Saxophones Buying and Importing from China

[saxyman]

Has anyone considered buying from China.
A well respected retailer has numerous top makers Sax's for sale at really attractive prices.
They are stated as being genuine "not copies" and come with a full refund guarantee.
Obviously there will be import tax and other duties to pay, but could still be a lot cheaper.
I have purchased other items from there and had no problems at all.
I have myself purchased from USA without any problems, so familiar with the process.
Would welcome the views or experiences of others.

 

[Andante cantabile]

If you order your saxophone over the web direct from China, it may be perfect (possible, but not all that likely), in need of minor repairs (very likely) or virtually unplayable. If you want to get a Chinese instrument, and there is no intrinsic reason why you should not, your safest option is to get it from a dealer in the UK. You have some good options, but you will pay a little more and probably save money in the longer run. The two main advantages of doing so are: somebody will have tested the instrument, and if you have to return it, you are covered by consumer laws.

As far as the actual import process is concerned, it should be not be different (no more and fewer hassles) to buying from anywhere outside the EU. Good luck.

 

[Vlad]

I'd be very dubious personally.....Does anyone remember, a year or so back a few of us bought brand new altos for 25 quid each needless to say ( surprise, surprise) we never received them !

 

[saxyman]

Quite understandable for being dubious. But the site which I have used many times does offer protection, so any risk is minimal.
I am not interested in buying a Chinese instrument but they are advertising top of the range instruments from top (not Chinese)manufacturers as originals not copies at really attractive prices.

 

[kevgermany]

somebody will have tested the instrument,

Not necessarily. Some retailers are no more than box shifters.

 

[kevgermany]

You have to ask yourself why is it so much cheaper as a direct import. The answer is you're not covering the cost of local support, warranty, distribution costs. While it might be personally attractive to go this way, we're all suffering from the closure of many music shops because of on-line competition. Are you going to expect local support when there's a problem?

Imho, Better to buy locally even if it's a bit more expensive and keep the local supply chain going.

 

[Andante cantabile]

Not necessarily. Some retailers are no more than box shifters.

As usual, you have found the flaw. But the bit about consumer protection is probably right.

 

[QWales]

I tried to purchase an electric bike from China recently but pretty much all the companies wanted me to pay by some form of bank transfer that provided me with little to no cover for my purchase - TT ,west union , L/C, Made-In-China. I gave up in the end as I am aware there are a lot of scammers out there.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Importers play the numbers game. A lot of the Chinese sites offer prices per 1K units. If the mark up is 50% and you get 10% returns you're still winning. If you buy one and it's duff, it's a long way to take it back. I buy lots of bits and pieces from China on ebay. Never had a problem. Good stuff at good prices. However, large, fragile items, coming all that way. And as far as genuine, not copies. Why would they even mention it. Caveat emptor

 

[Pete Thomas]

Has anyone considered buying from China.
A well respected retailer has numerous top makers Sax's for sale at really attractive prices.
They are stated as being genuine "not copies" and come with a full refund guarantee.
Obviously there will be import tax and other duties to pay, but could still be a lot cheaper.
I have purchased other items from there and had no problems at all.
I have myself purchased from USA without any problems, so familiar with the process.
Would welcome the views or experiences of others.

Can you tell us who the company is?

As others have mentioned you may end up with little or no protection depending on payment method. Shipping from China to the UK is quite cheap, shipping something back if defective probably ins't, even if you do get money back afterwards via the guarantee you would have lost out on the return shipping and most likely have to spend a lot of time and energy trying to get your duty and VAT reversed.

 

[QWales]

Yes never had a problem dealing via Ebay as you are always covered by Paypal. However, if you really want to make a big saving you can attempt to cut out the middle man and go direct to the factory but you will need to do a lot of background work to ensure you are not going to be robbed. The item I was looking at sells for around €1500 in the EU but can be bought for $600 delivered if you manage to find a safe way of paying that they will accept.

 

[Dibbs]

Quite understandable for being dubious. But the site which I have used many times does offer protection, so any risk is minimal.
I am not interested in buying a Chinese instrument but they are advertising top of the range instruments from top (not Chinese)manufacturers as originals not copies at really attractive prices.

Are you sure they're not fakes? There are a lot of them out there.

 

[saxyman]

That's what's more Likely, that they are fakes.
But then when I asked them if they are genuine or copies, I was told they are genuine.
I was really more intrigued by the fact that they could advertise them as such.
Not really into buying one.
The company is AliExpress and just do a search for Tenor Saxophone.

 

[trimmy]

Yani tenor for $460 !!

 

[kevgermany]

I'll bow to superior knowledge, but they look like fakes to me.

 

[nigeld]

They are offering a new Selmer SA80 Series II alto for $250 with free shipping to the UK or a Selmer Reference 54 Tenor for $400.

Sounds rather too good to be true.

 

[altissimo]

some things may be ok to buy from China - most of our electrical goods are made there, so a laptop or a moblie phone could be ok - but musical instruments? Hmm...
There's a lot of fake western brand guitars from China and while they may look good, none of them are the real thing despite what it says on the website
As for saxophones, there's less info on the ones you see for sale on Chinese websites, but the pictures don't seem to show the actual instrument for sale.
You can find apparently genuine Selmer saxes on Alibaba and elsewhere at low prices, but would it be possible to ship a French made Selmer half way around the world and sell it for less than the wholesale price?
Here's some info from Selmer about counterfeit instruments - http://www.selmer.fr/media/FAQ/counterfeit_panpipes.pdf

in general it's best to assume that unless the company actually manufactures them in China, it's possible that they could be fake.

If you're still intent on ordering an expensive instrument from China, get them to send you detailed photos of the actual instrument and post them on here so people can check to see if it's genuine.
Yamaha and Yanagisawa have official dealers in China, but unless your chinese is good you may have problems reading their websites -
乐器 - 雅马哈中国
柳泽萨克斯,双簧管,单簧管,长笛,短笛|北京千芊怡竹艺术中心

 

[jonf]

Sorry, but AliExpress is well known for fakes. They don't have, or don't care about counterfeiting legislation, so claim whatever they want in terms of whether somethign is the genuine article.

 

[Targa]

That's what's more Likely, that they are fakes.
But then when I asked them if they are genuine or copies, I was told they are genuine.

Did you expect them to say 'No Sir, we are criminals'?

 

[ellinas]

I just entered this website. I did a search about tenor saxophones, rickenbacker 12 string guitars and fender stratocaster guitars.

I think ALL I saw were fakes.
They were so sloppy fakes that were not even identical on the pics .....

Personally I'd stay away.