Hi, just posting my experiences so far with GearBest. Been getting various ecig and other products from them for the last half a year and so far seems to be very good.
The main thing at first that attracted me were some great prices on ecig mods and rta's they had that I couldn't find elsewhere like the goblin. It seems they have been adding alot of authentic mods, rtas, rdas since then too as soon as they are announced usually. They arrived fairly quickly (around 2-3 weeks) which is similar to other shops in China. I just went for regular shipping in this case, but they have faster shipping too if you wanted and some other free shipping choices that might be faster than others.
I decided to check out some non ecig stuff too as they have good pricing on watches, phone accessories, sun glasses, battery chargers etc. Most items were sent fast, some took a bit to process or send out, but they eventually were sent without me having to ask whats going on or anything. I've experienced similar waiting times on other sites for ecigs in China too, might be to do with stock levels sometimes of the item, but as long as its not something needed urgently its not an issue. Most were processed within a few days of ordering however.
I went for 1 pre order item too that I knew would take a while to be ready to ship, as in other pre order situations there can be delays and there was a slight delay so they did email me about this asking whether I wanted to keep waiting or cancel and receive some free gb points in addition to the refund. I eventually decided to cancel as I was on the fence about the item anyway and was offered an option to keep the cash in the gb wallet or back to paypal. I chose to keep in the gb wallet as I did have another item in mind to buy right after and was also offered more points for keeping the cash in the gb wallet.
The cs reps were fairly quick to reply even though I was most likely replying during the day gmt when theyre off work. Usually the case with other shops in China too though.
I found out that if you go for the option of keeping cash in the gb wallet the refund processes quicker. I also found out that they offer 5x the amount of points you would get otherwise which can be used against your next purchase too like the points you usually receive.
It seems there were issues with pre orders getting really long delays for some other items but I believe they have stopped doing pre orders like that and instead have an ability to sign up for an "Arrival Notice" instead which means you have not paid for the item up front. So its good that they're working on improving the system all the time too as well as bringing the latest items.
I noticed the special promotions too can be tricky to get if theres high demand and only a few at that promotional price, I found that as long as the price was the promotion one in checkout it was the reflected price then in the next page in paypal before it asks you to pay now through that system. I think they changed that system of promotions recently to make it easier to see how many items are left as there was a counter in the mini vf promo showing how many left of each colour. I think maybe on very popular items there can be slight delays in the database sometimes so the last few people may not be able to buy the item as its already been purchased but thats been a similar thing I noticed on other promotions and low quantity items in the uk sometimes too.
Another thing I ordered was the kbox at the time with the promo code that was shared everywhere, the price did seem extremely low for an item that was only released a few months before but was worth trying for anyway. Ended up being an old coupon that maybe reduced by the wrong % so got a message saying it needed to be refunded which went smoothly within a day or so. I've experienced similar things even in large uk companies where a mis price has led to the order being cancelled. I think sometimes the price is kept but not always. Luckily theres been good promotions afterwards so could still get some bargains.
So in summary the experiences have been good, similar waiting like ordering from other China vendors too, but thats the trade off in the low prices vs buying locally. Also the waiting time for orders to be processed has been similar too for some items only. Best thing is be ready to wait a bit and rather than 1 large order in 1 go maybe make smaller ones spread over time, that way the items will arrive one after the other
There were some issues in the past with the delivery only being available as standard or expedited but now theres several free delivery options too to choose from that can take 7-10 days to europe or up to 2 weeks to the USA, also theres local warehouses for some items that'll speed up delivery and is worth checking out.
Its good that gearbest are providing some competition in the ecig space especially when you want to try out various mods, rtas, rdas etc, and are not sure which one you want to use all the time and would rather pay less to do so and also if you can't find the items available locally.
