I'm slowly working my way through a support ticket with Gearbest. So far, though it has been a bit slow, progress is being made, however, it is time for them to ship my replacement.
Timeline:
15 July - ordered LiitoKala Engineer 500 charger (US warehouse) and Brinyte B158 (CN warehouse)
15 July - order is split (as expected)
16 July - charger order info is transmitted and shipped
26 July - charger arrives, in several pieces.
As an aside here, I'm not blaming Gearbest for the damage that FedEx and the USPS did, they might have packaged it a little better, but given the level of damage, it probably would have needed some serious packaging.
26 July - I submit a claim, with pictures:
Order xxx
Charger arrived damaged.
Please send replacement.
26 July - receive email apologizing and asking if I want credit, refund, or resend.
26 July - I reply, "Please send replacement" and include (as requested) my name, address, and phone number.
26 July - receive email confirming shipping info, and the statement:
It will be shipped within 3-5 business days and will be delivered to you within 10-25 business days after dispatch.
Please contact with us in 7 days, I will check the reshipment information for you.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
1 August - receive B158, in good condition, play with my first zoomie.
2 August - I request shipping information.
3 August - receive the following:
Thank you for your reply. We wish to apology for this inconvenience.
We are preparing the reshipment of your item. It will be shipped within 3-5 business days and will be delivered to you within 10-25 business days after dispatch.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
I have read too many stories here to let this float, so I'm posting this to document my progress and perhaps shine some light (HA!! See what I did there!?) on the process.
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10 August - I send this message: "Please ship today or credit my account"
11 August (very early in the morning) - I receive an apology for the long processing time, a shipping number and a ship date of 2016-07-28 (Well, that is a surprise!)
11 August (pushing lunch time) - A box shows up with USPS!
My charger is here and in one piece.
CONCLUSIONS:
I am quite satisfied with my transaction, GearBest did not damage my first charger, one of the shipping companies did. GearBest shipped a replacement the day after they got the request and information to do so. Internal communications at GearBest seem to be as funky as they are at every company that I have ever worked for, in that CS did not have the most up to date information. GearBest did right by me. In the future, I may request a wallet credit right off the bat, but this replacement probably arrived more quickly that a new order would have.
I want to restate that this post has NEVER been an attempt to bash GearBest, only to document my experience resolving a fairly typical shipping damage claim with a supplier that has suffered some pretty nasty criticism here. If anything, my experience has made me MORE LIKELY to buy from GearBest in the future.
Now, how does this charger work???
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