My story

I am from Hungary and I bought a Yongnuo YN-565EX from mkstudio on  March-8-2012. Costs  $153.99 USD

The flash arrived on Apr-11-12. Almost a month... but the flash worked fine, I posted a positive feedback, because I was happy. On the next week, when I really wanted to use the flash on an event, after a few flash, the Youngnuo just not worked anymore, didn't flash. I contacted with mkstudio, what should I do: try to find somebody who can fix the flash, or send it back and got the refund. He said very kindly, just send it back, and he will refund my money, when the item arrive at his local post office. I believed him, so I dispatched the flash on Apr 17. The flash arrived on Apr 27 at the local post office. I asked about when will he refund, he said when the post man will deliver to him, and he will send a new flash to me. That wasn't an option to me, I wanted my money back. He said ok. But after more than 2 weeks the first delivery attempt, still nothing. Little suspect... so I wrote to eBay and PayPal, maybe they can speed up the process for my money, but they said, I am over the "Buyer protection" and over the 45 days!!!! They advised: contact to the seller! Great, I can put this into somewhere I want...  :))

So, no buyer protection, just SELLER PROTECTION, because after 45 days, you can do NOTHING, just mailing with the seller, who is far-far-away. But lets do this, if eBay think this can work.

After a few days, mkstudio got the flash on 02-Jun-12.

  "my friend,we got the light flash finally.
  please leave us your paypal account for refunding."

Ok, hurray!!! My waiting is over, eBay had right! But just a question, when will you refund, I asked. The answer:

  "we would refund you the payment within 3 working days."

Oh... Why? Why not today? What is holding you back?

  "my friend,don't worry.we are dealing with the payment for you."

After 3 working days later, and after I asked, when he will refund my money, I got this:

  "my friend,we need to unify the payment for refunding to our customer.
  please pay a little more patient with this. don't worry,we must refund you the payment.
  have a nice day."

I thought it will be just a few hours delay, but nothing happened. Next day:

  "my friend,don't worry.we must refund you the payment.
  to be honest,we did not have enough money for refunding this period.
  because we need change the paypal account for our company.
  hope to understand,that would last a little long to transit the money.
  thank you so much.have a nice day."

And the rightful question is "when"? Then answer:

  "no more delayed.in 5 days later(Jun 15).you must receive the payment.
  please just give us 5 days to solve the problem by our paypal account.thanks."

Familiar? Right? Promise everything, keep nothing. No more delay  = 5 more days? Funny. I was a little bit haywire!

  "please wait,the 5 days was estimated.we would try our best to achieve it soon.
  please just wait 2-3 days.we must solve the problem for you."

On Jun 12:

  "no more delayed.in 3 working days later."

On Jun 13:

  "thanks,my friend.we are dealing with the payment for you."

I asked again: when? Answer:

  "just after 2 working days.thanks."

Tragicomic, right? And this was 2 weeks ago. And still nothing. Refund day just not come.

I just waited a new excuse like this: "Sorry, our net speed is suddenly become very unreliable, so we can't take a risk to transfer?" or "My gosh, our computer had exploded, but don't worry, we will refund your money as we got a new machine... it takes, not much time, only 2 months?" or "We have a half year Chinese holiday, we can't refund during these days"

But no more mails from mkstudio.  No more answers. No more excuses. No refund.

So, be aware this seller, because if you have any problem, and you are over 45 days "buyer protection", you are alone. He will never refund your money (against his principles or what), you leaved a positive feedback, and this story will never shows up! Or it will? :)

- Zoltan from Hungary