Probably will be importing the RN2 to the US.. Where are the cheapest and best places to get this device from? I'm worried that either: I'll get a fake, long shipping times or never receiving the product or wont honor any warranty issues.
Im new to MIUI, is there a custom recovery that I'll need? Do i have to worry about unlocking a bootloader? If so, can i relock for warranty issues?
EverBuying.Net has it for $174.99 (http://www.everbuying.net/product1078806.html). I have never used them myself so I can't vouch either way. But at the same time, the RN2 is a known quantity, and whichever dealer you buy it from should get you the same thing (+/- customer service). I do have an order for one myself at GearBest, but it is a complete disaster, and I would not recommend them at the moment. I preordered it on 3 Sep, they charged my credit card on 14 Sep and said it would ship in 3-5 days, and now ~6 weeks later it is still in the processing stage. I have used GearBest in the past for other stuff, and even though orders have taken up to 5-6 days in processing, they have never been like this. For some reason, they are filling orders that arrived much later like end September and early October before filling the preorders.
I bought mine from minideal.net.
Originally placed an order with gearbest they requested a copy of my credit card and driving license and said it was extra security measures.
I didn't feel comfprtable so I cancelled the order.
Placed the order with minideal.net on a Saturday night received the phone Friday mid-day so essentially took 4 and a half working days to get here (i did pay a bit extra for DHL) worth it in my opinion.
Im from germany
I bought it from Spain for 240 € ( Amazon )
It came with a otg cable a back cover
and glass Front cover
Its the prime model
verbage said:
EverBuying.Net has it for $174.99 I have never used them myself so I can't vouch either way. But at the same time, the RN2 is a known quantity, and whichever dealer you buy it from should get you the same thing (+/- customer service). I do have an order for one myself at GearBest, but it is a complete disaster, and I would not recommend them at the moment. I preordered it on 3 Sep, they charged my credit card on 14 Sep and said it would ship in 3-5 days, and now ~6 weeks later it is still in the processing stage. I have used GearBest in the past for other stuff, and even though orders have taken up to 5-6 days in processing, they have never been like this. For some reason, they are filling orders that arrived much later like end September and early October before filling the preorders.
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Everbuying and Gearbest are the same company! Good luck! I too have received excellent service from Gearbest as well as horrible delays, lies from Gearbest. You puts down your money and you takes your chances!
Thanks guys for your input.. minideal for some reason isnt letting me enter a USA address. But looks promising with the screen protector and case.
Now im worried as I was going to buy from gearbest or everbuying
any other options that are similarly priced with a 1yr warranty?
tlxxxsracer said:
Thanks guys for your input.. minideal for some reason isnt letting me enter a USA address. But looks promising with the screen protector and case.
Now im worried as I was going to buy from gearbest or everbuying any other options that are similarly priced with a 1yr warranty?
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GearBest finally sent me a shipping notification this morning with a picture of my package. So, they do have them in stock at the moment unless they have sold out again already. For the record, they charged my credit card on 14 Sep, and said it would ship out in 3-5 days at that point, but the reality is that it has taken up till today to ship. There is obviously a huge demand for this.
kusamba, thanks for confirming that Gearbest and Everbuying are actually the same company. I started considering this possibility recently because their LiveChat services always opened/closed at the same time and had the same status indications, and also because of similarities in the websites, and within their promo e-mail headers. So it is interesting to see this is actually the case.
tlxxxsracer, Gearbest/Everbuying do seem to have the best prices. The Everbuying link shows about $5 cheaper, however. The slight difference is you can get DHL shipping from Everbuying on the product for about $5, too. The same DHL shipping on Gearbest is like $25. At least these were the prices a couple of days ago when I was getting ready to cancel my Gearbest order. My point is that for the same price, in one case you get DHL 3-5 day expedited shipping (Everbuying), but in the other case you get non-expedited version (Gearbest).
verbage said:
GearBest finally sent me a shipping notification this morning with a picture of my package. So, they do have them in stock at the moment unless they have sold out again already. For the record, they charged my credit card on 14 Sep, and said it would ship out in 3-5 days at that point, but the reality is that it has taken up till today to ship. There is obviously a huge demand for this.
kusamba, thanks for confirming that Gearbest and Everbuying are actually the same company. I started considering this possibility recently because their LiveChat services always opened/closed at the same time and had the same status indications, and also because of similarities in the websites, and within their promo e-mail headers. So it is interesting to see this is actually the case.
tlxxxsracer, Gearbest/Everbuying do seem to have the best prices. The Everbuying link shows about $5 cheaper, however. The slight difference is you can get DHL shipping from Everbuying on the product for about $5, too. The same DHL shipping on Gearbest is like $25. At least these were the prices a couple of days ago when I was getting ready to cancel my Gearbest order. My point is that for the same price, in one case you get DHL 3-5 day expedited shipping (Everbuying), but in the other case you get non-expedited version (Gearbest).
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but dont you get charged with import/customs tax if you choose DHL?
im thinking of going with geekbuying
tlxxxsracer said:
but dont you get charged with import/customs tax if you choose DHL?
im thinking of going with geekbuying
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Personally, I have never been charged import/customs tax when ordering stuff from China vendors, but I guess it is always a possibility. Nonetheless, I suspect it is not a very common occurrence simply because in the big picture, these purchases are small potatoes. If you were ordering mass quantities of items for probable resale, I can imagine things would be significantly different.
I have never ordered from GeekBuying myself, but I would not be hesitant to give them a shot if I were you because they are an established vendor that has been around for a while. I think there is some amount of gambling with every Chinese vendor because most are probably running with just-in-time inventories, and they will be loathe to admit they don't actually have an item in stock for fear of missing a sale. Regarding my purchase with GearBest, there is no question that the experience with this purchase was extremely frustrating. But I have used them several times in the past, too, and never had a problem like I've had with the RN2.
verbage said:
GearBest finally sent me a shipping notification this morning with a picture of my package. So, they do have them in stock at the moment unless they have sold out again already. For the record, they charged my credit card on 14 Sep, and said it would ship out in 3-5 days at that point, but the reality is that it has taken up till today to ship. There is obviously a huge demand for this.
kusamba, thanks for confirming that Gearbest and Everbuying are actually the same company. I started considering this possibility recently because their LiveChat services always opened/closed at the same time and had the same status indications, and also because of similarities in the websites, and within their promo e-mail headers. So it is interesting to see this is actually the case.
tlxxxsracer, Gearbest/Everbuying do seem to have the best prices. The Everbuying link shows about $5 cheaper, however. The slight difference is you can get DHL shipping from Everbuying on the product for about $5, too. The same DHL shipping on Gearbest is like $25. At least these were the prices a couple of days ago when I was getting ready to cancel my Gearbest order. My point is that for the same price, in one case you get DHL 3-5 day expedited shipping (Everbuying), but in the other case you get non-expedited version (Gearbest).
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I would still buy from Gearbest or Everbuying because, from what I read, the online dealers are pretty much all alike - some good experiences, some bad. My worst experience was with GeekBuying just last month - I needed a phone and a tablet delivered within 20 days - went to their chat, was confirmed 70 tablets in stock - that both the phone and tablet would be delivered (to the USA) in plenty of time - they had me do 2 separate orders since the 2 items would ship from different warehouses - they told me to chat again after I placed the orders which I did - they made many promises - the phone (Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Prime) went out in about 5 days - regarding the tablet, I received a fake DHL tracking number but other than a series of lies, nothing - a few days before the deadline, they cancelled the sale, refunding to Paypal the cost of the tablet but not the $10.60 DHL fee. I got one of these Redmi Note 2s from to2c - they shipped quickly but do not respond to my requests for support on this phone - maybe they went out of business.
kusamba said:
Everbuying and Gearbest are the same company! Good luck! I too have received excellent service from Gearbest as well as horrible delays, lies from Gearbest. You puts down your money and you takes your chances!
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Everbuying and Gearbest are the same company??!!! dang! I ordered one and was hoping I won't be getting all the pop-ups like someone who got one from Gearbest
---------- Post added at 11:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 PM ----------
kusamba said:
I would still buy from Gearbest or Everbuying because, from what I read, the online dealers are pretty much all alike - some good experiences, some bad. My worst experience was with GeekBuying just last month - I needed a phone and a tablet delivered within 20 days - went to their chat, was confirmed 70 tablets in stock - that both the phone and tablet would be delivered (to the USA) in plenty of time - they had me do 2 separate orders since the 2 items would ship from different warehouses - they told me to chat again after I placed the orders which I did - they made many promises - the phone (Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Prime) went out in about 5 days - regarding the tablet, I received a fake DHL tracking number but other than a series of lies, nothing - a few days before the deadline, they cancelled the sale, refunding to Paypal the cost of the tablet but not the $10.60 DHL fee. I got one of these Redmi Note 2s from to2c - they shipped quickly but do not respond to my requests for support on this phone - maybe they went out of business.
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I supposed the safest bet would be buying from reputable sellers on AliExpress. Should have ordered one from there and paid an extra $20 instead. Now I hope my order from Everbuying would come through.
I wouldn't recommend Gearbest. I bought from them using the preorder but they only shipped after I started a PayPal claim a month after they said they would ship.
I ordered mine from aliexpress seller "Shenzhen Top-One Trading Co., Ltd." via DHL delivery. Arrived 1 week after order in Austria with no additional taxes or fees., like said in the description. It is the 16Gb TD version, but LTE and WDCMA are both working great for me.
I totally paid 155,14€ for phone + shipping.
Robin69 said:
I ordered mine from aliexpress seller "Shenzhen Top-One Trading Co., Ltd." via DHL delivery. Arrived 1 week after order in Austria with no additional taxes or fees., like said in the description. It is the 16Gb TD version, but LTE and WDCMA are both working great for me.
I totally paid 155,14€ for phone + shipping.
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That's a great deal. I paid €173 for the phone shipped + around €30 import tax from Gearbest. Should have just waited to buy from Ali but I was too hyped and pre-ordered. Never again!
here is an update on my purchase from Everbuying if anyone is interested:
*placed order (Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 Prime and temper glass protector) with a credit card, chose expedite shipping
*2 days after placing the order, got an email about order was put on hold, and they needed to verify payment (pic of credit card used showing only name, exp date, and last 4 digit of account number and a pic of ID showing name, pic, address and exp date). They actually needed the verification on the same day that I placed the order, but they didn't send an email about it. I only found out after seeing a message in the inbox of my Everbuying account... could have saved 2 days of time there had I known.
*1 day after payment verification, order "was shipped" with a DHL tracking number (according to DHL, shipping info was received)
*DHL waited 6 days to pick up the package, (or the seller waited 6 days to actually send the package)
*DHL delivered the order 3 days after
**There was hardly any protection. The original box was not wrapped around with plastic bubbles. It was put inside another box with some plastic bubbles placed on top of the original box, and everything was put inside a DHL shipping plastic bag. When I opened the package, the outside box was a little moist because it was running like dogs and cats on the day of delivery. But the temper glass package and the original Xiaomi box seemed to be dry. Lucky there.
All in all, I guess my first purchase experience from Everbuying was considered good.
I supposed the safest bet would be buying from reputable sellers on AliExpress. Should have ordered one from there and paid an extra $20 instead. Now I hope my order from Everbuying would come through
I never dreamed I would hear "reputable sellers" and "AliExpress" in the same sentence - to me, they are a real crap shoot.
kusamba said:
I supposed the safest bet would be buying from reputable sellers on AliExpress. Should have ordered one from there and paid an extra $20 instead. Now I hope my order from Everbuying would come through
I never dreamed I would hear "reputable sellers" and "AliExpress" in the same sentence - to me, they are a real crap shoot.
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They're getting better, the problem is most people go to Aliexpress for impossibly low prices. Therefore, if you want to survive as a seller on Aliexpress, you are forced to compete almost entirely on price. Aliexpress sellers usually work on razor thin margins, so most people just sell part time, and don't really care enough about the business to put real effort into customer satisfaction.
I actually have a sellers account on Aliexpress, so I can say with fair confidence that any products that sell for less than 6 or 7 dollars probably do not ship with real tracking numbers. Technically, the sellers are violating Aliexpress TOS. However, most budget sellers still do this because customers tend to reward sellers who list products with impossible prices. The only way to get ahead is by cutting corners, especially on shipping/tracking and sometimes with the product itself.
Aliexpress takes up to 30% commission and a tracking number adds more than 3 dollars to the shipping cost, so do the math. I can sell a 3 dollar product, but I need to price it at over 7 dollars just to break even and this doesn't even begin to cover the other costs of running a business or make it worth my time. Play by the rules, and you can charge 7 dollars for a 3 dollar product and still lose money on each sale, but if you disregard the rules and cut corners you can sell for 4.50 and make a profit. So, who will you buy from? Someone selling the same product at 7.50, or 4.50?
Aliexpress could crack down on sellers, but this would bring prices up and Aliexpress customers are typically looking for bargain basement deals. That's just how the cookie crumbles.
I should note that Aliexpress is extremely strict about listing branded products now in an effort to cut down on counterfeits. You need to apply for permission if you so much as mention a brand name anywhere in your listing. I suppose there are benefits to this, but some brand names are also fairly common words. A real pain in the ass when writing product descriptions.
For example, "NEW 2015 plush granny smith apple pillow, soft, squishy and nice! Pls Buy OMFG dear GOD I need the monies."
Aliexpress: "*****, I see you mentioned Apple. Change it now before the long noodley appendages of Apple's tentacle beast™ molest us all!
kusamba said:
I supposed the safest bet would be buying from reputable sellers on AliExpress. Should have ordered one from there and paid an extra $20 instead. Now I hope my order from Everbuying would come through
I never dreamed I would hear "reputable sellers" and "AliExpress" in the same sentence - to me, they are a real crap shoot.
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*Knock on wood*
I have placed over 20 orders this year using AliExpress just this year alone. Never an issue. You will just have to pick and choose good vendors from reading the reviews, and understand why you're even buying on AliExpress.
To be fair to some of the vendors on there, a lot of the complaints I read from the consumers was that people were expecting to get a Mercedes for the price of a Daewoo. Not going to happen. And often times I could clearly see that people do not read the entire description of product and service and whine about it later. And then of course there are a lot of sellers who would cheat customers. Good thing about AliExpress is they won't release funds to the sellers until all parties are satisfied with the transactions.
felix168 said:
*Knock on wood*
I have placed over 20 orders this year using AliExpress just this year alone. Never an issue. You will just have to pick and choose good vendors from reading the reviews, and understand why you're even buying on AliExpress.
To be fair to some of the vendors on there, a lot of the complaints I read from the consumers was that people were expecting to get a Mercedes for the price of a Daewoo. Not going to happen. And often times I could clearly see that people do not read the entire description of product and service and whine about it later. And then of course there are a lot of sellers who would cheat customers. Good thing about AliExpress is they won't release funds to the sellers until all parties are satisfied with the transactions.
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That's true, they also take forever to release funds so in theory you shouldn't have a problem getting your money back if there is a problem. Although I've never had a customer dispute a sale or file a complaint, most customers don't confirm receiving orders either. So, usually Ali only releases funds several weeks after product tracking shows delivery. It feels like 2 months sometimes. If you sell any amount of volume, you have to front at least 6-8 weeks cash for everything you sell. Which is probably why Aliexpress offers financing...
Basically, Aliexpress puts on a promotion as an opportunity to give shops visibility by putting their product listing on the front page/promotions page. In order to play, you'll probably need financing to support the promotion, which Aliexpress offers. Featured listings/promotions may sell hundreds/thousands of units, and shops may not see any revenue from the sales for months. Combined with the requirement of slashing prices by x amount and Ali's cut, a lot of shops just bleed money and never get the expected post promotion exposure/sales. I have a friend who used to own a factory, and he noted that you can spend 1000-dollars trying to promote your shop on Ali and only make 200 dollars in sales. Needless to say he doesn't sell on Aliexpress anymore.
As it turns out, it's quite difficult striking a balance between keeping customers and sellers happy on a platform. For sure, I hope Aliexpress cracks down on sellers who use fake tracking numbers and other shenanigans though. Customers also need to realize that an item priced near the cost of shipping is probably not going to change your life. You're ordering from the dollar menu, high margin sales affords better customer support and after sale service, if you're losing money or making 5 cents on a sale it's hard to bend over backwards. Some people only make a few cents on an item that costs 5-6 dollars, so if a customer demands a replacement for example, that's the profit of 100 sales or so you're messing with, and most people on Aliexpress aren't swimming in sales. The only people who make real money on Ali are Jack Ma and China Post. That's just my 5 cents.
I read from the consumers was that people were expecting to get a Mercedes for the price of a Daewoo.
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jun127 said:
That's true, they also take forever to release funds so in theory you shouldn't have a problem getting your money back if there is a problem. Although I've never had a customer dispute a sale or file a complaint, most customers don't confirm receiving orders either. So, usually Ali only releases funds several weeks after product tracking shows delivery. It feels like 2 months sometimes. If you sell any amount of volume, you have to front at least 6-8 weeks cash for everything you sell. Which is probably why Aliexpress offers financing...
Basically, Aliexpress puts on a promotion as an opportunity to give shops visibility by putting their product listing on the front page/promotions page. In order to play, you'll probably need financing to support the promotion, which Aliexpress offers. Featured listings/promotions may sell hundreds/thousands of units, and shops may not see any revenue from the sales for months. Combined with the requirement of slashing prices by x amount and Ali's cut, a lot of shops just bleed money and never get the expected post promotion exposure/sales. I have a friend who used to own a factory, and he noted that you can spend 1000-dollars trying to promote your shop on Ali and only make 200 dollars in sales. Needless to say he doesn't sell on Aliexpress anymore.
As it turns out, it's quite difficult striking a balance between keeping customers and sellers happy on a platform. For sure, I hope Aliexpress cracks down on sellers who use fake tracking numbers and other shenanigans though. Customers also need to realize that an item priced near the cost of shipping is probably not going to change your life. You're ordering from the dollar menu, high margin sales affords better customer support and after sale service, if you're losing money or making 5 cents on a sale it's hard to bend over backwards. Some people only make a few cents on an item that costs 5-6 dollars, so if a customer demands a replacement for example, that's the profit of 100 sales or so you're messing with, and most people on Aliexpress aren't swimming in sales. The only people who make real money on Ali are Jack Ma and China Post. That's just my 5 cents.
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Very insightful indeed. I'm staying up for the 11.11 AliExpress shopping spree. LMAO! :victory:
This is going off topic a tad and I'm sure the mods are not going to like it. But anyway, thanks for the info. Like I said, smart shoppers and reasonable buyers will have no trouble shopping on AliExpress. And I was happy to report that Everbuying wasn't as bad as all the bad reps that I read about online.
I saw the f1 available very cheaply online (for example in eglobalcentral and techinthebasket) but they'll get delivered from china/Hong Kong. will they get warranty in uk? or does one need to buy from uk based seller for warranty?
Windoors said:
I saw the f1 available very cheaply online (for example in eglobalcentral and techinthebasket) but they'll get delivered from china/Hong Kong. will they get warranty in uk? or does one need to buy from uk based seller for warranty?
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Usually the issue is not where you buy from but are you buying from an authorised seller of Xiaomi?
I wasn't sure about this when I was buying my F1 so I played safe and bought mine from Amazon as they tend to be reliable to deal with if you have issues.
I also got mine through Amazon as I wanted peace of mind. I paid more but it is worth it considering what I'm getting for my money.
Pay with PayPal or Credit card it will give you extra cover.
Amazon is not worth it unless they have a deal on you end up paying way more due to they add vat/tax on it with bit extra which is 20%+ price hike so that is like £50+
Always look for official sellers when it comes to this type of thing. I was lucky in the fact that there's a brick-and-mortar Mi store close to where I am in the UK, and utilised their Valentine's offer when it was available (paid £309 for the 6gb 128gb version).
I bought mine from the official xiaomi store in AliExpress. There's some a little bit more expensive offeers which they say have a global warranty.
Enviado de meu POCOPHONE F1 usando o Tapatalk
mortmaru said:
Pay with PayPal or Credit card it will give you extra cover.
Amazon is not worth it unless they have a deal on you end up paying way more due to they add vat/tax on it with bit extra which is 20%+ price hike so that is like £50+
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Don't know about what country are you talking about, but Amazon in Germany doesn't do such BS. Often you can buy cheaper then in official stores and you get the same warranty, Including a 30 days return especially if you're an Amazon prime user. Never had issues with Amazon and I bought a lot of Tech due to being cheaper than in other online shops.
ekin_strops said:
Don't know about what country are you talking about, but Amazon in Germany doesn't do such BS. Often you can buy cheaper then in official stores and you get the same warranty, Including a 30 days return especially if you're an Amazon prime user. Never had issues with Amazon and I bought a lot of Tech due to being cheaper than in other online shops.
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False
I just looked at amazon germany again they are way more then the likes of eglobal and china prices why is that because of vat/tax they will claim just as i stated.