Yet another awful experience with Geekbuying

Lcitizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 17:31
Last edited 10/02/2017 - 00:01

Short version: placed my order, order is delayed twice due to errors on their behalf, then abruptly informed that due to Chinese New Year my order wouldn't finish being processed and shipped until Feb 3rd, over 2 weeks from when I placed it, likely would have been shipped before that if not for those earlier delays that were a result of their negligence. Requested several times that they cancel it and refund me fully, they intentionally ignore me, keep the money, and ship it anyway. My complaints about their terrible service and extensive inconvenience eventually met with a slap-in-the-face offer of a 4% discount on a future order (obviously I'm never shopping with them again)

EDIT: I've just noticed that the 4% discount they offered is available to literally anyone who subscribes to their newsletter and is prominently advertised on their front page. Real nice.

More in-depth:

Jan 19th - Placed order on their site

Jan 21st - Received an email from them stating a product in my order couldn't be shipped to my country and asking if I wanted to remove it or choose a different item. There was no indication through the order process that there was any issue with shipping this item, if there had been I obviously wouldn't have ordered it. Ask them to remove and refund and ship the rest. Order processing delayed due to this

Jan 24th - Receive another email stating that 2 other items in my order actually aren't in stock and they had no ETA for when they would be receiving them. Again, no indication that this product wasnt in stock when I placed my order, wouldn't have ordered it if there had been. Once again requested them to remove and refund and ship the rest of my order. Order process once again delayed due to their error

Jan 24th, later on - received an email stating that due to the Chinese New Year their "shipment service" would be suspended between the 26th of January and 3rd of February and my order wouldn't finish being processed and shipped until after that. Again, there was no indication when I was placing my order that there was such an extreme delay imminent. More frustratingly, it seems likely that my order would have been shipped were it not for the earlier delays caused by their failure to provide accurate information. Obviously, had I at all known I was in for such a screw around I would never have ordered with them in the first place. I can't help but assume the omission of their information, and presence of misleading information, is intentional, because they know people will be less likely to shop with them if they knew the actual nature of their business conduct. At this point I was fed up, told them I was disappointed with their service, and requested that they cancel and refund my entire order. I received no response.

Feb 3rd - I received an email stating they had removed the out-of-stock items from my order and would proceed with packing and shipping the rest. I responded to this reiterating that I didn't want them to ship anything, that I wanted the entire order cancelled and refunded. I followed this up by responding again to the earlier email informing me about the impending delay due to CNY asking them to cancel and refund my entire order. No response to either of my emails.

Feb 5th - I receive an email stating that "my order" was shipped on the 4th with a tracking number etc. I responded once again detailing in depth how abysmal my customer service experience had been and offering them an ultimatum: refund the remainder of my purchase cost as requested, or I would proceed to name and shame their shady business practices on online forums frequented by their current and potential customers.

Feb 7th - I receive a succinct email saying "sorry for the delay" with a coupon code for a laughable 4% off another order.

Feb 9th - Told them that wasn't good enough and

It's not even the money that bothers me. It's being treated with such disrespect, and having wasted so much time and energy needlessly, and that they continue to get away with such unethical business practice.

This is legitimately one of the worst customer service experiences I've ever had. If you're considering shopping with Geekbuying, I highly recommend you DON'T. Go elsewhere. It's worth paying a little more to be treated decently, and to not fund a business that has so little respect for their customers.

Oh, and just an aside - anyone know if I have any hope of recovering my cash through a Paypal dispute or something?

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Comments

  • CyberMurning on 09/02/2017 - 17:52
    +3

    Noted.

  • mskeggs on 09/02/2017 - 17:53
    +4

    1 post, this one. One comment, also disparaging Geekbuying.
    It is pretty routine for Geekbuying and some of the other Chinese sellers to take a little while to process orders. And then it takes sometimes a long time for delivery.
    If you need a product urgently, it is as you say - best to go to a brick and mortar retailer or similar.
    But every retailer has hiccups, and delays, especially around major holidays.

    If you want to take advantage of big discounts, sometimes you need to risk service issues.
    I don't know about Geekbuying specific inventory practices, but if you ordered something they needed to get from a distributor or wholesaler, then they are not able to simply refund your money without incurring a loss themselves.
    Again, if you want the protection of Australian Consumer Law, you will need to pay GST and the Australia tax, though to be honest, if the same circumstances happened over Xmas here I don't think that ACL would necessarily result in a refund. Most guarantees are about product quality, not speed of delivery/despatch.

      • mskeggs on 09/02/2017 - 19:12
        +8

        Firstly, starting off by drawing attention to my prior lack of participation in this community is a pretty cheap attempt to undermine my credibility.

        Just pointing out that nobody knows who you are, you could be a competitor, a disgruntled ex-employee or the CEO's ex-wife.

        You seem very angry that the item wasn't shipped as swiftly as you had hoped. You noted they say shipping within 2-7 business days, which means the 31st of Jan or 1st of Feb for an order placed on the 19th of Jan due to weekends and public holidays (20th is day one, 23rd is day 2, 24th d3, 25th d4, 27 d5, 30 d6, 31 d7, First of Feb shipped). You noted there were issues with items that can't be shipped here and out of stock items, which Geekbuying advised you of during the four days after you placed your order.
        Unfortunately, these delays meant that the order was impacted by Chinese New Year. You will know that CNY adds at least a week delay to anything happening in China.
        But actually, the order shipped on the 4th.
        That is 2 or 3 business days in excess of the 2-7 business days they quoted.

        Do you honestly think there has never been a case where retailers in Australia take 2 or 3 business days longer than they quote to fulfil an order?

        There is a shipping guide at the bottom of the page too:
        http://www.geekbuying.com/help/payment_and_shipping/shipping…
        It says the shipping time is in addition to the order processing time, and again says 2-7 business days.

        It seems the core of your complaint is that GB should have refunded your money when you demanded it.
        While some businesses do offer refunds to dissatisfied customers, that isn't something the law says they must do if they are delayed by a couple of days. If you ordered a Maserati and the dealer was 3 days late delivering it, do you think they would give you a refund?

        Maybe buying online isn't for you if you get so worked up over delays?

        • mskeggs on 09/02/2017 - 22:03
          +3

          @citizen-4666392:
          I happen to agree that GB could handle delivery better, but ranting about the injustice you suffered because your order was dispatched a few days later than their published dates and seeking ways to get a refund after they have dispatched your order is not a reasonable reaction.
          You're seeking an unreasonable remedy for a minor issue, and trying to blow a few days delay up into a major drama.
          It isn't.

          If you need an item on a specific day, don't buy it from China, go to one of the reputable local stores that never have delays or issues like Harvey Norman or Kogan /sarcasm

        • citizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 22:15
          -4

          @mskeggs:

          ranting about the injustice you suffered because your order was dispatched a few days later than their published dates and seeking ways to get a refund after they have dispatched your order is not a reasonable reaction.

          Again, this is not what I'm arguing and that is very apparent, please quit it with the strawmanning.

          Incidentally, do you imagine it's your fanclub or Geekbuying shills misusing the downvote function to bury my responses?

        • mskeggs on 09/02/2017 - 22:24
          +2

          @citizen-4666392:
          I'm seeing all your responses, and haven't neg voted any.
          I suspect most people on this site agree with you that geekbuying could handle their order processing better, but accept that they often have the best prices, so take that into consideration.

          When unreasonable customers demand special treatment when something minor goes wrong it adds to the seller's costs, and those are reflected in the prices offered to everyone.
          If clear sorts out a special compensation for your injury of a few days delay, it will end up being paid for by all the other customers.

          If you aren't upset that the order was delayed a few days longer than they stated, I'm not clear on what your complaint is. The only other substantial item you raised is the desire to get a refund after you purchased, both before and after they shipped.
          They didn't offer you one before they shipped, and it seems a bit rich to get one after they shipped, so what reasonable response do you want?

        • citizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 22:57
          -4

          @mskeggs:

          It's not just the order processing. It's the misleading (and I'm inclined to suggest intentionally misleading) information on their website and their subpar communication. They claim things that are false (or, it would seem, very rare best case scenarios), and omit very important information. You claim I'm being unreasonable for being picky about my order after having placed it. The thing is, as I've said repeatedly, if they'd provided reasonable information about the nature of their practices on their site, I would have never ordered with them in the first place.

          And I'll bite on the shipping thing - when stating 2-7 days, the implication is that 7 days is the longest it will take to ship. One might be optimistic and hope it will happen at the shorter end of that timeframe, or reasonably expect that around the middle would be probable. So yes, taking longer than the stated LONGEST time it will take them to ship something I would consider unreasonable.

          It is not at all conventional that one has to go scrutinise the fine print to discover that, oh, the prominently advertised 2-7 day shipping time is actually in addition to the separate 2-7 day processing time, and that is yet another example of their wilfully sneaky business tactics.

          Also, I was barely aware that Chinese New Year was approaching, and no, actually did not know that it meant that this business I was shopping with would entirely shut down for 8 days. It's unreasonable to suggest that the burden was on me, having no investment in Chinese cultural practices, to have anticipated that that would be the case, when it was absolutely on the business to declare it prominently to the foreign customers it's targetting who have no familiarity with their cultural customs. There should have been something on their site when I ordered on the 19th to the effect of "hey, we're going to be away for a week from the 26th to the 3rd, please expect a significant delay in the processing of any orders placed", plain and simple.

          You noted there were issues with items that can't be shipped here and out of stock items, which Geekbuying advised you of during the four days after you placed your order.

          Considering they were definitely aware of these things at the time I should have been aware of this prior to placing my order, because, again, this knowledge would have informed whether or not I placed the order with them in the first place.

          I feel I was lured into placing the order under false pretenses because once they snare a customer they clearly think they can just do as they please. That's what I take issue with, and that's why I was, and am, so insistent on receiving a refund.

        • mskeggs on 10/02/2017 - 08:14
          +4

          @citizen-4666392:
          I think we are uncovering the crux of your issue.
          Is it you thought that delivery time was 2-7 business days when you placed the order, then when you discovered that was the time to dispatch only and you needed to add the time for the courier or post that you realised you would receive the item too late?
          So you sought to cancel the order and get a refund?

          I can see how placing a quick order without reading the details about shipping, and just choosing the default shipping choice might leave you thinking you would get the item in a week, not the month GB actually takes for airmail.

          Is that what happened?
          I think the reason I am not sympathetic with your initial post is that the 2 or 3 days of delay you describe are such a small thing in the 30 day delivery window from GB. But if you thought you would get your item in 2 days, I guess it looks like a much bigger deal.

          Please also understand though, if you are seeking to buy things from other countries to save costs, it is up to you to ensure you know about things like Chinese New Year, and how long air mail takes. I wouldn't have much sympathy for somebody ordering and item from Australia on the 24th of December if it didn't dispatch until the 2nd of January who complained they didn't know anout Xmas/NY.

        • citizen-4666392 on 10/02/2017 - 10:37
          -7

          @mskeggs:

          I think we are uncovering the crux of your issue.

          Quit this patronising bullshit. You aren't psychoanalytically seeing through my statements and glimpsing my "real intention" here, that's just a shitty attempt to justify how you're glossing over the bulk of my issue because you can't argue against it and throwing up a strawman to disparage instead.

          I've stated numerous times that I'm familiar with and fine with the compromises of shopping with Chinese vendors. The faults in GB's practices have gone above and beyond the realm of those compromises.

          I've pointed out legitimate issues with GB's shady business practices, you've once again entirely ignored them, and instead put the exact same words in my mouth about "boohoo shipping" which is very obviously not my issue, and we are going around in circles.

          Are you a politician by any chance?

          At any rate, this is useless. I hope the commission you're likely receiving from GB from your slimey attempts at defending their honour is more hefty than the 4% discount they insulted me with.

        • AssociatedClear @ Geekbuying on 10/02/2017 - 11:00
          +4

          @citizen-4666392: I am the only one associated with GeekBuying on OzBargain. No one is getting paid by them.

          As mskeggs said, were you under the impression that shipping would be 2-7 days?

        • citizen-4666392 on 10/02/2017 - 11:07
          -3

          @Clear:

          No, holy shit, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Are you actually reading any of my posts? I certainly thought it would have been shipped in 2-7 days considering that's what they stated prominently on the pages of the products I ordered. Silly me right?

          I feel I was lured into placing the order under false pretenses because once they snare a customer they clearly think they can just do as they please. That's what I take issue with, and that's why I was, and am, so insistent on receiving a refund.

          This is my issue. If you actually read my posts impartially it is very apparent why I feel like that, and that it's got nothing to do with thinking shipping would take 2-7 days.

        • AssociatedClear @ Geekbuying on 10/02/2017 - 11:12
          +3

          @citizen-4666392: I have to make sure because it does happen.

          They haven't intentionally tried to decieve you. Processing time is normally 2-7 business days. However as per the shipping guide and pretty much every other website… it can be longer due to things like national holidays.

          I know for a fact there was a banner on the website mentioning the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday. I recall seeing that on the 20th or 21st. Obviously that's after you had already ordered.

          So to make it very clear once more. What do you really want as the outcome for this issue?

        • citizen-4666392 on 10/02/2017 - 12:36

          @Clear:

          If not intentional - and I still struggle to see how there would be no intent here - then deception through negligence, but I feel that's being very generous, and all the same isn't forgivable.

          Take the shipping issues - which I maintain that they should have signposted more clearly/less deceptively - out of the picture completely for a second. We still have them claiming they had certain items in stock ready to be processed immediately, and that certain items could ship to this region when they couldn't. I would not have ordered with them at all if I'd known they couldn't actually provide me with more than half of the items I was looking to order. Now we come to the point where they inform me of an additional delay to the order I'd already placed that I wasn't informed would affect me when I placed it.

          So I'm missing a huge chunk of my order, and now it's going to take more than a week longer than the impression I was given going by the normal shopping experiences one has on "pretty much every other website…". I think it's fair enough for me to at that point say "hold up, this isn't at all what you lead me to believe would happen, please just cancel and refund the whole thing." They didn't even acknowledge that request or try to give an explanation. They just proceeded like it hadn't happened. Again with the next two requests prior to the order being processed and shipped. Just shitty.

          Once again:

          pretty much every other website…

          Would have made all the above issues very clear throughout the ordering process and this whole shitshow would never have eventuated in the first place.

          The outcome I wanted was a refund at the time I requested it. That ship has obviously sailed. I'm not content to wait, wait, send the order back to them, wait, wait and then receive a refund as that doesn't adequately compensate for the screw around. What I'd like from them is an acknowledgement of their (profanity), and compensation that accounts for the extensive inconvenience and not just the value of the remaining items they could actually ship to me/the items themselves.

        • AssociatedClear @ Geekbuying on 10/02/2017 - 13:13
          +2

          @citizen-4666392:

          So the answer to my question is… you want them to admit their mistake and give you compensation more than the value of your order?

        • citizen-4666392 on 10/02/2017 - 19:32

          @Clear:

          That's what I would consider an appropriate response, yes.

        • AssociatedClear @ Geekbuying on 10/02/2017 - 19:48

          @citizen-4666392: GeekBuying would be able to give a gift if you are interested.

        • supnigs super skids on 10/02/2017 - 20:14
          +1

          @Clear: that's so unfair. Delays are expected. I've bought heaps of things and there has been delays but couldn't be stuffed nagging. They all eventually came.

          The gift better be something trivial like a pack of 6 coloured hair ties made out of repurposed condoms..

        • AssociatedClear @ Geekbuying on 10/02/2017 - 20:19

          @supnigs: There is the issue of him/her requesting the order to be cancelled and Gkb sending it anyway.

      • RockyRaccoon on 09/02/2017 - 19:31
        +2

        citizen-4666392

        Sorry Citizen 466393 has had a great experience.

        Really what confidence do you bring to the discussion with a handle like that

        Frankly if a "member" is going to masquerade as a high quality, trustworthy….

        Sorry but as MSKeggs says you only participate here with a complaint. You say that GB has been here and promoted itself, and that means it must have a requirement to be a quality site. If you knew that why didnt you also participate here earlier. At least by signing up. Frankly anyone can log on and start rubbishing anyone else, so we tend to spend more time at least respecting people who have been at this site for a longer time than 2 hours.

        Just being blunt.

        • citizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 21:26

          I dunno why I didn't predict the future and participate in this site earlier so as to be more credible when I posted about an issue that only reached a head two days ago, I guess some sort of cosmic force sought to shield me from the fallacious arguments and unwarranted hostility exhibited by some of the members here.

        • pyramid on 09/02/2017 - 22:09
          +4

          @citizen-4666392: calm down Princess. Take deep breath.. Your order will arrive soon. What did you order? $2 screen guard?

        • supnigs super skids on 10/02/2017 - 00:05
          +1

          @pyramid: citizen-hooneyb. Checks out as female.

          BTW, most articulate responses I've ever seen from a user

      • Ughhh on 09/02/2017 - 22:53
        +1

        Hopefully knowing that they can anticipate this sort of service will help others make a more informed decision before choosing to shop with Geekbuying. Lord knows I wish I'd seen a post like mine before placing my order.

        https://www.ozbargain.com.au/search/node/geekbuying?t=f …..

  • AssociatedClear @ Geekbuying on 09/02/2017 - 18:01

    What's your order number? I'll speak to GeekBuying immediately to have something sorted.

    • citizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 18:46

      I think this is it: 3931223

      Cheers!

    • citizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 23:50

      Hi there, just keeping you in the loop,

      Presumably subsequent to some communication on your behalf I received this email from GB:

      Dear sir,
      We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.Because you told us that ", please remove them from my order and refund me the cost."we thought you wanna have the available items and remove the two unavailable item.Then in order not to delay your order longer, we arrange to ship the available items to you immediately.
      I tried to freeze the order for you , but my colleague inform me that the shipping courier picked it up and left our warehouse .
      In this case,If you still do not like the parcel .you can refuse to receive it ,Then the post will return the parcel to us automatically,After we receive the parcel we will full refund you
      Your understanding would be much appreciated.
      .
      Sincerely
      Silvia

      This is how I responded:

      I think you are lying to me.

      I sent you the following email on the 24th of January after being informed of the shipping delay:

      "Frankly this service is very sub par and disappointing. I placed my order several days ago and it seems to have been delayed because I placed items in my cart that your site said you would ship to Australia but that you won't, and items you said you had in stock but didn't. There was absolutely no indication when I placed my order that I would have to be waiting until February 3rd for it to actually be shipped to me. It really should have been shipped by now. If you aren't able to ship my order before your Chinese new year break then please give me a full refund immediately. I will take my business elsewhere. Thank you."

      That is a very clear request to have my entire order cancelled and refunded. You ignored me.

      I sent you 2 more emails on the 3rd of Feb when you told me you would remove those items and ship the rest again requesting that you cancel and refund my entire order. You ignored both of those emails. [Note: my order didn't ship until the 4th]

      Frankly, waiting all that time to have the item sent back to you to recoup my money isn't good enough for me. All the time and energy wasted just to get my own money back in a month or more from now when if you had just been honest about your business practices from the beginning I never would have spent the money with you in the first place, let alone wasted all this time and energy trying to recover it.

      Sorry, but no thanks, not good enough.

      • PJC on 10/02/2017 - 03:43

        … I was, and am, so insistent on receiving a refund.

    • friendlysimpleme on 11/12/2017 - 02:47

      Please process

      Order Number: #4298375
      Order Date: 11/29/2017
      Order Status: Payment Confirmed (Processing)

      Thanks

  • altomic on 09/02/2017 - 18:54
    +2

    I've always had pretty smooth orders with Geekbuying. sorry to hear of your troubles

  • Baysew on 09/02/2017 - 18:59
    +5

    tl;dr version:

    Order 3931223 delayed.

    • Clear will sort it.
    • pyramid on 09/02/2017 - 22:08
      +1

      +100.

  • juventino on 09/02/2017 - 21:22
    +1

    you are too cheap, thats why, blame yourself

    • citizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 21:27

      Thanks for the valuable contribution.

      • juventino on 09/02/2017 - 21:29
        +2

        You are welcome ^_^

  • juventino on 09/02/2017 - 21:28
    +1

    ^^^^^^

  • PJC on 09/02/2017 - 22:41

    Yeah, I'm not wasting the energy on further engaging with you

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/4349219/redir

    • citizen-4666392 on 09/02/2017 - 23:01
      -2

      Yeah, people can be helpful and reasonable sometimes, and not so much at others.

  • phocus on 10/02/2017 - 11:57
    +5

    damnit. Used all my negs in one thread.

    the sense of entitlement is amazing

  • PJC on 10/02/2017 - 13:54
    +1

    http://www.geekbuying.com/help/payment_and_shipping/shipping…
    Shipping Guide
    Please note that the shipping time mentioned is estimated and it may be influenced by holidays, custom policies, political things and other factors.

  • mini_wombat on 10/02/2017 - 16:20
    +4

    After reading all this I am pretty impressed by the service of Geekbuying. These guys had a lot of patience with you …
    (You have way too much time of your hands when you register here just to write about this … so it does not matter when you wait a few days longer for your product).

  • Speckled Jim on 11/02/2017 - 20:08
    +1

    Well OP, the hordes have spoken (and voted) it seems. You bad, GB good. You see, the imperative here is the Bargains. It's all about the Bargains. Folks like us who expect to be treated with a degree of professional courtesy are the very antithesis of Bargains and Damn All Else.

    My empathy is partly because of a similar experience with Fasttech. In my case, I didn't bother engaging directly with them, as that was one painful experience I wasn't keen on repeating.

    I raised a dispute with Paypal, they didn't respond within 72 hours and PP refunded. I ordered elsewhere and everything arrived 2-4 weeks later.

    The only criticism I'd level at you is your admission of CNY ignorance. If you're dealing with overseas vendors, it's incumbent on you check their shipping page at least. Sure, a prominent banner would be great, but they're not legally obliged to have one. Chalk it up to experience!

  • PJC on 23/03/2017 - 23:28

    OP is this matter now resolved?

  • BilboBargains on 15/12/2017 - 08:47

    I have asked Clear now 3 times how my order is going .. no reply

    if i dont get an answer i will cancel the order and bring it up with paypal as a dispute.

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