I’m Chinese, so I got friends that travels between U.S. and China. Shipping is not too much of a hassle to me, but it still takes lots of time. Once the amp is blown up, it most likely will take me four months to get it fixed. I also know DHL offers $12/kg shipping from China to U.S.
I lived and worked in China. I still have so many friends in Dalian, Shanghai, Chengdu, to name a few. The company I work for does much if our semiconductor assembly-manufacturing in China, including advanced bonding and circuit encapsulation. Our parts have to be both hermetically sealed and have high thermal conductivity, for example. The product coming out of our facilities in China is incredibly high quality (automotive/medical defect rates, to be clear). So it's pretty difficult for me to see Topping playing at the encapsulation game for no good reason and failing. And then trying again without learning anything.
The unhelpful people at Shenzhen Audio were very clear:
- Ship it back USPS
- Declare the value under $20.
- Mark it as an 'earphone'
- Don't include the brand name
An excerpt from one of the
many dozens of emails they sent me from multiple people at Shenzhen, round and round:
Any ideas why they don't want the package marked Topping?

I would love to sarcastically say that this is to prevent embarrassing association with Topping. I think they just haven't thought through doing business overseas and can't afford the duty fees on repair items, heck they probably never anticipated they would need to support repair and warranty. It's not the first time this lack of long-range plan has happened to a company that has dreams of selling across the globe.
My treatment is no different than other people who got robbed. I paid $85 to ship, even though I know there are cheaper and more sure options to China, but I do try to follow the rules, even if the rules are unfair and brain-dead. Shenzhen lost the unit anyway, or at least said they did. To be honest, the $85 shipping isn't the worst part, its the electrical defect, followed in close-second by the defective after-sales service.
I also try to not get fooled the same way twice. So when my A30 Pro that I bought from Aoshida USA gave up (cold and partial solder joints), and the people at Aoshida cheerfully tried the same playbook on me (ship at my own expense, declare as $20 earphone, etc.), I just went full-humiliation on them from the beginning. They refunded me the entire purchase price. Sad to say, only aggression got me my money back.