Bought gadgets from China, what cover have I got?

ko1981

Hi Moneysavers,

I have problems regarding 7" tablets purchased from China, two by me and one by my sister, mine via paypal and hers via credit card, and we're wondering what our rights are with regards to faults and returns. Specifics as follows;

My sister was interested in getting a budget tablet PC and a friend of mine had recommended tinydeal.com as a good source and had made satisfactory purchases from there previously.
I helped her choose one with good specs in a reasonable budget and it arrived a couple of weeks later. It was fine initially, although the battery was of a lesser capacity than what was advertised (2500mAh as opposed to 3000mAh)
This was before Christmas, early December I think. Since Christmas, I decided that I would like to buy my children the same tablet for educational games and to do their online homework. I didn't want to get anything expensive as they are just for kids' use, but didn't want to buy the cheapest available so this one seemed ideal.

I ordered them on the 23rd January, paying via paypal, and they arrived on the 4th Feb.
Upon arrival I charged them up and noticed the same evening that one was performing much better than the other in terms of battery life. After a couple of days I managed to almost even them out by ensuring they had full charge/discharge cycles although one was still not performing as well as the other despite them being identical. I hadn't seen my sister for a number of weeks until last week as we live a distance apart, and when I saw her last week she mentioned problems with charging hers.
I visited and had a look at it and it was bootlooping continually and not charging. I managed to finally get it to hold some charge and did a hardware reset, having to tape the charger very firmly into the port to get it to charge at all.
It now won't charge at all unless the usb port is held in firmly at a certain angle, which I am reluctant to do as I don't want to damage the hardware.
Last night my son's tablet started to behave the same way and isn't charging properly. It took a long time to get it to accept that a charger was connected, and despite having a full overnight charge it lasted less than two hours this morning. I put it on charge again and it slowly crept up, reaching 69%, but now it's showing 32% although it hasn't been disturbed at all and is still displaying 'charging'.
I contacted tinydeal's online support and they want me to send the tablet to their tech support for analysis but won't pay for postage.
To return it to China would cost around £16 and as far as I know they might just look at it, say 'yes it works', then return it at further cost to me. They might replace the usb port and return it only for the same to happen again if they use inferior quality components. They might replace it altogether but if 2 out of 3 purchased from them have issues then I don't want them to be replaced.
I could pay for a repair centre here to replace the usb ports with good quality ones but if anything else goes wrong my return is voided by doing so.
They won't refund me without having the tablets back first understandably, but it looks like I might end up paying out considerably more than what they are worth to put things right.

The problem isn't the charger as I have a tablet (a Nexus which is problem free) which uses the same usb charger and there are 3 chargers with the tablets, so I've exhausted all possibility of it being a charger problem.

I know it's long winded but just wanted to include the relevant details to see what my options might be. Ideally I just want to get them refunded in full without having to pay further postage as they are not fit for purpose, and I've already got my eye on alternative replacement tablets from Amazon.
What laws apply in terms of items meeting certain quality expectations from overseas? What cover am I entitled to through Paypal or from Chargeback? (Mine was debit card through paypal whereas my sister used a credit card)
I know I have 45 days from purchase to file with Paypal but feel like I haven't got a valid arguement without returning them to China for analysis, at further cost to myself

What to do now?

deanos

Doubt you will get anything resolved unless you send them back, there is a Paypal chargeback option but you would have to send them back tracked.

Thats the pitfall from buying abroad, especially China where the items will be of very poor quality probably made in a ramshack somewhere in China

ko1981

I'm gutted.
The second one is working, although the battery life is abysmal so I'm guessing they won't let me have a refund on it?
So would you cut your losses on paying return postage and hoping for a full refund or would you attempt to get the problem fixed here and see how you go?
The motherboards are HTC boards and functionality-wise they are good when they work, it's just getting them to charge and to hold charge for a decent length of time. I think it's only a matter of time before the other tablet starts to develop this charging problem

shaun_from_Africa

As you will have to pay the return postage costs (which won't be cheap for a signed for service to China), you might be better off seeing if you can either take the unit apart yourself or find someone to do it for you, and checking to see if you can buy and fit a higher capacity battery.

The chances are that it will have a fairly standard sized battery that can be bought fairly cheaply.

deanos

Do you have a link to the tablets ?

How much did you pay ?

ko1981

Thank you for your replies, I'm wondering if it will be cheaper and easier to just repair them. This is the one my sister bought, although at the time they advertised a 3000mAh battery;
"(ICOO) iCou D70Pro II 7" Capacitive Screen Android 4.1 Dual-core Tablet PC w/ Camera CPU RK3066 1.6GHz RAM 1GB HD 8GB L-121629" (Tinydeal.com site)

These are the ones I bought 2 of for the kids as they had cases included;
"(ICOO) iCou D70PRO II 7" Android 4.1 RK3066 Dual-core Tablet + Leatherette Case + 2pcs Stylus Pen KB-132883"
Interestingly they adjusted the battery listing on this also even though the ones I received are actually 3000mAh capacity

I'm thinking of ordering these ports from Ebay to replace them all;
"Micro USB B Female 5 Pin SMT Socket Connector Solder termination Plug Repair Kit"

Sorry I can't post links yet as I haven't met the minimum post threshold!

Fire_Fox

You have limited protection when buying stuff from overseas, best only do it via eBay or suchlike. I certainly wouldn't touch electronics. PayPal protection is best for items that have not arrived, it's less good for items that are not of satisfactory quality.

Maybe contact the seller and see if they will accept a return of all items for a full refund BUT ensure the documentation is totally clear on what is inside including weight and the insurance is sufficient. You don't want them claiming you only returned one tablet. Personally I'd suck up the postage losses, it's better than throwing good money after bad - you could fit the batteries only to discover you still have tat.

deanos

http://www.tinydeal.com/icoo-icou-d70pro-ii-7-android-41-dual-core-tablet-pc-p-71005.html

Is that the one ?

Wondering if you have tried another charger ?

DevCoder

Unless you are very good at soldering MCB's then the repair kit tends to be beyond the casual DIY'er, you would need heat shunts to avoid damaging other components with the soldering heat.

pinkshoes

It's always a HUGE gamble buying from China.

Your only option will be to send them back tracked, which will be quite expensive, and they might then send a replacment.

As the saying goes: buy cheap, buy twice...

Have you contacted the place you bought them from to see what they say?

I have a Nintendo DS that was a chinese import, so quite likely to be a fake. It works just fine over 5 years later, so guess I got lucky!

forgotmyname

I bought a cheapy one from a UK seller. But even then i know ebay/paypal's limit is 45 days. After that it goes in the bin.

One thing to watch is the RAM and CPU. Is that genuine? Plenty of tools out there to make those tell lies.