Rating: GearBest.com [AVOID]

I am not too fond of sellers sending me vague PM's, gearbest has done that twice.

Banggood started PM-ing me as well (but it was not a vague mail, but straight asking me to review a light), and it resulted in me doing a review, so it does work for them, but then came Tinydeal and now Gearbest. So I'm guilty responding to one of these personal mails, but now I'm not so sure if I appreciate any more of them :-(

Who is going to review the evil bear?

Too bad his eyes don’t light up so we can claim it a “flashlight” review.
Forgot link Monokuma

Thanks guys, updated the original post.

+1 on the automatic insurance, which is very annoying indeed….

I received unsolicited PMs from Gearbest also, wanting me to do reviews of their lights. It really doesn't bother me. If they want to send lights for free, so I can review them, so much the better. It keeps the monthly giveaways coming. I don't care where they come from. They don't have anything different than anyone else. They just went with different brand names and that's all I see. Just another seller trying to get in the biz. We see them all the time don't we?

I'm sure they will be responsive for a while at first...

Edit: I like the insurance thing. That way the stuff they ship should definitely get replaced or money reimbursed if it's missing or damaged and it's safer for them when people try to con them, saying something is bad when it isn't.

They originally contacted me through my blog asking me to do reviews, and I did one for them. My problem with them is that I didn’t even get a “hey, thanks for your time” or any response at all from them, even though I did the review here on BLF as well, and they got two reviews for the same flashlight.

So they were very aggressive until they got what they wanted and then treated me like I didn’t exist. I’m not hurting for money or flashlights, and I give everyone trust and the benefit of the doubt until they give me reason not to. I’m sure their aggressive tactics will find someone hard-up for a flashlight, but that isn’t me. Sorry, but I won’t be dealing with them in the future.

The hidden $1.00 charge on every order is as sneaky as it gets, when you see an owner doing something like that, then you know that he is not totally trustworthy and will always be looking for more than he can get honestly and openly, so you always have to be on your toes if you have to deal with him.

Somewhat similar experience here, except I contacted them through their public thread review sample offer.

After I made the review they kept requesting me to do more things with the promise of the next light until the end result was essentially “just kidding, no next light for you.”

You live and you learn. I similarly won’t be dealing with them anymore.

What did they request you do?

You remember that giveaway they organised at the end of March -> ” Gearbest Sipik SK98 Giveaway TWO WINNERS”:[Announced] Gearbest Sipik SK98 Giveaway TWO WINNERS
well, I thought my luck with radnom.org changed but it seems it did not :frowning: contacted them yesterday via pm to see what is happening with that gift of mine and here is the answer:

I am not particular fan of SK98-type lights but I like gifts, I am not a rich guy to refuse free light either but I am pretty sure this one is not coming…

Wow, sorry Sirius9.

:~ If your going to do a giveaway it would be good to hold the prizes aside.

It was mostly simple things like minor tweaks to my review, title, text link, picture link. Quick changes no problem. They wanted me to advertise their event in my review which I declined and they said that was fine…

Then they wanted me to make that Nitecore event deal alert, which I did.

Strung me along for a week or two and got the ‘just kidding, no light’ email.

Normally I’d be fine with all that was requested as long as they were truthful up front.

It’s not hidden. I’m not a fan of it, but it is a unique service that might be valuable for someone else who might miss the option. I’ve seen other online vendors add a whole new item, so it isn’t even uncommon any more.

Not related to the post above I’ve had members send unsolicited messages when they’ve seen something I posted that triggered a comment from them. It’s part of being a member of an online community. I can’t understand being offended by an offer of a free light to review - or an exchange that is based on a response to a message.

Its that some companies aren’t looking for honest reviews as much as looking for advertising shill. Unsolicited messages from a good company is ok.
Haven’t dealt directly with Gearbest.

Dear Racer,
Thank you for taking your time to write your review!I want to start a personal apology to you,please understand that we are more than willing to assist any customer. That is why we are here to help. Please feel free to contact us or chat with us online. Our customer service will be 24/7.
GearBest.com is trying our best to make every customer happy.
karen

Dear Sirius9,
We are truly sorry for the problems with this order,
The order was shipped out for you.
,this is the tracking number,
Usually the tracking information online with two days delay ,please track that later .
Any question,please contact me freely .
Looking forward to hearing from you .
Yours sincerely,
karen

For Gearbest, as of now, time to ship also seem to be very long. My order on 11 April is still processing - it’s 10 days now.

Unable to ship one item out in that timeframe is not a very good score. Normally other vendors will at least send some message to inform of any problems.

I’ll add this item to the list as well. Just to confirm: the item was listed as “in stock” when you ordered it?

Yup. Shipping availability quoted below. I'm not trying to bash GB here, but surely they can improve this.

Thanks! OP updated.