Aliexpress vs Dealextreme

[tivan]

Thank you for a wonderful site, with extremely useful information.
When trying to buy F500LHD i noticed that:
The product is out of stock in deal extreme (116$ including shipment)
paypal stopped working with Ali express due to customer service complaints
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/06/u ... liexpress/

Do you recommend buying the product from a different reliable source?

Thanks!

 

[DashCamMan]

The three most popular places to buy dash cams today are eBay, Aliexpress and DealExtreme. Since you are looking for a paypal merchant, eBay is your best bet. Here is a small list comparing the pros and cons of each site.

Aliexpress - Pros
Lowest price, Coupons available, some vendors provide a lot of info on dash cams including firmware version

Aliexpress - Cons
No paypal, Limited recourse if something is wrong with dash cam (i.e. might get a partial refund)

DealExtreme - Pros
Ok prices, accepts paypal

DealExtreme - Cons
Descriptions are often vague and do not include firmware, difficult to determine the fakes from originals, not many coupons

eBay - Pros
Paypal, safest place to buy due to eBay/Paypal protection, some vendors provide a lot of info on dash cams including firmware version

eBay - Cons
Higher prices (same product, same vendor is higher on eBay then on Aliexpress), no coupons

I prefer using Aliexpress since it typically has the lowest price and there are usually coupons available. A tip for Aliexpress is to search for the dash cam you are looking for and sort by number of orders. You want to be buying a cam that many others have already purchased and have left good feedback.

If Paypal is a must buy from eBay. Check out the following to see Where to buy the F500LHD. We have listed 2 eBay vendors, Shenzhen CG Electronics and estore009.

 

[tivan]

Thank you for your intensive and complete feedback!
It was pleasant reading it.

I ordered the product from AliExpress, following your recommendation and will update when the product arrives.

 

[DashCamMan]

Congrats on the purchase. Looking forward to your feedback on the product.

Dash Cam Man

 

[tivan]

Re: Great news and some questions!

Great news,
After 45 days from ordering, my F500 LHD dash cam was finally received from Ali Express.
The day quality is excellent, while as expected, night quality is lower.

Nevertheless, I have a few questions:
1. Is there a bicycle mount, which enables mounting the F500LHD to my road bicycle handlebar/helmet? If so, were can I find one?
2. Does the cam indicates when the battery is fully charged? I noticed that whenever I disconnect the USB charger, even when the battery is almost empty, the cam indicates "battery fully charged" sentence.
3. where do you recommend buying a I replacement battery? I would like to use it also for taking videos during my vacations, and a replacement battery is a must.
4. What does "recycle" menu indicates?
5. What is the difference between "shut down" and "auto off" menu?
6. In my car (ford focus), the power supply is constant. Therefore I connect the cam without th battery, to prevent over charging and ruin of the battery. I found the cam works flawless that way.
7. I could not receive a picture while connecting the cam to my TV via the supplied HDMI cable. Should I click anywhere on the menu to get the video on TV?

Thank again for a great recommendation and for your precious help and guidance!

 

[DashCamMan]

Re: Great news and some questions!

Great news,
After 45 days from ordering, my F500 LHD dash cam was finally received from Ali Express.
The day quality is excellent, while as expected, night quality is lower.

Nevertheless, I have a few questions:
1. Is there a bicycle mount, which enables mounting the F500LHD to my road bicycle handlebar/helmet? If so, were can I find one?
2. Does the cam indicates when the battery is fully charged? I noticed that whenever I disconnect the USB charger, even when the battery is almost empty, the cam indicates "battery fully charged" sentence.
3. where do you recommend buying a I replacement battery? I would like to use it also for taking videos during my vacations, and a replacement battery is a must.
4. What does "recycle" menu indicates?
5. What is the difference between "shut down" and "auto off" menu?
6. In my car (ford focus), the power supply is constant. Therefore I connect the cam without th battery, to prevent over charging and ruin of the battery. I found the cam works flawless that way.
7. I could not receive a picture while connecting the cam to my TV via the supplied HDMI cable. Should I click anywhere on the menu to get the video on TV?

Thank again for a great recommendation and for your precious help and guidance!

Hi tivan,

Congrats on your purchase. I'll try to answer your questions.

1. I'm not aware of a specific bicycle mount for this camera. You can probably buy a generic one from eBay but I imagine it will vibrate a lot on a bike.
2. I find the battery indicator is not that accurate in this camera. I have heard of the opposite problem as well, a fully charged battery showing near empty. Seems like it is just a glitch with the F500LHD
3. The battery is a Nokia BL-5C. You can find these for cheap on eBay. Not sure of the best vendor but it is <$5 even for genuine ones, so just check feedback.
4. Recycle is the cycle recording function (allows for loop recording). When card is full, it will erase the oldest video file and keep recording
5. Shut down is a delayed shut off feature. When power is removed from the camera, it will shut down after the selected time. Auto off will turn the camera off if it is not recording and there is no interactions with the camera after the selected time.
6. That is great
7. When connecting to the TV, I believe you just have to be in review mode (i.e. push the review button on the side) and use the HDMI cable. If that does not work, maybe there is something wrong with the cable or HDMI port.

Dash Cam Man

 

[kbwang]

Dealextreme is terrible. Their service is non existence...you visit the favebook page and you know.

the give some fake paypal refund ID to me!!!

 

[Sabe]

DX has been good to me, but now there is a major problem with chinese post company, all mail is stuck at guangdong mail center because of some kind of election (not that one in usa, hehe). My packets have been lying there two weeks now.
I must say that i will not buy anything from dx before they solve this problem.

 

[Mtz]

I will never buy from dealextreme again. Their shipping duration is more than 2 (TWO) months.
If you will try to buy a dashcam in September, you will be lucky if you will receive it in December. In December that dashcam price will be lower. That dashcam will be outdated because new and better and cheaper models will be on the market.
So why to pay for an outdated and expensive product?

And don't trust too much in PayPal. If you will not make the claim in 45 days you are lost. If you will try to contact dealextreme just before that 45 days they will cheat you to wait some days if they can solve the problem. But what to solve? Maybe your dashcam is on the back of some camel in Mongolia because only with a camel transportation the duration of a shipping can be more than 2 months.

I trust more in Aliexpress. I have many buyings from there and I have no problems, sellers are afraid of "Mr. Ali", the Alibaba boss. Also I tust more "Mr. Ali" than "Mr. PayPal" because my money are in the pocket of "Mr. Ali" until I receive the item and test it. This is the most correct online business.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[holee]

I agree that Dealextreme shipping time is realllllly slow, but this is due to the Chinese postage and not the company.

I have bought many things from DX and also have received some damage items before. Their response can be slow at times but they will response.

They even refunded me the shipment cost for defective items.

 

[Geekbuying]

I am from Geekbuying, also a reliable Chinese store. Hope your guys can check it.http://www.geekbuying.com
About the vendors I would say nothing. But about the shipment, there is something you guys need to know. In the past month, there are many delays, especially for the airmail to EU. One reason is the products (especially for products with battery)can not pass the security check of Customer. The other reason is the big burden of shipping package in these months. If you have any questions about shipping, I can tell you what I know.

 

[Mtz]

If you know that are some problems with the shipping at least you can take out the false advertising of 20 days shipping time until the shipping problems are solved.

And if you care about customers you can try to find another shipping methods which means you care about your customers. I have 2 sellers from Aliexpress which found another 2 ways to send the orders in a reasonable time because they told me about these China Post, HK Post problems. And not asking me to pay more. And they are some stores in the giant Aliexpress not a single online store which must do more. A single store on Aliexpress can be closed today and reopen with another name tomorrow, but a site which have a lot of work in past few years must to take more care.

Think for example for the situation when somebody think that he need to buy a dashcam because he have some bad feelings about his car or maybe some special trip. When he is reading 20 days shipping time he can think to 30 days, not exactly 20 and make his plans. But if after 60 days the camera is not mounted in his car and he must go in that special trip that customer will be very angry. And here is not about money but what he must to do in that situation? Go to the first store and buy a dashcam, not the desired one from online store?
Same example with a smartphone which is needed to replace the old one which is almost dead. If the old phone is dead in 30 days, what would you do another 30 days without the new paid smartphone?

Is so easy to take the money and not think to the consequences.

In this post ”you” is generally, about some seller, which can be very well the untrustworthy dealextreme or dx.com.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[Mtz]

Order was placed on August 29.
More than 100 days to arrive to its EU Europe destination, not Pitcairn Islands.



enjoy,
Mtz