Few days back, i received a mail from a reader who was interested in knowing how GearBest works. He is curious to knowing how buying and importing goods from Gearbest works. Especially with the free shipping option.
He also asked if the website was genuine amongst other inquiries. This, i will be answering comprehensively on this post.
Basically, his email reads thus:
Hello brother, I am one of your followers on your blog as well as BBM. Please I need help concerning buying from gearbest.com. I want to know if It’s genuine website if my account is safe. Also I want to know how you get ur goods from them and how much is GTBank is charging you for buying there as well as exchange rate. Thanks.
My Experience With Buying and Importing Products From GearBest Using Free Shipping
I am guessing these questions were triggered courtesy of a recent post i published here on TechsNG where I talked on a VR headset. There in, I stated that I purchased it from GearBest. Therefore, as always, i am going to be open in the best way I can in answering these questions.
To answer the first question, YES, GearBest is genuine and although I have only bought twice from the store, I know a few persons who frequently buys from the online store.
To answer the second question, I have always used the free shipping method and it has always worked well. As a matter of fact, if comparing with Aliexpress, receiving items is faster with GearBest.
The only difference between both platforms would be the extra charges GearBest tend to introduce.
On Aliexpress, if your item is quite expensive, a easy tracking number will be given to you without any extra charge. However, if the item is less expensive, say less than $5, you also get a tracking number without any extra charge but tracking the item could be quite tasky and you probably would have to be in touch with the post office attendant so they don’t misplace your item as a result of the size.
Extra Optional Charges
On GearBest, the case is quite different. Different in the sense that, outside payment for the item, GearBest will ask you to pay about $1 for a tracking number. Of course, this is totally optional. However, since you would want to track your item(s) conveniently to be sure of when it arrives at the post office, the $1+ charge for a tracking number becomes less optional.
GearBest also proffers another optional bill. Less than a dollar charge for something I really can’t remember now. Both optional bills isn’t up to $2 but upon choosing to settle those extra bills, you can be sure your products(s) will be delivered in due time and as earlier stated, buying from GearBest and having it delivered to the closest post office is faster than when using Aliexpress.
Practical Example Purchasing Product On GearBest
Sight for example, I ordered the VR headset from GearBest on the 23rd of May and on the 3rd of June, the item has already been delivered successfully.
I also ordered a much smaller item from aliexpress on the 26th of May and up till today being 19th of June, I am yet to receive the item. Tracking using the tracking number isn’t doing any good as the last updated information was on the 2nd of June. So you see?
Please don’t get me wrong. Aliexpress also works great. I actually cannot count how many times I’ve used aliexpress. They’ve always worked out fine except for a few patches (not every time) when making small item orders. Nevertheless, thanks to the dispute option available on the online shopping site. If you don’t receive your item within a stipulated time, you can either ask the seller to re-send the item at no cost on your side or ask for a full refund.
Now to the last question, I didn’t use my GTB account in making the purchase. Instead, I used my access bank account and I was billed N335 to a dollar. However, you shouldn’t expect same rate right now.
Hope this answers your questions Ademola, and I hope it does justice to others who are interested in this information. Got further questions? Feel free to relate using the comment session.
