I got one email from a new buyer today, his above idea made me go crazy.
He mentioned he will use escrow as his payment term only.

I told him, few China manufactories can work with you based on Escrow.com or paypal.
They are factories, not e-shops. Most of them accept T/T, unless your order is huge, they will accept L/C at sight.

His reply was as follows:
"What I have noticed is that all the scammers don't accept escrow.com and every genuine seller does. I will even pay the escrow.com fees. Its easy and free to setup an account."
He sent another email as follows:
"But L/C is not that safe. Do they offer the same service as escrow? They hold the money until I have received and inspected the goods and when I have approved the goods the factory will get paid? If so maybe I can do L/C. Does genuine companies offer free samples at all?
......
I have found companies that accept escrow.com but there prices is abit on the high side and my profit margin is too low.
......
Do I only pay you when I have received the goods and approved them or how does that work?"

I would like to explain him in details, but suddenly, I just felt I am too tire to explain such questions when the buyer can't afford any risks but want to gain.
(the reason made me crazy I think is when I don't work with him based on escrow, that means I am a scam, oh, my god. Same to you, when you don't accept escrow, you are a scam also)

I would like to ask the members here, especially the china suppliers ( when I mention suppliers, I am talking about Chinese exporting companies and factories, not including E-shops which sell branded products ): does your company accept paypal or escrow? What is your usual payment term? Do you agree to use escrow--when the buyer get the goods and find they are in good condition and then he will ask the E-bank to pay you all?

Maybe I don't know escrow too well. But I really don't think Chinese factories use this as a normal payment terms.

Another point made me crazy is, he wanted to get a free sample. But his business is digital photo frame which is more than USD100 for each unit, which sellers are willing to provide a free sample like this???I hope he is not kidding me.

I wish somebody here can help me to clear the payment terms here.

Quoting from [hellojasmine]:


I

Jasmine, I've explained how escrow.com works, and I do promote it as a reliable payment alternative for safe transactions for both buyer and seller.  Escrow.com still makes the T/T payment to the supplier in the same way as any other T/T payment with one difference.  The buyer gets to inspect the goods before they actually pay for them.  Actually I can tell you that there are some very large wholesale sites within China that sell generic products using escrow.com as a payment option.

However, whoever is saying that any business in China that does not accept it is a scam really knows nothing about escrow either.  Long have I stated that most Chinese companies do not understand how it works and that if they wanted to use that form of payment they would have to explain to the seller how it is safe to use for both the seller and the buyer.  I'am not sure if you know how it works either but will be more than happy to send you an email via your website to explain it. 

Your right about the fact that far to many times people ask for free samples.  I don't know what size photo frame they were looking for but there are several producers in China that make a 10" picture frame for far less than $100.00 that comes with no built in memory and supports up to a 4GB memory card.  However,  with electronics like this that can be resold for a sizeable profit, free samples makes no sense and the 100.00 price tag seems more than fair.  It could also be that if they place an order for the suppliers MOQ that the sample can be discounted at that time. 

I can say that I would trust using your service based on the endorsements I have heard from others and even a customer I sent your way when asked who I would trust to combine products sourced from several companies.  In fact I reccommended your services to a client just minutes ago.  By the way I have seen your new website design.  Looks very good and very professional as well.

Best regards,

Ranger

Replying to [hellojasmine]:Ask the potential Buyer to pay for the sample first. However, the sample price will be deducted once they place a bulk order with the required minimum order quantity.