Ali Express dilemmas

Chris G 57 Comments News
Ali Express dilemmas

Edit: We’re building a list of good and bad sellers, online retailers and reviews here in the forum. Please share your experiences: http://techtablets.com/forums/forum/general/online-retailers-seller-recommendations-and-reviews/ So we can start to build up an idea of the online retailers that offer the best service.

I’ve been using Ali Express to buy most of my tablets to review here, until recently things have been smooth sailing. Well that is until my quest to buy the Pipo W8, I’m on my 3rd seller now, which after my request to cancel the order has just shipped the W8 or given me a fake EMS number (Not showing up)

This ZPAD electronics: http://www.aliexpress.com/store/403778 What I would conciser another scumbag seller that lies to customers to get sales. Just like my 2nd buyer that supplied me with fake DHL tracking numbers ZPAD also lied about having stock (The reason I brought it there in the first place)

All to often now I’m seeing sellers give me fake tracking number just to stop the order for auto canceling and refunding after X amount of days, Ali Express needs to crack down on this. My second seller here: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/PiPo-W8-10-1-Retina-Screen-External-3G-Windows-8-1-OS-Tablet-PC-Inter-Core/32335300764.html Also lied about having stock on hand ready to ship in one to two days. 15 days later I had nothing but fake DHL tracking numbers, one was valid but never picked up. I had to dispute this one and finally got a refund. If you look at this items feedback you’ll see my one star review which they deserve!

Now these aren’t new sellers and had good feedback, but it seems that Ali Express has grown to fast and they don’t seem to enforce the shipment turn around times allowing sellers to bypass this using fake tracking numbers. So I’m now moving away from Ali Express, and if you look at the prices, apart from the flash sales they are no longer the cheapest around. I’m testing out Gearbest.com, Banggood.com and Geekbuying.com, which all offer the added protection of using Paypal, unlike Ali Express. And online retailers like GearBest offer points to that can be used for coupons and discounts.

I know all sellers aren’t like this on Ali Express. I’ve found Honesty Team, OKQI to be the best and they ship quickly without any lies and delays.But If I can help it, I will try and source my review tablets from other retailers now.

 

Does anyone have any experience with Banggood and Gearbest? If so do they ship out quickly? I’ve used Geekbuying before which are good, but not those two.

Chris G
Video tech reviewer and tech blogger. I have a huge interest in the latest tech, tablets, laptops, mobiles, drones, and even e-scooters. Active in the tech community since 2008 days of the Omnia i900 Windows phone. Samsungi8910omnia.com, Samsunggalaxysforums.com founder from way back.

57 Comments

    • That also does the trick to, my way required no tools. But using a suction cup like that is no doubt better. It’s quite common, also seen it on a X98 Air 3G and an easy fix. It does look really bad when you first see it but never did any permanent damage.

  2. Edit: ‘to work”, not “to workshops” (shi*** automatic corrector).

    I think the best thing to do is opening a paypal dispute sunny…

    Twist’

  3. Well actually they did put an lower amount of value on the papers but they forgot the freight amount, so customs could due to this ommission use a higher amount to tax me. No photograph and I can get a silly 100 points to use as a discount for my next purchase. Sorry no go for me GearBest anymore. I’m going to complain about the customs bit but my hopes are low.

    • Well, Gearbest is doing its best not to respond to my ticket. What’s even worse that after using my Chuwi Hi8 just for a couple of hours this happened to my screen.

      https://www.dropbox.com/s/op9clldwrbd5qdb/IMG_20150703_100015.jpg?dl=0

      It is as if the plastic cover and the capacitive are stuck together. Again I started a ticket and asked for a RMA now. If this doesn’t work out I’ll go through Paypal to get my money back.
      All in all this is a terrifying experience with GearBest.

      • Wow, how dis toi manage to get this result? 100% brightness trying to play gta V :S?

        I don’t think they’ll answer to your ticket, I don’t know what’s happening to gearbest but they’re getting worst and worst, as they nos simply don’t answer my tickets…

        I also had a problem with my hi8 ordered on gearbest.com: I could’nt manage to connect to Microsoft servers to get Microsoft update to workshops, and neither install french language. I had to reset it to factory settings (crossing my fingers for Android partition not to disapear), but everything works now. It looks like a good tablet, but less powerful than my vi8 dual boot due to that resolution.

        Twist’

      • I had this very same issue with mine, I managed to fix it. All you need to do is apply pressure around the the screens glass/plastic where is is not stuck. Just push down around move your finger around the effected area. Not to hard, and it should pop off it. The glass has stuck to the IPS panel from pressure in transit. Not very good about Gearbest.coms customer service. Let me know how you get on.

  4. Edit: We’re building a list of good and bad sellers, online retailers and reviews here in the forum. Please share your experiences: http://techtablets.com/forums/forum/general/online-retailers-seller-recommendations-and-reviews/ So we can start to build up an idea of the online retailers that offer the best service.

  5. Well to top it off, shipping with DHL cost my an additional 42 euro (VAT & Import charges). Still no response from GearBest about photograph and I think that they put the amount of the Chuwi HI8 without the pre-order discount that I got. Expecting my HI8 this afternoon, so will check that and if it’s true I’ll open an dispute with DHL/GearBest.
    I’ll focus on the happy side that I get a new gadget to play with, but a bit more expensive than I thought.

    • That’s normal I’m afraid, the taxes from DHL. Every tablet I buy for reviews via DHL are always stopped for taxes. DHL get a 15 euro doc fee out of it and then 21% tax on top. Which is why I only use DHL for review models and the rest that I don’t require urgently are sent via PostNL.

  6. Well, just today in the morning I have got an info that the missing and resend packages from Banggood are stored at my local post office and ready to be pick up. They were reshipped by Banggood (China Warehouse) on 19.06 and today we have 29.06. so altogether only 10 days of shipping incl. weekends (China – Europe) are really good. The whole process of dealing with Banggood Customer Service ( exchanging mails, pictures, explaining the issue / case, dispatching the goods, delivering to my local post office, customs 🙂 ) took 12 Working days Days. This kind of “problem-solving” is definitely worth to pay maybe a little bit more ( in comparison to other stores e.g. Aliexpress, Antelife, Pandawill etc.) and still the prices are good / acceptable. At least for me.

    On the other hand I am little bit worried about Gear Best delivery, especially when hearing others not so good experience (to express it in “diplomatic way” ) with them. Well my order is still in processing state according to Gear Best page. If the do not ship till tomorrow, I will send them a mail, if no reaction I will open a paypal dispute and ask for full refund of the paid amount.

    • Banggood.com does sound good. If only they didn’t remove the original box and use thier own one. How did you get on with Gearbest.com ?

      • Well Chris, and this was definitely a good decision from Banggood – removing the original package a replace it with a better one. I can shoot some pictures from the Banggood packaging I have received my tablet and phone in. Of course, if you need the original package e.g. for review purposes etc., just send them an e-mail and ask for it. I do not think, it would be a trouble for them to send you also the original box. BTW the phone came in original box wrapped in bubble foil and put inside the Banggood box.

  7. Hi Chris, just asked GearBest the question about the photograph. Seeing how bad they respond, I really don’t have faith in them anymore. Probs my HI8 will be here before I get an answer from them, so I hope that my HI8 will function properly or else this is going to be a even more very negative experience. We’ll see, till then I’l keep my fingers crossed.

  8. Well after a disappointing procedure of paying an additional amount because I live “remote”, Gearbest had a waybill on DHL made on the 24th of June. The package was only ready for pickup on the 27th of June and what a bad / non communication from them. I made a ticket on the site and got a stupid response that it was picked up on the 27th and on it’s way (like duh). My Hi8 is now on transport and according to DHL I will receive it this Wednesday. I got no picture of my package before it was send to me, so that`s another different experience from other buyers here. All in al, until now a very bad experience with GearBest. I spent my points buying a case and protector with discount and will have this shipped normally. I’ll stay clear of GearBest for the future, my 2 cents.

    • That is disappointing, I wonder why you got no photo, but myself and others did? My tablet was sent the next day with a photo and everything.

  9. Well, Banggood is a good choice far better than AliExpress, (even the good old eBuy is far more better option). I am buying frequently at Banggood and by now they shipped everything I have ordered. Shipment processing time is about 1day when the good are in stock. Maximum waiting time / processing time was 6 days until they restocked the goods I have ordered. Banggood packaging is very good, especially when it comes to tablets and phones. Banggood Customer service is working surprisingly very well. One lost shipment was resend to me incl. Tracking Number ( no extra payment for reshipping with Tracking Number ) and it happened very fast after 2-3 mails with Customer service ( about 2 days ) and it was shipped. Tracking Numbers are valid, I never got a fake one. So by now only good experience with Banggood 🙂

    Tried today also GearBest, well let’s see how they will perform – packaging, time to ship of the ordered goods, Tracking number usability ( fake / no fake), Customer Service …. etc.

    • Thanks for the feedback. I will update this post once my orders from Gearbest and Banggood arrive.

  10. Hi Chris,

    My experience with Banggood over the purchase and replacement of my Pipo W3 was pretty good. As I mentioned in other posts, my first one died after about 3 days and returning it was a major expense as couriers in Australia don’t like shipping Lithium batteries. I was alarmed when I got an email from my courier agent that the return tablet had been held for destruction by Chinese customs but Banggood shipped the replacement anyway. Overall I was happy with the price, speed of delivery and customer support .

    • Thanks for the feedback, I wonder if it was destroyed in the end? Nice of banggood to send it out without even having it in hand, I guess they would have seen the tracking info and seen you’re legit. Spain is the same, they will not send any batteries via normal post. So the same deal, I have to use DHL or TNT etc and it costs more than the bloody tablet itself.

      At least you don’t have to pay GST charges, like I have to here. They stop everything, 21% tax + 15 euro doc fees. Back home in NZ anything under $400 was a write off and all the tablets I ordered I never had to pay a thing, it was great, Aussie is the same right?

  11. I recently ordered a Voyo Mini PC from GeekBuying. It took them about 3 weeks to actually ship the thing – and only after I inquired about its shipping status and said I would cancel my order if it didn’t ship soon. Their explanation was that the Voyo Mini PC was an extremely popular product and they were waiting on them from the factory. Jeeez, if its not in stock, notify your customer!
    All in all, it took about 7/8 weeks for my order to get to Vancouver, Canada via NLpost. If they had actually shipped the thing within a few days after I ordered it, it probably would have arrived within the one month time window that’s the norm for free shipping from China.
    Due to this sub-par experience, I’m going to try GearBest for ordering my next tablet.

    • Same as me.

    • Wow, thats not good. They have been good for me, but I have been ordering via DHL 90% of the time and the others via PostNL, but I’m in Europe. Normal via DHL takes 5-8 days from ordering and PostNL about 15 days.

  12. I bought several things from Gearbest and they managed to deliver, albeit not as fast as I like. Thanks to your reviews you put up, I ordered couple of 2-in-1 tablets from them this morning. Let’s just see how long it takes them.

    Other Gearbest, I’ve ordered several other tech items from Coolicool, they seem to take their sweet time shipping them. I suppose as long as I get I get my product, I guess that counts.

    I just want to vouch my confidence in Gearbest.

    • Thanks, I will see how long my orders take to arrive. I also like the points system on Gearbest. I since I buy alot of tablets for review I can put those points towards discounts on new tablets I will need in the future. Something Ali Express will never have and not even Geekbuying have points like that.

      • You can also get a few more points by posting a feedback once you’ve received the products (and more if you post a picture with it). And the points are doubled for the 5 first feedbacks (that’s how I ordered my first vi8 for $78).

        Twist’

  13. This post needs to be permanent column of the site.
    Social purpose experiences on all those chienese sites to share
    Great.

    BTW i7 Stylus in stock: http://www.tinydeal.com/cube-i7-stylus-106-windows-81-core-4gb-64gb-ssd-tablet-pc-p-152493.html

  14. I’ve used geekbuying several times. They are slightly more expensive than what you get on Aliexpress but usually I find that it balances out when using DHL shipping (a lot of sellers on Aliexpress show low prices but add a markup on the shipping to make up for the difference). Anyway no problems with Geekbuying, they ship fast and their support responds quickly.

    • Is DHL the best way to get items shipped from China?

      • I used DHL only to get them faster to review and record videos, but I have to pay 21% tax + 15 euro DHL fee! So very expensive for me here. Back home in New Zealand I didn’t have to pay tax if it’s under $400, so there it was the best option. All depends on your countries tax and duty with DHL. They love to tax everything DHL to, so they can make an extra $$ for customs processing fees.

        • Just thought I’ll add my 5p worth of comment here. I bought my 64GB Teclast X98 Air II from Aliexpress last week. $198 with “sellers standard shipping” method.

          I left them a message NOT to use DHL and declare as $35. They used NL post which was great. Took 8days to arrive to UK and no customs or VAT.

          • $198 is a good price. I try to get only PostNL now personally, it’s around 10 days to Spain. DHL is only used when it’s an expensive core m to review, or a review tablet that has just been released. I’ve just tried Spain Express from GearBest and i’ll see how that compares to PostNL, it was only $2.99 more. Order a 64GB Air 3G for a friend on the 17th, posted 18th. Not bad at all.

    • I have bought a Teclast x98 on june 2nd from geekbuying and today they still haven’t shipped my tablet, well I am a bit disappointed. Customer service isn’t good enough too: they reply just one time per day, also if I reply them after 5mins I have to wait the next day for an answer.
      Am I unlucky?

      • I woudl say unlucky and I would chase them up, I have only used DHL shipping with them and it’s reasonably fast when shipped out. But that’s the express service. Gearbest shipped my 64GB in one day with Spain Express $2.99 shipping, that’s pretty good with a photo of the package and all.

      • Wednesday I bought a 128gb pipo w8 from them; They have posted it yesterday. The only drawback I found, and that troubles me, was the request to hold the product value below 20 € in order to avert the custom fees, they answered me very vaguely.
        A clear opinion just on arrival&unboxing

        I was undecided whether to buy from pipo-store.com. someone who shares his experiences?

        • I’ve got my W8 now, unboxing video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWFo_n4aLe4 . I think I should have got the 128GB model now. Anyway, pipo-store.com is not an official Pipo site, they front themselves like they are and own onda-store.com and a few orders that look just the same, they are a drop-shipper site and I haven’t heard anything good about them at all. Slow to reply to questions, slow to ship out and over all not good. I have had a few emails from users about them and nothing good has been said.

          • I saw the video and, damn!, this is not good news at all. I had very high expectations on this one. I’m trying not to think how much it costs. So, no keyboard included?
            Dafuq, 450/500€ tablet.

          • Wow, for that price you would expect Surface Pro 3 build quality levels. I’m surprised they think its worth that much. I’d be embarrassed if I were Pipo. lol

            By the way, what is Core M and is it better then a quad Atom?

            • I think it will be my last Core M I buy from Chinese to review, well I will try and get a Cube i7 Stylus. The Core M is basically like the 4th Gen Core i5 Y series of dual cores. Now they are passively cooled and about twice as fast (Single core) as the X7 Z8700 in the Surface 3. Think of it as a cut down ultralow voltage Core I5 CPU. You get Intel HD 5300 GFX to onboard them and the support Sata3 ssd’s unlike the Atoms.

  15. Hi Chris. I can highly recommend BangGood. I’m a heavy user of Chinese electronics stores (especially RC hobby) and BG has been my go-to store for around 12 months now. I’ve placed 8-10 orders from $50USD – $250USD with them, each order often with many many items, and I’ve only had one minor issue that was resolved quickly. Their support does respond within 24 hours as promised. If you do want an item quickly the expedited shipping gets from China – Australia within 3-4 business days. The price of expedited shipping also gets cheaper depending on the items in your cart, so try add a few small items and see. As for negatives, they can take 2-3 business days faffing around after the order is placed to actually ship, but not bad. Occasionally they’ve been dudded by their suppliers and sold fake items, but this even happens to Amazon, and they rectify quickly. Overall a great site.

    I’m actually a little worried about GearBest, the Hi8 is my first order from them and I’ve read some iffy things (like preorders taking a long time to ship even after the waiting period is over) but I’m hopeful, and their site is very good.

    Thanks for the great site.

    • Oh and yes, avoid AliExpress!! I placed one order with them last year, used my own creditcard (now i use prepaid) and 7 days later my account was hit with around 10 fraudulent transactions from Ireland, US, and South America in the same day. Thankfully my bank caught it quickly, but it was a PITA sorting everything out. Since then I use a prepaid CC if I absolutely must buy from aliexpress (as they have the product range nobody else does).

    • Hi Simon, thanks for the feedback. I will keep them in mind to. I did get a tablet from Banggood a while back, but what put me off was they removed the tablet from the original box, threw it away and used their own one. Which is fine normally, but I wanted the original box for photos and video.As well as resale. They say the original box doesn’t protect the tablet so they use their own. But I find that a bit silly as all my tablets come in the facotry box and i’ve had no issues so far.

      • Yeah, ditching the box and packaging is an oddity of theirs. It does say it in the listing, but not something you’d expect. I’d bet its about saving postage, not protection.

        Always read their listings carefully as they can be cheeky. Eg, a small cheap item shows 4 pieces in the photo, but the “Package Included” might only say one, it catches people out.

        But yes, BangGood is an oldie but a goodie. Easy to get 10% off coupons too!! First app purchase, and other ways.

        • I also buy tablets to sell from time to time to help fund new tablets to review, so without the original box i wouldn’t use Banggood, they need to rethink this policy. There is nothing wrong with the box Teclast use. Why can they use that cool bubble wrap OKQI use on Ali Express. It’s not the normal bubble wrap, but a one inch air group of air pockets all around the box. It would even bounce if dropped and not damage it.

  16. I often use Gearbest.com for different products like electronic accessories and even a tablet PC (Chuwi Vi8 dual boot) and except for the two last orders (small orders) which were apparently sent by surface mail, I’m pleased by their service.

    They usually send the packages within 7 days (as most of chinese websites), they give you a picture of the package and they even can install the languages you want in your tablet PC (just ask it in the description).

    I’ll just avoid postNL for small orders.

    Twist’

    • Gearbest.com have just sent me confirmation my 64GB X98 Air 3G has shipped 🙂 And as you said I even got a photo of the packaging and I can see the label is PostNL express, so I’m happy about that. No other seller does that. So far they seem very good, took 3 days from order to posting it.Faster than most Ali Express sellers. But I did get an odd email asking for id proof (That’s fine) and my credit card (!?) with the last digits covered. Did you get such an email?

      I replied back and told them I paid with paypal so why did they need my credit card? They apologized and since it ship today all is well.

      • It’s a bit strange, I didn’t have any message asking me to scan my credit card (if so, I think they would have received my bottom scanned instead :P), as I always payed by paypal.

        I’m looking forward to receive the confirmation/sending message for my Hi8, really eager to receive it (I’m really happy with the Vi8 dual boot)!

        I had an out of store product in one of my order and they contacted me to know what I wanted to do (refund me, send the partial order, wait for the item to be back in stock…). Their support is fast and efficient (except for these two tiny orders sent by surface mail………).

        Twist’

        • It was odd because I did use paypal, it seemed more like a default message or it was because it was my first order with them.

          • It was nothing more then a mistake, something that slave labor commonly does when they have such a high output rate required by each employee. Each employee has to get through 10,000 orders a day (that is how many tabs are being manufactured by Teclast every work day), that’s 15 to 20 per minute they have to process, and because of such a high rate they get into fast non-thinking routines and can easily send off an email for confirmation before even looking at the payment method… It was just a mistake, which I bet is made thousands of times every day in their fast paced world. lol

        • Ok I didn’t have to be worried about the two orders sent by “Surface mail”, as they were just sent by NL post express without tracking number (even if they said it was surface mailed…).

          I receved it today and as usual, I’m really happy with the products I ordered. In one of the packages, there was the tiny BT keyboard I ordered ( http://www.gearbest.com/mice-keyboards/pp_194223.html ) and it’s really amazing.

          The Chuwi vi8 cover is also really nice (especially for the price).

          Twist’

      • Fasttech.com take photos of every package they send you, I got photos of everything in my buy history with them even if its just a $1 item.
        Not really known for cheap tablets, they got them though, but these guys are good.

        I bought a fair bit of cheap gadgets from banggood over the last year as well and they come through everytime in a consistent manner, I like these guys as well.

        • Fasttech.com, I used them years ago and no issues. So theytake photos of the package to? Nice when sellers do that, it confirms they used the post service I asked/paid for.

  17. I’ve only used AliExpress so far from the mentioned sites above but I am glad you told your story because it helps me make a informed decision. At XDA in the Teclast forum I was told by many to use Banggood to buy the Teclast X98, as most are getting the latest version and its being shipped very fast with great customer support. I have not confirmed it myself yet, but word of mouth is honestly the best advertisement imo. I too would prefer using PayPal. I’m going to wait a few more weeks to make sure the latest version C5J6 is shipped to me considering mirek190 just got his new Teclast and its a C5J6, lol… He is making new roms based on it as we speak…

    • Just a quick question. My 64GB X98 Air II is a HG9M (at least that is what it says in the back with tiny letters)

      Does that mean I cant use Mirek190s latest custom Android ROM?

      • Yes you can use the Android 5 roms on all models of the X98 Air 3G

  18. I purchased my iwork8 3g from yeso521.com, directly from China, as well. They aren’t the cheapest, but their customer service rocks. They respond quickly to every email. They’ve even translated rooting instructions for me, and uploaded files to google drive! Haven’t sucessfully rooted thoug.… .

  19. I bought once from the USA from Banggoods, and went fine. Recently also bought a lantern, to be delivered in Brazil, but it might take a few weeks more to get here, because of customs.

Comments are now closed for this post.

Lost Password

Skip to toolbar