I have had my share of bad experiences with Gearbest and stuck with them patiently and got most issues resolved after protracted negotiations. And I now select a shipping method that has tracking.
Now Gearbest has gone and pushed me past my tipping point.
On January 7, I placed an order for 2 of the 4 pack of Samsung ICR18650-26FM for $10.39 each for a total of $20.78. I also ordered some storage boxes for the cells. On January 14, I received a shipping confirmation for the storage boxes without the cells. I also got a message that a support ticket has been created to inform me that the 4 pack of cells is sold out and I had two options: store credit or exchange for product(s) of equivalent value.
Their website shows that the 4 pack is out of stock and the price increased to $11.80 per pack. However, the 2 pack is in stock at $5.80.
I replied to the support ticket to ask them to send me 8 cells since they had the 2 packs in stock. Their response is that they changed the order to 4 of the 2-packs and that I owe them a price difference.
I responded:
I PM’ed the Gearbest account here on BLF and asked for help resolving this support ticket. I have not received a response.
Today they sent me a Paypal invoice for $2.42. I demanded that they send me a full refund by Paypal.
This is the last straw. Gearbest will not have any new business from me. It does not matter how cheaply they advertise their products when I know they can refuse to ship and demand extra money.
January 19 update
The case was resolved with a Paypal refund issued.
Here are parts of my conversation with May, the GB rep here.
May wrote back
So what happened with the stocking was basically an artifact of their inventory management system. That I can understand. However, the fault is that their customer service is not given the authority to change the order to accommodate the situation without changing the price. They can change the order from 2 of 4-pack to 4 of 2-pack, but they can’t change the price to be equivalent.
Of course, I am unhappy that I am not going to get the cells I wanted, but my faith in GB has been somewhat restored. I will continue to take precautions like paying for tracking. But I will limit purchases to mainly BLF group buys.