A few months back I bought my Firefly Q6 camera and two 2200mah 2S lipo batteries in one order from GearBest. When I received my order I only had the camera and figured the batteries were shipped separately. After 3 weeks pasted, I contacted GearBest to inquire where the batteries are and when to expect them to arrive. They assured me they were shipped but with no knowledge on arrival times. They also told me after 30 days of when the order was placed, if the batteries don't arrive I can request a refund. 


I contacted Gearbest after the 30 days and told them the batteries never arrived and my post office had no knowledge on the tracking number of the batteries. They asked for the order number of the batteries and I gave it to them and their only response was Thanks. The following day I pulled up their site and tried to login and I was BLOCKED! I tried for several days to login to GearBest with the same result. Without being logged in I had no way to contact them. I tried several options and found I could still use the live chat box. I told them I am being blocked from my account and said they would send me another login code. Every time I contact them they say the same thing.

GearBest never sent the Batteries I paid for and BLOCKED me from requesting a refund! They kept my money! 

Be Warned! GearBest will steal your money!

Oh wow, that’s unfortunate and sorry to hear that. Just be aware that recently Lipo batteries cannot be shipped internationally unless you pay for specialized shipping. However most companies won’t ship with this service due to the expense.

I had good luck with Gearbest but I have never dealt with their customers services. This is one reason I try to use PayPal for everything I buy. Maybe you can contact your credit card company and start a claim.

To be honest, I haven't thought about filing a claim with my bank. I have a paypal account and use it quite often.

I buy a lot of stuff online and it puzzles me that they would block a customers account to keep that customers money. They would have made much more money off of me honoring their policy and allow my account to be active.

The way I see it, if they offered to sell the batteries from out of country, they should honor it or tell me and refund the money. They have a warehouse here in the U.S. My camera was mailed from the U.S warehouse and arrived a week after placing the order.

Just be careful buying from them especially any batteries.

Bummer about this but glad you stuck around. One of the reasons I will forever prefer to walk into a brick and mortar and just buy what I need, however, this is just about impossible these days with this hobby.

Sugs,

I have been talking with Oscar and he convinced me to stay and get it out in the open. I will be staying for sure now. Really you guys needed to know what happened between me and GearBest.

It is incredibly tough to travel to a physical store and get exactly what you want to buy for RC stuff. I rely on online shopping for this hobby.

The local Walmart don't carry VAS antennas in RHCP!!!LOL

This problem I experienced with GearBest has forced me to only buy inside the U.S. now. I rather pay a higher price inside U.S. than taking chances with the Chinese. On Ebay I am guaranteed my money back if a seller don't deliver and they are a separate entity from the seller. Lately I have been experiencing bad service with some Chinese sellers on ebay. Just to name a few are 45 day shipping, wrong color/style, not working as described. But I do have some very good and quick sellers from China I trust and return buy from. The best is one I buy my props from and he is super quick for shipping from China. I think he uses a private jet sometimes.

If you're in the US, there are many great US-based shops with good inventory, good prices, and often ship same day. On top of that they all have great support and customer service. And then on top of that, several of them support local racing, kwad camps, etc.

getfpv.com and racedayquads.com are my two go-tos. FPVdirect.com is local to me so i try to shop there first, but they're inventory isn't quite as good.

I can't think of a single good reason to buy from a distributor in China.

I am located in Tennessee.

Some of those Chinese retailers have some really good deals but with bad draw backs. Shipping time is the worst.

I have a account with getfpv.com they are a excellent source for high end parts with good prices. I buy from them. The Bearing oil they sell is the best I have seen and use. Also the 7" Lumenier monitor is very nice on my tripods and does a great job recording flights.

I will look up racedayquads.com and FPVdirect.com

Ebay has been my better source because I can see the location of the seller and by within the U.S. . Amazon is a hit and miss with sellers from China. I don't post links with Amazon unless I have already bought the product in the post. But the guy I buy my props for a Bugs 2c is fast and those prop are really hard to find in U.S.

Thank you for recommending getfpv.com, racedayquads.com and FPVdirect.com.

There is some many good US vendors, there is no reason to buy from China unless they are the only one that has it.

https://fpvsampa.com/list-of-us-based-fpv-stores/

Also alofthobbies.com, fpv-flightclub.com

Voodoo614,

lately I have been finding out to stick with local (in the U.S.) online stores. I never had a problem until I started buying stuff for my RC hobby of quadcopters. There are a lot of electronic parts for HAM radio and other projects that are not made or sold in the U.S. anymore. China has a monopoly on most if not all electronics.

At the time I couldn't find a Firefly Q6 camera in the U.S. and GearBest was selling the black version (I prefer black over any color) and I noticed the upgrade 2200mah 2S batteries on sale there, so also bought two.

After what happened, it totally destroyed my trust with any overseas online buying. Lesson learned.

I will save those links to my list of suppliers. Thank you for sharing them.

Had no idea there was that many online U.S. stores after looking at fpvsampa!

(14-May-2018, 05:45 AM)voodoo614 Wrote: There is some many good US vendors, there is no reason to buy from China unless they are the only one that has it.

https://fpvsampa.com/list-of-us-based-fpv-stores/

Also alofthobbies.com, fpv-flightclub.com

That's a handy list voodoo, thanks for posting it.  Maybe should be stickied somewhere.  Two of my favorites are on the list, amainhobbies.com and readymaderc.com.

There are several other people with bad experiences from GearBest, not just me. There are 24 pages of one customer's documents of bad practices. Also Check the other customer reviews.

GearBest Review

Frankly speaking I also have a bad experience with GearBest. I have ordered a Tarantula X6 in some discount offer (Nov 2015). I also took some spare parts (motors, props, battery, something extra). Long story short they have sent me the spare parts and informed me that quad itself is 'out of stock' and I can pay extra to receive the same quad! But with a higher, regular price) or have a store credit.
Thankfully I have paid by PayPal so I could have open a dispute. Long story short, they have sent me my quad 2 months later (received in Feb 2016), and in the process I had to exchange many messages with 'customer support' and escalate it couple of times.

Maybe i just got unlucky with my order.. But I really cannot recommend GearBest at all. If you decide to buy from them, use some way of payment that will give you the option to open a 'disupte' if the order goes bad.

Ontaptom,

Sorry to here of your problem with GearBest.

I have been buying online since it first started and never had a business conduct themselves with what happened to me. Usually if there is a problem they will work with you to solve it. In my case GearBest just simply banned me from logging in to get rid of their problem and made themselves a little more richer by keeping what I purchased.

I don't conduct business in this manner and if I did, I wouldn't be in business for very long. Also I couldn't steal from anyone, it is not in my nature.

I agree! I would not recommend GearBest and would strongly advise against buying from them.