In 2014, I made the first successfull analyzing charger group buy with GearBest in the Opus BT-c3100 v2.0…we sold almost a thousand back then. Martin (M4dM4x) even just posted in the thread as a new member in BLF, among other new members and affiliates that would eventually take over and actively organize group buys.
I helped GB facilitate numerous group buys, all sorts of giveaways…like 11.11, mid-year sale, father’s day, Chinese New Year, most importantly their own Birthday Anniversary for 6 straight years, etc., etc., until they finally reneged on the agreement and failed to send out the prizes to the winners in their 6th Birthday Anniversay on June, 2020. It was during this time that I felt things are not doing fine with them.
I immensely enjoyed our cooperation for 7 years though, as I never accepted their offer to become an affiliate in our group buy efforts.
A very awesome flashlight era that was. To me Gearbest had the best stupid good deals. $10 Zanflare F1, $0.99 Liitokala 101 charger. The best deal ever was with Gearbest; I got an Imalent DT35 (sealed) for around $60. Absolutely bonkers.
Yeh, that’s why I usually had 2-3 GB shipments up in the air at any given time. Stoopit-good deals like the ’101s, the under-a-buk toofbrush-style USB lights, etc.
In the past, my usual approach to all webshops was, who needs insurance.
I have been reading up on GB. It seems that a lot of uninsured goods from GB go MIA.
But maybe that was only from the era they acually sold something.
Looked at their new website and must say that I’m not impressed by their prices.
IMHO GB is doing something very clumsy with their website.
After the -search “nitecore site:gerabest.com” you come to the Nitecore corner.
From there you can go anywhere as long as you are NOT clicking on home page.
And there was the Gearbest data breach Report - Gearbest Hack: Hundreds of Thousands Affected Daily by Huge Data Breach. Their customer database was left wide open. When confronted about it, Gearbest denied it, then later said “it’s fixed”. Weeks later, someone posted that it was indeed not fixed, and never was. In fact, he showed how anyone with the slightest computer knowledge could view the GB database. Wide open to the public.
Personally, I don’t trust any of these companies, including Aliexpress. If they don’t take paypal, I don’t buy from the them.
Yeh, I was gonna suggest, one last cash-grab before going under completely?
Rack up a bunch of new orders, fake shipping them and/or stalling, then when maxed out, transfer all funds somewhere safe and pull all plugs simultaneously.