GearBest, Scam!

JSauter86
Contributor
Contributor

Hello everyone. Just stopping in to give everyone a quick run down on how my GearBest experience has been, my hopes are to stop anyone from shopping there in the future with a little information.

 

In its simplest form, GearBest is a scam. Not totally however. They are a legitimate company who sells a few good items, the problem comes in when you expect the item to be delivered on time for 1. I was told my phone was going to be delivered within 2 weeks. It took 3 months. When I finally received the item it was a handheld camera. I made a report with Gearbest first, they offered to give me half of my money back AFTER I shipped their item back to them. This for me is where I was assured a scam. You see, when you can reliably ship a handful of items nobody will question you if you have a few mistakes. But the company is intentionally sending the incorrect items, to me it seems as if they send the wrong item in hopes that you don't go through the appeals process with 100% efficiency. So I filed a claim with PayPal. This is where the efficiency comes into play, see if you miss the deadline by a day, if you are missing some information, PayPal has the right to deny your claim. PayPal accepted my claim and asked me to ship the item back. I did so within the deadline, as with all my other submissions. Whats real funny is that during a conversation with a PayPal, prior to shipping the item back to GB, I asked the associate if I would still be protected if GB refused to acknowledge that the item was returned.

 

June 19 I filed a claim with PayPal, after GB delayed their part of the process PayPal had all the information as of July 22. I have confirmed the item was delivered on August 5th to their factory in China. Aug 8th, Aug 13th, Aug 18th, and now Aug 23rd...each of these days PayPal was supposed to have a determination in my case. Their latest associate has informed me that GB has not confirmed the return of the item. 

 

How many customers have to continue toi get scammed by GB before PayPal takes action? The only reason I confidently made the purchase was because the PayPal logo and protection was offered. Its getting hard to discern PayPal from GearBest at this point.  I have learned my lesson and sure hope many thousands other will too, GearBest is a scam and PayPal "protection" isn't far behind them. Why does it take news articles and Twitter to ask companies to do the right thing?

 

One might wonder, well what did I mess up? Nothing. Its clear, cut, and dry. I have an order for my $700 phone and pictures of the $200 item I received. I did everything within the time limits and all requested information has been sent to PayPal with 100% accuracy. 

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3 REPLIES 3

perplexed_user
Frequent Contributor
Frequent Contributor

This is surprising since I had ordered from GB before with no problems (though they are for smaller amounts than your order, and it was a while ago). What PP is doing is definitely bordering on being criminal. The bait & switch scheme has been reported here since Jan. PP has done a damn thing to stop it. Some people are suggesting a class action lawsuit. I'd love to see that.

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JSauter86
Contributor
Contributor

They must be playing some sort of percentage game (gb). As long as so many orders come through that are good, Paypal occasionally has to do a little bit of work to account for the scam portion to make doing business with GB worth it. PayPal is a business and businesses can't flourish if you dont have sellers to collect fees from. 

I dont think Covid is an excuse anymore when you have always been an online based business, and PayPal has admitted that its only due to GB's inaction that continues to delay my claim. 

 

The question I was asking is, when will a determination be made. My latest question to the PP associates is how much longer does GB have to respond before I am automatically offered protection. 

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JoeAl
Contributor
Contributor

Disclosure: I did not use Paypal to order from Gearbest, just my credit card. They charged the card immediately  - honest companies, I think, only charge you once they ship. And they NEVER shipped the item. After complaining and having asked for a refund, they denied and told me to wait (after two months!) or to have the money on a Gearbest wallet. For what, since they do not ship what you pay for? In some countries, it is considered fraud, or maybe robbery, when you pay for something and do not receive the item. My hope is that no others would fall for this scam.

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