Banggood.com, Chinese shipping and the Cube i7 Stylus

[vfoster]

Just for future reference for anyone considering buying from Banggood.com, here is the flow of my delivery to Japan (which really isn’t that far from China).

Sept. 4 – Ordered both tablet and keyboard online

After a few days of no update about tracking information, I chatted with a CS rep to inquire what the hold up was, since it was listed as in stock and shipping in 1 business day. They explained that because the keyboard isn’t in stock, they were just going to wait (like 6 business days) to ship them together. I asked them to split the order and send the tablet immediately.

Sept. 8 – Tablet shipped via Flyt Express (the SG suffix at the end of the tracking number indicated it was shipping through or from Singapore; I really don’t understand Chinese shipping)

Sept. 12 – It processed through the sort facility 2 times then, I can only assume, sat there for 6 days

Sept. 18 – Finally things started to flow again; the tablet was dispatched to the “outward office of exchange” then dispatched overseas to Japan the same day.

Sept. 21 – Arrived in Japan where once it’s here, you’ll pretty much get it the next day. As (bad) luck would have it though, this was the start of a 3-day holiday in Japan, so even though Japanese shipping is simply the best, once it arrived in Japan, it sat there for a few days until regular business days resumed.

Sept. 23 – It arrived at the import, was held by customs very briefly before being shipped out to me in central, western Japan later that night.

Sept. 25 – The postman finally knocked on my door and put it in my hands.

So there you have it; 21 days from the day I ordered till the day it was put in my hands. I guess I must have been anxious because it seemed a lot longer. And the story isn’t even over yet. I still haven’t received the keyboard, which is kinda preventing me from doing any BIOS or OS-related changes. The flow for the keyboard (ordered Sept 4.) has come to a dead stop. After giving me one tracking number, then giving me a different tracking number, it seems to have finally been shipped Sept. 11. I don’t really know the flow on this one, because the tracking page is very muddled. But after speaking to a CS rep again yesterday, I was told that it shipped Sept. 20- 16 days after I ordered!! Not only that, I asked him where it was shipping from. “China,” I was told (the tracking suffix SE indicates Sweden). I asked if it was being shipped to Sweden, to which he answered yes, since it was shipping via Sweden Post. I told him I simply didn’t understand the logic of shipping from China to Sweden to Japan, and gave up after that.

So as of now, I’m still waiting for the keyboard- the final piece of my setup (I ordered the glass screen-protector, pen and peripheral adapters from different sellers on Aliexpress; all of which arrived in about a week). And I haven’t even dealt with the fact that mine came with a KMS Pico activated copy of Windows 8.1 Pro. I’ve sent an email asking for a valid license or an unspecified partial refund to allow me to purchase a legitimate license, but I haven’t heard from them yet.

The tablet itself seems very sturdy and solid. I’m simply THE WORST at applying screen protectors, so it took me about 5 re-applications of the tempered glass screen protector to get it to a satisfactory placement. Because I don’t have a keyboard, I haven’t been able to look into the BIOS or do any tinkering. And I hesitate to start loading up all my programs since there’s a good chance I’ll need to do a clean install once the license/activation issue is resolved.

I’m not much of a tablet guy (this is my first one), so I have no frame of reference to recommend or dissuade anyone from getting this laptop. Personally, I really like it. It does get pretty warm pretty quickly (and I don’t even play games on it or anything), but for all that it seems to offer, that seems like an okay tradeoff for now. Personally, I would much prefer a usb charging port as opposed to an AC adapter. I have zero desire to lug that mini-brick around with me. EVER.

The touchscreen itself seems nice. Personally coming from Android, Windows’ touch experience is really lacking. Better said, downright crappy. The scrollbars are so narrow and mostly impossible to use. The speed/momentum for scrolling is virtually nonexistent. To make any headway on it, I had to look up tutorials for going into the registry to change the values for each. And to think Microsoft once used to be a leader in technology… welcome to 2010, Microsoft!

Anyway, in conclusion, the TL;DR version: good tablet, Microsoft sucks, Chinese shipping is shady, and Banggood is Bangmeh. It would be nice to know the sellers or companies that are straightforward and reputable, and will include a genuine, non-hackivated licensed version of Windows. But that’s just my ￥２．Your mileage may vary…

[Dave]

Yeah I had good experience with them too. I bought my Cube I7 Stylus from them and was pretty speedy painless delivery with no import duty or tax to pay. Cant really say better than that when it comes to Chinese sellers. I also used that 10 percent discount on their app to get it nice and cheap. Just over 200 quid for a core m tablet is pretty unbeatable. Makes a joke of these Bay Trail tablets that are being sold for 3-400 quid over here (Asus T100 Chi I am looking at you!)

I was so impressed with the transaction and the tab I ordered a Teclast X2 Pro from them. I created new account using another email to also get the 10 percent discount. They mailed me today saying its not in stock until 5th October and gave me option of refund or wait for stock. Pretty nice comms there. I chose to wait for it. I knew it wasn’t in stock when I ordered, with new tabs like you always need to wait a bit.

I have ordered a fair few bits n bobs from China and so far only issue I ever had was with Aliexpress. Not being able to use Paypal is a killer for me and I wouldn’t order from their again unless it was only option. I ordered a 3D android phone from Tinydeal a few weeks back and that went nice and smooth too.  It was a pre order for 25th September but they actually got it out ealrlier than that and again, no import to pay. Very very nice phone and a total steal for the price I paid.

Ordering from China has so many horror stories but you only hear the bad news so it seems worse than it is. Most people with smooth transactions don’t generally post about it so its good to read your post

[vfoster]

I finally got the bootleg Windows thing sorted out with Banggood, bought my own product key and now want to do a clean install of 8. But my keyboard is still shipping from a galaxy far, far away. Has anyone done a clean install on the i7 stylus without the keyboard dock or a usb keyboard?

[akantic]

Ay man. Did they refund anything for that pirated windows?

Also is the process of clean install same as on PC?

[mrobi]

Without keyboard you need USB hub, keyboard and mice to clean install Windows. Install is same as any modern UEFI Bios Windows machine.

[vfoster]

Yeah, I negotiated a partial refund with them.

Clean install was actually easier and quicker than I thought. I didn’t have the keyboard dock at the time, nor did I have a USB keyboard. Turns out a hub isn’t necessary (at least in my case it wasn’t… I was clean installing 8.1). All I needed was a USB mouse. I was able to use the mouse to type on the on-screen keyboard when needed during setup and installation.

As a heads up, the touchscreen doesn’t seem to work during Windows 8 install, but I’m told it works during Windows 10, so you may not even need a mouse for that.

[akantic]

I purchased it but its out of stock for few more days… Is it worth the wait? Can you tell me how much they refunded?

[Chris G]

I’ve found Banggood.com to be good, if not the best now at shipping items out quickly. Glad they sorted out a part refund for you. It seems the first batches Cube sent the i7 Stylus out with Win 8.1 and KMSPico 🙁 Not good. But the new Windows 10 versions now shipping I see Banggood.com have it here i and don’t have such activation issues apparently.

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[Sebastian]

unfortunately they have the same problem with win 10, i got the cube i7 with win 10 today and it got kms10 for the activation and the unoriginal 2,0a charger. I all ready wrote to banggood and hope now that they will do a refund.

[akantic]

Please keep us up to date with refund! I am really curious since I purchased it few days ago and it’s out of stock. I just hope I will get original charger.

[Sebastian]

Update: i’m still in conversation with banggood and have to say that i like the respond time of the service team. They accepted a Pictures instead of an video for the verification of the problem and allready offert my to send an alternative charger for the tab(it was a micro usb charger) i rejected and now i’m waiting for an refund offer.

If anyone who has the same problem wants to buy the wright charger, here is the link: Aliexpress Charger

[kris]

Any new info about refund from Banggod?

-charger

-windows

I gonna order from banggod as well…and I’m sure they will sell the same charger (2A) and  kms windows.

I was thinking of buying Dell Venue 11 pro i5 4300Y..comparable price from Dell outlet.

But I like a bit more Cube7S..even with smaller ssd.

[Sebastian]

Hi, unfortunately i got not much time so i quote my message i send to akantic:
I got nothing refunded for the pirated windows, instead i got an original windows 10 key within hours after i send a photo of the crack activater with an describtion.
The other problem, the fake charger was tricky, since i got no legit proof that it was a fake one(cube didnt answer my mail) and banggood insisted that the charger was original was the only think i got an 10 Euro refund, after a little bit of negotiation.

As for the Java Part: i’m allready using the tablet for smaller programming stuff and got no problem yet, but i think you should make the bios updates an twp mod from xda to be on the right side( i havent made them yet, because i got to mutch stuff to do)

And another tip: if you are using the stylus regulary than u should buy the temperated class protection, after 2 weeks of writing on it, the tablet looks like it was 10 years old, because the original screen protector is so cheap.

But all in all dont worry, banggood responded to my mails within a few days and i even got mails the day after i wrote, so the customer service isnt that bad.

greetings

Sebastian

[kris]

I ordered i7s of banggod.
I placed a message that I want to get an original charger.
We’ll see what comes up.

[kris]

I got answer that they send me 12v 2A charger 🙂

So I try to get a refund once the package comes to me.

[Author]

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