Bought a battery charger on a flash deal several months ago.
Nothing showed up. I inquired a few days ago, got a promise of prompt shipment.
A few days later I got email cancelling the order and promising a refund to PayPal.
Today I got this:
==
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your order at Gearbest.
But, we are sorry to inform you that there is no shipping method for your order .
We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and would like to offer you the following options to resolve this issue:
We will fully refund to your Gearbest wallet and exceptionally offer you extra points for future purchase on our website.
Please allow 1 business day for the transaction to proceed.
==
I don’t have a “Gearbest Wallet” to my knowledge, and have no interest in carrying a credit on their books.
Nothing showed up as the promised PayPal refund.
And a single “choice” isn’t an “option” or an offer.
The order has disappeared from their system so I can’t file a complaint about it.
The item is still for sale at full price on their website, with shipping to the US available.
I realize this is just typical customer support, copy and paste any likely text. I’m just ticked at the deception.
A few years ago I successfully filed some orders with GearBest. At some point, likely to do with changes in the people who manages such business, I started having some difficulties with them, in the form of increased shipping costs and a blatant problem with one of my orders after which I stopped ordering from them. They used an (unknown to me) shipping service for which I had to go somewhere to get my package, for which they sent me some (spammy) email notice messages which were ignored as spam. I claimed my reimbursement some weeks after the problem, and a GB representative promised me a full refund. However, they tried to “swindle save” the shipping costs from my refund, and of course I decided that was the last time they were going to try such a dishonor. That was the end of my relationship with GB.
If you got an email in which they promised you a refund, you should get a refund.
And since you got it in writing, they gave you a brick solid alibi for a PayPal claim.
Looks like you will be joining the “never again” team pretty soon.
A wallet is not stealing, but it is holding on to it until you decide to spend it again (with GB).
GB is the party that cancelled the deal, so the choice of refund or wallet is up to you.
I hate to put it like this, but GB is going from bad to worse. As we say in NL.
You think they still sell the items you ordered. I wonder if most of their stock is just empty shelves.
It’s mostly been said above, but a simple, “Sorry, I paid for it via PP, and I would like it similarly refunded to PP” should be all you need. If they play deaf’n’dumb, then just sic PP at ’em with a copy of their letter to you.
You got the original PP transaction, so if you paid X.XX, you should get back exactly X.XX. Period. Don’t get worked up, just go into polite broken-record mode. Don’t answer them (GB) point by point, just go back to the top sentence. Rinse, repeat.
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It’s patently obvious they ain’t Amazon, but when getting refunded from Amazon, they ask me if I’d want a “gift certificate” or refund, and most times I’ll just get the GC because I order often enough from ’em. But it’s my choice. If GB just says, “Wallet or nothing”, that’s not a choice, and it’s up to PP to sort out.
That’s low.
A couple of years ago GB was my favorite vendor because they were quite solid and quite cheap.
Now they are neither and I hardly buy from them anymore.
Before filing a PayPal dispute I would contact their representative on BLF. If it doesn’t help - let PayPal give you your money back.
OP said the order was from several months ago, so I think the time frame for filing a Paypal dispute has passed.
Probably that’s the reason they only offered the wallet option, because they know you can’t do anything about it
a/ GB made the offer just a few days ago, so that is the start-date of your claim.
First they made you an offer, and then they decided not to honor it.
The claim is not about the item they did not send, it’s about the offer they did not honor.
b/ Don’t know for the rest of the world, but my PP-window is 180 days.
I made a purchase at GB in April of that year … since then I couldn’t get shipping information. I have been warning GB since then, and they simply said that I should go to my country’s post office for information. I haven’t achieved anything since then, because the product didn’t arrive in my country to track. I asked for a refund they always say the same thing “go to your parents’ mail for information” … after 90 days and no change in the customer support center. I asked EBANX for help with the kickback … and nothing too, they say they need the information from the GB site. I never buy anything on the GB website again and I don’t even use EBANX (and I don’t even use GB and EBANX) as a payment method, you pay fees and they don’t solve anything. PAYPAL yes you can count on these cases, in 5 days refund your money if the site does not solve your problem.
Be careful with these “wallets”. I don’t want to waste my time and go deep about GB wallet, but I have some experience with BG wallet, and honestly it is most inconvenient “wallet” for customer I ever thought.
1. you can pay from wallet in the wallet’s currency (I had USD in the wallet, to pay from wallet I have to change the price to USD)
2. item price should be exact or lower amount in your wallet. You can not pay part of the price from wallet.
3. wallet top up from 100$.
4. to use wallet you have to set a different password and safety questions regardless you are logged in.
The truth is these companies we have purchased successfully from in the past are now trash .
Another hero will arise in their place and it's best to simply thank them for all the great deals they've given us... and throw a handful of dirt as the box descends into the ground. I always try to remember to be kind to those trying to figure out how to navigate their way thru the forum. Hoping that someday they may become the next greatest source .
DX, Manafont ,Dino Direct, Focalprice, Fastech, Cnqualitygoods, Wallbuys ,Kai Domain ,Gearbest, Bangood , Sofirn ... and 100 others ,some of whom never made the cut .
My last experience with gearbest might have been them failing to fix an issue and the sad realization that the people they had here on the forum had either no ability ,or desire to resolve the problem .
I hesitate to even begin to say paypal is your friend /.
At one point the way to get the problem solved was file something on their site ..and then PM your friendly BLF Gearbutts representative .At one point one would tell the other to take care of it .(Heirarchy) ..Now I think they will both ignore you .Butt I'd try that first ....
File ..PM rep #1 ..PM the second rep .. If they offer a quick solution / wait a few days / Bug them / ..Then dispute .
Fellows you are responsible for what you choose to believe. This is not to say that “the spirit” of whatever you choose to believe in doesn't matters, it of course does to an important extent. But you also have noticeable reality altering powers, and so you should take good care of your (commercial) relationships.
I still order from FastTech, and while they may take a few days to get my packages ready, they serve me properly. As I find it is worth ordering from them, I do. But well, I'm patient. I also get top service from Kaidomain.
Sad to hear about GB problems, i bought a load of lights from them several years ago. But great to hear that you were made whole—alls swell that ends swell.