Recent Purchase of Umi Diamond from GearBest.com

johngreenfield

Greetings,

I'd just like to share my experience with the Umi Diamond which I recently purchased from GearBest.com.

I'm quite honestly, shocked and appauled. As soon as this phone was first switched on on Christmas Day, there were immediate issues with wi-fi and bluetooth. After 24 hours, wi-fi was dead and bluetooth intermittent.

I can't find any other Umi Diamond user posting issues like this, and after multiple re-flashes of firmware, no luck. I contacted GearBest.com on the 28th December, asking for them to sort it out. I explained what I had done to try to remedy this problem, and that I was confident it was the wireless chip that's faulty. They spent several days asking me to send videos (???) and trying to factory reset it... and finally, I was given the following options:

We would like to extend our apologies for this inconvenience.
Kindly refer to our warranty policy here:http://www.gearbest.com/about/warranty-and-return.html
http://www.gearbest.com/about/terms-and-conditions.html

After reviewing your case, please review our possible solutions:
                                                                                          
1)Return the item to us
You can return the item to us in China as per our terms and conditions indicated in the link above.
Once we receive the item , we can exchange or offer a refund of 99.78USD to your GB wallet extra point. As long as the item does not exceed the 45 day money back guarantee limit.
The shipping fee for sending the product back to us will be paid by customers and is not refundable.

2)Keep the item and accept a partial refund to your Wallet (credit)
We can offer a partial refund of your product value which is 25USD on your wallet.
The refund will take 24 hours to process and appear in your GB wallet.
This amount can be used for your future orders.
In this case, you can keep the item and do not need to return it to us for this time.
Learn more about wallet benefits: http://www.gearbest.com/about/gb-wallet.html
Check out to use points: http://www.gearbest.com/about/about-points.html?157wrew

3)Resend a replacement (No return)
We can resend you a replacement but we kindly ask you to cover a handling fee of 80USD. If you choose this option, we will send you an invoice and arrange the shipment for you.
If you choose this option, please offer us the resend address as below:
Consignee name:
Detailed address:
City:
State(Province):
Postal code:
Country:
Phone:

Before making any decision, please consult the local post office to know the price of returning the item and inform us about it.
Our address is in Shenzhen city, Guangdong Province, China.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience with your decision.
Thank you for your understanding.

So, because they were unable to understand what I was telling them, and pushed it over their 3 day DOA period, this is what I'm left with. I can either pay them AGAIN to receive the same phone, which may or may not have the same problems, or maybe send this expensive paperweight back to them at my own cost, for a refund to my "GB Wallet" (instead of my debit card as they should) so I could maybe buy more stuff from them that breaks and they won't replace, or keep this paperweight and accept a measely $25 refund. Pathethic. We'll see how this turns out.

I'd just like to point out that other than connectively issues, I was quite impressed with the phone.

I did also contact Umi Support via their given email on the same day as contacting GearBest.com, but they haven't gotten back to me.

So what do we take from this? BE WARNED. BUYER BEWARE.

MarcinP

Before doing any shopping you should read correctly all warranty roles to be not disappointed later.
By my opinion Gearbest.com is still the best online shop (reseller).
I think that between you and Gearbest.com could be some misunderstanding as Gearbest.com is giving 45 days warranty money back. Just go to Gearbest.com page again and read correctly warranty roles maybe you will find some other solutions.
Umi is taking responsibility of products (that why you getting updates recently) but every buyer needs contact to reseller and then sorted warranty. As reseller is in China firstly you need send back device on your cost to shop for diagnosing and then reseller making decisions (repair, replace, refund) on his cost. Is exactly the same as on your cost (bus ticket, vehicle fuel) you returning any device to store/shop where you bought.
There is no reports about any Bluetooth or WiFi issues on umi diamond.
You can always try update your device to latest software.
But firstly you should check your router and Bluetooth device.
Please restart your router and disconnect all devices from router (in case there is complications between devices, same IP or Mac number)  then set connection between umi diamond and router.
Do exactly same thing with Bluetooth (you need understand that in those days every time when you getting new software your device could be not compatible with others)

MarcinP

Here is latest software
http://community.umidigi.com/thread-5938-1-1.html

johngreenfield

\n\nMarcinP, thank you for getting back to me.
I had read their warranty page thoroughly, before purchase and many times recently.

If you were to read the page carefully, you'd notice that all DOA items are to be sent to them AT THEIR COST, replaced, repaired or refunded then. The phone clearly has a faulty wireless chip. I have had faulty items brought from British stores in the past, and you know what? They always stump the cost of return, not the consumer. This item was broken upon arrival, and so they should be responsible for replacing it. Check out the Consumer Rights Act sometime, it's a fascinating read.

I had noticed that Umi has a large community, steady updates and plenty of phones to pick from. I have also noted, and stated, that these issues are clearly a "one-off" and not representative of the Umi brand. However, the handling of this situation by GearBest.com is despicable.

They are not offering me a full refund, their latest response is this:

Thank you very much for your reply.
However as you are a valuable customer for us, we are willing to help you the best way we possibly can.
Here are the best solutions we can offer you in this situation:
1.We can refund you 35USD on your GB wallet;
2.We also can refund you 35USD on your original payment account.

Please note that you can choose one of these two options.
Could you please let me know your decision?

Once again, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused and we look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Please, MarcinP, explain to me how this is good customer service? This has been dragging on now for over a week.

The device has been reset, old firmware flashed, new firmware flashed, router has been restarted, new firmware flashed, my watch has been unpaired, factory reset, reconnected. The problem is that the wireless chip responsible for bluetooth and wireless is faulty. Granted this happens sometimes, but for crying out loud, will either Umi or GearBest.com sort this out? Are you seriously telling me that a pathetic $35 refund on a $100 item is acceptable?

johngreenfield

\n\nI myself have been using GearBest.com for a while now, never had such issues before. I have also never bought an item from them that cost this much. In the past, they've given refunds or replacements no problem when something went wrong. However, the customer service agent this time both seems to have a loose grasp on English, and the service knowledge of a chipmunk.

Thank you for linking to the latest firmware, I shall try flashing it, again, using the PC software. I won't be holding my breath however.

nisavva

Hi there.I ubsolutely understand your feelings because I have exactly the same problem with my 3days new umi diamond.

MarcinP

johngreenfield replied at 2017-1-2 20:04
Edited by johngreenfield at 2017-1-2 20:13 \n\nI myself have been using GearBest.com for a while no ...

Will you let me know what is with your case, and is something changed after SPFT updating? Please follow this instruction for SPFT updating


http://community.umidigi.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=11

Please skip 6th step as you should overwrite all partitions.

nisavva

The problem with my phone has to do with wi-fi and bluetooth connection.These two doesn't work.
The phone made two updates,and after this everything was working perfect for about  10 min.After that
moment didn't work again.The last update is this:V7.0 20161208 firmware.

MarcinP

nisavva replied at 2017-1-10 05:00
The problem with my phone has to do with wi-fi and bluetooth connection.These two doesn't work.
The  ...

Did you try check battery saving modes?

johngreenfield

nisavva replied at 2017-1-7 05:52
Hi there.I ubsolutely understand your feelings because I have exactly the same problem with my 3days ...

Hi Nisavva,

I'm sorry to hear you have had the same issue. Unfortunately, I was unable to fix the problem (you can either have WiFi, or bluetooth apparently, not both!) and so I managed to sell my Umi Diamond on eBay. A smartphone that can't handle wi-fi and bluetooth at the same time isn't a smartphone in my opinion.

If you still have the phone, one thing that might help is using a 5ghz wireless network, not 2.4ghz (as this is the same frequency as bluetooth). I believe this is what's causing the issues we had. If no-one else has encountered this, then it may be we both had faulty wireless chips in our phones. I don't have much knowledge on these wi-fi/bluetooth chips, but I did read there was a possibility that the "two anteneas" are touching... although I never bothered to find out if this was the case.

Unfortunately, no-one on this forum seems to be able to understand that this issue is to do with the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chipset and no matter how many times you flash new roms, it doesn't make any difference (7 times i tried, 7!).

Despite emailing Umi several times, they never got back to me. I did eventually settle with GearBest.com for a partial refund and to keep the useless device, but I doubt I'll be using them or any other chinese reseller ever again. I can understand where GearBest.com is coming from, but sadly here in the UK we're used to slightly better customer service than that.

For anyone reading this thread, really think about whether you want to take the risk with a new cheap chinese brand. QA is clearly of far lower importance to these companies. Or if you do buy one, get it from a reputable retailer like Amazon. At the very least make sure you use PayPal to pay! You're gonna need as much consumer protection as possible.