This is a cautionary tale. Sometimes things go south and there is not much you can do, but cut your losses. Tempted by a great selection of the Raspberry Pi related products on Geekworm’s AliExpress page I decided to buy the X857 mSATA expansion (review) board for my Argon 18 conversion. Geekworm forced my hand to get another product…
Geekworm? Don’t bother
The unpleasant story started with the X857 mSATA expansion. Dead on arrival, after 3 weeks of shipping. I was disappointed, as I was hoping to get my project off the bench much quicker, but sometimes these things happen. I reached out to Geekworm seller via AliExpress and after troubleshooting steps, I was advised that they would be happy to add replacement board to my next order.
Do you need any other things in our store?
If yes, we can test and send a new X857 together with your new order. What’s your advice?Geekworm Store
It’s a bullying tactic, and I should have said “no” but in all honesty, I had my eye on the X829 SATA board already, so I thought this would speed things up. If you reading this, you know things went south.
A few weeks later, I received both the X829 and X857 boards. I was very happy to start my work again. In my X857 review, I included information that my 1st board arrived dead and for that reason, I was struggling to give a glowing recommendation, but the replacement board worked fine. The X829 SATA board ended up shelved for 2 weeks, as my primary concern was to complete the Argon18 project. When I finally got the time to play with the X829 SATA board I quickly discovered that the board is faulty as well.
At this point that was simply frustrating. I’m sure you can imagine that. I contacted Geekworm again this time with all the details and a video demonstrating the test with different cables and boards to prove that X829 was the issue.
In case you wonder, I had no response till now.
I can’t help but wonder if this is a stalling tactics to push you over the AliExpress’ purchase protection or just inept customer support. Geekworm may have interesting products, but the lack of support and shoddy QC forces me to actively discourage you from giving them a chance.
Final words
I’m in the middle of the dispute with AliExpress. My purchase protection is over so I will be about £30 down on this transaction if the refund is not going to be approved. Given the evidence, I do have faith that AliExpress will do the right thing. I have no intention of disputing the charge, as it’s not as simple as in the USA. Have you been buying stuff from Geekworm lately? How’s your experience? Let me know in this Reddit thread.
