Unfortunately there are many Chinese who skirt the gfw and sell in Ebay or through other means. I personally know a few of them and find them to occupy a space above the slime under 2 2’s nails on a bad day. These people buy Chinese knockoffs and aware of this fact sell them as real. The best way to tell is by looking at their English, usually they foul up the articles ‘an an the’ and plurals.
I am rebloggign the story of a woman who allegedly got ganked by a Chinese company selling online and another through Ebay, and although not the same case as I’d explained above the results are the same- poor quality and disappointment.
Here is the story of someone who got ‘ganked’ and bought a 400$ violin that was a pos.
While I do not know if that is the case in this story, it is worth reading just the same.
excerpt:
“I made a mistake that I think most people reading this will respond to with, “Duh, Stupid,” but if my mistake can save anyone else from making a similar one, then it’s worth humiliating myself enough with the post.
I decided to search eBay for an inexpensive violin to have as a practice instrument and one that I could take out and about without much worry. Well, I got it, but I can’t play it.
I saw this violin’s photo and thought it looked very lovely. It’s a faux antique and completely handmade, at least the seller claims so. It was listed as the work of Liu Rong Guo, who has been hand making violins in China for many years. I did a search for the name and found a nice website listed as www.mastersviolin.com They have lovely faux antique violins for a very cheap price. For just $200 I thought I couldn’t go wrong, but I was mistaken.”
continue here http://www.violinist.com/blog/JulianneHeinen/20117/12494/
btw your humble author visited teh site and me thinks it smells fishy. I’ve sent them a mail and the other shite Chinese site as well, lets see if they give me a call back…
In addition http://www.violinist.com also had this observation to make
“Stay away from Rui Long Guo violins and also from www.Melody-with-violin.com as she is the 3rd party who sold it to me praising it’s quality. Her response to my complaints was, “Nothing will satisfy you.” Can you believe that? Wow”