Wow! You guys are really starting to look unfair. Just reading through this it is obvious that some of the issue is the language barrier. Why does everybody think that Gearbest IS trying to sell fake batteries? I will be willing to bet that the majority of these people you speak to have absolutely no idea what one of these batteries is or even looks like, let alone our flashlights and chargers. Even Karen has been on the fast track to learning about what we do with the BLF D80-SE...just as Neal from Banggood was. Hell...99% of the time they do not even touch the products they sell because they are in warehouses.
Even Richard has to check his batteries but he is hands on, is one of us - most of the employees of these resellers are not like us or very often even capable.
To me the price looks to good to be true so I quickly passed. I still go by the "Buy from the closest trusted seller that you can reach over the counter and grab if need be".
I am not sticking up for Gearbest as much as I am for everybody that sells something online. Know what you are buying and if you do not know or cannot be sure than accept the responsibility for the risk. To save literally a couple bucks in the States....not even the cost of Big Mac...my time and sanity is worth more.
Right now I’m not too happy, because I also ordered four of them recently and they are already on the way.
But didn’t we have a gearbest “official” representative here as a forum member?
Yep, I bet they would like it if they could sell fakes without getting caught. But they know they would get caught if they tried to fake cells like that. All it takes is one person with proper battery analyzer. And cells from different manufacturers also have physical differences that could give them away. So it would be really, really hard to make a fake that nobody would notice.
If they would seriously try to fake something, it would most likely be the rebranded cells, not the bare ones. The rebranded ones usually cost more than the bare cell inside, so they could just add branded wrappings to the same cells that the brand manufacturers use - and they might even get away with that, since the performance and physical appearance would be identical.
Anyways, if the 25r’s and 30q’s they sell are fake, then it will be the last time I’ll buy anything from them.
I have an order in process as well — so I left email asking for confirmation these are Samsung cells I’m getting.
The quality control problem may be entirely in the writers/web page end.
I notice they have among those questioned pictures that are clearly button top batteries, and Q&A below saying they are defniitely flat top.
They have that “5000 mAH” cell for sale and right in the text description, in a bright color, it says Actually 1500
A guarantee something is “as described” is pretty weak when the title descriptions don’t agree with the text or the pictures or the answers to questions.
EDIT: title edited to reflect how uncertain all this is
I received an order this week containing 4x protected icr 26f, 2x LG he2, 2x Panasonic 2900pf, and all of them seemed genuine from looks and opus capacity test.
They were packaged badly though, that’s the only bad thing about the order
If I knew that I would receive Real ones, at that price I would order for sure. - But that’s another red flag for me - Why are they so much cheaper than anywhere else? - I don’t see their usual xx% off either, and no mention of a sale.
But like I said, I dunno, and won’t be ordering until do.
Ya know, sometimes in life, you just have to swallow your pride. When all the warning signs are there and there are questions galore and you still go ahead and buy a too good to be true product, at a too good to be true price,how is that fair to then a paypal dispute because you went into it eyes wide open?
This abuse of PayPal’s protection will ruin it for everyone.
If not for the Paypal protection, you would never buy from there in the first place given all the issues that are posted here yet you choose to spend money there and then open a dispute when it ends up being fake. How will you ever learn with that way of thinking?
You can’t wish for the western worlds quality standards for the exact same price you are paying now, if that is what you want, then the price will go up and then you will stop buying from there.
The only place I have bought from is Intn outdoors and Mountain Electronics. I paid a bit more but I bought on the trust that has been built with many members here. I don’t know either of the owners but I trusted members opinions. I would have never even found those sites but for this forum.
So if you are going to ignore the warning signs, who’s fault is it?
All these questions, speculations won’t be settled until somebody actually do some testing. I am sure some ordered this already and will report back on these questions. Wait 2-3 weeks?
I agree we buy at our own risk. However any seller selling fake products takes a bigger risk. Not just PayPal refunding customers but to it’s reputation. There is no excuse to sell fake goods purporting to be something else.