jek l.

We are a group (jekracingdrones) that builds and races quadcopter racing drones in Sussex, England therefore we do purchase quite a bit of components and parts online from several retailers including Amazon.

After nearly 3 years, our club have published a list ranking of suppliers which we recommend and a black list of suppliers that we recommend our members and community to avoid, which includes ebay and Banggood amongst a few others.

Amazon ultimately retains the top place in our recommended list purely for its range of products and competitive pricing even though ebay keeps Amazon guessing all the time! However, when ever we have any problems with any purchase and/or products, Amazon customer service are quick, efficient and really cares to solve our issues and concerns. When a maplin soldering unit failed twice and even Maplin was giving us hassle in getting a replacement, because we bought it from Maplin online via Amazon, Amazon took over the case and got our refund the same day!

The only criticism we have with Amazon is how it tries to cloak delivery charges in its payment process where a guessing game takes place AND it's constant annoying ploy to push Amazon prime!

We always only consider items with FREE delivery, NOT eligible for free delivery OR free delivery for orders over £20 etc etc etc

Why not make buying simple and straight forward and Im sure we will enjoy using the site more, rather then all these infantile hurdles for us to surmount. Many purchases which may cost a bit cheaper elsewhere usually ebay, but we will still buy from Amazon, simply for the peace of mind, therefore Amazon would do itself a big favour if it promotes delivery included pricing which would certainly be welcomed by us buyers and boost their sales at the same time.

Heard from a fellow housemate who works in Sports Direct that due to their zero hour contract practice where the Manager will approach a particular staff whilst at work and tells that staff to go home if the shop is not busy inorder to cut back on labour cost.

Therefore there is zilch staff loyalty to the company which in turn breeds malpractice in order to improve their take home pay. One such practice is to maximise their sales of insoles which apparently the company gives a high bonus per sale of these items.

In order to get a customer to buy insoles for their new shoes purchase, the staff will purposely not offer the correct size asked by a customer, EVENTHOUGH if that size is in stock, but to advise the customer that they only have the next size up followed by a suggestion if the customer gets a pair of insoles, the shoes will fit perfectly!

Therefore next time you're told this porky pie in sports direct, laugh and move onto the next shoe shop!

We are a group that races and builds racing quadcopter drones here in Sussex so we buy quite a bit of components online, including from ebay. However, now we advise our members and supporters to avoid ebay if possible, because its typically "buyer beware" territory, don't rely on their guarantee promise as both ebay and it's sellers obviously do not understand nor practice either.

Two main issues;

Issue 1
Bought four quad motors from seller, paid £52, item failed to arrive after delivery dateline, contacted ebay, was advised to try and sort out with seller, so contacted seller who apologised profusely, initially blamed postal service, asked us to wait, we stupidly did for another two weeks and when we chased seller again, advise will send replacement, which we stupidly accepted, thus had to wait another 28 days.

2nd delivery dateline lapsed, contacted seller who again blamed post, however this time we asked for refund, seller failed to reply. We contacted ebay who told us its past 30 days so ebay's buyer guarantee has expired! We argued that ebay advised us to try and sort it out with seller, but ebay will not barged! We lost £52!

Issue 2

Bought FPV unit in July 2016, paid £20.99, and based on previous experience from issue 1 even though we already have a long archive of email ping pong with the seller who again apologised profusely, blame everyone in the delivery chain except themselves and request us to wait patiently again!, we contacted ebay when delivery dateline lapsed on 30th August 2016. Ebay chat advised us to contact them on 31st to request ebay to help. On 31st August, ebay chat says delivery dateline is 31st, so to contact ebay the next day! We logged back onto ebay website and the previous dateline of 30th have been changed to 31st! Fortunately, we always copy paste to update our complains to our log report, so we regurgitated a copy of ebay's own system's notification of 30th August as clearly stated to ebay chat, but that was refused!

Ebay refused to acknowledge their own system's notification!

So we waited until the next day, 1st Sept, contacted ebay again and was told to go to their website's resolution centre to send another request to the seller asking him to refund, even though we already have a long list of email ping pong whereupon we have asked the seller on numerous occasions for the refund and seller have refused and finally ignored to reply. Then ebay advised us to wait another 9 days!

By now, we have already got a file and must have spend several hours chasing up on this one transaction! Because at each ebay process, there are always threats that if we fail to reply and/or take a particular action, our complain will be nullified and the guarantee expires for that transaction!

Bought the item in good faith on 22nd July 2016. It's 2nd September 2016 and ebay has asked us to wait another 9 days even though ebay have a string of email proof in ebay's own messages system of our email correspondence between us and the seller to show that this seller is purposely delaying the entire process.

Obviously we now avoid ebay, banggood and a couple of other dodgy retail sites and advise our members and community to do so, in order to mount a boycott of such malpractices until these online companies take their responsibilities seriously.

In conclussion, ebay's buyer guarantee is purely a gimmick as the guarantee is purposely rendered invalid by ebay's own business practices.

I wanted all my six windows in my semi detached house changed, saw tv advert for this company, so called up to enquire. After initial pleasantries, I was asked if I owned the house, I answered yes. I was asked if I have a wife or partner, I answered no. Halfway through conversation, I was asked again, if I have a partner, I replied no. At end of conversation I was asked the same question, to which I regurgitated no. We arranged an appointment on Monday 29th August. On the morning of that day, I got another call from this company to confirm the appointment afterwhich I was again asked if my partner will be with me. At that point, I asked why is this company so concerned about my personal life, if I have a partner or not? I'm buying windows not life insurance. To that question, the caller retorted that he was not party to the previous calls and he is not there to argue with me! Obviously this company expects their customers to be simpleton lemmings, answer all questions and only speak when spoken to, and do not ask questions!

At that point, I cancelled the appointment. From that Monday until today i. E. 2nd September, I receive a call from this company daily implying that I had cancelled that Monday appointment because it was inconvenient for me, and they would like to set another up! Even though at each call, I have made my position clear why I cancelled the initial appointment and I have already signed a contract with another reputable window company Brighton Trade Windows to replace my windows.

During one of these calls, the caller even stated if I know a certain person, by name, saying he is a neighbour whom they will be visiting that day to quote! This is obviously a breach of this person's privacy and I would certainly now want this company to be annoucing my business to others!

Real shame this company devalues their potential customers to such an extent.

May 2016, I got a new professional 48w lcd display soldering iron station from Maplin_Webdeals via Amazon online as it was offering a £4.99 discount from its normal price from the stores. Yesterday, 23rd July, the unit stopped working. Attach is a photo of the screen which shows a reading that doesnt change as the solder iron doesnt heat up even after 30 minutes left switched on!

I was told by my local Maplin shop I can bring it down with my invoices for a replacement. Went down today, spent over an hour there as the shop assistant tried to get it authorised by HO who couldn't find my purchase details. Apparently HO insist I should have received a Maplin invoice by email. Maplin refuse to accept my Amazon invoice, eventhough it says seller Maplin_Webdeals!

Initially I wanted a replacment but after this awful experience, I don't want this item anymore nor do I want to use Maplin any further. Will be askng for a refund and get another unit from another retailer who knows how to service and value their customers.

We decided to do our part for the environment and our younger generation when we eventually "push up daisies" so we got a Renault Zoe for no apparent reason except its the cheapest all electric vehicle around with generous discount and government grant.

Anyway, last Sunday we drove from Brighton where we live, to Gorring Gap in Worthing for our fly day, we fly and race quadcopter drones. When we arrived, we realised there was lots of water dripping out from the chassis below. Few of us quipped its the air cond, whereas the other camp, me included, was rather worried because its an electric vehicle and something serious might be afoot, so we decided to contact Renault Assistance (RA) which we were assured has a specially set up team to deal with electric vehicle issues.

Yes, they were certainly special! Because the first initial contact was flawless and very charming. As we were there with quite a bit of expensive, fragile and cumbersome load of kit, RA agreed to recover the vehicle to a specialised garage that knows about electric vehicles and will attempt to get a courtesy car out to us so that we can drive back to Brighton with all our kit. We were told it would be approx an hour's wait which we didn't mind as we were busy flying and racing in that perfect sunny windless day.

Two hours went by, no recovery vehicle in sight but a driver with the courtesy car arrived. The poor chap had to sit and watch, dodged model planes and drones swarmed overhead whilst I contacted RA. Unfortunately now, RA had no record of my breakdown job and insist I had not contacted them about my breakdown! I had to pass my mobile phone over to the poor driver of the courtesy car to prove that RA had contacted them, thats why he's there.

After much searching, the officer at RA finally realised that it was an electric car and it was dealt by another team! The officer then started to blame me, saying I should have told him that it was an electric car. I said I did plus he has all the car registration details as well as my details and purchase logs with him as my Renault Zoe is a brand new car (2 months old) plus he had searched for my vehicle under DVLA, which he had stated earlier!

I requested to speak to his Manager who was really friendly and helpful and finally sorted out the situation. She even offered to get a taxi to take us all the way home from Worthing to Brighton as by now, the courtesy car driver had to return back to Brighton.

Anyway, when the recovery guy arrived, he assured me that it was the aircond and nothing wrong with the vehicle! You can imagine the uproar! My faithful Zoe took us home safely, no probs.

Seriously, the Zoe is a fantastic car, I must say, but taking on an electric car is akin to the starship Enterprise in one of its voyages where no man (or woman) have been before... because even though we are all mostly accustomed to combustion engines, every issue from an electric vehicle is totally alien to us and manufacturers like Renault must ensure their support is totally USER FRIENDLY if it wants to win support and increase customer base. Their support assistance processes must be seamless otherwise it is too easy to fall back to the reliable tested combustion engines.

15th July Update
BG later requested videos which we sent to show the defects.
BG replied with instructions and requested we "repair" the transmitter. BG says it's easy!
We replied to refuse to "repair" a product that we have paid in full for.
We requested for prepaid postage label for us to send the item back. BG refuse.
BG also refuse to send replacement or refund.
This leaves us no choice but to ask my bank to invoke a chargeback as we initially paid by card.
Our advise - Buyer beware certainly applies with this retailer.

Initial review
We are a group of racing drone enthusiasts here in Sussex. We build and race quadcopter racing drones therefore we buy quite a bit of components from various suppliers, BG included. However, recently we have had numerous faulty products from BG and their customer service is non existent and in fact mostly "copy paste" replies.

One of the Flysky remote transmitter controllers we bought from them was wrong. They sent us a mode 1 when we ordered a mode 2 which we use in UK. Also there was a rattling noise inside as if something is loose.

Therefore either BG has sent us a wrong mode item or it was a mode 2 but was tampered with by someone previously, botched it up, returned it and BG reshipped it out without investigating the returned item first.

Anyway, when we contacted BG about this issue and knowing BG's obsession for photos and videos, we clearly explained that we have not attached photos because obviously photos will not show whether a transmitter is mode 1 or mode 2 nor could photos allow BG to hear the rattling noise inside the transmitter.

BG's "copy paste" reply, as expected, requested for photos and videos!

We again replied back this time with three photos of the transmitter sitting on our workbench!

Another BG "copy paste" reply again as expected, can we provide clearer photos!

How clear can our photos be to show that a transmitter has a throttle stick on the left side (mode 2) as opposed to on the right side (mode 1) when both versions are totally identical? Also if BG can provide me with photos that can make noise, so that they can hear the rattling inside the transmitter, I would most certainly oblige!

It begs me to assume either this is BG's intention to frustrate their customers into relenting to pursue their issues or BG is simply not bothered about customer's issues because every time we raise an issue, their response has always been down this same path... giving the feeling that they do not really read nor understand customer's issues first before replying.

Their response are nonsensical, annoying and purposely very time consuming trying to mitigate any issues.

BG was OK when their orders made it and no faults, but lately when both are relevant coupled with a toy robotic customer service, no wonder BG is now giving discounts.

We have ceased buying from BG but would resume if and when they take customer issues seriously.