Gear Best Review / Thoughts and Can They Be Trusted

[Chauncey Gardiner]

People should inform themselves before buying.

If people have no previous experience of a product being sold ..... how on earth are they meant to do that

The easiest and fastest way is to utilize the inter webs. If no information is found on the specific item, one could conduct a general search of the companie's other products, ease of return and overall customer satisfaction.

... instead people trust in what the seller is saying and when you can't it becomes an incredibly sad world of people just lying to extract money from others ... and you're saying that's acceptable practice

Wise people have known not to just trust what merchants tell them for a very long time. The Latin term, Caveat Emptor is believed to have first been used in 1523. It means, Buyer beware. Another saying is, Don't buy a pig in a Poke. We've been living in that incredibly sad world of people lying to extract money from others since the beginning of trade.

Nothing bykfixer has written strikes me as him expressing acceptance and/or justification of fraudulent business practices, nor that he wants to live in the kind of world where they are.

~ Chance

 

[Capolini]

I never ordered from Gear Best. I RARELY order from overseas. If I did, and I gave them an honest appraisal of a product and they blocked my review,I would NEVER order from them again!

 

[bykfixer]

The easiest and fastest way is to utilize the inter webs. If no information is found on the specific item, one could conduct a general search of the companie's other products, ease of return and overall customer satisfaction.




Wise people have known not to just trust what merchants tell them for a very long time. The Latin term, Caveat Emptor is believed to have first been used in 1523. It means, Buyer beware. Another saying is, Don't buy a pig in a Poke. We've been living in that incredibly sad world of people lying to extract money from others since the beginning of trade.

Nothing bykfixer has written strikes me as him expressing acceptance and/or justification of fraudulent business practices, nor that he wants to live in the kind of world where they are.

~ Chance

Well said CG. Thank you.

I have not been taking up for shady practices. Just trying to point out it is there.
And been trying to be.... candid yet calm about it.

Yet it seems my words were taken out of context.

Bottom line, if I go into a purchase and find it wasn't all expected then so be it. Maybe $30 was wasted? So what?
Aint like it was $195/month for the next ten years.
I take the loss and move on.

I don't buy carp. But if I did buy carp and got ripped off I'd certainly not put it on the world wide web telling everybody how unfair it is that flim-flammers stole from me.

I'm done.

 

[Witterings]

The easiest and fastest way is to utilize the inter webs. If no information is found on the specific item, one could conduct a general search of the companie's other products, ease of return and overall customer satisfaction.
~ Chance

But this is EXACTLY what I did .. in essence I'd seen a lot or reviews on Gear Best that implied they were a reputable organisation to buy from (or I never would have ordered from them in the 1st place) and took into consideration reviews on a number of other products they sold ... the Convoy 2 as an example.

Whilst I appreciate Caveat Emptor ... it still doesn't do a site that seems to overall have a good reputation to wheel out something that is totally sub standard AND with the internet hopefully there will be enough press about bad companies that the "Caveat Emptor" will drive them out of business because it shouldn't be like that!!! I could be totally wrong but I seriously wonder if they've established a name for selling goods and they've decided there's greater profit in creating their own brand as they have a footprint now and this might be them dipping their toe in the water and we the consumer are the testers BUT I could be 1 million % wrong on that ... just a guess.

Anyway ....... All I'm asking for is that someone gives an accurate description of what they're selling and if they can't do that they don't deserve to be in business ....... how come that's so wrong?????

 

[jorn]

You bought a cheapo. Dont trust the specs of any cheapo. Heck, flashaholics dont even trust the specs from expensive lights from respected brands. Thats why this site is full of reviews where pepole messure lumen, lux etc.. If we trusted blindly on the specs on the box, there would be no need for this forum. Rule of thumb, if you cant find any info at all of a certian light here on cpf, it's prob not worth buying.
The good things about gear best is free shipping, low prices, and they take a picture of my pacage and include it in the shipping notice. They sell both crap, and good stuff.
No car salesman tested the emissions of the cars they sold, they used the specs provided by volkswagen

 

[scout24]

OP- If the light works, as in functions somewhat close to how it's supposed to, and puts out light, for the money you probably could have done worse. Misleading numbers on lights have been an issue from the beginning. Yes, it's perhaps poor practice to not post negative reviews of products you sell, but that's not going to sway anyone who knows what they're getting from buying there. My advice is to consider it a live and learn, and move on. There is plenty of good stuff out there, and plenty of good vendors. If this gets to the point of beating a dead horse, I'll stop back in...

 

[Wendee]

I had researched the On The Road M3 flashlight which is a non zoomie flashlight by the same company (same size flashlight). It has good reviews on several flashlight forums (English, Russian & German) and on YouTube. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the M3 if I wanted an inexpensive 16340 light.

Out of curiosity I searched for a review for the On The Road i3 (the light you aren't happy with). I found one review on the German flashlight forum and one YouTube video. The German forum has outdoor beam shots comparing the i3 to 7 other flashlights and the review conclusion translates to "She is a really nice, small EDC with a lot of accessories that is money well worth it." The YouTube video shows the i3 being used outdoors.

Because of the M3 and what I found on the i3, if I received an i3 that didn't perform anywhere near what I was expecting (assuming my expectations were realistic), I would assume it was a defective light rather than think the store purposely conned me. This could happen with any flashlight from any store.

Depending how much you paid, it might be worth it to ship it back (better than nothing?).

FWIW, I've ordered many things from GearBest and have never had a bad experience (so far, so good).

 

[ScottGabrielli]

I just received my first shipment from Gear Best, the Lumintop Copper Prince. It seems that mine had been handled/possible used and returned as it has patina.

 

[Bdm82]

You keep accepting poor quality carp my friend and see how much carper it gets and I'll stand up for what I believe is right and acting honestly!

Never accept poor quality carp. Carp isn't that good to eat to begin with; I'm not sure what poor quality extra carper carp is like but it sounds terrible. Bass or catfish would be better choices from areas with carp.

But to be serious, I wonder how much GB has control of the inventory being sold. Like Amazon Marketplace. Back when Amazon was smaller and sold everything from their own stock in fewer warehouses, you knew what you were getting. Now with the marketplace, the buying options are messier and the inventory is a mix of amazon and other sourced items (various quality) that may be shipped. I get the feeling (from my own orders) that GB doesn't police the low dollar stuff.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

Never accept poor quality carp. Carp isn't that good to eat to begin with; I'm not sure what poor quality extra carper carp is like but it sounds terrible. Bass or catfish would be better choices from areas with carp.

.. :laughing: ... ....

~ C.G.

 

[CelticCross74]

GB takes 1-8 weeks to deliver no matter what delivery option you choose. That bothers me as my L6 took I believe close to 5 weeks to show up despite having paid for expedited air mail and insurance and tracking that never updated. They have a lot Id like to have. Their warehouse must be the size of a football stadium. I believe they get so much in that much gets stored badly and may result in something like the fellow CPFer got with his patina Lumintop. What are storage conditions like at their warehouse? Climate controlled or just hot and humid all the time? If I knew I would be getting recent stock in the time I paid for I would be buying there a lot.

 

[Witterings]

Just to say thanks to all for their input on this and if I seem a little "opinionated" on it I do aplogise .... it's just have a real think on people miss-advertising products as you end up with something that won't serve the purpose you initially wanted it for but has taken some of the funds that could go towards something better suited.

I'll probably give it to the wife to stick in her car / handbag so at least it will have "some" purpose and again thanks to all for their thoughts!!!

 

[bykfixer]

I agree with you completely Witterings.

It is why I largely stick with brands of items in my life that have a proven track record, then search out the best way to acquire it.
I can't tell you how many things I've been ripped off on over the years. Cars, appliances, cloths, restaraunts... you name it.

The old saying "all that glitters aint gold" applies. So I go for copper these days.

 

[NeonPenguin]

I have zero experience with GB but the fact that they use an E-cig as a "for size comparison" is enough to make me think I should look at a different product. Though, from an I'm not buying that perspective it's pretty funny!

NP

 

[Liber8]

Try posting a negative review on sites like Reseller Ratings. GB will straight up harass you to remove or change the review. They will then try to bribe you. I am not a big fan of sites like GB, they routinely sell products they know are defective or don't even have features they advertise. They don't care because once they have your $ there's no way you will want to pay to ship anything back to China (even if you ordered from a US warehouse). That said, I never use these kind of sites for large purchases.

Sucks about the i3, looks like a cute little light. What exactly did you not like about it? The other On the Road lights seem to be well received in the forums.

 

[Witterings]

Sucks about the i3, looks like a cute little light. What exactly did you not like about it? The other On the Road lights seem to be well received in the forums.

My SK 68 is more powerful and has a better focus and it was $3 rather than $25 .. this does nothing better apart from being fractionally smaller and costs 8 x's as much .. maybe I should have gone for the longer throw version for what I wanted it for but with the quoted lumens I thought there was absolutely no need and I'm not convinced it would have made any difference.
The 2 lower settings are so low they're pretty much useless and the 3rd setting ... without looking at what the run time was meant to be ... but in essence half it and you're about there and yet it's still not providing the level of light you'd hoped for .... put it on high and vooosssshh batteries gone.

It really is a shame, it has a nice feel to it and seems like a decent, solid build .... if they'd used slightly better components at not much more cost I think it could have been brilliant but instead it just leaves you with that feeling you may as well have burnt your money instead ... smacks of SOOOOOO close and yet missed by 3 miles instead.