Mini review of online shops from China/Taiwan etc.

[zoidberg]

UH! 1000th POST!!! 

Congrats Corwyn.   

[Freaver]

Do you guys have any experience with http://www.lightinthebox.com/ ?

A friend of mine wants to buy some stuff from there and opinions online seem to be split on them... Some say it's got flawless service, others say it ships slowly, products are not what is shown and you get high import taxes...


UH! 1000th POST!!! 

AFAIK, lightinthebox.com and miniinthebox.com is pretty much the same site; just a few variations in their products. I've ordered from miniinthebox a few times and know a few others that too - all without trouble. Of course there is the slow shipping, but I guess that's to be expected, when buying from China. And congrats on the 1000 posts.

[dks]

A lot of people base their purchase on product Reviews, however not all sites will accept a bad review and publish it.

SPAMCORP, for example, will contact you if you try to leave a bad review and try to fix things (they will not publish the review). This, the solution, may make you happy, however it does not help others who will continue to buy a product based on just the positive reviews.

Bangood, DX and others will allow you to publish a bad review, making their reviews a lot more useful for the buyer.

I bought 2 solar chargers/power banks and was less than happy with them, from SPAMCORP (more later, but it was mainly with capacity and charging rates, and one was a lot better than the other).

Based on my experience I wrote a 2/3 star review and also contacted SPAMCORP. They contacted me immediately regarding the Reviews and we came to an agreement (got a refund for the one with the major issues) that I was fine with.
As a sidenote, the English of the staff of these sites has greatly improved in the past few years-  definitely a huge plus for all. 

However, the reviews were never published.
NOTE: they react, I believe, based on the star rating, so a few people sneak in a bad review, by giving 4/5 star ratings 

To compare, read the reviews for this product, which I believe is the same in various sites and compare what you  get (star rating and comments)on SPAMCORP with the rest (I selected some indicative pages):

SPAMCORP
http://www.[url=http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,55947.0.html]SPAMCORP.com/mobile-power-bank/pp_1045.html#customer_review[/url]

Bangood

http://www.[url=http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,55947.0.html]SPAMCORP.com/30000mAh-Solar-Charger-Battery-Power-Bank-For-iPhone6-Smartphone-reviews-p919239.html?page=3[/url]


DX

http://www.dx.com/p/universal-portable-5v-30000mah-li-ion-battery-dual-usb-solar-powered-power-bank-w-led-indicator-279255#reviews

amazon

http://www.amazon.com/30000mah-Portable-Solar-Panel-Power/dp/B00HPC170I
 

[dks]

I needed to buy some quadcopter parts which let me to shop from two new sites. My reviews have to be taken with a pinch of salt, as they are based on a single, reasonably expensive, purchase from each site

Geekbuying:  Reasonably fast, "accommodating" with regard to shipping papers

Not the cheapest, but they seem to have RC parts that others do not have.

free shipping

[dks]

Hobbyking: Slow shipping, but not that bad. To get help with shipping papers you need to become a gold member or something..

Hint - before you place in your cart anything from them, wait a few minutes and a pop-up will appear offering you that item for a lower price, to encourage you to buy it.

Good selection of common RC parts, but they do add shipping