**** BEWARE BEFORE YOU BUY FROM ASTOUCH ****
*** DONT BELIEVE TRACY ***
Before you even consider buying from Astouch and Tracy in particular, it is worth reading below.
I own a POS company in Australia. I contacted Astouch to supply touch screen monitors. This some of my experiences.
Around early March 2016 I negotiated to buy 55 units of touch monitor. On 7 March 2016 Tracy from Astouch confirmed in writing that it would take 1 week for production The production time is one week Tracy. I paid for the goods in full on 9 March 2016 including agreed freight charge from China to my office in Australia. The agreed freight charge was US$1250. 00. Production took 4 weeks not 1 week as promised. Before they shipped the goods I get an email from Tracy demanding more money for freight, quote from her email, btw, I have some urgent needs to discuss with you, original we charge you 1250usd for DDU cost, but I was informed by our logistic that it's not enough, there are 400kg, and 3.5CBM,; if shipping by air, it would need 2700USD, 1 week arrived. If shipping by vessel, it would need 1575USD; 3 WEEKS arrived. Tracy 7 April 2016. After many protests from myself they agreed to send the goods without further charge. The units were OK but the screen printing they did with our logo on the front was very poor. Not one unit had it centered on the frame correctly.
On 2 March 2017 I agreed to buy another 50 units of the same type and specification. Many emails went between us so I could be assured that the previous issues would not happen again. Tracy assured me all would be fine. I was emailed an invoice for the goods. On this occasion I paid a 30% deposit and had agreed to pay the final payment prior to shipping. Payment was made 2 March 2017. Tracy emailed me immediately after receiving the payment confirmation to say that i will arrange the production today.
On 17 March I received the following email from Tracy I'm sorry to inform you that the POS monitor production has some problem, I just heard from our manager that the metal frame factory still not make the frame yet, and they ask MOQ 150PCS, cuz RS232 interface is very rare use, and we cannot make this qty; So i need to discuss with you whether you can place 150pcs at one time, or at least 100pcs at one time. Or you can use our another model with plasitc frame, enclosed is the design for your reference, this model we can delivery very quick, one week; So it took 15 days to realise that they could not supply me the order unless I ordered double or triple the quantity.
Of course they have my 30% deposit. I did not want to increase my order so I agreed to look at the plastic frame units instead of the metal frame. After many emails Tracy offered to send me two samples via DHL to Australia. I was happy to look at the samples but very very clearly stated that I was not going to pay for the samples or the freight. I gave Astouch 2 options. First option was to refund my deposit and the second option was that they could send the samples at their expense. My email read
I am interested in the new monitors. They seem good but I would need to test on our software. You have offered to send 1 unit of single side and another 1 unit of double side for us to test. Because it is not our fault they you can not supply the metal units we will not be paying for freight for these sample units. If you send the units it is at your cost. If you do send the units and we proceed I am happy to pay you the cost of the sample units but not the freight. We would then place an order for at least 50 units as an initial order like before.
Astouch decided to send the samples. After testing unfortunately there were software issues that could not be resolved. I then requested Astouch to refund my deposit. They agreed. I received the refund but it was US$1000. 00 short. So after all their previously written agreements they deducted $US1000 to cover the cost of the samples and freight.
** BE VERY WARY OF DEALING WITH TRACY AND ASTOUCH. THEY WILL CONTINUALLY LIE AS CAN BE SEEN FROM ABOVE **