rates are a ripoff to international destinations

Sometimes the sellers only use certain carriers that cost way to much

I agree

Total ripoff

Im in NZ and i was trying to buy a standard size poster for my son

Poster was 10 us

Postage was 100 US

Thats right

No mistake

Checked 3 times

I didnt buy the poster

Not all items like this

But sometimes you get that

Poster was on ebay

[Semper Fortis]

I don't understand your statement that there was no way to contact the seller before purchase. Every single ebay listing has a link at the bottom of the page to "ask a question".

 

In fairness to Armorcast, I think it's likely that your problem stems from the quirks of ebay and not him. As others have stated, you have to put all your items in the cart and then hit the "request total from seller" button if the combined shipping does not automatically show. Once the new invoice with combined shipping arrives in your cart, you pay for all items together.

 

I have bought stuff from Armorcast since before Forge World existed and never had a problem with them. Now the US postal service... that's a whole other story. :)

[Brother-serpent Tylydox]

I don't understand your statement that there was no way to contact the seller before purchase. Every single ebay listing has a link at the bottom of the page to "ask a question".

 

 

"Ask a question" link led to the FAQ section only.

Oh, that scumbag had my neutral review removed and now in his listing it says : "I combine shipping to US addresses. I only use Ebay Global shipping program outside of the US and cannot combine shipping what so ever." This proves that I was right.

[Brother-serpent Tylydox]

Here is his "ask the seller" option:

 

 

 

 

 

[DuskRaider]

Armorcast is a really good company, they're the Forge World before Forge World and had produced GW's Titans before FW was created as a sub-branch of the main company.

[Brother-serpent Tylydox]

Not in my experience.