Purchasing the Xiaomi Redmi Note 2

I wanted to advise members here of an issue that I had with a re-seller of Xioami phones. The re-seller is Merimobiles (located in Hong Kong) whom you can easily find on the internet. I wanted to give readers a "heads up" on how that company conducts business so they may arrive at their own conclusions.

One one occasion I ordered a phone on line from them. After repeated contact with them it came to light that they had no inventory. I asked about a second phone. No inventory. Finally after filing a dispute with PayPal I was able to get a refund.

I recently ordered the above noted phone from them. They advised me by email that the phone had been shipped on November 9th. The DHL tracking, however, showed nothing. They repeatedly advised me that the problem was with DHL. I contacted DHL but the item was not in their system. Finally a label was printed on November 13th. But no shipment. I contacted them but they stuck to their story that the problem was with DHL. After filing a dispute with PayPal the shipment was picked up at the close of business on Monday the 16th. It arrived yesterday November 18th.

DHL was not the problem. Merimobiles never shipped the item. But in chat and email they blamed DHL and stuck to their story knowing full well it was never shipped.

This episode is documented for any doubters.

Chinese companies in my experience pay lip service to customer service. It's annoying when they knew full well that it wasn't shipped and stuck to their story. The PayPal escalation triggered the shipment. I would hate to think what might happen if you really needed their help.

So make your own decision as to whether you would like to deal with these people. The items I bought have all been okay, but I suspect that's more good luck than good planning.

As always, caveat emptor. Buyer beware!