hi,
i have tried to make an order from gl.inet and got very bad experience. i also never got what i paid for and gl.inet support is refusing to provide information or make things right for me as a customer.
please do not repeat my experience and avoid purchasing gl.inet devices. at least until company policy change and/or customer support improves.
as of now they don't seem to care about customers and will not make things right if things go awry (they did not take care of me and they will not take care of you!).
tldr story - i made order from gl.inet, it got shipped and shipment never received proper track number (AE00210775VN, it does not track to local delivery company). it got marked as delivered but i never got it. opened dispute as per gl.inet suggestion and it got rejected with all information i provided. still no information from gl.inet as to who and where (no proper track) delivered.
long story:
i made an order from gl.inet around 1st jan (5095132094666522)
my order got shipped on 3rd jan
around 30 jan i got notification on that aliexpress delivered my package on 18th jan (???)
i never received my order so i contacted gl.inet support to get help (email and aliexpress) and asked for proper track number stating that current one does not track and what could we do
i got suggestion to open dispute and i opened a dispute
i provided all information stating that track number have nothing to do about delivery company aliexpress tells it belong to
i asked proper track number and delivery company name from gl.inet and aliexpress. i never got them
i contacted jtexpress and got proofs that no delivery to my home address happened and then uploaded to dispute
i contacted jtexpress and got proofs that jtexpress have nothing to do with that track number AE00210775VN and then uploaded to dispute
i contacted jtexpress and got proofs that it does not even track on jtexpress website and could be tracked back to them and then uploaded to dispute
eventually dispute got returned back to me multiple times and i explained situation in dispute all over again and now that dispute is closed in gl.inet favor.
i explained situation to gl.inet all over again and they refuse to provide a replacement and/or provide information about shipping so i could try to continue search for my package.
at this exact moment i still don't know who delivered it and where and i still don't have proper track number and they refuse to provide a replacement
it does not matter where i contact them. on aliexpress. over mail. anywhere else. it is still the same company. same experience and same customer support.
they does not even try to provide information about shipment they do for customers.
they does not try to make things right with customer when things go south.
thanks, but company that present on aliexpress is the same company that present on amazon or any other platform. its not like it is another gl.inet made specifically for aliexpress
sometime it is a matter of how good company's customer support. in this case - not much.
amazon will take care of you in case of non-delivery, sure. aliexpress might too and they usually do but things did go awry this time.
in my case gl.inet turned its back to customer refusing to help or make things right.
it happen to me and it will happen to you too.
their (your) devices might break or something else could happen so you will need them to help and sometime to make things right. according my experience - they will not.
So GL-iNet says it is a logistical problem who failed to deliver and claim (admit) the carrier is passing the buck. Humm.. 25$ and the buck stops where? So nobody has the technology to see where the shipped item landed.
OMG and GL-iNet says it is against company rules. The PLA.?
Got blown off course? Mate, your better off having this iot spying on someone else.
It is signed delivery/with tracking and yet no details given as to where it was delivered, who delivered or who received it. It is still got marked as delivered.
So delivery ‘failed’ (blown off course/stolen/whatever) and no one wants to take responsibility or provide any proofs. Mark
as delivered and make customer accept a loss?
I have been purchasing in larger quantities but stopped doing so recently since quality of devices and company services decline over last two years. I planned to do a small purchase to see how things go and then purchase more.
It might look like a small value and yet it looks much worse when company refuse to collaborate and/or take care or customer over it.
I do need more openwrt boxes and esphome bluetooth gateways. Everything is ‘open’ and won’t be spying on me.
It planned to get 5-10 different devices and I don’t see things would go different.
I like that you quoted proof, and I have none, nor willing to spend time delving.
I'm not the smartest man in the room. That is not speculation, and I need no proof.
Firmware and code are constantly being manipulated and exploited. That is not speculation, and I need no proof.
Many choices in life one makes are based on what or on whom one wishes to Trust. That is not speculation, and I need no proof.
The whole episode the OP outlined in detail, is a failure upon entities in contract to:
Supply
Market
Ship
There is no resolution for the OP in this case for the Shipping, as not even "Proof" can sway the issue of non receipt and leaves the OP with no Trust.
So this "avoid GL.iNET devices because shipping services suck" topic turned into a "GL.iNET is spying on you with their firmware yet I have no proof because I don't need any" topic.
Both topics are very OpenWrt related.
This section is supposed to be about hardware, not shipping tragicomedy.
You see the topic, you expect to find something hardware related, not some shipping story.
If you read the title and expect something else than the first post, I am puzzled. It is a recommendation about where not-to-buy gl-inet hardware. Given our limited set of categories this does not seem all that out of place, but I grant you that it has little to do with OpenWrt (except gl-inet hardware mostly using a modified OpenWrt version), but as I said not that hard to ignore, given that the title is cristal clear.
I would prefer we not discuss on "principle" because that often goes astray quickly...
Topic title until 1 hour ago was "Recommendation to avoid purchasing gl.inet devices"
Nothing indicating that I should've expected anything else than hardware talk.
And was probably changed after my comment and the other one from @Beniamin in which he said that he has no issues with his 5 GL.iNET devices.
Sorry
Which still is pretty clear... but I get it you judge this to be out of place here and defend your position. Fair enough, however I will also defend my position that occasionally it is just fine to ignore a post and leave forum moderation to the administrators....
This thread is of questionable value to OpenWrt users, IMO.
Pro
It may be useful for people who are deciding from whom to purchase a device and may save someone from the hassles that the OP experienced.
Cons
it isn't actually discussing OpenWrt itself (support status, performance, installing/configuring)
it isn't known if this is a one-off issue, a systemic issue, or other.
this forum is not intended to be a review/ratings system for various retailers... the hardware subsection is intended to help people select the right hardware for their needs, and unless a specific retailer is the exclusive vendor of the products, the retailer should generally not be the topic of discussion (offhand mentions are fine, of course).
Because the cons outweigh the pros here, I am going to close this thread, but I will leave it in place for future readers.
