Gear Best Review / Thoughts and Can They Be Trusted

I get the impression that quite a few people like / trust Gear Best ... I've just bought one of these

http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_388840.html

Whilst you might expect the claimed lumen and run time numbers to be slightly exaggerated this just totally takes the .......

What really pee'd me off more though, I tried to post a bad ... but totally factual ... review of the torch and they blocked it / didn't allow it to go live on the website. the ramification of that is that every torch that has reviews on their website is totally skewed and can't be trusted.

Personally I think this is something that people should let them know is totally unacceptable practice ..... they're hiding the bad reviews simply to extract money from your pocket for their financial benefit and until someone kicks them where it hurts they'll continue to do it .... it's no less than fraud and you / me are the ones being conned.

With gear best, you get what you pay for. I personally do like GB. The reason why is that for the price of most things on there, it's worth the risk. I've probably made about 10 purchases from them and only been burned once. I purchased a small single AA zoomable LED flashlight for my daughter. I wasn't surprised or disappointed that it wasn't anywhere near the stated 600 lumen. More like 50-75 lm. The problem is that it quit working the same day. Overall, most things I've bought from there I've saved probably 90% over what I'd pay at a big box store.

I've had no problems with the 7 orders that have been delivered over the past year. In fact, I put in another order tonight. I don't tend to order anything expensive from overseas as the return would be a major headache.

I have ordered a lot from GearBest, but if anything is over $10 or so I only buy name brand items that I trust. I like that their pricing for faster delivery is decent, and tracking is free or a very small charge on almost everything. I have participated in a couple of BLF group buys there, and haven't had any problems at all.

I have bought a Xiaomi Note 3 mobile phone from GearBest and it came very quickly, granted I took expedited shipping and insured it too but absolutely no complaints about.

Oh yes and I also ordered a Nitecore EC4SW and a Convoy C8 both came with no problems. Cheers. So far haven't had anything negative to say but their refusal to post your truthful albeit negative comments surely doesn't look good.

Witterings said:

What really pee'd me off more though, I tried to post a bad ... but totally factual ... review of the torch and they blocked it / didn't allow it to go live on the website.

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Did you get confirmation of rejection?

And how long ago is this?

I'm just asking because for a lot of sites, there's a review process before reviews go live, which could look like it's getting discarded, even if it's not. I think hiding or deleting negative reviews is unacceptable, but I also think hiding reviews that are simply name calling the manufacturer or vendor, or simply advertises another site ("You can find this cheaper on fasttech") is fine. Not saying I think you did any of that, just that I understand why some sites have a review process.

As for gearbest itself, I've been aware of them for years, but haven't been a major buyer there.

(edit to add; hiding or discarding is (IMHO) fine in the mentioned examples, but there should then also be an acceptable review policy, and hidden or discarded things should be in clear violation. Ideally discards should happen with a notification to reviewer including reason for rejection, and they should still be kept on file in case of a need for later review by independent community members)

Purchased a couple of times from them without any issues. Both products (laser engravers) work like a charm. To add to terjee's post, I reviewed both products and it took weeks for my review to pop up on their site. I was told 4 weeks from my review that it was approved and posted....but it actually didn't show up for an addition 4-5 weeks. Didn't really care at that point, but one day, I saw my review show up. Unless you got confirmation of a rejected post, I'd sit tight and check in a few weeks to see if the review finally posts.

With all of these Chinese companies there is an inherent risk, but it is not huge.

Of the main two that I use, and I'm in Australia so everything comes from China or is expensive, Gear Best has been the most reliable and most likely to replace or refund if it goes wrong. Their pricing is very good too.

When dealing with these companies, it is always good to remember that they are not under the same obligations to the customer that local law provides, so you're not going to win with every deal. If that's a problem then best to buy local and pay the extra.

MAD777 said:

I've had no problems with the 7 orders that have been delivered over the past year. In fact, I put in another order tonight. I don't tend to order anything expensive from overseas as the return would be a major headache.

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I too have had no problems with many orders over the past year. They have been good to do business with and everything I have ordered as been as described.

Bob

I have to chuckle whenever folks buy 10¢ chinese tin toys then complain that the 10¢ chinese tin toy is just that...
A 10¢ chinese tin toy.

Gearbest is fine. You've gotta understand that you don't get french champagne for the price of a pabst blue ribbon.

Thanks for everyone's input, it was about 3/4 days ago but I received in instant notification confirming receipt and that it had been posted so was surprised when it wasn't on there ... as suggested I'll wait a while and see if it appears.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with the light I ordered .... bykfixer .... I wasn't expecting a huge amount but when the SK 98's are less than one fifth of what I paid (and they're quite decent) I don't think it unreasonable to expect something as good if not better than that ........ not something that doesn't even begin to come close!

It all depends on the price, i know exactly what i want from them like 99% of the ppl here. Companies like Fenix, nitecore, olight etc.. can be trusted. 60 real lumen to 600 claimed lumen is only possible with cheap lights.

Witterings said:

Thanks for everyone's input, it was about 3/4 days ago but I received in instant notification confirming receipt and that it had been posted so was surprised when it wasn't on there ... as suggested I'll wait a while and see if it appears.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with the light I ordered .... bykfixer .... I wasn't expecting a huge amount but when the SK 98's are less than one fifth of what I paid (and they're quite decent) I don't think it unreasonable to expect something as good if not better than that ........ not something that doesn't even begin to come close!

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It is such a drag that there is so much junk out there disguised as treasure. But the reason is from the gimmick of 'something for nothing' actually works. Not saying you are looking at it from that angle Witter... you instead expected that when somebody said "this gold watch is real" only to find out the guts are missing... it's a drag they get away with it. Yet that stuff is out there and it is plentiful.

Gearbest sells what people buy. And they do a great job for the customer. Should they be flogged for selling gutless gold watches? Well my thought is when people pay more to buy watered down beer because it's low calorie that is the consumers fault, not the seller. And if there were not so many people who think they can get just as drunk from watered down beer as 'full flavor' beer, there would not be brewers and stores selling watered down beer.

But now that you are an informed consumer, please don't blame Gearbest.

bykfixer said:

I have to chuckle whenever folks buy 10¢ chinese tin toys then complain that the 10¢ chinese tin toy is just that...
A 10¢ chinese tin toy.

Gearbest is fine. You've gotta understand that you don't get french champagne for the price of a pabst blue ribbon.

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Well if you take cheap white wine and a SodaStream... :naughty:

Slightly more on topic I've been seeing a number of these 'On the Road' branded lights which look like Olight knockoffs. The one Witterings posted really seems like an Olight S10 knockoff marketed similarly to more respectable Chinese lights. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect ~300 lumens max with some form of regulation and higher build quality than cheaper, more generic lights.
While review manipulation is annoying, it seems to be standard practice in absence of strict legal regulation of advertising. I take all online reviews with a grain of salt, and ones on foreign sites with a heaping pile. My advice to anyone is to know what you are buying, and marketing materials and screened reviews on a first-party site will only get you so far in this regard.
@Witterings: Would you mind posting a review with general impressions, lumen estimates, beam/tint, etc.? It would be very helpful. Plus, it won't get removed here.

Well put Shadowguy.

An impression from a neutral perspective where the view is not tainted towards how awful it is. There are plenty of those already. Yet if the emitter is crooked and the threads are dry, note it. If the o-rings are junk, note it. But hopefully do it in such a manner as that is a "be warned" and not another "what I hated about it" thread....

OK but that this as a scenario .... if you knew there was one site that was absolutely 100% honest and gave accurate descriptions and you knew you were going to get exactly what it said on the tin .... I wouldn't buy from anyone else!!!!

If I went on their site and say a torch was 100 lumen and that wasn't as powerful as I wanted I'd then keep looking through THEIR site rather than going to their competitors to find one with a lumen level I did want.

And bykfixer ... you say don't blame them .... who else was it that advertised at a guess a 100 lumen torch as producing 620 lumen .. why shouldn't I blame them???

Amazon sells cheesy lights all day long. All day long.

They don't do their own testing or come up with the numbers. They pass along the info provided to them.
It is only when the consumer informs them that the "bonnfire XYG 3240" is garbage that they stop selling them.

There can be 399 bad reviews, but until somebody actually says to Amazon them selves nothing changes.

bykfixer said:

Amazon sells cheesy lights all day long. All day long.

They don't do their own testing or come up with the numbers. They pass along the info provided to them.
It is only when the consumer informs them that the "bonnfire XYG 3240" is garbage that they stop selling them.

There can be 399 bad reviews, but until somebody actually says to Amazon them selves nothing changes.

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Yes but with Amazon it's such a doddle easy to send things back if it's not as described it really doesn't matter ... that said I still thing it's totally wrong and people should be fined for it ... it'd stop them doing it and in reality it's fraud!!!!

People should inform themselves before buying.

bykfixer said:

People should inform themselves before buying.

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If people have no previous experience of a product being sold ..... how on earth are they meant to do that ... instead people trust in what the seller is saying and when you can't it becomes an incredibly sad world of people just lying to extract money from others ... and you're saying that's acceptable practice.

The more people condone it as you seem to be ... the worse it'll get, the bigger the lies and they'll be able to charge more for even poorer quality products ... if that's a world you want to live in good on you but I'll bet it's very few peoples idea of perfection.

If you can please explain in detail what your justification for blatantly lying in order to sell goods that people will only be disappointed with ... I'd be really interested to hear what your logic is behind that???? Especially given the alternative of someone ... heaven forbid ... actually being HONEST and selling you something that does what they say it will????????????? .... Have to take that one straight back for a refund!!!!!!

You keep accepting poor quality carp my friend and see how much carper it gets and I'll stand up for what I believe is right and acting honestly!