A cautionary tale of vapourware and questionable selling tactics

[linuxium]

When I saw Geekbuying's Tronsmart Orion RK3288 offer I was immediately intrigued by the "additional free 8GB micro SD card storing the complete SDK file of the device". Enticed, and with the further promise that "This first batch of Orion R28 is released with special prices" I duly order and paid including DHL shipping and insurance.

After a few days because my order hadn't changed status from "Payment Confirmed" I wrote asking when it would be shipped. And then I wrote again after a couple of days having heard nothing back. And I wrote again. And then again first thing yesterday morning.

Come last night, I still hadn't heard anything so I tried a couple of times using "Live Chat" to speak to someone. No responses. So I opened a Paypal dispute as, well, there didn't seem to be any other alternative.

One last try of "Live Chat" and instantly an "operator" replies. Yippee! I ask about my order to which I get "hi , we check that you have oped a dispute , is that right？？" followed by "could you close the dispute so that we can send out your order" and "If you don’t want to close it, we have to cancel your order and refund you". It then continued with "now your package has been packed, and wait for your confirmation" to which I asked "what confirmation?" and the reply was "hope you can close the dispute so that we can send it out today". So Geekbuying have my money, haven't responded to any emails and are now threatening to cancel my order because I am concerned that I haven't received anything. I reply "I will close the dispute when I receive my order" to which their response was "sorry , we can't do that".

Somewhat bemused I'm sitting wondering why I ever tried to buy anything from this company when suddenly I get a reply from their tracking support ... "We are so sorry to delay your package for long time ,for this case ,please allow me explain it .the item Tronsmart Orion R28 ,our factory tested it before and it had some problem ,but please take it easy and our factory is resolving this case ,we need to make sure the device can work well and then send to you immediately".

Finally this is why I haven't received anything. There is no Tronsmart Orion to send to me. Or for that matter any customer service from Geekbuying. But they've still got my money!

[bluesmanuk]

I can only speak from what I know and have experienced but this is how things panned out for me personally.

I ordered the Meta box, with the option for snail mail delivery.

Initial shipping expectation was Sept 3.

Due to the boxes only coming in to Geekbuying on that day and with them wanting to test each box before sending out, I thought it quite OK to have a day or so delay on the initial expected shipping date.

There were no issues with the Pro boxes and they were sent out on Friday.

I know of two people that received theirs today and I think that although one had also opted for the snail mail route, it was sent via the faster DHL route, with, to my knowledge at this present moment, no additional DHL charges.

The Meta boxes had two initial issues.

One with access to wifi channel 13 and the other with the quality of wifi connection in general, which Eric wanted to resolve before sending them out.

By Friday, it had been confirmed that both issues had resolutions and were not hardware based, so for me, happy to wait the extra couple of days to ensure no issues with hardware.

I received confirmation of shipping and a tracking number on Saturday afternoon, so was then prepared to wait a few weeks for delivery.

This afternoon, to my surprise, I received a text from DHL telling me that they wanted to ship a package to me but wanted an up front payment of £3.60.

Although I had not specified DHL delivery because of my concerns about charges, I decided that for a reasonably low amount, that I would pay and did so.

Another person was in the same position in the UK and paid the money too, with both of us eventually receiving confirmation from DHL that the expected delivery time is Thursday Sept 11.

My shipment is currently on a flight from Hong Kong to what I believe is Leipzig, Germany for forwarding on from there.

I did have a little concern about the fact that shipping had been changed but with the current position as it is, I am prepared to take the small hit for the charges (as long as I don't incur any more when it comes into the UK) for the improved delivery times.

I am aware of 1 meta buyer that hasn't received their tracking number yet and with the Autumn Festival holidays being over now, I was surprised that they had not received the number.

I'm guessing that you have sent a mail or PM to Eric already to ascertain the exact situation?

Needless to say that I hope that you get it resolved today and it would seem reasonable for Geekbuying to ship it first and give you a tracking number in order that you withdraw your paypal dispute.

Better that as an option, rather than to ask for delivery to be completed first and is perhaps a meet in the middle solution?

[geekbuying]

Hi linuxium:

I am sorry you have such a problem with your order.

We are just coming back from the China Mid-autumn Day holiday.

You are a respect person , i have known your name very early, and you are good at linux support.

please pM your order number, i will try to solve your problem asap.

Eric

[odrewjr]

I order mind on the 28 of August and paid by Paypal. Got conformation from Paypal but not from Geekbuying. Check my orders on Geekbuying, order not there. I have email Geekingbuying 5 times, no response. Eric, I was happy to order the 2/16 gb device with the special offer. If you can assist me and others, I would like to receive Transmart Orion Rk3288. I have no order number only Paypal transaction ID : 99626628y44405030.

[geekbuying]

I order mind on the 28 of August and paid by Paypal. Got conformation from Paypal but not from Geekbuying. Check my orders on Geekbuying, order not there. I have email Geekingbuying 5 times, no response. Eric, I was happy to order the 2/16 gb device with the special offer. If you can assist me and others, I would like to receive Transmart Orion Rk3288. I have no order number only Paypal transaction ID : 99626628y44405030.

Hi

I have transferred your problem to my customer service manager, she will help you out.

Eric

[no_spam_for_me]

@linuxium

Hi Ian,

glad to see you also ordered a 'Tronsmart Orion R28'.
I'm sure also many other Tronsmart/Beelink/UBOX owner will like to know this.

I don't know which R28 version you ordered (Pro or Meta (Telos not available at the moment)) but please also build kernels with every WiFi/BT-chip (AP6210, (?AP6330?), AP6335) support.

Looking forward to your, maybe also dual-boot, builds
(and I can completely replace my rk3188)

Greetings
Tom

[linuxium]

Geekbuying replied "About the Paypal dispute, let me explain it, we have encountered similar things, customer opened a Paypal dispute and we send the parcel, yet last Paypal money back to the customer, we lost the product and do not get any protection. This is why we cannot ship out the package when customer open a dispute."

To conclude, my device (Meta) has now been shipped for arrival next week.

[bluesmanuk]

Geekbuying replied "About the Paypal dispute, let me explain it, we have encountered similar things, customer opened a Paypal dispute and we send the parcel, yet last Paypal money back to the customer, we lost the product and do not get any protection. This is why we cannot ship out the package when customer open a dispute."

To conclude, my device (Meta) has now been shipped for arrival next week.

Great stuff

[jchoong]

I ordered my R28 Meta on Aug 31 and received the device on Sep 10 via DHL. Pretty good service, actually.

Several months ago I also ordered a Minix X8 from geekbuying and had equally good service.

Just to share here my shopping experience with geekbuying.

[giuliot]

Geekbuying- Tronsmart R28 Meta

Yes they charge your credit card before they ship the item - which I have never experienced before with Amazon or other online site - and then they tell you that adequate supply does not mean "in stock and ready to ship" all it means is they have but still waiting for enough orders before they actually ship them. This could mean anywhere from 1 week to months of waiting while you have to pay your credit card for an item which you may receive sometime in the future.

[allavri]

the same problem

I ordered Tronsmart Orion R28 Meta on October 26. After a week of waiting I contacted geekbuying's support and the next day I received a reply:

Thanks for your order and waiting .Here we know you place the R28 that it is extremely popular ,we are sorry to tell you that our transmart company is always processing it and we need a number of the R28 to meet demand .once it is in stock and we will send to you immediately .
When sending out ,you will receive an email about the tracking number ,please note it .
If you have any problem ,free to let us know in time .
We are sorry to delay your package for long time .
But the product page says that R28 Meta is in stock. I am considering it as a lie.

P.S. In 2013 I ordered K-R42 TV boxes from geekbuying twice and received them reasonably fast and without problems.

[Axios]

I "fear" that they have already begun to "retire" the product and begun focusing on another one... the lack of news and updates "so close" to Xmas...

Anyway just with last stock update, some tewaking AND latest SPMC (13.3.3 I guess), I can use it pretty well: there is no video I cannot play, locally or from LAN, (yes, even those HEVCs that always gave me trouble) and, so far, I am really satisfied.. for the price I have paid, I already have a very nice media player!!!