Gearbest Review | Delivery to India | Torn Magazine Inside | Gearbest Refunds

A few months ago, while browsing, I came across this website Gearbest which has a great Electronic gadget collection and delivers to India. They have their warehouses in China, US and EU.

Getting to know Gearbest

I was a bit skeptical to order from this place because in India, it was not well known like Flipkart, Amazon, PayTM or Snapdeal. There were not a lot of reviews on the Internet too that spoke of Gearbest deliveries to India. Indeed, there were a lot of product reviews on their page but shopping online for high priced items, you need to be sure about many things. 

So, I had to take the risk, go ahead and explore this website. More so, when the price listed for a few products were way cheaper than what was listed on Amazon or any other website.

To verify Gearbest's authenticity, product quality and delivery time, I ordered a low priced item from Gearbest. 

After I ordered this, I kept tracking it but then there were no tracking updates and I almost forgot about it and until one fine day my Security guard handed over a package to me. It was around 35 days later when I received the package. 

It was a helmet Sports Cam mount. The quality of the product was pretty good, but still today, I doubt its usability.

Gearbest and Amazon.in comparison

However, the next product which I wanted to get was a Motorcycle Bluetooth Intercom. While this product was listed on Amazon.in for 7,120 INR (dated 30/09/2016), 

the same stuff was available on Gearbest for 39.85 USD i.e. approx 2650 INR. 

So, buying from Gearbest was indeed a lot of savings. But, Amazon.in does deliver you items mostly within a week, at times even within a couple of days while based on my first Gearbest experience, they took 35 days to deliver an item.

Ordering from Gearbest

So, I ordered the product from Gearbest on 18th August, 2016 and waited.

A day later, they updated Shipping details and posted a picture of the shipment. The shipment was to arrive from Netherlands to Kolkata, India.

The tracking information was not available on the Postal Site for the next 5 days after which they updated. I followed the updates closely. In general, I use https://www.17track.net  to track packages.

Following were the Shipment updates:

Number: RS607886918NL

Package Status: In Transit

Destination Country: India

2016-09-13 03:30 India, KOLKATA RMS, Send item out of sorting centre (Inb), Air, MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE

2016-09-12 20:05 India, KOLKATA RMS, Receive item at sorting centre (Inb), Air, MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE

2016-09-12 15:16 India, KOLKATA FOREIGN LCAO, Send item to domestic location (Inb), Air, CRC (TD) Kolkata RMS

2016-09-09 13:48 India, KOLKATA FOREIGN LCAO, Record item customs information (Inb), Air, CED KOLKATA, Retention reason : Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner

2016-09-03 17:26 India, MUMBAI AIR, Transfer from office of exchange (Inb), Air, CED KOLKATA

2016-09-03 14:00 India, MUMBAI AIR, Receive item at office of exchange (Inb), Air, MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE

2016-08-30 11:20 Netherlands (the), AMSTERDAM E INTERNATIONAL MAIL, Send item abroad (EDI-received), Air, MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE

2016-08-26 13:41 Netherlands (the), AMSTERDAM E INTERNATIONAL MAIL, Insert item into bag (Otb), Air, MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE

Origin Country: Netherlands

2016-09-03 14:00 The item has been processed in the country of destination

2016-09-03 14:00 The item has arrived in the country of destination

2016-08-30 09:10 The item is on transport to the country of destination

2016-08-26 13:41 The item is at the PostNL sorting center

2016-08-22 11:03 The item is pre-advised

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Summing up the Order: So, I ordered the Bluetooth intercom from Gearbest priced at approx 2650 INR as compared to Amazon.in listing of 7120 INR on 18th August, 2016 and received it finally on 15th September, 2016 i.e. 28 days from the order date. 

One Month is what I would say is the average time taken for a Gearbest Delivery. During, this time, I also came across another similar website BangGood.com. I have ordered a few stuffs from there as well and will post the review soon.

Surprise! Surprise! I open the package to find a Torn Magazine inside

The heading says it all. There were some torn pages from an NTPC financial report for 2016. Now, imagine how pissed I was waiting for 28 days, expecting a product which I really wanted for the past few months and then getting this.

Generally, I do not do an unboxing video, but god knows why I was recording it this time and thank god, I was doing so. Later on, I could provide links to this video to Gearbest showing them their delivery.

Following up with Gearbest | Gearbest Customer Support

Though I was frustrated and pissed at the whole ordeal, I must say Gearbest Customer support is pretty good and has supported me throughout.

I raised a ticket at Gearbest and also initiated the Paypal Buyer Protection claim (since payments were done via Paypal). Gearbest was completely supportive and gave me 3 options:

1. They could resend me a new package.

2. Refund me to their Gearbest Wallet

3. Refund me in 48 hours via Paypal

Initially, I opted for the first option and wanted them to reship but I could not keep the Paypal Claim open for another month until the reshipment arrives. So, I decided to go for the 3rd option and finally, they did refund me in full.

Thanks to Gearbest for their wonderful customer support and very soon, I will once again try their portal. I hope everything goes fine this time.

Below are the screenshots of the Gearbest Ticket and Paypal Claim in detail:

Gearbest Ticket

Paypal Dispute / Claim: