Buying pickups from GearBest, a cautionary tale

[Greg P. Stone]

A google search on "mandolin pickup" brought up exactly what I was looking for, a rectangular P bass sized two blade humbucker. I went to the site and ordered two at about $11 each.

What I received was a pair of strat style two blade guitar humbuckers. To add insult to injury they were two wire and I had ordered the identical pickup, except four wire, from another source for $4.50. The correct pickups no longer appeared on their site or as a result of a google search.

After several days of back and forth they claimed I got exactly what I ordered and offered me a $3 discount. Fortunately I always use Paypal and have just opened a dispute with them.

[Greg P. Stone]

After going through Paypal they have told me that I must return the pickups w/ tracking and then I get a full refund; they were waiting for my response. Since the cost of return shipping is more than my refund I responded with these facts in the resolution center ... four times, each time getting the message, "Let's try that again! Looks like something went wrong on our end."

So I called and after navigating the labyrinth the robot told me I didn't have to wait, they'd call me back as soon as someone was free. They did in under 10 minutes and I have now been listening to ringing at that available person extension for 50 minutes. I stuck the phone in my pocket and did some chores outside for most of that time. So, don't ever have Paypal call you back.

EDIT - Second call did the trick. I had to enter the dispute number 5 times but finally got to a person and got my refund. Yeah!