Here are some tips from our users about ordering from our web site and from china in general.
Yeah, I order stuff from Hong Kong and Shenzen all the time off of alumigogo.com, and it's a 50/50 tossup on where the package will go to age for a while. If it's small and doesn't make anybody in customs pull it for an inspection, I get stuff to Milwaukee in 16 calendar days. If it gets set aside for customs, you can tack another week onto that.
If you're patient, it's a hell of a deal. But you have to be patient. Tracking numbers don't seem to help either way - I've had record turnaround on packages that were entirely untrackable, and lousy turnaround on packages with nominal tracking information. And vice versa.
I think the usual trick is to order a steady stream of low priced items from China so that every couple of days you get another surprise bubble-wrap envelope that has been hermetically sealed with packing tape.
Usually for me, and I had placed so far 34 orders, it takes between 18 to 22 days to get my goodies to Miami.
On may 21st, I ordered some spare parts for my quads, and some parts to build a quad with a v202 board, for my surprise, today they appeared already to be in New York. And for my expierence, from New York to Miami it takes 4 days tops. So I will be getting that order in 12 days (fastest so far)
