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.
Marc
There are plenty of threads reporting issues with this very vendor though so why go there, that’s more my point than anything else. Lost in translation or not, if customer questions are replied to saying these batteries are not genuine, why risk your health and go and buy any battery there to save a few $$.
Would you get a cheap builder in for house modifications that your neighbor told you had ruined his house?
Yes but I bought these cells and they are genuine. They do have a product knowledge problem and things get lost in translation but that’s not a good enough reason to avoid them.
Marc
No, not yet. I guess I’ll try either it in my uf-1504 with a xp-g2 s4 on noctigon, direct drive. Or maybe my hd2010 with stock driver and xm-l2 (t6?).
I can compare it to keeppower imr 4200, imr 2500, Samsung icr26f (from banggood) and Panasonic 2900pf from gearbest. And some *fire battery.
Try this for size.GB is a drop shipper.They ask a supplier for decent Chinese IMR cells,among them,2500mAH.Supplier can get decent no name cells cheap,they could be AWT,Basen,Eisfan or Shockli.They are all 25R’s underneath despite what reps may claim.Supplier has their people take the wrappers off,they cannot read english,they do not recognise “Samsung”under the wrapper.Pictures are taken for the website,GB customer service does not know for sure that these are Samsungs so will not confirm.
Remember,the big 5 will not supply just anyone with bare cells,but rewrappers,no problem.Thus,there is a whole “grey market”for bare 18650’s and cells are graded just like LEDs further changing prices at supplier level.
The above is just a possible scenario and pure speculation(apart from AWT,Basen,Eisfan and Shockli using 25r cells,check with HKJ’s comprator ,beyond any reasonable doubt!).It feels closer to the truth than deliberate faking.The CS reps confirming the 5000mAH cells sound like they believe it themselves!
On friday I ordered 2 30Q’s,one from Gearbest and one from Banggood so in about a month we should have some real data,and yes,I will mark the first one that arrives. HKJ’s comparator
Do we trust Banggoods $7.30 (less with code) price on the Samsung 30Q’s?
Have two of them on the way.
I’ve never had problems with buying batteries from BG so I’m not doubting them…. Yet.
goodie 
Nope, it wasn’t directed at anyone. I’m just questioning the reasoning and thought processes when the warning signs are there.
We all love a good bargain, don’t get me wrong but I wouldn’t knowingly buy something that had suspicion surrounding it, especially when safety is involved.
Being a good deal isn’t a warning sign.
I only bought batteries once from GB.
Samsung 26Fs, good price and seems to be genuine.
My problem was the packaging. They came as four loose cells all together in a single zip-lock baggie, then bundled with other items inside the bubble-wrap mailer. These cells have no mechanical protection from other items in the mailer, or from other cells in the baggie. From customer photos it seems like BG does the same thing.
Three cells looked OK, but one was dented and I will not use it.
So the apart from the safety issues, suddenly the good price becomes less good.
I will stick with ME and FastTech for batteries.
The warning sign is in the question and answer section, here for http://www.gearbest.com/batteries/pp_192842.html
We can’t tell what they’re selling.
They can’t tell us what they’re selling.
We can’t tell who is answering the questions.
+1
I just received my very first order form Fasttech - 4x LG MJ1.
They are as far as I can tell Real, and came in a plastic case to boot!
They will be getting more of my business, for sure!
Thanks,
-Chuck
“Welcome to the lottery”
And with the Lottery, the advantage lies with the House or the Player? - I forget :money_mouth_face:
Thanks,
-Chuck
Obviously not. The questions and answers are though.
Have you bought and tested any?
I have a order of 4 x 30q, that’s my lottery ticket. They will be my first 18650 batteries.
They don’t know what there selling, they can’t speak English, they will write what ever you want to hear. I asked a question about the sharp eagle ” nut light ” if it had a glass lens. There answer was yes it has a glass lens even tho it has a plastic lens
I think there’s an inherent risk that we’ve accepted by shopping at these places, knowing that we may or may not get what we want. But we’ve accepted that risk because of price or we really want that item. 95% of the brands I haven’t even heard of except maybe Fenix, Xiaomi, or Nitecore. Yes they can’t communicate in English as well as some of us, but that is something we accepted going into the deal. All we can do is hope they improve the customer experience for the English speaking customers (this is not specific to Gearbest).
In the AWT discussion forum on GB I found this Q&A extremely brief but entertaining:
By Pavel May-15/2015 11:05:20
Question:
Hello! Is it an authentic product?Reply:
Hi,yes,it is not an authentic product.
Found at http://www.gearbest.com/gadget-deals.html
(the link in that “deals” page actually leads to the real thing)