**** The Official Chinese Phones Thread ****
- Thread starter King4aDay
- Start date
Soldato
I was waiting for this! Lol. Going to have a look now.
Haha, this guy clearly calling BS...
Timothy Janaway @mrcalabazal
Replying to @XiaomiUK_
With a stunt like this I'll sadly never be recommending your brand, the site clearly shows from the JavaScript that it was a fake offer and just a countdown timer, if anything it would have been 1 id for the entire UK, people not getting their £20 coupons either. What a farce.
Soldato
Lol. If he looked closer at the coupon it has tomorrow's date.
Soldato
Ha I missed it due to a phone call FFS 
All marketing guff but fair play to them
All marketing guff but fair play to themYou missed nothing. Not a chance in hell they sold any in the fraction of the second it was showing available. But of course they're now available for the regular price.Ha I missed it due to a phone call FFS
Makes me question all the "flash sale" numbers you hear in news for the various chinese brands. If it's anything like this it's total bull. I was really considering buying my first Xiaomi handset to give it a try and was looking later to maybe get the Mix3, but unsure now.
If anyone looked at the terms and conditions it states there are three of each phone per time slot today and two per slot tomorrow.
Quite easy to sell out with that level but covers them against being a full on scam. Good old marketing.
Quite easy to sell out with that level but covers them against being a full on scam. Good old marketing
.
Soldato
That is pretty ridiculous. I've tweeted at them suggesting they don't think much of the UK then... low end YouTubers can give away more than that...
Does seem a bit of a silly move. I mean like most people I had no expectation of actually bagging one, but to give away so few is pretty poor. I'm sure they've drummed up the interest they hoped for, but have probably ended up ******* off a lot of people.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Mar 2007
- Posts
- 3,875
It's a bit cynical of Xiaomi, that's for sure. They could have done 50% off the first x number of phones purchased on their new site instead, they'd still have got a really good amount of interest but avoided annoying people. I guess on the flipside there are now thousands of people who had potentially never heard of Xiaomi, who are at least aware of the brand. Not all of those people will have a negative impression of the company as a result of the 'crazy sale', and some might be return customers.
Tobydeals aka eglobal central scammed me on my very first order from them. Whilst I don't doubt some people have no issues with them, I suspect they are definitely in the business of intentionally selling goods with minor faults to a lot of customers in the hope they don't notice. I bought a xiaomi redmi note 5 from them. It arrived unsealed with minor signs of usage. When I contacted them, they replied within 24hrs to my first email but the 2nd one took 30 days. The 2nd email was instructions how to open an rma case, they wanted to make sure I didn't do this before 14 days(or 30 for eglobal) as I would have been able to get a refund by sending it to their UK address which they know is much more convenient and the buyer is more likely to return it then. After a certain amount of time it must be sent to hong kong which is very expensive with tracking and insurance.
I left the phone sitting in its box unused since the first email, once I got their 2nd one I turned the phone back on. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the phone except being unsealed. Their excuse for the unsealed box was 'inspection' but next time I turned it on I noticed a whole line of green pixels along the left side of the screen. I missed it the first time since its only visible on black backgrounds. Well now I know the real reason it wasn't sealed.
They didn't offer any reasonable solution, no partial refund, no option to return to their uk address. Their customer service are the most incompetent humans I have ever attempted to communicate with. I'm sure they just copy past the same thing to everyone. Their only option was for me to pay the cost to send it back to hong kong, approx 50gbp and then they also deduct a 20gbp admin fee from the refund. Paypal dispute was no help, same thing, I have to cover the cost of return to hong kong. So I must either keep the faulty phone at full price or lose money by sending it back. Once I told them I would not be sending it back and instead would be name and shaming them as much as possible they deleted my rma case and I cant log into my account anymore.
If you decide to buy from them be very aware of what they are capable of. Even by chinese reseller standards, they are as low as you can go if there is any issue with the item you got. I've had much lesser issues with gearbest before, they always offer a partial refund without even asking for it. This company have no interest in giving any money back to you. They want to keep every cent they scammed off you and have several sly tactics they can use to make sure you don't get all your money back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HodPju1sOM
I left the phone sitting in its box unused since the first email, once I got their 2nd one I turned the phone back on. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the phone except being unsealed. Their excuse for the unsealed box was 'inspection' but next time I turned it on I noticed a whole line of green pixels along the left side of the screen. I missed it the first time since its only visible on black backgrounds. Well now I know the real reason it wasn't sealed.
They didn't offer any reasonable solution, no partial refund, no option to return to their uk address. Their customer service are the most incompetent humans I have ever attempted to communicate with. I'm sure they just copy past the same thing to everyone. Their only option was for me to pay the cost to send it back to hong kong, approx 50gbp and then they also deduct a 20gbp admin fee from the refund. Paypal dispute was no help, same thing, I have to cover the cost of return to hong kong. So I must either keep the faulty phone at full price or lose money by sending it back. Once I told them I would not be sending it back and instead would be name and shaming them as much as possible they deleted my rma case and I cant log into my account anymore.
If you decide to buy from them be very aware of what they are capable of. Even by chinese reseller standards, they are as low as you can go if there is any issue with the item you got. I've had much lesser issues with gearbest before, they always offer a partial refund without even asking for it. This company have no interest in giving any money back to you. They want to keep every cent they scammed off you and have several sly tactics they can use to make sure you don't get all your money back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HodPju1sOM
Supposedly my Nokia 6.1 Plus landed in the UK at 15:23 this afternoon. Only ordered it on Friday!
Any bets for how long it'll sit in customs?
Delivered this afternoon!
Absolutely lovely little phone, smaller than my OnePlus 3, but SO MUCH SCREEN!
Dead impressed with GearBest and with the handset
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 May 2005
- Posts
- 6,891
That £1 is a right joke managed to get one in mmy basket today but it wouldn't accept my login! Tried logging in a few hours later (same info) and it logged me straight in.
Delivered this afternoon!
Absolutely lovely little phone, smaller than my OnePlus 3, but SO MUCH SCREEN!
Dead impressed with GearBest and with the handset
How much did you pay for it. Trying to see if they've increased the price for 11.11 so the coupons wont really be giving a discount
It was just under £150. Incredibly good value.
Other ace thing was that it updated to Pie as soon as it was connected to WiFi
Soldato
There's a link on twitter where someone dissected the web page and deduced that the £1 sale bit is emewnt to show Out of Stock immediately after the timeout. Can't find the link now but I'll look tomorrow.
Well a few people have found those taxis so will be going to that sweepstake. Grab anything you can in 1 minute.
Having a few issues with my Mi 5/MIUI. First one is I'm not hearing notification sounds (and calls) and when I press the volume up button it looks like it thinks I have headphones plugged in when I don't. If I max the volume it changes to speaker icon but seems to reset itself after awhile.
The other one is when I go to change wallpaper. Themes encounters a problem and needs to be closed down basically. The only way to sort it is to clear data for the themes app.
Tempted to flash the ROM again but think this is just a sign to splash out on the Pocofone.
The other one is when I go to change wallpaper. Themes encounters a problem and needs to be closed down basically. The only way to sort it is to clear data for the themes app.
Tempted to flash the ROM again but think this is just a sign to splash out on the Pocofone.
Soldato
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46183480
Glad the BBC picked up on the £1 fake sale.
Glad the BBC picked up on the £1 fake sale.