Recently ordered several items from gearbest
One was a bluetooth speaker.
Everything shipped except the speaker and gearbest notified me of this omission.
I’m about to go on vacation (no internet access), and the paypal case window will close while I’m gone, so I opened a paypal case.
In response to the case, gearbest suggested I choose a different product and sent me a link to fashionable dresses, on a different website.
The next day they said the product was back in stock but I would have to close my case before they would ship the product.
I said no.
they replied - and this is a quote…
“Dear David,
Thanks for your time.
If you do not close the case first ,we can not ship it out due to our company’s policy .I hope you can understand it .
If there are any additional problems or further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best Regards
Lear
Gearbest Customer Support At :05/15/2014 03:49:15 AM”_
_
Its typical of these responses from all of them. They want to avoid the ‘mark’ associated with settling claims. Apparently PP spank people who have too many claims settled. No idea what the number is, but they are far more likely to hit it than we are.
I assume you know not close the case, you have no recourse if you do. Some people have done so, and lost out altogether. All that will happen now, is you will need to wait for the PP resolution of a refund. GB are saying that as you are seeking a refund, and you will get that via PP, they cant send out the item. That is fair IMO, you wont be paying for it, you will be getting a refund.
IMO, its a mix of Chinglish, and attempts to avoid the PP dispute process and the impact it can have on their business being able to utilise PP in the future.
I know not to close it, and I didn’t ask for a refund…so they don’t have any reason to do this except to try to screw me.
The result of their policy will surely be people letting paypal force the case resolution as refund…instead of them resolving cases amicably, which one would assume paypal also tracks vs cases they must decide.
The PP dispute would be your request. Your comments read that they never had stock, you initiated a PP dispute after they tried to ‘interest’ you to something else, you said no thanks.
actually, after offering the dresses, they claimed the item was back in stock
which seemed suspicious
then the request to close case
I did ask for refund this morning
Problem is, I didn’t pay much for the item, I used mostly store credit…so if paypal forces the refund I’ll get < half of the value of the item back
It's the same thing I have seen at other dealers too. It's why I will not purchase from half of them. They get hit for the cases filed against them and it doesn't take a lot before PP laocke their accounts. Many times, you will find "dealers" often change their PayPal accounts. They have a bunch of employees open accounts so that they can keep the ones open that are working and drop the ones that PayPal has locked down.
On the other side of the coin, they also get hit a lot by dishonest buyers, who get their stuff and then say they don't. They also file claims and it hits against the dealers. So, dealers want claims closed before refunds or merchandise sent, to keep the dishonets buyers from claiming them anyhow, even if they did get merchandise. It's all a big hassle for everyone all the way round and honest people always get hurt or end up feeling like they are being shafted.
All you can do is decide to either close the claim and work it out with GB or keep it alive and get what you can. If you keep it alive, I imagine you "might not" be able to buy from them again, but that doesn't really matter anyhow, since there's more new "dealers" coming up on a daily basis around here.
End result? Just another reason why long distance buying/selling sucks!
I would have asked for a refund, and only if they refused, or failed to respond to that request within a reasonable time frame, would I have opened a PP dispute.
I realize that you were about to go on vacation, but the PP dispute process isn’t there to be used as an insurance policy. If everyone does this it’s ultimately going to do more harm than good. Rather, you’re supposed to do everything you can to work towards an amicable resolution with the seller first.
I usually start with “hey, can I have a full refund pretty please?” and then I say “please give me a refund by tomorrow or I will open a PP dispute” and I’ve only actually gotten to the dispute process a few times over hundreds of orders. So I’d be hesitant to try to force something freely given.
We want to start by apologizing to you for the issues relating to your order.
The link to an incorrect website was due to an unfortunate clerical error and the crossed wires regarding some emails was a systems issue. We have notified our IT team and they
are currently investigating.
Regarding your order, we are delighted to confirm that we have received additional stock and we will be dispatching the remaining item to you later today. Please check your inbox for the confirmation email. As a way to compensate you for the delay, we have upgraded the shipping option to DHL for you free of charge. Once again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding.
Minor issue due to an item that was either discontinued or out of stock. Not sure which. They did respond when I posted here that my items had not shipped and explained the situation. Not really happy I was not informed when I placed the order but won't complain about the follow up. Order shows shipped one day after speaking with them. Order does not reflect weather I will receive the original item ordered or the alternate I chose. Still on my good guy list so far.
