For anyone considering buying a Xiaomi phone from Gearbest I thought I would share my cautionary tale.
tl;dr version:
* Purchased Xiaomi Mi A2 in Nov 2018 from Gearbest
* After 3 months phone was bricked by Xiaomi OTA update
* Sent back phone to repair at my cost to Gearbest – 6 weeks later they tell me it cannot be repaired
* After much back and forth Gearbest offers refund of about half the cost of the phone ($110 USD)
* Despite being told it would take “2 business days”, and numerous follow-ups, still waiting for my refund 4 weeks later
I purchase a Xiaomi Mi A2 in Nov of 2018 from Gearbest for my wife for Christmas. In March Xiaomi pushed out an OTA update that bricked the phone – this was a common problem reported by Mi A2 users at the time: [http://en.miui.com/thread-5809179-1-2.html](http://en.miui.com/thread-5809179-1-2.html)
Since the bootloader was locked, the only possible way to recover the phone was to disassemble it, short out the test points and flash with EDL which I did not want to risk for a phone supposedly under warranty.
I raised a support ticket with Gearbest and after some back and forth 3 days later they responded with:
*After reviewing your case, it has passed 45 days money back guarantee,* ***we regret that it can not be repaired according to our supplier.***
They offered me a refund of $30 USD, which consider I paid over $200 USD for the device I thought was a joke.
I responded pointing out that:
* The device can be fixed by bridging the test points on the device and reflashing (provided evidence of this), however doing this would void their warranty
* The phone has a 1 year repair warranty provided by Gearbest and the device is only 3 months old
Gearbest then responded and said I could send the phone back to their repair center at my cost (which equated to around $20 USD) which I elected to do.
The carrier notification said the phone arrived at the repair center on 25 March. After multiple messages to customer service eventually **over 6 weeks later** I received the follow:
*Thank you for taking the time to return your item to us.*
*After inspecting it carefully with our technicians,* ***we regret to inform you that this item cannot be repaired.***
*To resolve this issue, we would like to offer you the following options:*
*….*
***Partial refund of 80USD****, to your original payment account*
*-For PayPal refunds, please allow up to 48 hours for the transaction to process and appear in your account.*
*Kindly let us know about your decision at your earliest convenience.*
*Best Regards*
*Cora*
*Gearbest Customer Service*
Now, I know for a fact that the phone WAS repairable as others had successfully reflashed their phone using EDL as I mention above. I was pretty incensed – I had now waited 2 months, had no phone and they were offering me less than half the price I paid for the phone as compensation. After some back and forth we eventually agreed on a $110 USD refund:
*As you are a valued customer of us, we would like to refund 110USD on your wallet or your original payment account.*
*Please confirm we could go ahead.*
*Kindly let us know about your decision at your earliest convenience.*
I was told that my refund to Paypal would take “**2 business days**” to show up in my account.
**A week later** I still had received no refund and I contacted them again, and was told that:
*Due to the weekends and peak season ,there is delay for the refund . Now we have urged our related colleague to process this sooner . Please kindly wait* ***about 1-3 working days****.*
After numerous follow-up contacts over the subsequent 3 weeks I have been told several times that the refund will be processed in “1-3 days” but am still waiting.
No idea if I will actually eventually receive the refund – but I would caution anyone against using Gearbest. If something goes wrong with your device, you will be fighting tooth and nail to try and get them honor their warranty. In hindsight I would have been better off just paying the premium to buy from a local reputable supplier.
Also, if you have a Xiaomi phone make sure you **enable OEM Unlock** on the device out of the gate! Xiaomi bricking phones with OTA updates unfortunately doesn’t seem to be that uncommon.
Gearbest are trash, they were great years ago but they have been awful since that long ago. Make sure they know you are telling people about your ordeal.
Yes, unfortunately that’s the only leverage I have so that’s exactly what I am doing. At least that way people can make an informed decision when purchasing from them.
OTA update brick doesn’t have anything to do with Gearbest since it isn’t a hardware issue
Yes, unfortunately Chinese people see things like this from customers and say “haha yeah righto mate” as opposed to local sellers that will literally die if they get a bad review … China sellers do not really care about the customer .. I stopped using gearbest a few years ago cos I thought their customer service straight up sucked..
Like I don’t expect greatness from them but they took like a week to get back to me…
Plus from my stance as an Australian customer, they tack 10% gst on their purchases as was made the law last year… So they charge customers 10% gst at the checkout… But the law is that the GST only needs to be charged on individual goods valued at more than 1000aud which most orders aren’t worth that much.. but they charge gst anyway and I have been told that when the Australian government goes to collect this so called gst
Chinese sellers simply say, “we don’t operate under your laws here in this country, so we’re not giving you anything” and tell them to get stuffed.. and the Australian government can only get up them on sales for goods worth more than a grand… Which is not many products ..
So
Companies like gearbest are just tacking an extra 10% on their already price inflated products – I switched to geek buying instead. That website has great service and prices are much less.
Holy shit
Lmao what?? An official wiki on Reddit? Okay well I’m typing on my mi9se that was delivered within a week to Australia
128gb version for 350usd and this has been my fourth flawless transaction from geekbuying.
For what it’s worth that wiki lists AliExpress as a trusted reseller… That doesn’t even begin to make sense
That’s why you pay with PayPal and fuck them over with a refund if they do shit like this. Works every time.
Wtfff??? So i guess i will never use MIUi again, if they brick with OTA…
Was this not the thing with one time codes? Where you coule unbrick with some code, and gearbest are in China, couldnt they have brought it to a xiaomi store there???
Gearbest usually honours its warranty (for the first six months) if you have purchased through paypal. Basically they have NO option if they want to continue business with them.
Did you purchase with Paypal? If yes, did you open a case?
If you purchased without Paypal, you are out of luck. Gearbest is not Amazon. If they can scam you, they will. You could possibly try talking to your bank to try and reverse the transaction.
>But the law is that the GST only needs to be charged on individual goods valued at more than 1000aud
Wrong, the law is on ALL goods
To be fair, the only case of OTA bricking a phone i heard of was with the A2
Then why come then I didn’t not pay no gst then
Same shot, never buy from gay best, never!
Thanks for sharing
Never buy anything from them of value above 10$
Crap. I just bought an Umidigi F1 Play from gearbest. Great phone, but I am worried something might happen.
Trump is right
Trump is right, a lot of Chinese companies do not follow the law, and the Chinese government closes 2 eyes
Yes.
Exactly. Don’t even bother with their “customer service”, go straight to PayPal if you can.
That’s incorrect. 10% GST on all goods from July 1st 2018.
How did Xiaomi handle customers that had bricked phones 100% because of their bad updates?
You’re getting downvoted but you’re probably correct. This should be Xiaomis issue and they should replace the phone for their bad update.
I had problems with GeekBuying too.
Years ago, like 3, I ordered a Mi Band 2 (fortunately not an expensive item). I got it in 3 weeks but it was DOA. I sent them images, videos and all the necessary stuff to prove that the item was DOA. They didn’t believe me. They just had to thank God I didn’t pay with Paypal. Hate them so much.
Gearbest is more or less the same, just a bit better.
I left all these chinese sellers, time passes and you understand that they don’t give an heck about customers. Now I just buy cheap things on Aliexpress.
Oh wait you are right… Wtf xiaomi…
Congrats. You experienced first hand why buying from Chinese vendors suck ass. Gearpest tried to fuck me over when my phone got lost during shipping and they offered me bogus reimbursement which were not good. AliExpress tried to fuck me over, too. I ordered the Xiaomi Air Dots when they just came out. At this point I have learned a lot of Chinese retailers sell stock they don’t have. So I had to wait, I contacted the seller, he told me he will ship it tomorrow (yeah, right..). I waited another week, asked again what is up and boom, banned. I have supposedly abused the report system. Now my money would have been gone, because I couldnt access my account any longer. Thankfully PayPal helped me out but holy fuck, no more Gearpest and Ali for me. I will pay the premium and order from Europe.
I was previously downvoted for warning people away from purchasing in a country without a brick-and-mortar Xiaomi location. Xiaomi make great, cheap phones that are quite often easily reparable **if** you have easy access to parts/service center. But, their customer service is lacking and when you add a third party on top of that, well, you’re wading through two layers of crappy service to get the guarantee you paid for.
This isn’t just a Xiaomi problem. Samsung pulls the same crap (won’t fix phone except for in the country it was purchased).
Did or did not pay with PayPal? I would think paying with PayPal would be an advantage in this case, right?
The strange thing is their communication has actually been pretty good, they just haven’t paid out the refund. Every time I contact them within 24 hours or so it’s “we’re so sorry, please wait ANOTHER 1-3 days”. But after 4 weeks of that you start to feel pretty stupid.
> But the law is that the GST only needs to be charged on individual goods valued at more than 1000aud
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/New-legislation/In-detail/Indirect-taxes/GST/GST-on-low-value-imported-goods/
I did try but Xiaomi don’t offer any kind of support or warranty for “products which are purchased from an unauthorized seller”.
From what I understand for authorised sellers typically you take the phone to a support centre and they will fix or replace it.
That’s exactly why I bought the Mi A2 – imagine my suprise when they bricked it!
Lesson learned – ended up getting another Mi A2 from another seller and enabled OEM unlock out of the gate.
Yep that’s a monstrous downside to the brand. Shit like this happens and you’re left high and dry unless your seller is exceptional. It really should be all on Xiaomi, it’s a reason I won’t recommend the brand to anyone after all these bricked phones, crazy stuff that we as a whole should be very vocal about.
Contract of sale is between the customer and Gearbest. Gearbest needs to resolve the issue for the customer, while Gearbest should seek compensation from Xiaomi.
I’m in Asia and our wait times are usually not that long, but nevertheless, even here you’ll run into parts delays.
In the end, I like Xiaomi products for their low price/relatively good specs, but I wouldn’t rely on their guarantee/customer service nor would I face the risk of having to go phoneless for a week+. Back in the day you could get a loaner phone while your phone is in service. Now, the best you can do is buy a cheap burner like the Redmi Go. A pain, but you can throw it in a drawer and forget about it until you need it again.
What about the Samsung recall for defective batteries? Here’s an example.
https://www.samsung.com/au/news/local/samsung-electronics-australia-extends-recall-to-all-galaxy-note7-smartphones-in-australia/
Where’d you buy from? How long ago? I purchased a Redmi note 5 and had to pay it. Aliexpress adds the gst.
Did but actually it’s like if I didn’t, cause I didn’t involve Paypal in the case. Always buy with Paypal.
(lol, cake day! (: )
Read the part in bold:
“Customers in Australia who have a Galaxy Note7, both an original device purchased before
5 September 2016 or a new replacement Galaxy Note 7 device, should power down their
phone and **contact their original place of purchase.**”
How you tried going through your credit card company, if you happened to pay that way?
Happy cake day my friend! Wish you many more Reddits
My point is Samsung was working WITH them. What has Xiaomi done? Have they worked with sellers/customers? I’m actually asking, maybe they did help out.
I paid with Paypal. I believe you have 180 days to lodge a dispute, but since it has taken SO long to try and get a resolution from them I don’t even think that is an option now. Maybe that is by design – they stall you long enough to avoid the possibility of Paypal disputes.
Yes, if OP used Visa or MasterCard he can still try chargeback service through his bank support, but of course it’s harder to execute and definitely takes more time.
That’s why I’m never again buying phones from GB. I bought 2 and never had any trouble, aside from long shipping times, so my experience is pretty positive. But there’s the chanche of things like these happening, and nowdays I can get about the same prices from EU/Italy resellers.
If you treat Aliexpress like Amazon then yes you are gonna get fucked. Aliexpress is composed of thousands of independent sellers, they are not some one montholic brand, when someone says they got burnt by Aliexpress it does not make any sense at all.. You got burnt by specific seller which you likely not even vetted at all.
If you buy phones from random sellers then you will get burnt. That’s why we have a wiki in place that points to sellers that have proven to be reliable over the years.
You shouldn’t be shopping on Aliexpress by searching things in the search bar but by buying through specific stores that have proven trustworthy.
Had ordered the Mi 8. They forced me to use DHL delivery. DHL overcharges at delivery. I told Gearbest but no other délit option was offered. They also gave me the wrong plug, they know I live in Canada, why send me the Europe plug? I asked for the replacement plug and I was assured that it was mailed BUT I NEVER RECEIVED IT. DONT BUY FROM GEARBEST!
Unfortunately I had a similar situation (not involving Xiaomi).
I payed for some online service for a month, using PayPal. Unfortunately it wasn’t clear at all, that this was a recurring subscription. The next month, as they got another payment from my PayPal, I contacted them immediately. I could not find ANY option on their website to cancel the subscription, no mention about any subscription AT All. I canceled the recurring payment option from the PayPal account, but the money for another month were still payed
I wrote an email to this company, saying that it wasn’t at all clear that this was a subscription, and not a one time payment. I asked to cancel the subscription and refund me the money for that month. I got no answer and contacted PayPal, detailing the situation.
PayPal asked me to contact the “seller” (which I did), and prove that they don’t want to refund me. As I didn’t got any answer from the company, PayPal refused to refund me, also.
Still, glad I didn’t use my Credit card.
I think you could have just got a 3$ flash cable and resolved this if was a software issue. You don’t need to open anything.
If I buy anything from China I know it’s pretty much on me to resolve technical issues barring hardware defects.
Always pay with PayPal for this reason.
If I supposedly abuse the report system, then it is Ali’s decision to block me or not, not the sellers. I did not abuse the system. So if Ali thinks abusing the report system is asking for a shipping date for the second time and then closing my account, then they are thieving cunts. To make it even more bizarre, the only way to open my account again was to sign in and ask for it. But how should I do that when my account is closed and I can’t log in? Fuck them. I have learned my lesson.
That’s what I did when my I ordered a mi5 and only the case and screen protector arrived
This is why as a USA Citizen I can’t buy any Xiaomi products unless I don’t want a warranty
Gearbest is a shit website that up sells things from China you can get cheaper from other distributors. Not surprised their service is shit too. Fuck them
gearbest is gearworst 😀
But when you set up a reoccurring payment with PayPal as the payment method PayPal itself WARNS you/highlights it as such….
Geekbuying… A fortnight ago… I’m not yet been arrested
Thank you so much for clarifying this!
In the UK is often safer to purchase with a credit card. If you pay through PayPal the card issuer can refuse to honour s.75 disputes. S.75 makes it so even if the card issuer can’t get the money back they are liable to refund you.
I’ve been buying xiaomi phones from aliexpress (Dreami) for years,and they always gave me excellent service and extremely fast shipping (when the phone is on stock,they will make clear when that’s not the case in the product description)
You can’t get “scammed” by aliexpress,you get scammed by certain aliexpress sellers.
I only used aliexpress never had problem refunding items. Though I never bought large value items like phones, only clothes.
Sending police now…. You might get lucky and it gets through customs.
Re: Aliexpress, while they’re not a seller but a platform (like eBay and Paypal). And like Paypal, they do protect you well no matter what and who you buy from.
The few times I had issues (maybe 2% of purchases) they refunded my money through their dispute system. For example recently I ordered two items but only received one, the seller tried wasting my time (‘send us pictures of the parcel’ like it would be visible if it contained one or two?) but Ali just refunded the missing item.
you are one lucky mofo then…
Just purchased the Xiaomi Redmi k20 pro today from AliExpress (unlocked Global Rom version). Anyone ever had a problem with AliExpress? Also, when I purchased my phone today on AliExpress, there was no option to pay with PayPal?
I’ve had it since Tuesday my dude..
Really?? Hmm… I’ve been using AliExpress about ten years now.. I only buy small things off it now but my issues have been
Me, ordered a phone case… Seller sent me a Samsung case with a picture of a Volkswagen on it by mistake… He said keep the case I will send you out the correct item..
Ummm… A few custom made cycling jerseys took ages to get … Oh and a couple sellers I had bought things off they never sent then cancelled the order and refunded my money, I think sometimes they do that to increase seller rating
But yeah AliExpress and anything Alibaba network are good
That’s typical of them. My tablet broke after 6 month, same response from GB. I have contacted my bank, and am currently during chargeback procedure.
And that’s why guys, you’ll always have to unlock bootloader.
Agreed. Notice the bolded “if” followed by easy access to parts.
Not everyone has access to Amazon and a two-day turnaround on parts being ordered. Some people have to order and wait for parts from Aliexpress and the like. Spending two to three weeks without a phone, waiting on a part, could be a problem for someone without a backup phone.
I’m in Indonesia and a lot of my Ali stuff ships from Singapore, so even 3 weeks is ridiculous honestly.