Is GBAX Reliable?

[GeBeCluck23]

  So...there's some pretty good stuff on there, for a great price too! I just bought a Pandora a few days ago for £90~something, (I got a spare battery as well,) but I was looking through the boards, and found out that GBAX is run by someone named Craig who is apparantly...not...very reliable. I used PayPal to buy them, so I should be able to file a complaint and get my money back in a worst-case scenario, but I'd MUCH rather just get it without any problems...

  Anyways, I payed two days ago, (on the 22nd) and according to PayPal it hasn't been shipped yet. Anyone buy anything off there? Any good (or bad) experiences?

 

[EvilDragon]

As far as I know, he delivers all the stuff that's sold on GBAX, and with PayPal, you should be safe anyways.

 

[WizardStan]

The reliability issues comes from a large list of orders from years ago. It's a very delicate situation, but basically those were all pre-orders that he has been unable to keep up with. As far as I know the stuff he is selling on the website now is only what he has in stock so there should be no fear of him not being able to ship.

Some of the pre-orders are still (rightly) ... annoyed that Craig hasn't been as forthcoming with his problems, but that shouldn't prevent you from enjoying your purchase within a short shipping period.

 

[GeBeCluck23]

​Okay, thanks guys. So if I understand this correctly, the pre-order trouble came from the fact that he didn't have the Pandoras, whereas this time, the ones being sold he physically has in stock? I'd also like to point out that I didn't (or rather, couldn't) sign up to GBAX or anything; I didn't even give my address. I assume that Craig can get it from PayPal, is that right, or did I mess up?

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Yesss!  It's 0% reliable.

 

[WizardStan]

I assume that Craig can get it from PayPal, is that right, or did I mess up?

That should be correct. Paypal should have included your address with the purchase.He may also ship it without updating paypal, but I do think that emailing you when it ships is customary. Maybe give it a few more days for a status update before sending an email. It's probably shipped and he has just forgotten to update whatever needed updating again and you'll receive in a week or two.

 

[TrashyMG]

To be honest all my dealings with GBAX have been fine, My First Batch Pandora updated to "Premium"(paid extra to hop the line) and two ICPs have been delivered to me in a timely fashion. Well if you don't count the ICP2 yet as that is still being all worked on.

 

[ekianjo]

The reliability issues comes from a large list of orders from years ago.

Huh........ the 1 Ghz preorder scandal is not from "years ago". It also occurred last year. Did you forget already ? 

 

[kuru]

That's a really good price for an original Pandora. Even more so considering my Nubs have been broken from the start and the repair lasted only for a few days. Damn you CC and your humid halls of hardware harrassment!

 

[WizardStan]

Huh........ the 1 Ghz preorder scandal is not from "years ago". It also occurred last year. Did you forget already ?

First, those have all been delivered. They took longer, again because of pre-order nonsense, but they all got there eventually.Second, there is absolutely no reason to provide that level of detail to the question. Not everyone cares about the Pandora's life story. I was trying to avoid a full on "bash Craig" thread while still giving enough information to answer the original question.

 

[dmarschal]

My experience with GBAX was good. I ordered a broken Pandora and a few broken PCBs. The package was shipped in 2 days and arrived in a week from the day I placed my order. I give five stars for Jacqueline and Debs.

(Regarding the chocolate, it was a Mars bar not the finest selection from Cadburry.)

 

[Klumpen]

Huh........ the 1 Ghz preorder scandal is not from "years ago". It also occurred last year. Did you forget already ?

First, those have all been delivered. They took longer, again because of pre-order nonsense, but they all got there eventually.
Second, there is absolutely no reason to provide that level of detail to the question. Not everyone cares about the Pandora's life story. I was trying to avoid a full on "bash Craig" thread while still giving enough information to answer the original question.

I thought, Ed has taken this over too, without getting money for the production costs, as I remember. oO

Please correct me.

 

[WizardStan]

I thought, Ed has taken this over too, without getting money for the production costs, as I remember. oO

Please correct me.

Not sure about that. All I know is that they've all been shipped.

 

[GeBeCluck23]

Thanks for all the replies! I'll post back here how my experience goes (for better or for worse) for the sake of future readers.

 

[comradekingu]

Its not the shop thats unreliable, its the person running it.

 

[GeBeCluck23]

  Alright, just got my shipment today! Today's the 29th, so it took 5 days total, and that's pretty good, considering I live in the US! I'd also like to mention that I got some free chocolate!

  Anyways, haven't done much with the new Pandora yet, but I'm considering getting some more things from GBAX, before there's no more good deals yet. Oh, another thing is that I actually was sent an e-mail by PayPal with tracking information, and PayPal itself said that it shipped. So, all in all, the whole process was good, and even if Craig has done questionable things in the past, his ownership of GBAX seems to be pretty good, from my experience anyway.

  So...there's my two cents, make of it what you will.

 

[comradekingu]

He keeps doing questionable things. Pics or it didnt happen. Did you have to pay in advance?

Congrats on getting your pandora, im happy for you but it was sold more than once since some craig preorders are still on the block.

 

[ekianjo]

First, those have all been delivered. They took longer, again because of pre-order nonsense, but they all got there eventually.

Yeah, and who paid for it ? ED.

ED still hasn't seen the money for these 1Ghz units.

So technically it's not Craig who delivered them, it's ED.  

 

[GeBeCluck23]

  Oh right, alright here's some pics, even with my username attached so that there can be no question to it's authenticity (although as it is, it seems unlikely that a person would go through the trouble of attaching pics if it was legit, especially in context here, but there ya go.)

  Anyways, it's too bad about the pre-orders, but admittedly, it can be said that I, as the payer, am not participating in Craig's...misguided actions, the fault would have to be placed on the payee in this case, for selling me an item previously promised to someone else. (Not trying to point fingers here, but I do believe my statement is justified.)

  Well, now that that's out of the way, I want to point out that the Pandora came with a case, (as you can see in the pic) which was a nice addition considering the page on GBAX I bought it from didn't explicitly say it had one with it. In addition, the stylus was included, LCD Cable is good, and it was pretty much shipped as described.

  As for the downsides though, it did not come with a charger, which may be a good thing considering I live is the US and I wouldn't want a UK Charger shipped, but it's still a bit of a dissappointment. (Although I do have a charger already, as well as a PSP charger, so it's not all bad.) Another problem I have with it, is that it's having trouble updated to the latest firmware/kernel, which you can find me complainging about here.

  Oh, one other problem I forgot to mention, is that although it hasn't seemed to affect the Pandora at all (yet), I noticed if I'm on it too long, the base will begin to get rather warm. It's not quite a burning sensation or anything like that, but it definitley gets hotter than my 1GHz. Also the battery looks slightly larger than my other one, which most likely explains the heat.

  To answer your question comradekingu, I did have to pay in advance, which I'll admit was a little nerve-wracking, but it went through PayPal, so I had a bit of protection there in case something did go wrong.

  So...that's pretty much all I can think of saying. Feel free to ask more questions here if you're feeling a bit scared of GBAX.com, and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability, although I can't imagine there being any more questions that I didn't/weren't already answer(ed), but there ya go!