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I recently purchased Quadrant Advanced from the SlideME store since that's the only place it is available. Unfortunately, SlideME has implemented a policy where they will charge your credit card for a random amount less than $1 when you add a credit card to your account. In my case, this was $0.61. They try to justify this as a "security" measure to verify that the card is really yours; however, they let me continue and buy the application without first verifying the charge.
Even though the amount of money is small, I find this type of business practice despicable. I will not purchase any applications from SlideME and will e-mail any developer whose application I am considering purchasing that they have lost a sale until they move their app to a respectable store.
Wanted to follow up on this post to mention that we are indeed aware of the problem that is causing and maybe even loss of sales for apps sold via SlideME.
We did not assume that such a nominal fee (for end users) per card setup considered a registration fee, will become such a big issue.
The reason we took this approach from our early days in 2008, was that we wanted developers via our Marketplace to earn 'the lot'. This means if our payment processing costs are only 5% + $0.05 (as per Amazon Payments fees), the remaining balance will be paid out to developer.
As we have additional payment methods such as our 'direct card' payment option, we need to confirm the real owner of the card, much like PayPal and Amazon Payments require to verify the cardholder.
With the issues related to combating fraud e.g. users using stolen cards, there are processing fees for setting up a card and such fees are not directly related to the transaction of the sale of an application, therefore could not be applied to the developers account. This fee that our direct card processor charges has to be covered from somewhere, and this amount is funded from the < $1.00 fee that we charge per card setup. You only need to setup your card once, and customer is never asked to submit any sensitive card information from their phone ever.
Without such a verification process which consists of two states, 'pending verification' and 'confirmed' to place users account in 'good standing', there is a high risk there could be a large number of chargebacks and related fees, which will be charged to developers account. Not something we will be too happy about nor will developer.
A customer like you, has the option to choose other Payment Methods via SlideME that do not require any such verification, such as Amazon Payments & PayPal (due this coming week), since they provide their own verification process.
So your complain and from many other users, has been taken into consideration and it seems that we will have to charge some additional fees to developers to cover such processing costs via our Direct Pay option. I expect overall this will not mean less income for developers but could reflect to actually more sales via SlideME.
We took the initiative to create a discussion topic at http://bit.ly/aADcvo
Look forward to getting some feedback on what developers think about this issue.
The idea that charging a fee that a user must verify to prevent fraud might have some validity if the user must verify before being allowed to purchase any apps. However, I was able to purchase an app immediately after registering as a new user and adding my credit card. If I were a credit card/ID thief instead of a legitimate buyer, the victim would now have two fraudulent charges: the app purchase AND the verification charge.
In reality, this is just a way of passing on a processing fee to the end user and trying to disguise it as a fraud prevention method. It may not be fair that the merchant takes all of the risk of ID theft and fraud but that is the way the system works.
If you want to charge a registration fee, you should be up front about it when the user signs up with a full checkout page so that there is no ambiguity that money is about to change hands. When I purchased the app, I went through a full checkout page that clearly showed what I was buying and how much I was paying. This was not the case with the "verification" fee.
If you're not going to prevent users from buying apps until they verify, quite calling it a fraud/verification fee. If you're going to charge a registration fee, be upfront with it and have a full checkout page so that the user will clearly understand what they are buying. Better yet, just take credit cards like 99.999% of online stores and charge the developers an amout that covers your costs.
It's clearly stated that the <$1.00 is considered a card registration fee and we have it in several places on our site. It seems you are the only one that missed it if your name starts with a K. We have had users complain about it, but not one be surprised of such a charge that they did not know it was coming.
Yes we do open up and permit account holders to purchase without verification when we have eyes on the system to prevent complaints from customers that want to buy now!
We send many warnings to customers that have a high fraud score and such require to verify their card to proceed.
We will do what it takes to satisfy developers and users alike.
I guess now we will have to restrict only to all verified users, which will just make it more difficult for that ones that don't seem suspicious to purchase.
You can't make everyone happy.
There will always be people that complain.
If you make them wait, they will complain they can't get their product
fast enough.
If you don't make them wait, they will complain that you didn't verify
their identity...
My experience and 2 cents:
Do what makes your largest user base happy and focus on them.
You won't make everyone happy but at least you'll have market share
and happy customers to reaffirm you've made the right decision.
Some people want their cake and wish to eat it too.
Welcome
I hope this is the right forum section for such information. My intention is to warn as many possible customers of Media Markt in Germany (Hessen) as possible.
Yesterday we bought a new phone for my sister - Sony Xperia M2
The phone looks brand new, box was sealed with "Media Markt" tapes, the case had still the protective foil on the back and the screen.
Phone technically is performing fine... but the problem is, it was sold as "New" yet turned out to be used one.
My sister initially thought it's possibly a built in Chrome/Google+ feature that it gives you a "template" account to fiddle with yet I asked around, poked around the internet... nowhere was such thing found (Eventually I did find, that she wasn't the only person who bought a used phone, marked as new with Gmail account already present and such)
The price of the phone was to be 189 Euro... on the label... at the register it was already 199 Euro... that was weird but we thought just a label error.
On next day my sister is bringing the phone to me to check it out and teach her how to use some things... and I notice that when I go to Chrome browser... it says that someone with initials "M.P." (Well it's full name there but I will just use initials here since I, as opposed to Media Markt respect other people) with even messages still not read and such, with 2 followers, the G+ account has been operational for some time already.
In that G+ account I am able to see both Gmail and Hotmail e-mails of the previous user together with phone number (which I checked already, it's a German T-Com number).
Still... having just found that account logged in Chrome... I thought... perhaps it's a glitch? But how would it be? Not just IP but also cookies would have to be there from someone else, this didn't make any sense. So I checked more, I see that Facebook on this phone also was accessed, with the same e-mail as in G+ (password wasn't kept this time though and session was logged out).
But what made me 100% that the phone was used was when I went into photo album... while most images there were all default stock images, there was also a screenshot (which ofc is stored in other folder than images, hence why I'm assuming the person responsible for this crime was sloppy enough not to delete it)
The file has a timestamp of October 21 and shows the lock screen with 82% battery, no sim coverage (or no sim at all, not sure about that icon), vibration profile, wifi connected and notifications I think from cloud app, some mail app perhaps Gmail.
All in all, this cemented my suspicion that the phone bought in Media Markt yesterday - sold for full retail price as new, even wrapped to be sold as new, was in fact a previously used phone, for around a month if not longer which is by no means worth the money they sold it for.
Tomorrow me and my sister's husband are going to Media Markt to "Go Medieval" on those bastards. We will try to make it as much of a scene as possible as to let know as many possible customers there that Media Markt is engaging in fraudulent behavior by selling used devices as new.
We will demand as much compensation for it as possible and will NOT settle for simply exchanging the phone for another. This is a crime that was committed here and regardless if they "cooperate" or not this doesn't change the fact. If situation was reversed, if anyone would just take something from Media Markt walk out... and then - when caught - simply return it and apologized... would they not notify the police? I doubt. Would they not file in for a crime? I doubt it. These days, people get arrested for feeding homeless people in a park! And yet companies like Media Markt get away with obvious criminal behavior. And no, if they (Manager or whoever up) "knew" it's used or not has nothing to do. IF YOU or ME did not what you did was a crime... would the police/court take pity on you and say - ok, lad, it's fine, you are free to go and you didn't do anything wrong. A crime is a crime. And I am totally disgusted by it
So that's why we are not going to settle for a simple exchange for a new device.
- Assuming that the person who used the phone previously wasn't in on the scam, that person's data, G+ account and Play Store has been all exposed to a random customer who bought that phone as new (Google certainly not refund anyone if my sister started to buy apps only to land in the previous user's account, not knowingly).
- We paid for a "new" device, that was the contract between the customer and retailer. They never delivered the agreed upon goods, they gave us a "used" device. That is a breach of a contract and extortion of money.
- We had to waste time, energy and possibly (if this goes to court, prior to the settlement) our money because of them.
- When we called them tonight they've already told us they don't sell used devices, which as the example shows, was another lie.
In case Media Markt would refuse to compensate us for wasting our nerves, time and openly trying to scam us - and basically stealing our money. We will sue them.
Anyone who had similar situation with Media Markt can now know - You're not alone. This is more widespread than I initially thought, the more I read the more I see situations where retailers sell used things as new, possibly hoping that the customer would be naive and ignorant enough to not realize they have gotten a used - and why if it's stolen?! - device.
You're also free to join us and we can sue them together, more the merrier.
As proof I have all the purchase documents, the screens (some of them I include in attachments) and also some other things, they can try to deny it but that's for the court to settle.
In conclusion this is a warning to check twice or better yet - avoid as much as possible such criminal companies like "Media Markt".
Any update on your story? I`d like to hear how it went.
Das ist wirklich ne zumutung... naja, nichts anderes zu erwarten von MediaMarkt...
Here's how it went.
Next day we went to that Media Markt right when it opened. IF you're interested which one was it exactly, here is the address:
Rudolf-Walther-Straße 6, 63584 Gründau-Lieblos, Germany
At the info counter we've explained that we were sold a used phone as a new one... the woman there looked as if she's offended we even suggested it was used, but my brother-in-law elaborated that we've got the proof of it and we'd like to talk with the manager of the shop - Of course, the manager is "on vacation" -_-'. We were directed to the aisle with phones.
There we've asked another staffer, loudly letting everyone who was considering a purchase there, that they better be careful, because this shop sells used devices as new. The staffer said ofc it will be dealt with, but again, not his business, we were directed to the service. ::
Already a bit frustrated by all this running around, we've explained the situation to the service staff. My brother-in-law immediately turned on voice recorder in his Galaxy phone and put it on the counter to make sure this whole thing would be on the record. Sadly, the service staffer had NO NAME TAG! None of the service staff had... how convenient?
First the service guy tried to show as much disbelief and deny that it's even possible to buy used phones from them... then when we've showed him all the proof and talked him through it he said that "Oh, it must've been a mistake! Clearly we must've had such phone delivered to us from the supplier" (doubtful since the person's profile was a person living nearby). Next we kept drilling the guy who was like he's having a lot of fun talking about it - quite annoying attitude if you ask me. He obviously had limited knowledge about phones too.
When asked about why do they sell things with previous users data? - He said it was a mistake and he's just as surprised.
When asked how can we be sure, that now, when we give the phone away, they won't sell it (with my sister's leftover data) to another customer? - He said it's gonna be cleared up and returned, thinking we'd take his word for it.
When we asked him why was the price 199 when we purchased, yet on the shelf the price even now is still shown as 189? - Oh must've been the previous week price tag, someone forgot to take it off.
In the meantime of the discussion we have called my sister to confirm the color and if she's going to sue them or not. She, being a very peaceful person decided she'll settle for their "compensation".
The compensation was a miniscule one to say the least. This is what we've achieved after my sister decided not to sue them:
- Without any apology they agreed to replace the phone (we spent 30 minutes waiting for them to find another like it)
- There were no more phones of that color, so they could give us only purple one (my sister was happy, my brother in law said it looks like crap)
- Because of the lack of color, they have "generously" agreed to give us a crappy black xPeria M2 phone case for 1 cent
- They have returned us the 10 Euro they've asked more vs the shelf price tag
- Not trusting them to do the job I have wiped everything from that bogus phone before I gave it back to them
I disagree with my sister's decision but it was her to make so I can't force her. We are waiting till we get more free time so we can contact the previous owner, she also deserves to know what happened with her data and previously owned phone.
We have decided not to buy stuff from MediaMarkt again after this. My sister said that she's pretty worried now, she had no idea - being just a casual user - that such things happen and now she "understands" why there was so many malfunctions in the past when she was buying laptops from there and things tended to break inside like wifi card and sound card etc.
Here is additional read I found after we came home, turns out this is more widespread than I thought
(given that I've got a fresh account have to put the link in txt file attached to this reply)
I suggest you direct this towards the Metro Holding Group. http://www.metrogroup.de
It's the company that owns the entire Media Markt chain. This seems like a complaint to take a bit higher up if the manager won't speak to you.
I do have to mention, in all the times I've been to Media Markt, the boxes with the Media Markt tape on it were the ones that were previously returned.
New ones had factory seals on it. (And usually a 'If seal is broken, do not buy/sell device" over the rim.) Were those still present on the box when you bought it?
I've always bought about half of devices and electronics at MediaMarkt (The other half at Saturn or Conrad. I remember when Conrad was still just a small store in Boekelo!), in Nordhorn, and Dorsten. I've never experienced what you're describing, as those devices have always had a sticker on it marking them as used.
But I'm not doubting that it happened. Media Markt Netherlands has a tendency to do this as well. And they charge us 100-300 euro more for the same devices, too!
ShadowLea said:
I suggest you direct this towards the Metro Holding Group. http://www.metrogroup.de
It's the company that owns the entire Media Markt chain. This seems like a complaint to take a bit higher up if the manager won't speak to you.
I do have to mention, in all the times I've been to Media Markt, the boxes with the Media Markt tape on it were the ones that were previously returned.
New ones had factory seals on it. (And usually a 'If seal is broken, do not buy/sell device" over the rim.) Were those still present on the box when you bought it?
I've always bought about half of devices and electronics at MediaMarkt (The other half at Saturn or Conrad. I remember when Conrad was still just a small store in Boekelo!), in Nordhorn, and Dorsten. I've never experienced what you're describing, as those devices have always had a sticker on it marking them as used.
But I'm not doubting that it happened. Media Markt Netherlands has a tendency to do this as well. And they charge us 100-300 euro more for the same devices, too!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the suggestion, but like I said, we've decided to give it a rest and just avoid the shop altogether, it's not like there's no competition that can do better. Hell even on eBay/Amazon I can get a brand new for same price and used? Would never go for the MediaMarkt price which makes it not useful to us anymore.
As for the packaging, it wasn't market as used, it was together with other boxes (some with MediaMarkt stripes over them, some not, it was as if up to the customer to pick up with no indication of devices being used) and all of them had given same price 189 and the one my bro-in-law bought turned out to be counted for 199 which doesn't seem like it was all supposed to be "sold as used" unless it's MediaMarkt's policy to sell used at higher price than brand new not to mention they've denied and looked all surprised, not a moment they said "We sell used goods this way".
The broken seal thing. I disagree that it's an indication that I shouldn't be buying it - First of all it was my brother-in-law, who just got back from work, asked for a NEW device and was willing to pay all the money needed to buy it for his wife, he wasn't "hunting for a bargain" and he was not notified and had the benefit of not even caring about any policy the shop has, he was buying a new device, hell he even asked for black one and then the woman servicing him there told him they don't have them so he can only take the white one, which could be taken as he was railroaded into buying crap by the employee of the shop, is that how it should be? I don't think so.
Other than that, there are plenty of shops that OPEN the packages when they get them delivered from suppliers to "test" if the goods are working and then reseal it after verifying things work. So why is it all of a sudden the customer's duty to make sure which shop does what? You go to a shop, wanting to buy new device, you should get one. Also, I never seen a "returned, second hands merchandise" corner in MediaMarkt, they don't seem very up front about it at all.
Furthermore, to entertain the "MediaMarkt seal" notion. Are you honestly suggesting that MediaMarkt is totally not culpable for selling used goods with previous user's private data, passwords, e-mail account, G+, Apple store, Google Play, MS Store and so on? Is simply "putting a MediaMarkt wrap" on it means that those goods can be sold with such blatant breach of privacy of previous customer?
As for you being happy with MediaMarkt that's irrelevant, as analogy I also never had problems with racism it doesn't mean that racism isn't a thing. I've used their franchise across 3 different countries and had small issues now and then, but this is unacceptable.
To contrast this say, with "Expert Klein" which I had wonderful experience with. Here's the Expert Klein story to show how different that one is from MediaMarkt:
I went to buy a computer monitor (LG) and they had the last one on display, but I really wanted to get that last one, it was already on discount (by 20 Euro from org price) and when talking with the staffer who was very helpful and spoke good English (In MediaMarkt we had to do everything in German) he said he can get the price lower (he seemed genuinely sympathetic that I got unlucky to find myself buying last one of that model), called the manager, while I checked the monitor if it's in good condition (was almost perfect 'cept a bit of dust on it which the employee cleaned before packing it for me). In the end I got over 70 Euro discount for a computer screen worth a bit more than 150 Euro. That's almost half the price lower.
Now back to MediaMarkt... there he was sold a used device 10Euro dearer than a brand new. It's unacceptable.
In case anyone is considering buying their phone (or any items) from this criminal company, I just want to emphasise the dangers of buying from them. I've been through 7 months of hell in an attempt to get my Samsung S7 Edge back from them. It seems they are never going to send it back to me. £500 down the drain and lots of anger and distress.
This is the story:
https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/58ab865ff434950bc4fe0860
And a previous thread looking for advice on XDA: https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/help/received-phone-screen-fix-looks-t3506196
As they are priced very competitively, it may be attractive and tempting to bite the bullet and buy from China. That's why I bought the S7. I felt confident in a Samsung product. If the item works flawlessly and never fails, you are going to be happy. But if anything fails you will lose out big time as they ARE NOT willing to help in case of faulty equipment. Instead, their strategy is to exhaust you with non-answers until you simply give up. I am not rolling over though.
Stay far far away from this company.
I can imagine your troubles and exactly imagine how exhausting this may be. However one overall valid rule in buying from China is that the tempting cheap price in the beginning may be very expensive afterwards. This is just a risk you need to be willing to take. Your experience is not limited to eglobal or anyone else but applies to this part of business in General. Also, it is a bit harsh to call them "criminals" though I can fully follow your point of view and conclusion.
I was living in China for some time and it is just common in their understanding that you buy things as they are. There's generally no such thing as warranty. Once the business is concluded everyone goes its own way. There's even no service line built up that a distributor has anyone in contract for repairs. This is just the practice over there and it meets our high level service expectations on the other end of the world. I don't think they want to cheat you but they just don't know how to deal with that all along with their boss requiring that no business should be done with loss (which limits the budget for such handling).
All those shops coming up recent days they are just trying to get a small piece of the cake. They even don't get their products from the manufacturer but through third party shops whom they cannot turn to out of the reasons mentioned in case of any problem. And to be clear: I am absolutely against those businesses and aside of some known sellers for Chinese phones I would never buy anything of value from such websites / ebay / Amazon.
So you ship your phone to your Warehouse and it goes with the next batch to China (most probably someone takes it flying there to avoid the paper work for import) and over there they are trying to find a small shop who may be able to do this or not. After that it goes the way back it came. Seriously, don't expect too much. They're already doing more than maybe most of such shops would be doing.
However, if I'm not mistaken eGlobal is despite many other sites with a UK company behind. The people are pretty much the same but you would be able to take legal action as UK law and - most important - Court applies. In the end you would be able to seize their Warehouse if a judge finds your claims are true. Unfortunately especially in UK such Limited companies are easily shut down and re-opened under a different name.
To sum it up: Buying from such Chinese sources goes always without any liability and warranty from seller and you should be prepared for total loss in worst case.
andiling said:
I can imagine your troubles and exactly imagine how exhausting this may be. However one overall valid rule in buying from China is that the tempting cheap price in the beginning may be very expensive afterwards. This is just a risk you need to be willing to take. Your experience is not limited to eglobal or anyone else but applies to this part of business in General. Also, it is a bit harsh to call them "criminals" though I can fully follow your point of view and conclusion.
I was living in China for some time and it is just common in their understanding that you buy things as they are. There's generally no such thing as warranty. Once the business is concluded everyone goes its own way. There's even no service line built up that a distributor has anyone in contract for repairs. This is just the practice over there and it meets our high level service expectations on the other end of the world. I don't think they want to cheat you but they just don't know how to deal with that all along with their boss requiring that no business should be done with loss (which limits the budget for such handling).
All those shops coming up recent days they are just trying to get a small piece of the cake. They even don't get their products from the manufacturer but through third party shops whom they cannot turn to out of the reasons mentioned in case of any problem. And to be clear: I am absolutely against those businesses and aside of some known sellers for Chinese phones I would never buy anything of value from such websites / ebay / Amazon.
So you ship your phone to your Warehouse and it goes with the next batch to China (most probably someone takes it flying there to avoid the paper work for import) and over there they are trying to find a small shop who may be able to do this or not. After that it goes the way back it came. Seriously, don't expect too much. They're already doing more than maybe most of such shops would be doing.
However, if I'm not mistaken eGlobal is despite many other sites with a UK company behind. The people are pretty much the same but you would be able to take legal action as UK law and - most important - Court applies. In the end you would be able to seize their Warehouse if a judge finds your claims are true. Unfortunately especially in UK such Limited companies are easily shut down and re-opened under a different name.
To sum it up: Buying from such Chinese sources goes always without any liability and warranty from seller and you should be prepared for total loss in worst case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply.
I will definitely look into taking legal action. I have friends who are willing to help me out.
I'm now at a point where they pretended to agree on sending me a replacement phone which was "fully functional", but now that I accepted, they claim it needs to be tested and refuse to give me a timeframe.
They are just trying to wear me out mentally. It has been going on for almost 6 months now, but I just become increasingly determined to take them down.
Disgusting people.
R u referring to the "eglobaldogitalcameras(.)com(.)au site? I "almost" ordered from them because they were so cheap...i ended up just renewing contract via another carrier...as i was also concerned about horror stories i heard buying from ebay and other China sites that send flagship samsung and htc smartphones from china or hk to rest of world..
So I have another thread where I talk about some issues with the Snapdragon headunit.
I didn't like it, the "new" software I think is pretty buggy and I don't feel their built-in software works well at all. They advertise them as being capable of steering wheel controls, however when I questioned them about it, they flat out told me it was not capable with my vehicle. They denied any form of accountability saying I did not consult them before purchase or they would have told me not to buy it for my vehicle, as their engineer has not had time to work on these headunits to figure out any CANBUS options, and they refused to offer ANY support or suggestions to get steering wheel controls to work. They told me to research options with Axxess, etc. But again, offered no suggestion on how this would work, or even if it WOULD work.
I finally managed to convince them to let me return it with a loss of shipping (OUCH!) and 10% restocking fee. They sent me a long and detailed list of instructions on how to send it back, that I must include every single thing that came with it, I MUST mark the item as only $40 in value for customs declaration and that if I didn't follow their instructions to the letter, the item would be refused and returned back to me with loss of shipping and would not be accepted for refund. Then they told me I must do this within 1-3 days or they would not accept it. I then negotiated further with them saying I couldn't just have my wife driving around with an empty hole in her dash and all the accessories I purchased including cameras and antennae, etc., had been professionally installed and I needed to have them removed. I didn't have the ability to have all this done in 1-3 days.
So, the compromise was that I purchased ANOTHER Joying head unit, one they guaranteed would retain ALL my factory functions (another untruth), I shipped that unit in, uninstalled the original Snapdragon unit and installed the new UIS7862 unit with the in-place accessories, then boxed up the Snapdragon with the new and unused accessories and shipped it back to them - letter for letter, word for word with the instructions they provided. At an exorbitant shipping cost to China.
Then I leave on vacation, I sent them the tracking number and they said once they received it, they would refund my money (less 10%).
So when I come back yesterday, I find the box on my doorstep. It had apparently been opened by customs and returned to me with a notice that it was insufficiently declared and needed a new customs form filled out.
So Joying has told me tough luck, it must be my fault in how I filled out the form, as others have been able to send things back with no problems.
So now I am out:
Original purchase price - $562
Additional installation accessories, harnesses, etc - ~$100
Professional installation costs - ~$200
Return shipping cost - $110
Not to mention the time and effort I have put into this crap, I'm out nearly $1000 for a head unit that they admit doesn't do what their webpage specifically says it does and they will not support (ANY steering wheel controls), and due to their ridiculous requirement that I declare this item they sell for over $500 to be listed as $40 in value, customs inspected and rejected it and returned it to me.
I've got some choice words for Joying, but the filters would catch them, or I'd get banned. Now I'm stuck with this 8" headunit I can't use and am out almost $1000.
Thanks, Joying, for your stunning lack of customer support and your overhyped and poorly supported product.
DO NOT BUY A JOYING SNAPDRAGON HEADUNIT. In fact, given my experiences thus far, I don't think I'll ever be buying anything from them again.
Can you imagine buying a branded unit locally.
The cost.
The support of local businesses and the local economy.
In person support.
<rolleyes>
tRidiot said:
<rolleyes>
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Click to collapse
Did you get what you paid for
Have you tried reselling it? Asking as I might be interested if the number is right. Also what vehicle do you have? Seems their key controls should be universal and work with an interface. Just trying to offer solutions if you haven’t had any yet.
Not trying to side with them, but I was looking into this unit myself and in two places on the that page I noticed that if you're not sure to contact them. It does say that it has the steering wheel controls, but further on it states that if it's CANBUS you'll need to purchase an extra harness. Not sure if they threw that information in after, but you would expect with buying from a company that's not as easily accessible as local dealers you would have done a little more research.
Sorry to hear about your experience, but a company over in China with as much of a gamble with their products, is just as much with them knowing about our customs and border patrol.
Best of luck with selling that model.
SO... As my year and a half old IDoing Unit just fried itself and I was sure they would point out the 1 year warranty, I have mixed feelings on this.
First they offered to ship new unit on receipt of tracking number for the return unit. They did not charge me for a new one waiting on return.
Yes USPS shipping to China i Nuts! Not their problem, they told me to use the cheapest shipping possible.
Yes they told me to put some crazy low value on the customs form, but since it's busted it's not really false and since I didn't pay for the second item I don't really care if Customs returns it.
I got replacement in just over a week.
Now here's where I'm torn:
1) Obviously these things are not the highest Quality. I always Knew this
2) It cost me nearly 100 dollars to ship back. Still not their fault.
3) the whole process seems a little shady with customs, but Meh.
BUT
1) Anything even close to this functionality in the US will cost you 1500 dollars and to be honest it's not even close to the functionality
2) While Quality is better from mainstream MFR good luck getting any warranty replacement(still need to pay shipping) even under warranty and after warranty FORGET IT.
3) Mainstream MFRs lie about features and compatibility just as badly and you'll have no recourse but to return to them at a loss as well.
On your specific case, while I empathize with your canbus issue when you buy from these place you NEED to do a lot of reading and ask very specific questions to make sure what you are buying will work with your setup and I have found they usually are very good at answering these questions. Personally I probably would have stuck with the one you had and waited for the SWC app to be updated for your car. I doubt you'd need a new CanBus. I'm also surprised yo had to pay 100 dollars for a harness and on top of that they didn't call out that the harness you were buying was for a car the stereo wasn't compatible with. Did you order all the parts separately rather than asking them what parts you needed for your car?
I recently sold my S22 ultra on eBay and shortly after taking delivery the buyer requested a return citing that it would not charge. My initial instinct was buyers remorse but after talking to them to try and resolve my gut feeling was that they were probably genuine and either way given how rubbish ebay is at protecting sellers I had no choice but to accept the return.
It came back today and she was correct in that it will not charge and I noticed that the cable does not quite go all the way in ( see photo). I have inspected the port with a light and whilst my 48 year old eyes are not as good as they once were I cannot see any obvious fluff or debris that would block anything, nor can I see any obvious damage that the buyer might have done, it all looks fine. I mostly wireless charge so cannot remember the last time I plugged it in before the sale either so I am little stumped here.
Other than fluff, lint etc is there anything obvious that can break that could cause this?
Clumps of dust can block the USB. To protect the USB port, I recommend using a magnetic cable.
bad cable, get DASH charge superfast charging cable
Tried 4 different cables, it is not the cable. I have had this with iPhones before but it is usually easy to see the lint in there. I have a loupe coming today, I am going to figure this out!
As others have stated, lint build up could definitely be the source of the problem but if not, unfortunately you have a big problem on your hands because on the USBC port ( female ) on your phone has pins and these pins can become bent from crappy third party USBC cables and you could have a bent pin that is causing the cable to not be able to be inserted all the way. I'm speaking from experience, I've had this happen and the only way to fix it is to either get the finest thinnest dental pick and identify and bend the obstructed pin back into its place or open the phone up and just completely replace the USBC port. Hopefully your issue is just some debris or lint, I'd say it most likely is something foreign in their blocking the cable but like I said above, it's absolutely possible you have a bent pin.
Also while you're in there trying to clean anything out, be very cautious because you don't want to unintentionally bend a pin when you're trying to clean the port out.
The loup was useless, it is really hard to see in there to know if a pin is bent or not. I am 99% sure there is no lint or debris in there so it must be a bent pin I guess? I say 99% as it is really hard to see in there.
I wonder if Samsung would pick this kind of thing up if I traded it in or what they would do? It is still under warranty.
try to clean usb port
I have cleaned it as best I can, there was no dirt in there. At the conclusion now that the buyer has inadvertently damaged the port, they had it for a week before requesting the return. eBay really sucks at protecting sellers.
I returned by S23U for a refund as they offered me an additional discount after my first order that they could not apply retrospectively so have ordered another one with the returned S22U as trade in. Weighing up if to go through with the trade in or not, unsure if Samsung would spot the port issue or what they would do if if they did.
buy a new usb circuit board
arsenal74 said:
I have cleaned it as best I can, there was no dirt in there. At the conclusion now that the buyer has inadvertently damaged the port, they had it for a week before requesting the return. eBay really sucks at protecting sellers.
I returned by S23U for a refund as they offered me an additional discount after my first order that they could not apply retrospectively so have ordered another one with the returned S22U as trade in. Weighing up if to go through with the trade in or not, unsure if Samsung would spot the port issue or what they would do if if they did.
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I wouldn't worry too much. Samsung will likely sell it as part of a bulk sale to 3rd party refurbishers like Asurion.
buy it
arsenal74 said:
I have cleaned it as best I can, there was no dirt in there. At the conclusion now that the buyer has inadvertently damaged the port, they had it for a week before requesting the return. eBay really sucks at protecting sellers.
I returned by S23U for a refund as they offered me an additional discount after my first order that they could not apply retrospectively so have ordered another one with the returned S22U as trade in. Weighing up if to go through with the trade in or not, unsure if Samsung would spot the port issue or what they would do if if they did.
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I deleted my ebay account for this very reason. The fact that they now require access to your bank account was the final straw for me.
hand-filer said:
I deleted my ebay account for this very reason. The fact that they now require access to your bank account was the final straw for me.
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Ebay required access to your account since its inception almost 30 years ago. How else are buyers and sellers supposed to conduct transactions?
gernerttl said:
Ebay required access to your account since its inception almost 30 years ago. How else are buyers and sellers supposed to conduct transactions?
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Maybe you were on vacation at the time. eBay sellers can no longer use PayPal under new terms
I am a little shocked but after going through it with eBay they closed the case in my favour.
They still refunded the buyer of course but did not deduct it from me.
hand-filer said:
Maybe you were on vacation at the time. eBay sellers can no longer use PayPal under new terms
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I'm not sure you actually read the article beyond the headline. I checked my Ebay account. My bank account is associated, but for pay outs (to me). My PayPal is still associated with my account.
gernerttl said:
I'm not sure you actually read the article beyond the headline. I checked my Ebay account. My bank account is associated, but for pay outs (to me). My PayPal is still associated with my account.
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I read the article and had no problem understanding the contents.
Prior to the changes payouts to the seller were transacted through PayPal either using a savings or CC account. eBay had no access to your bank account. Maybe you're comfortable giving eBay access to your bank account and the ability to remove money from your account in the event that a transaction goes sour. I'm not. and have moved on from eBay.