Woohoo!
Today my first parts arrived.
And ironically they were the last to be ordered.
Ordered yesterday from https://www.phaserfpv.com.au.
The first to be ordered only "shipped" yesterday. They were ordered at least 3 days ago from Banggood.
What happened there was I ordered the parts, but they came from 2 different warehouses in China. And it was not until I ordered that I noticed that some of the parts were out of stock.
Namely the ESCs in one order and the frame in another.
Hmm one of the reasons I went to Banggood to start with was I could get all the exact parts I wanted in one shop. I hadn't initially realised I'd be paying for 2-3 different lots of shipping....
The out of stock part was annoying because Banggood didn't pop up a dialog box or anything like that.
No. Like good capitalists they take your money and it is not until you check the order status you see there is no stock.
Actually that's not true, I went back and checked and the parts did say no stock in not very big letters.
But my expectation I guess is if the part are not in stock the parts wont be available for sale or the ordering process will draw your attention to that fact before you pay.
So I get online with Banggood's online chat service staff and after about a 30 minute wait in their queue I get a friendly, helpful service rep who lets me cancel the ESCs.
The frame was harder. A lot more of my quad parts were on that order and I really wanted that frame.
The service rep assured me that the parts were actually in stock and my order would ship within 24 hours.
So agreed to keep that order intact.
The parts "shipped" today. 2 days later.
I suspect Banggood have a policy of telling slightly white lies to encourage you to keep your order.
OK it's only a day's extra delay over what the rep told me. But I'm still a bit annoyed about the whole thing.
Another annoyance with Banggod was or forwent the free shipping and paid for their premium shipping.
But the order was not picked (packed at the warehouse) for 2 days.
Not much point in paying for 5-8 business day shipping if the warehouse is not going to put your order together for 2 days. That's really more 7-10 shipping.
I'm a real tight ass. I agonise for days and weeks over purchases like this.
But I'm also really impatient. So once I make my mind up to buy something I tend to pay for the more expensive shipping and service because I really want it straight away.
So I am really annoyed at Banggood, especially since when you do the USD translation, pay the extra shipping it's not significantly cheaper than local, the service is industrial scale at best and the shipping is at least a week away even if you pay the premium.
Especially contrasted to https://www.phaserfpv.com.au.
If I knew about https://www.phaserfpv.com.au and the fact there are two local stores - http://www.avitus.com.au/ and https://www.hott-hobbies.com.au - I would have bought local.
https://www.hott-hobbies.com.au especially seem to be highly recommended now that I have found a local Facebook group to loiter in.
Problem with the local (same city) alternatives was they did not come up in my Googling and the local to the country stores that did come up seemed relatively expensive and in a number of cases only had old parts listed or had no stock - i.e. it looked like they weren't sure if they were still in business or were going to stay in business.
Conclusion:
I think you can trust Banggood to do there version of the right thing, but dont expect stellar service and really look into the prices/exchange/rate especially if you're like me and spring for the "faster ship/service" and do a lot more research for local alternatives.
I have to admit the local city, Adelaide range is not as good, but it's a lot better than I thought it was. And the service from the local country, Australia https://www.phaserfpv.com.au was great, their range was decent - and they threw in some stickers!
In reality I think I could of got the specific parts I really cared about, and good enough other parts of similar or better quality than Banggood for no more than the $60-70 extra I paid for the Banggood expedited shipping. And the service would have been better.
I think Banggood's place is generic parts, when you're not in a hurry and are content to wait on the free shipping.
Otherwise, less sure.
Another lesson on cost versus value.
Oh well you live and learn.
Maybe for that Tiny Whoop....
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