Gearbest: Lots of orders missing, looking for advice

On Slickdeals, all deals related to Gearbest are banned.

I tried posting a couple of deals and couldn’t, so I asked a couple of the moderators for the reason why. Their answer was that too many Gearbest deals turned out to have problems. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t) disclose the nature of problems, just that they were too numerous to disregard, hence the ban.

The true story of “lost” Xtar SP2.

Order date : Jul 26
“Your Order W150726………. has been shipped out”: Jul 30

Tracking# RI………CN

31.07.2015 11:26 China post Electronic notification of shipment
31.07.2015 11:26 China post Electronic notification of shipment CN
31.07.2015 16:46 China post Accepted from sender (518103) URUGUAY
31.07.2015 16:46 Correo Uruguayo Accepted from sender China
31.07.2015 16:46 China post Accepted from sender innerHTML3小Bāo Center innerHTML4
31.07.2015 16:46 China post Accepted from sender innerHTML3小Bāo Center innerHTML4 (51810302)
31.07.2015 22:30 China post Arrived at postal office 小Bāo Center
31.07.2015 22:30 China post Arrived at postal office 小Bāo Center (51810302)
31.07.2015 22:57 China post Left postal office 小Bāo Center ,下YīZhàn
31.07.2015 22:57 China post Left postal office 小Bāo Center (51810302) ,下YīZhàn
31.07.2015 23:30 China post Sorting Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú
31.07.2015 23:30 China post Sorting Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú (51805300)
01.08.2015 13:45 China post Consolidated for export (Export) Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú
01.08.2015 13:45 China post Consolidated for export (Export) Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú (51805300)
10.08.2015 19:21 China post Sorting Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú
10.08.2015 19:21 China post Sorting Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú (51805300)
11.08.2015 13:03 China post Consolidated for export (Export) Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú
11.08.2015 13:03 China post Consolidated for export (Export) Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú (51805300)
27.08.2015 00:14 China post Sorting Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú
27.08.2015 00:14 China post Sorting Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú (51805300)
27.08.2015 14:27 China post Consolidated for export (Export) Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú
27.08.2015 14:27 China post Consolidated for export (Export) Shēnzhèn HùHuànJú (51805300)
31.08.2015 22:24 China post Sorting Beijing HùHuànJú
31.08.2015 22:24 China post Sorting Beijing HùHuànJú (10010200)
01.09.2015 13:31 China post Send item abroad (Export) BEIJING URUGUAY
01.09.2015 13:31 Correo Uruguayo Sorting China
01.09.2015 13:33 China post Left postal office Beijing HùHuànJú
01.09.2015 13:33 China post Left postal office Beijing HùHuànJú (10010200)
01.09.2015 21:54 China post Arrived at postal office innerHTML3Beijing HángZhàninnerHTML4
01.09.2015 21:54 China post Arrived at postal office innerHTML3Beijing HángZhàninnerHTML4 (10000061)
01.09.2015 21:56 China post Left postal office Beijing HángZhàn
01.09.2015 21:56 China post Left postal office Beijing HángZhàn (10000061)
04.09.2015 03:59 China post Flight depart Beijing
04.09.2015 03:59 China post Flight depart Beijing (CNBJSA)
01.10.2015 20:32 China post Arrival at international place of exchange innerHTML3WūLā圭Méng得Wéi的 YàinnerHTML4 (UYMVDA)
01.10.2015 20:32 China post Arrival at international place of exchange MVD IMPORT URUGUAY
01.10.2015 20:32 Correo Uruguayo Arrived at postal office APERTURA GENERAL
08.10.2015 15:00 China post Into customs MVD IMPORT
08.10.2015 15:00 Correo Uruguayo Released by customs APERTURA GENERAL
08.10.2015 15:00 China post Into customs Méng得Wéi的Yà (UYMVDA)
08.10.2015 15:01 Correo Uruguayo Released by customs APERTURA GENERAL
08.10.2015 15:02 China post Left international place of exchange MVD IMPORT URUGUAY
08.10.2015 15:02 Correo Uruguayo Left postal office APERTURA GENERAL

Delivered: Oct 9… after 75 days.

From Jul 31 to Sep 4 (35 days) it was in the hands of China Post.

Two different August knife orders MIA, three September shipments delivered. Been getting canned responses for weeks now — just received the 7th request that I check with the post office even though when first letting them know about the missing orders I told them had already done that. Now they want me to check with all my neighbors.

First they wanted me to wait 60 days before they would resolve the matter. Now that 60 days have passed, they’ve set up new hoops (and repeated the old hoops) to jump through.

Paypal disputes/claims filed for both orders. Attempting to resolve this with GearBest is a waste of time.

Don’t order everything from one place. Spread your orders around. Don’t be held hostage to one dealer.

Also, the Post Office seems to be having a lot of issues. So far, I’ve had both FastTech and DX orders shipped via China post get rejected by the China Post office who returned the parcels claiming they violated security policy, when they clearly did not. (Lithium batteries, knives, liquids cause concern, but my orders didn’t contain these items)

It may be that your order was returned to GB… And if it’s not tracked, then they may not even know it.

I have another shipment from GB that is MIA; it’s just a couple of cheap Bluetooth Audio adapters. I haven’t contacted their support yet, but I probably will after another week or so.

I’ve got an order from August 24 that I’m still waiting for. I’ve ordered four times from GB since the beginning of August and this is the only one that hasn’t arrived. All the others arrived within a month.

July 20 order still not here. Supposedly they have sent a replacement about a month ago, we’ll see. You guys have not seen much of me on here lately because of some shipping issues but mostly the high number of DOA lights, about 40% over the last 6 months. I tired of fooling with these people.

I will not order from Chinese vendors anymore.Problem solved.

Previously had a few GB orders and all arrived OK. Now have a problem with early September orders. Stuff from other Suppliers ordered around same time did arrive.

SlickDeals wants a cut of sales, so it may not be “concern” for anything more than GearBest wouldn’t “cooperate” on that matter. The very name “GearBest” is blocked at SlickDeals, which is pretty pathetic, considering there is no open, stated policy. SD staff typically won’t discuss such matters per internal policy…and it’s easy to just say “problems.”

I pissed some individuals off in another thread by noting GearBest has hit three home runs on my recent orders, but I have to reiterate, they all arrived quickly and in good shape. I’m sorry for the people that are having legitimate problems with their GB orders, but that isn’t my experience. One poster in this thread illustrated one of the causes, with facts: China Post, not GearBest.

I’ve ordered from DealExtreme, FastTech, Banggood, GearBest, Kaidomain, several Chinese sellers on eBay, and a few others. The only one that gave me problems? FastTech. Both GearBest & Kaidomain shipped what I ordered, and once in the mail, it was here in under three weeks. Banggood, DX, and most of the eBay sellers are acceptable (Banggood’s delays were due to postal issues, not them).

Pay double, and still have problems?

If you buy with PayPal, the only problem with Chinese vendors you can’t overcome is delay. Even the best domestic dealers (e.g., GoingGear) make mistakes, and while you will likely get things corrected, it’s still a hassle. Even if you go with “less excellent” domestic dealers, you might have to nuke them with PayPal just the same.

I had only one problem out of 15 orders from gearbest, and they solved it quickly.

Ordered olight S15R 2 days ago for only 18 bucks… amazing light… It has a charger and 14500 battery will update when it arrives… http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_112105.html

I have only ordered once from GearBest, and three times from Banggood. So far, all my experiences have been good.

PayPal understands online buying. It has a mostly fair dispute policy, especially now that the window for filing a claim has been increased to 180 days (in the USA, at least, and elsewhere). I used PayPal for all of my purchases.

When the GearBest order screen informed me that I would have to pay separately for tracking and insurance, I bought both. With my Banggood orders, tracking was included automatically at no extra charge. Banggood did not offer insurance (at least not in the suggestive, you-need-this-unless-you-want-a-hassle-with-us-later way that GearBest did).

My opinion is that every order from overseas should be tracked. When GearBest offers you a chance to pay for that service, you should jump on it.

At this stage I am still wary of purchasing from the major online dealers in China. There are some products I simply won’t buy there. Li-ion batteries are one of them. Although I bought Li-ion batteries at Banggood as part of the group buy that M4D M4X ran alongside the the BLF A6 Special Edition group buy, my standard MO is to buy batteries from the trusted vendors in the USA (where I live). For Convoy flashlights, I am inclined to purchase only from Simon or Mountain Electronics. Except for budget flashlights such as those made by SiPiK, my first notion will be to purchase flashlights in the USA or directly from a manufacturer such as Zebralight or ThruNite.

Given sufficient inducement, I might decide to “gamble” with an overseas sale, but if it does not work out, I will just accept the settlement that PayPal arranges.

What I won’t do is act surprised when there are problems.

Any problems I have had have been dealt with, but I’ve had to be assertive. But you can’t argue with all the missing orders I and other people are having. I do feel they are going to get into a lot of trouble here on BLF. It is staring to remind me of Dino a few years ago.

Pay for tracking no (only 1.99) if you have problems with your postal service, in 8-9 months total over 60 orders from abroad I had only one missing package and it was li-ion samsung s3 phone battery from ebay

I order all the time from banggood, I don’t pay for tracking and it gets here without a problem.

Why can gearbest not do this?

As I am typing this a banggood order for 4 led light bulbs has just arrived in 12 days. The order was only $4 and no tracking. Now the strange thing is it was sent via NL post. Most of my stuff from Gearbest also comes via NL Post but takes months! Why?

I’m still waiting on 2 orders that total under 12 bucks from July. First time something has ever taken this long… I’ve ordered from a ton of places… Never have I seen so many orders not showing up from one vendor. I feel like there’s a problem with the service they use to pick up their mail. If they want to improve customer service they will need to fix this quick. Or people will start going with alternatives. My advice. Always use tracking.

Same here… BG has never screwed up my orders except GB

same her 2 orders missing

why they stille allowed to post deals here ??? a wild guess $$$