New USA based Pu-erh Tea Shop

i saw this company a week or so ago...

their prices are high and their shipping is higher-than-cost for Priority Mail. (for example, shipping for one 400g cake was quoted at USPS flat-rate $10.00 (Flat rate priority mail is $8.10) and variable rate at $11.70 (1 pound priority mail = $4.05). I should also add that boxes for priority mail are free from the post office.

Unless they're shipping rocks with their tea, or shipping it in fancy boxes, there's no justification for charging $6+ over USPS price. I just sent someone five 357g cakes, four 100g tuo, and two 250g bricks in a flat-rate box for $8.10 ($8.60 with delivery confirmation), so I'm not liking $10.00-$11.70 for 400g.

Also, they appear to be 1greentea.com operating under a different name and with slightly lower prices?

anyone order from them yet?

I'm all for new vendors with new offerings, but a vendor with high prices and high shipping is superfluous.

~j

jimliu snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

You think "their" shipping charge is OK because the extra money goes to you.

When you are posting an ad on usenet, the polite and honest thing to do is identify it as such, instead of pretending to be a neutral recommender.

Maybe in bulk that logic works out, but for just one cake, I could get a cheaper price on eBay, with more pictures and information about the tea, and pay only $2 more in shipping to have it airmailed to me from China.

~j

jimliu snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Look, you are not fooling anyone, and it really just makes you look bad. Even though others are well aware of your dishonesty already, I'll add to it.

It doesn't even take two seconds to find another great posting of yours for Mufflers. And your email address has "indy" in it for Indianapolis, Indiana which "Surprise" is where this great new tea shop is located. Oh, that and the fact that you have two Ebay usernames linked to your email one being "Indymuffler" and the one you used here don't help your cause either. And while you are linked to Bejing and may actually have decent stuff, we'll never know or care - you've burned the bridge.

Oh, and BTW, I find it despicable to be a rentacoder. You are doing nothing to help the IT industry and only further harming it... even though it seems you may not be active at it now, I'd suggest you stop and think about the actual implications and those harmed by it.

- Dominic

I think Dominic T. was overreacting.

I did find a few items reasonably priced at Puerh Shop, like Xiaguan Tuocha, and 2004 Dadugang Pu-erh Tea Brick. At least I think the prices are comparable to those at eBay's. Most of the Pu-erh cakes are from year 2004-5, so the prices could be a little higher.

As a new Puer vendor, Puerh Shop provide people in the States products and service, it should be a welcome news. Personally I don't think I would order something from someone I could not talk to, and I have the trouble to return the product should I dislike it at the first sight. Plus, once I placed an order, I am looking forward to trying it now.

As for the thing saying guy tried to fool everyone, I hardly think so. If you could ID him in a hurry, he got nothing to hide.

If you don't like them, just don't go there. After all, it's a free country.

Dom> > I think their shipping charge is OK, considering they have to pack it

Tough crowd here... :)

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Yes I agree I think there is a bit of over reacting. I understand the points that others are making but even after reading it I'm still glad that the site is up and plan on ordering from it when I start to run low on puerh. Compared to other US companies his prices seem fair and his variety is a lot better than Ten Tea and Hou De where I have been ordering. Sure I realize that it would be cheaper to order in bulk directly from China but for people who are uneasy doing so and prefer to do business with American companies it is a real blessing in my opinion.

John Grebe

Phyll wrote:

No offense is meant, but I have received a large number of emails off-group from folks who ordered from this site and had nothing good to say, also from concerned people who "registered" and are now concerned about the safety of their info. Which are all quite valid since all of this guy's businesses have the same address and it goes back to a residential apartment that has no less than 10 phone numbers and PO Boxes asociated with it.

It's your money, your credit card, your info, and your choice... best of luck John. I did my part and offered the facts, if you want to ignore them, by all means do so. And unless you are a plant, I highly disagree with and take issue with you calling this an "American Company" and "a blessing." There are many more respected and highly rated tea vendors discussed on this newsgroup that have any variety you could wish for at better prices, but again, please don't listen to me... I couldn't possibly know what I'm talking about.

- Dominic

I haven't been active in this group, but I've been registered for several months and have followed tea forums for years. I actually placed an order yesterday before seeing any of this. I'm really a neophyte when it comes to puerh, so it will take me some time to really assess the value of the two puerh teas I've ordered. On the other hand, a Yunnan black and jasmine pearls at $2 and $4, respectively, per

100g seem like great prices. I've tasted enough teas of these types to know what they should look, smell, and taste like. I'll post a short report when they come in. In the meantime, I can report that the credit card payment was handled through PayPal, and the communication from the vendor, including shipping notification and tracking number was prompt and complete. I'll admit that I would probably have passed on the site had I read the earlier posts first. Oh well.

Paypal only payment when the company is not Ebay-based should be the first tip-off. The businesses are not properly registered which is why payment must be accepted this way, and there is nothing to say that they will even ship you anything. Regardless of your personal reasons, please do not do business with individuals like this. You are directly supporting illegal activities, tax evasion/fraud, and driving up interest rates and costs of business for legitimate companies. While you may not care about any of these, I can assure you it all comes back to your wallet in the end and ultimately hurts you.

This kind of thing frustrates the hell out of me. This is not directed at you Bill, so please forgive me, but I have received untold numbers of emails from people ranging from "I gave them my info, what should I do?" to "I have had nothing but problems or bad service/product" or amazingly "they are cheap except for shipping, and I got my tea so you are wrong!" I have gone to the limits of what I can share publicly in this thread on my investigation, I can do no more. If anyone decides to heed my warning, great, if not, fine as well... just PLEASE STOP POSTING TO THIS THREAD. You are just fueling the fire and giving this ass even more exposure to continue what he is doing.

And Bill, please do not share your review of the tea or the company. They are not legitimate, and even if the tea is the best in the world (which we all know it isn't or it would not cost $4 and they would be a proper business making big bucks and highly spoken of across the internet) I would still not give them a dime and would urge others to do the same. Look I have no agenda beyond protecting the regular consumer, and the fact that I deal with the aftermath and the tracking of these people daily... for the love of Jeebus just trust me on this one and let's drop it once and for all now.

- Dominic

If you company is so bad why hasn't there been any direct complaints against it? If you know of these people please encourage them to speak up so its not just your word against his. Personally I don't buy the Pay Pal part as I think its actually more secure to have a designated credit card company process your order and many small business agree that its easier to pay another company to do their credit card processing for them. Honestly I don't care about the guys questionable character especially since if he tries to burn me I'll be able to take my dispute to both Pay Pal and my credit card company so the biggest thing that I have to loose is the inconvenience of having to file a fraud claim. All I care about is that I get my order and that my puerh tastes good.

And Bill if you have a positive experience with the Puerh Tea Shop please respond and tell us about it in this thread. The guy deserves a fair hearing if he is running a legit business that gives you what you pay for regardless of what others think of his prices. After all remember those teaspring.com fraud hoax a few months ago of someone wrongly starting rumors that it was just a scam to steal your credit card info. They turned out to be wrong yet the business surely suffered because of that slander.

John Grebe

Dom> > In the meantime, I can report that the

John Grebe wrote: ... all of it B.S....

OK, this is my last post here. You, sir are an asshole. Please be happy with your puerh and go away now. You have never been a part of this newsgroup and I could care less if you ever are.

One last recap:

• We have given links to posts for both this and his muffler business where he has pulled the same stunt to "promote", which is fraud.

• I have shown how each business is registered to the same small residential apartment.

• The "businesses" are not properly registered.

• He can't get a real merchant account due to this, so all transactions are handled through paypal.

• I have over 12 emails at this moment from people, if they do not want to be known, so be it... I'm not going to publish it here against their will.

• Overpriced tea, and even more overpriced shipping which was clearly covered in one of the first responses.

• Mike Petro who is a very respected and knoweldgable indivual has also spoken to past issues. Misrepresentation of the tea and product, spamming of his website, and his negative review which he has linked to above.

I'm unsure if you are the real John Grebe, the kind-of writer, christian, "sounds of dissent," etc... but if you are you should be ashamed that you keep trying to justify a blatantly unscrupulous business. I even went to the extent to explain how "companies" like this are evading tax laws, generally linked to illegal activities, and hurt you and me in the long run. To be so selfish to just blow all that off and say that you will just take it up with Paypal is plain stupid. That is why interest rates on credit cards is where its at, and soon services like Paypal will be similarly affected due to people like you and ruin it for everyone else. This has nothing at all to do with Teaspring, which is a legitimate business and always has been no matter what anyone says... this is not, plainly, clearly, openly fradulent.

If you knew anything you would know that I am not interested in harming anyone's business or spreading hoaxes. *I am involved in law enforcement and security* I am 100% certain of what I say, it has been completely and clearly laid out for you and everyone else to see. Now please go away, you are not welcome here and neither are "businesses" such as this.

- Dominic Drinking: Soon to be opening a large icy-cold can of whoop-ass if this continues much more.

Sorry about the earlier posts looking back I now realize that the series of posts by the same person under different user names got me confused on my first reading and I now share your doubts about the site after comparing the product descriptions of the same products on ebay that got the label organic added to them on the Puerhshop.com. Your right that I don't regularly post here, but I started here when this thread was referred to in Adagio's Tea Chat when the site was promoted there. I'm not the John Grebe behind Sounds of Dissent but the Christian writer and tend to always try to see the good in people while being slow in condemn, in this case probably too slow. Thank you for pointing out to me what I was slow to see at first, and yes I agree its time to put this topic to rest.

John Grebe

Dom> ... all of it B.S....

"Thank you for pointing out to me what I was slow to see at first, and yes I agree its time to put this topic to rest."

Amen! : )