It ended different than you would expect. Here's my story.
On January 9th, I ordered and paid for a skid steer sheep-foot compactor attachment from Shandong Brothers Industries Ltd located in China (Hong Kong). As of 8/1/23, because of difficult communication avenues, I could only assume that they never shipped the product and I figured that I lost the total funds of $5,445.00 (total cost of Compactor/Shipping/US Customs). It's was definitely NOT a pleasant experience.
It arrived more than 10 months later...
After ordering the compactor, the salesman just kept telling me that my product is on its way. The exporting and importing companies kept asking me for shipping documentation. When I ask the salesman for the necessary exporting/shipping and port of entry documents, he said; he will send them. I never received actual shipping documents. This resulted in me and the salesman having "not pleasant" correspondence. It was not belligerent, but not cordial communication either. I emailed the sales manager and owner of the company, they did not respond. I contacted the China bank who performed the wire transfer with my bank, they would did not respond for the longest time and finally denied my refund claim. There was also nothing that my bank would do.
Note: There isn't an avenue or conduit for Americans to investigate or get a refund of their money from a Chinese company. It's hard to acquire the smallest amount of information.
If you order through Alibaba, which I did, you definitely need to acquire "Trade Assurance", but be careful. Before transferring money, to seller; contact Alibaba and be sure the seller submitted Trade Assurance documentation and that it was filled out properly to secure Trade Assurance. Read your Trade Assurance very carefully and thoroughly. The seller sent me the Trade Assurance document, so I thought I had insurance, but they didn't fill out a couple of pertinent areas to make the Trade Assurance vaild, therefore Alibaba denied my refund claim (my fault for not being through). Trade Assurance will be the only chance of constructive communication with the seller and buyer. Throughout the 10 months, communication was very spotty.
12/29/23
On October 20, 2013 I received a phone call from the local importer telling me that I have a crate that arrived from China and needs to be picked up "TODAY". It was the sheep-foot compactor. Because I did not know the crate was there, and it sat in storage for a month, I was charged an additional $175.00. This unit was ordered and paid for on January 9, 2023. It arrived on October 10, 2023.
12/29/23, I had a chance to unpack the unit. The unit was in an heavy duty angle iron case. The top was shielded with 1/8 wood and the entire package was wrapped in plastic wrap. Unpacking was easy. The steel crate was large enough so that all I had to do was hook a chain to the compactor, cut the retaining wires that were securing the compactor to the metal crate. Using an excavator, I lifted the compactor out of the steel crate. Note: I purchased a smooth compactor from another manufacture "Mower King "and the steel crate had to be cut completely open to remove the compactor.
I could see that Brothers LTD assured that the design of the compactor "hitch plate" was correct because it connected quickly and easily to my Kubota SVL-95-2 hitch. We had communicated in depth about this might be an issue. The Mower King compactor would not connect to a Kubota SVL95-2. I had to make significant modifications to the Mower King compactor hitch in order for it to hitch properly to the SVL-95-2. This was at a cost of $200.00 for materials.
The next surprise was that the quick connect hydraulic couplings were already mounted to hoses. Good job to Brothers. Mower King does not supply hydraulic coupling with their attachments. The cost of these quick couplers were ($270). I also noticed that Brothers LTD cut the hoses to the correct length, so whereas they did not rub on the vibrating drum (unlike Mower King). The Brother LTD hoses were also double wrapped with sheathing to prevent any wear from the vibrating motion. Mower King did not have the hoses cut to the correct size and no additional sheathing. While in operation: The edge of the compactor quickly cut through one of the Mower King hoses. Neither of the compactors came with a user manual or a parts manual.
I greased the compactor very liberally before running it. There are two grease fittings one on each side.
I had the skid steer hydraulic setting on "LOW FLOW", out-feed on #5 and return on #5. I ran the machine at 1/3 throttle for approximately 10 minutes. The pad-foot compactor seemed to work as it should. I did not experience any smoking or over heating as I did with the Mower King Model which burned up the bearings up within 3 minutes of use. The Brothers compactor appeared to compact as it should. I also noticed that the Brothers compactor has an additional hydraulic valve mounted on the side of their compactor and is plumbed in line with the hydraulic motor. I'm not sure what the hydraulic valve does.
2/28/24: I used the compactor on to compact a shop pad. It worked very well. I only ran at 1/2 throttle and used it for over 6 hours. At this point I would recommend the pad foot compactor from Brothers international (china)
Conclusion: Although the salesman and I had stressful times, and I had lost all hope in ever seeing the compactor, in the end Brothers LTD seemed to come though. The compactor appears to be well made. When looking back and reviewing what happen, even though the salesman's English was far superior to my Chinese (I don't know any Chinese), I believe there was most likely a communication breach (language barrier) between the salesman and myself. I would also say that there is also a difference of how America and China conducts B2B business. As it stands, for now, the Brothers Industry compactor appears to be much higher quality to the Mower King. Thanks Brothers industry for coming through in the end.
I would probably not purchase another attachment from China. The process is long and cumbersome. Alibaba directions for importing documentation is spotty at best. I had to contact two importers for help. The cost to import to America was crazy high. The fee's were not on china's side, it was on America's side. There were over 12 different additional charges which were almost as much as the attachment itself.
Thanks for reading
On January 9th, I ordered and paid for a skid steer sheep-foot compactor attachment from Shandong Brothers Industries Ltd located in China (Hong Kong). As of 8/1/23, because of difficult communication avenues, I could only assume that they never shipped the product and I figured that I lost the total funds of $5,445.00 (total cost of Compactor/Shipping/US Customs). It's was definitely NOT a pleasant experience.
It arrived more than 10 months later...
After ordering the compactor, the salesman just kept telling me that my product is on its way. The exporting and importing companies kept asking me for shipping documentation. When I ask the salesman for the necessary exporting/shipping and port of entry documents, he said; he will send them. I never received actual shipping documents. This resulted in me and the salesman having "not pleasant" correspondence. It was not belligerent, but not cordial communication either. I emailed the sales manager and owner of the company, they did not respond. I contacted the China bank who performed the wire transfer with my bank, they would did not respond for the longest time and finally denied my refund claim. There was also nothing that my bank would do.
Note: There isn't an avenue or conduit for Americans to investigate or get a refund of their money from a Chinese company. It's hard to acquire the smallest amount of information.
If you order through Alibaba, which I did, you definitely need to acquire "Trade Assurance", but be careful. Before transferring money, to seller; contact Alibaba and be sure the seller submitted Trade Assurance documentation and that it was filled out properly to secure Trade Assurance. Read your Trade Assurance very carefully and thoroughly. The seller sent me the Trade Assurance document, so I thought I had insurance, but they didn't fill out a couple of pertinent areas to make the Trade Assurance vaild, therefore Alibaba denied my refund claim (my fault for not being through). Trade Assurance will be the only chance of constructive communication with the seller and buyer. Throughout the 10 months, communication was very spotty.
12/29/23
On October 20, 2013 I received a phone call from the local importer telling me that I have a crate that arrived from China and needs to be picked up "TODAY". It was the sheep-foot compactor. Because I did not know the crate was there, and it sat in storage for a month, I was charged an additional $175.00. This unit was ordered and paid for on January 9, 2023. It arrived on October 10, 2023.
12/29/23, I had a chance to unpack the unit. The unit was in an heavy duty angle iron case. The top was shielded with 1/8 wood and the entire package was wrapped in plastic wrap. Unpacking was easy. The steel crate was large enough so that all I had to do was hook a chain to the compactor, cut the retaining wires that were securing the compactor to the metal crate. Using an excavator, I lifted the compactor out of the steel crate. Note: I purchased a smooth compactor from another manufacture "Mower King "and the steel crate had to be cut completely open to remove the compactor.
I could see that Brothers LTD assured that the design of the compactor "hitch plate" was correct because it connected quickly and easily to my Kubota SVL-95-2 hitch. We had communicated in depth about this might be an issue. The Mower King compactor would not connect to a Kubota SVL95-2. I had to make significant modifications to the Mower King compactor hitch in order for it to hitch properly to the SVL-95-2. This was at a cost of $200.00 for materials.
The next surprise was that the quick connect hydraulic couplings were already mounted to hoses. Good job to Brothers. Mower King does not supply hydraulic coupling with their attachments. The cost of these quick couplers were ($270). I also noticed that Brothers LTD cut the hoses to the correct length, so whereas they did not rub on the vibrating drum (unlike Mower King). The Brother LTD hoses were also double wrapped with sheathing to prevent any wear from the vibrating motion. Mower King did not have the hoses cut to the correct size and no additional sheathing. While in operation: The edge of the compactor quickly cut through one of the Mower King hoses. Neither of the compactors came with a user manual or a parts manual.
I greased the compactor very liberally before running it. There are two grease fittings one on each side.
I had the skid steer hydraulic setting on "LOW FLOW", out-feed on #5 and return on #5. I ran the machine at 1/3 throttle for approximately 10 minutes. The pad-foot compactor seemed to work as it should. I did not experience any smoking or over heating as I did with the Mower King Model which burned up the bearings up within 3 minutes of use. The Brothers compactor appeared to compact as it should. I also noticed that the Brothers compactor has an additional hydraulic valve mounted on the side of their compactor and is plumbed in line with the hydraulic motor. I'm not sure what the hydraulic valve does.
2/28/24: I used the compactor on to compact a shop pad. It worked very well. I only ran at 1/2 throttle and used it for over 6 hours. At this point I would recommend the pad foot compactor from Brothers international (china)
Conclusion: Although the salesman and I had stressful times, and I had lost all hope in ever seeing the compactor, in the end Brothers LTD seemed to come though. The compactor appears to be well made. When looking back and reviewing what happen, even though the salesman's English was far superior to my Chinese (I don't know any Chinese), I believe there was most likely a communication breach (language barrier) between the salesman and myself. I would also say that there is also a difference of how America and China conducts B2B business. As it stands, for now, the Brothers Industry compactor appears to be much higher quality to the Mower King. Thanks Brothers industry for coming through in the end.
I would probably not purchase another attachment from China. The process is long and cumbersome. Alibaba directions for importing documentation is spotty at best. I had to contact two importers for help. The cost to import to America was crazy high. The fee's were not on china's side, it was on America's side. There were over 12 different additional charges which were almost as much as the attachment itself.
Thanks for reading
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