OakLeaf Systems: MiniPC Device Shipment from GeekBuying.com in China No Longer in Tracking Limbo

Thursday, March 28, 2013

MiniPC Device Shipment from GeekBuying.com in China No Longer in Tracking Limbo

Update 3/27/2013 8:00 AM PDT: Sao.com’s International Parcel Tracking page reported delivery to my residence on 3/26/2013 at 4:33 PM, which is correct:

However, tracking appears to stop at the border of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and restarted in San Francisco, as shown in the detailed tracking dialog:

According to GeekBuying.com’s Giovanni, the package was routed through Singapore. There is no indication how the package was routed after leaving Shenzhen and before arriving in the US. GeekBuying.com’s service was excellent, but their third-party tracking system leaves much to be desired.

Update 3/26/2013 6:00 PM PDT: The UG007 II arrived in today’s mail at about 5:00 PM in a USPS ePacket with the CN Post tracking number for delivery confirmation visible. It will be interesting to see if the tracking details are updated later for arrival and intermediate waypoints. Delivery time was 10 days after the order was placed, which met my expectations for international parcel air mail.

The UG007 II’s reset switch isn’t what I expected but the power supply has a US power connector (square prongs), which is good news. See my First Look at the CozySwan UG007 and Other Android 4.1+ MiniPC Devices post’s updated UG007II Specifications and Accessories, Estimating the Cost of a MiniPC Workstation and Startup Issues sections.

Update 3/26/2013 8:00 AM PDT: The saga continues. Received the following response from Giovanni (edited for clarity):

Roger,

I have asked my post workmates to file a case with the Singapore Post. They [usually] reply [to] us in 3-7 working days, so [would you please] wait with us？

If it’s lost, please don’t worry. We will [issue a] full refund to you or ship a new one to you.

Best wishes,

Giovanni

The obvious question is, how did Singapore Post get into the act? Shenzhen is adjacent to Hong Kong and there are several daily HKG -> SFO direct flights. [Update 3/27/2013: Giovanni said that the package was routed through Singapore for lower shipping cost.]

Update 3/25/2013 8:00 AM PDT: Received a response from Giovanni at Support@GeekBuying promising more information. GeekBuying’s tracking page is now working. No added tracking information from EMS/EYouBao nine days after placing the order.

If you read the OakLeaf blog regularly or are interested in the new class of low-cost, low-power MiniPCs (a.k.a., PCSticks, and erroneously TVBoxes or TVSticks) that run Android 4.1 or later, you might have read at least part of my lengthy First Look at the CozySwan UG007 and Other Android 4.1+ MiniPC Devices post.

All MiniPCs that I’ve investigated are manufactured in mainland China and most in or near Shenzhen, a Special Economic Zone adjacent to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). I plan to test new MiniPC models, such as the CozySwan UG007 II and Tronsmart T428, which aren’t yet available from US retailers, such as Amazon.com, from whom I purchased my original UG007. Therefore, I purchased these two devices from GeekBuying.com, whose address is Guocheng Garden, Baihua No.1 Road, Futian District, Shenzhen, Guandong, China.

GeekBuying.com offers free air-mail shipping on all the devices I've investigated and promises tracking information, per the following email acknowledgement of my order of 3/16/2013 for the UG007 II:

GeekBuying’s EYouBao tracking link was missing a URL, so I logged into the GeekBuying.com site and opened the tracking page at http://www.geekbuying.com/trackorder, which finally stopped returning error pages. It displayed the following on 3/25/2013:

Clicking the Track Your Order link opened the following page with a single tracking entry:

Clicking the Details button opened the following dialog:

The tracking page for EYouBao shipments at the EMS Website displayed the same incomplete tracking information on 3/22/2013 at 9:15 AM PDT, six days after shipment:

The obvious question is “What happened to my shipment after its second ‘despatch from Sorting Center’?”

I requested tracking assistance by email at 12:42 PM on 2/20/2013 to service@GeekBuying.com, who promised one-business-day response. I received a response but no additional tracking information on 3/25/2013.

If I receive the device or an informative response to my service request, I’ll update this post.