Umiteasets?

60 Replies
Ubacat said

Well, surprise , surprise. When dholmes posted about Umiteas, I loved their teapots. I went looking and set up an account and placed some teapots I loved in a cart but did not finish the order. Just dreaming. I left it. A day or so later I got an email from them saying I owed a certain amount and to pay to complete the order. I was in a crazy mood so I paid. Then weeks went by. I heard nothing from them that they had shipped, no emails. I tried to contact them. Sent emails. Went online where you talk to a live person. Nobody was ever online. Got no response from my emails. I thought It was a dud. Then last night I got a live person and she said the order had been shipped and gave me a tracking number. It was in my city!! Today it arrived! The pots are soooo cute and were really packed well. So I’m really happy I got my order. I guess they did ship in time but for a long time there was no response from them. I suppose it’s worth it anyway since I got these teapots so cheap. Here’s my teapots:

http://tinyurl.com/q2ztpwe

http://tinyurl.com/lxahgvj

That first link isn’t working.

Ubacat said

Thanks. I updated it.

Super cute. I love the green one.

Ubacat said

It was the most expensive and the biggest one. I think there might be a full cup in that one. It also has a stainless steel infuser over the spout inside so I can brew fine leaf teas like rooibos in it. The other two are very tiny teapots. I just had to have the red one!

Cwyn said

Super cute teapots! Glad to hear they followed thru but sounded a bit scary there for awhile. They have some reasonable prices for sure.

Nice, I was gonna order but hesitated until someone else did. And later then found a similar ice glaze teapot on ebay and won it for cheap. I still might order from umitea – I was tempted by the same white tea pot you purchased!

Ubacat said

Yes, it was a bit scarey since I was the very first one ordering and I couldn’t find reviews anywhere for this company. Now that I know they shipped okay, I might consider buying something else down the road.

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boychik said

Enjoy your new pots, they are adorable. I still don’t understand: you didn’t checkout and they demanded money? So many times I play with teas or teawear in my cart, don’t recall any company asking that I owe them money…

Ubacat said

That’s where I thought maybe I did something and didn’t recall. I just wanted to let everyone know in case they wanted to order. Customer service is not the greatest there. They also had promised to send me free tea samples with the teapots (which showed in the cart when I checked out) but there was no tea samples included. I’m just glad I got the teapots. They are something I just can’t buy here and for what I spent, an amazing deal.

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I’m tempted to place an order now. I’ll let everyone know how it goes

Ubacat said

Looking forward to hearing how your experience goes. I may still do another future order down the road with them if others are having a decent shopping experience.

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auskp said

Hi! I recently discovered umiteasets and placed a large order. I actually spoke to a customer service rep on the live chat app and they were very helpful. I was having problems with the check out as the discount coupon was not working and I was being charged for shipping. The rep quickly calculated the discount and removed the shipping charges and emailed me a tax invoice and link to pay via PayPal. After I made payment, I did start to worry about the order as I couldn’t find any feedback on the company. My order is due for delivery by 25 July and I’ll give you an update then!

Ubacat said

How exciting that other’s have ordered or are ordering. I look forward to seeing what you got. It appears you had better customer service than me but I find they are very helpful when ordering. It’s just when the order is complete they seem to disappear.

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auskp said

Just a quick update. I tried sending a few emails to follow up on my order and no response. However, when I logged on to the site this evening, I spoke to sales rep using the chat facility. At first, she could not find my order, but after providing more details, she found the order, informed me of the status and provided me with the EMS tracking number. The order is on its way! I’ll post pics when received.

Did you get the items yet?

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auskp said

Yes! I received all of my items in perfect condition and a few days earlier than expected! I was trying to find a way to post a picture here, but there doesn’t seem to be the facility to do that. The tea board is stunning and clay tea caddies are lovely. There was a small mistake with my order as I received two different types of tea caddy and I jumped online and spoke to live chat. They offered to investigate, but I said that I was happy with the items I received. I seasoned the tea caddies and they have a lovely, smooth finish and now smell wonderful! I placed another order for some tea caddies as they represent great value at ~$15, whereas my local store charges ~$65 for clay tea caddies.

To post a picture, you have to upload it onto another site like photobucket or flickr, then post the image link here.

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MzPriss said

Just fyi – I have this tea tray (not from them – but the same tray):

http://www.umiteasets.com/plum-blossom-small-bamboo-tea-tray.html
$63.98???

The same tray at Mandala with barely any wait for shipping: http://shopmandalatea.com/tea-wares/tea-trays/bamboo-tea-desk-with-plastic-catchment-tray.html

Lucas said

I just found the size is different, the umi tea tray is larger than mandala.

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TDFC said

Do not buy from them!!!!
First of all, it takes forever to ship. I purchased 2 sets from them, both of the products came after one month, and there was no way to track the shipping.
Secondly, both of them are the wrong products. None of them was the same with the picture, both of them were crap.
Most importantly, I tried to contact the customer service to return, they never response.
Now I am just holding those tea sets I don’t need, no way to do with them.

Do you have photos?

First post!

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Do not buy from this store. I bought a tea set for a Christmas gift and ordered on Nov 27, 2014 with Standard Shipping [7-11 days]. My order did not come until Jan 2, 2015.

The box arrived all crushed up, and when I opened it, half of the tea set was broken. I think they just found the cheapest shipping option to increase their margins.

I opened a claim on Paypal to get my money back but here is the catch. The product shipped from China and I have to ship it back. So I’m probably going to lose $35 on the shipping, to get a $100 refund (assuming everything goes right).

And lastly, the quality of the tea set I got was pretty bad. It is cheaply made and the lid to the tea pot does not fit correctly.

I just want to warn people so you don’t lose your money to this terrible store.

boychik said

If you paid Paypal with your credit card contact the credit card. You have a protection. They will reimburse you and will collect the money fr this company.

It’s been a long time, but I notice a reply to this thread so I might as well post an update. I was just too angry at the time and decided to stop thinking about the bad transaction.

My estimate was incorrect, as it would have cost me ~$100 to ship it back. I was really angry. The PayPal customer support was no help, and I basically canceled my PayPal account in anger. Did not want to support a business that was allowing this sort of thing to occur.

Also, at the time, I was not in the habit of using my credit card for purchases. I basically had one and made a few purchases to have credit. Now I only use my credit card for everything, for that added protection.

boychik said

Dear Phuong Dan Nguyen
Thank you so much for coming back with your experience after almost a year of discussion. You still have nothing on your cupboard or tasting notes, or anything….
It says a lot! Come back in a year to reply ;P

Ah well, I don’t really drink tea. It was a present for my girlfriend. I ordered a month ahead for Christmas and they were still late. This was one of the few places where I could write a review of my experience.

boychik said

excellent. thanks ;D

LucidiTea said

My experience is very, very much in line with what you experienced. :( I’ll be more careful in the future.

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Equusfell said

Oh man… seems there are mixed review on this place. I’m contemplating ordering a small gaiwan from them, since, including shipping, it is $15 cheaper at umiteasets than the identical item listed at amazon.com (from a third party seller). Now I’m concerned! Would you chance it?
http://www.umiteasets.com/ram-s-horn-lid-ruyao-gaiwan-teapot.html

Ubacat said

As you can see from my comments on this discussion, I ordered and it took forever to ship. Once the order was placed they had NO contact with me. I don’t know why they were like that. The order had shipped and it would have been an easy thing for them to tell me it was shipped and give me the tracking number. Instead I contacted them through a different email pretending I was a new customer with questions. They were there and answered and then I hit them with the question about my order. They didn’t like that.

Anyway, all in all, I got the package and am very happy with my teapots. I don’t think I would order again. There are plenty of good sellers out there with great customer service and great teaware to bother with Umiteas.

Equusfell said

Maybe I will just have to bite the bullet and go for the amazon guarantee since it seems to be the only other place that sells that gaiwan…

Ubacat said

It is a pretty gaiwan. Did you try Aliexpress?

Cwyn said

Umiteasets is probably going to,charge you $20 to ship anyway. I can vouch for this seller on Amazon, they also sell on EBay and I’ve ordered from them before and also have an order in with them now. They speak limited English but enough if there is a problem and you need to email them. The gaiwan you want is also in their EBay stock at the same price, if you prefer dealing with EBay over Amazon http://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-Chinese-Porcelain-Celadon-Tea-pot-Gaiwan-Ru-Kiln-Tea-bowl-azure-90cc-/181719916292?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4f59df04

Equusfell said

I did not find it on Aliexpress, though I found many others that I covet (look for my thread on the subject!), but I think I have settled on this on for my first gaiwan. Thank you Cwyn, for showing me their ebay shop. It is good to know that they can be trusted!

Cwyn said

I want their Ruyao dragon tea pet/spoon combination. Badly. But I can’t get past the $50 price tag. Saw a sold out listing on Aliexpress at $37.50 for the same one, but I’m just not willing to go much past $30 for it. I’ll be keeping an eye out. One thing that can be guaranteed with Chinese tea items like this is they are available wholesale which means someone else can get it and likely will.

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