Automatic Plant Watering System From AliExpress - Unboxing, Testing, Teardown, Faultfinding
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- I bought this very cheap automatic plant watering device from AliExpress - sadly, it did not quite live up to expectations...
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*Afterthoughts & Addenda*
*Refund* - after I submitted the additional picture of the device not working, nothing happened until the time limit on the refund query ran out (about 3 days or so), then Aliexpress gave me an automatic full refund. I was not required to return the faulty item.
Aliexpress is crazy with their refunds. I never had any kind of issue. They weren't even really interested in any reasons. Rather keep a customer than save $2
That's usually how it goes.
Yeah. The only time I've gotten something bad from one of their sellers, the seller got me a full refund anyway, because they likely knew that Aliexpress would do a refund and just bill them for it.
The difference between them and your experience on Wish is night and day.
You noticed the leak now, still nothing can be done? Or you already repurposed it?
I have learned to start by contact the actual seller for refunds. Only if they stall do I get in touch with Ali’s customer service, with variable success. But in maybe 6 years of buying all sorts of stuff, I have mostly been very lucky, with only 2 partial refunds offers, which I turned down in favour of a PayPal dispute. Which worked. Also I flood them with pictures and videos. Most of the time they all show the same thing but I have found that the more pics you send, the quicker and surer the refund.
My father was a mechanical engineer who specialised in irrigation and combustion. His favourite thing to do was to take things apart. Watching this has been like watching him potter but with full commentary. Thank you so much. I miss him so very much, and I can see him rn dissembling something holding the arm of his spectacles in his mouth.
That's a lovely story and I'm glad these videos bring up fond memories!
Great trip down memory lane.
I appreciate that you always try to reuse and salvage anything you can, whether it be bits of chicken fat or bits of silicon. Your approach to zero waste is really inspirational, I hope that you are able to successfully repurpose the circuitry!
I agree with the principle but I wonder if the more sustainable thing would be to not buy cheap in the first place.
Me too, I have gotten so much inspiration from him in how to reduce food waste and how to be more frugal with the food I have it has significantly helped my budget. Like a lot. It's crazy how much we waste just on a habitual level :(
Like the bits of chicken fat you mentinoned. That stuff is just pure gold in any stew or sauce.
@@TheNixoy Yeah sometimes it's true. If you buy a good quality leather jacket it can last you a lifetime plus it can still decompose (and faux leather can't because it's plastic)
@@Jhud69 Leather doesn't really compose, it's not skin it's tanned skin. That whole process is about preservation (and sometimes quite toxic!)
More easy idea:
Buy a water pump for aquariums and a timer for the outlet. There are even timers, which can be set for different weak days. I use such a system for my garden, when I‘m not home ( or too lazy tbh) and it never failed me once. It draws the water out of a rainwater tank every two days. I think pump, timer and tubing was under 25€.
That's a great idea. 👍 Worthy of testing out.
Thanks dude. I had this idea last year and have been on the fence about whether or not to actually implement it in my indoor garden. It’s good to know It works. I’ll get right onto ordering the bits.
That's a cool idea.
Or if fancy. Wifi enabled timer so you can control with your phone. 😀
Can the timers be set to different strong days though?
Here's a cool possibility: To prevent yourself from having to refill the supply bucket, you could set it up to draw from your toilet tank (or use a spare toilet valve in a bucket) to allow it to run from the city water supply.
That is an excellent idea. I can see that working well for an extended absence - houseplants could be moved into the bath or shower tray so even if the machine overwatered them, it would just drain away.
Unfortunately the greenhouse where I want to set this up has neither mains water or power, which is part of the reason for choosing this sort of standalone pump, but your idea is a great one for other situations
The man who can truly unbox anything!!!
I imagine this is what idubbbz would have become had companies never sent him actual products to review lol
I think I'm right in saying that Chinese shipping is HEAVILY subsidised by the government and that China currently enjoys very cheap international postage rates because they are treated as a 'developing country' by the UN. I believe there is an ongoing legal case at the UN where 25 countries are trying to get China stripped of it's 'developing nation' status and put onto the same international postage rates as the U.S, E.U etc. So I wouldn't worry too much about the seller's share of postage.
Yes, i wanted to comment this as well. There is a video made about it by Serpentza called: "How the hell can china ship for free to your door".
That would explain a lot
Fill the defective silicone valve pocket with silcone .Less pumping capacity but hey just set the run time for longer
Still, the motor probably isn't going to be long for this world.
My thought also. It would reduce the throughput by 20%, but you would have a working system.
This is a fire hazard. I’m not sure I’d even trust an initially working unit.
@@0xbenedikt maybe that's why they included a free leak to extinguish any electrical fires
@@0xbenedikt So true.... Atomic shouldn't leave the house on holiday with that left unattended 🤣🤣🤣
I never thought I would find watching an automatic plant watering system video so riveting! I would go for a full refund only in my case. It is the principle that matters!
And the principal was at issue in this case 😀😀😀😀😀
JoeCrystal But it would cost you most of the refund to ship it back to China!!! And now that is opened up.... it is moot.
Very interesting. I have two of the exact same product and have been using it daily for more than two years. They water my balcony flowers very reliable and I only have to refill a large water container every 7 days. The battery life is is as long as described and does not seem to suffer from being outside in colder nights. I saw it on a German Instagram add and it arrived 3 days after ordering.
I think if that's the case then wherever these are being made might just have really poor QC, which... wouldn't surprise me, tbh.
Ordered the same product and it works pretty well. Guess it's really QC
Yeah, I think this is just bad luck on my part. I've received the second unit I ordered now (not unboxed it yet though), so we will see
@@AtomicShrimp do tell if you had more luck 😊
It is good that you got a German made model. You cannot go wrong with German quality and engineering. They make good stuff.
My company never charges for returns. No matter if the ware is defective, wrongly sent, or customer doesn't want it - if it's within a month timeframe, or right after delivery, the returns are covered by our company. It deals in a bit different merchandise, but nonetheless, we ship all around the world. It should be industry standard.
A company that is proud of their product, will do that. Or, in case of AliExpress, one that doesn't really have manufacturing cost and doesn't care about losing a tiny bit of money.
@@rebel4466 aliexpress is not the company which makes any of this shit, it's just a marketplace same as amazon.
people will just buy items and send them back, it encourages people to waste resources
@@JustinKoenigSilica hence the not having any manufacturing costs ...
@@bta7658 some people will always buy and send it back. Or try to scam you in various ways. The only way is not accept returns but then nobody will trust you
You may be able to salvage the pump by filling the leaky nipple completely with adhesive silicone caulk, then trimming off the tail that connects it to the star shaped plate, effectively disabling the broken 1/5 of the pump.
I was trying to think of ways to fix the leak without blocking the chamber but this is probably the smartest way to do it
@@Terrible_name Honestly, @MarcBerm , I think using silicone to fix the leak could allow that part of the pump to start working again. Edit: Of course, if that doesn't work, then your idea could still work.
Fellas, it's a disposable part from China. Jesus give me strength
Honestly, this instantly came into my thoughts to solve the problem without reading your reaction. The chambers are too small and the wall is too thin to glue, and on top of that constantly moving when pumping, so filling it up and cutting off the nipple will work, although 1/5 less speed, but you can live with that. In theory even slightly less than 1/5 speed loss, as the motor has less power to deliver, so rotates slightly faster. You will not notice that slight difference, but I always see things like that happening in my mind (and am very happy with it).
Always a good Saturday when a new Atomic Shrimp video drops.
So every Saturday then? 😂
Drips
I'm always torn on returning things to China for a full refund, like the odds that they would ever refurbish anything seem slim to me. This is one of the reasons why I generally try and avoid buying from China.
@Peters6221 or in a big store house, where its either gonna be repacked an reselled as you say or most probably, dumped in a hole and buried with another 10tonnes of similar crap. There's a whole industry dedicated to it
Wow, a "Head Automatic Watering Pump Controller Home Sprinkler Drip Irrigation Device, Pump Timer System Watering Device Garden Gadgets" video popped up just when I needed it . The algorithm truly is wonderful mysterious.
I wonder if Big Clive would be willing to dig further and diagram it out -- a collab of my two favorite most chill channels would be awesome. :)
was waiting for "one moment please"
Great idea!
Glad you got the full refund. I think some of these companies sell things they know are faulty knowing that between the price point and the hassle most people won’t bother asking for the refund. They are just filling up the world with garbage because most people don’t have the ability or desire to repair something so cheap. I have a lot of deep thoughts about it 😉 if only we were all taught something truly useful like how to repair things the world would probably be in better shape. But watching your videos always has me thinking “what would me shrimp do” when things don’t go as planned and that’s a step in the right direction.
My husband bought a slightly heavier duty watering system from Menards (here in the US). It works well years later. Always interesting to see you logically work thru stuff. ❤
I love these tinkering and break down videos you do, they are relaxing and informative. I particularly like your purchases from aliexpress, it’s always interesting to see how good or bad these quirky and knock off items are.
I used to have a solar powered pump for my balcony (they’re hard to get) and it was FANTASTIC for about a year or two, until the plastic in front of the solar section vitrified under the sun and it couldn’t get power anymore. When I went to get a replacement they were selling for $150.
So, clearly in demand while also not being easy to get. A real shame.
Quite an interesting mechanism, almost like a swash plate pump with far fewer moving parts🤔 It's a shame the silicone was ripped, but then again, we wouldn't have seen inside it if it had been intact👍
I love how Shrimp reads the whole product name. Reminds me of gaming in 2008 calling someone their tag actually saying the x's and underscores.
There are really good options even without power (Blumat for a product name of many to google). Or even something like an Olla. But as I've seen you solder a keyboard, you might want to go the DIY route. Little microcontroller, time module if you want to be extremely accurate and a pump connected to a relay. There also are nice little high pressure solutions that use a pump from an espresso machine. You can use spray nozzles with that for misting, if you need something like that.
Edit: As you mentioned in the video, you could use the electronics with a little pump of an indoor fountain (like 5 pounds) and a relay.
I don't know about AliExpress policy, but eBay will always give you a resolution, even if the seller won't offer a full refund.
Automatic plant watering would be like sending your children
to the neighbours and watch them grow up from a distance..
without the nuisance, eh.. wait wut..hmmm. 🤔
I use a technique I use from my aquarium keeping career. Drip acclimation. All you need is a bucket, airline, and gravity. Stick the bucket above the substrate, and create a suction to drip the water down. Tie a knot in it to dictate the flow.
Costs all of $10 to make. And you don't need to buy cheap Chinese crap.
What kind of knot would let water through for 199 seconds every 9 days?
About the whole refunding topic. That is not about what you or the company think is correct. There are laws for this and as customer you should insist on those laws. I don't know the exact rules for the UK but in Germany if the product is faulty the seller has to repair it to be working or replace it. By buying a product the seller has entered a contract with the customer and if they can not fullfil providing a working product the customer can officially cancel the buying contract which means the company has to pay back the money immediately. And sending back the broken product for it to be repaired, replaced or as return after the contract was cancelled has to be paid by the seller as it is their lawful duty to deliver the product. And as far as I know these laws are either similar or the same in the EU. I would bet UK has the same.
Is there an option to send a video (i.e. this one) to AliExpress as part of your complaint? Or you could just send them the link.
Caveat Emptor. £10 is pretty inexpensive for what you were getting. I would not have expected it to be a high quality product.
I’m guessing the thumbnail is a bit of a spoiler! 😂
Fascinating! Your varied content is quite refreshing.
This is why I love this channel.
There is everything here :D
Please make another video showing us how you fix it. I think some clear/scotch tape and store-bought waterproof silicone would be able to fix it, and it would help you advance the saga of this pump. I think this would work very well with a gravity-fed drip-irrigation system, with this motor pumping the water into a bucket at an elevation, and the difference in height between the bucket and the plants would power the drip irrigation.
Maybe after this experience you can challenge yourself to make your own pump for similar cost or not to exceed say double the cost for a more robust unit.
shame that it was just that tiny little tear in the diaphragm that ruined this neat little gadget
Typically I’d expect folks to get 100% refund for defective good supplied for a purpose and they couldn’t be used for that purpose... I hope the marketplace doesn’t use your skills for repurposing the non-defective elements as a reason to reduce their refund offers!
Keep up the great work ... meanwhile invest in some neighbours - flexible and helpful, some even come with intelligence built-in 👍😀
Also, have you experimented with capillary feed arrangement? I appreciate you need to get the water below the plants but it would be proportionate to the weather and unlikely to get a flat battery.
Perhaps you could send Ali Express a photograph of it in the queue at the Job Center, so they can see it's not currently working?
In past cases like this where the fault was missing parts, they asked for photographic proof of the missing parts. I just sent a picture of an empty table top
Regarding returns:
Professionally I have to do with industrial goods that occasionally are claimed not working in the application. It really depends on your relationship with the customer. They obviously have a reason to complain; it's a hassle for them as well. However, if you don't make them ship the product back (It's higly customized, and at that point basically just raw material), you may promote a business model that uses the rejects in new application (which they very well could do.)
Now the whole internet business to consumers of course has spawned a slew of "ship cheap garbage to gullible people and make money off of the proportion that does not bother to complain" outfits.
Yeah, in one commercial application, if things smelled like that, we'd often go "the extra mile" and send someone out onsite to personally deliver a replacement and investigate the issue/make things right. If it was legit, the customer was thrilled with our customer service -- and if it was bogus, they'd backpedal quickly and usually not do that anymore. Win win for everyone except the cheats.
in this case a full refund with no return could be used to gain usable hosing and connectors and maybe even lithium batteries... even without the functionality you would be hard pressed to find 2m of silicone hosing + hose T connectors + 16 plastic watering nozzles + whatever length of hosing is on the nozzles + a lipo + 4 digit 7 segment display for a tenner...
even if we disregard the 7 segment as this requires desoldering you actually get quite a lot of value for your money even if the device does not work at all.
- 10:51 "Not fit for purpose" - Mike is relying on the UK consumer-rights act to get a refund for a defective product, but Aliexpress is Chinese, so they aren't familiar with that statute (and don't care about it even if they are).
- 14:25 I've dealt with plenty of Chinesium products from eBay. They _usually_ give a full refund because the whole thing is so cheap and marked up enough that it doesn't matter if they take the occasional loss from someone who insists on a refund instead of just taking the hit like apparently most buyers do.
- 14:28 The seller will be out-of-pocket for maybe 30p for an item they're charging £10 for, and free shipping (the shipping is free to them because China gets a break on shipping costs by claiming to be a "developing nation" while at the same time, bragging about having "eradicated" poverty 🙄).
- 15:47 _And now for a shkmaticl one moment please…_
- 16:56 That's the infuriating thing about Chinesium products; I know that you "get what you pay for", but I still expect stuff to WORK AT ALL. Sure, they may not be the best design or the highest quality, but they should at the very minimum do the thing they're supposed to, they shouldn't just be 100% garbage, straight from the mailbox to the tip. 😒
- 17:52 "Specifications: no water leakage" - 😂 __
- 18:52 The button doesn't work well because the contacts are corroded. You can try dousing it with alcohol for a couple of minutes and vigorously pressing (hard-tapping on it) it to scrape the corrosion away.
- 20:13 I've done that "trick", to try buying an item from a different seller in the hopes that the other one will be less likely to be defective as well. The problem is, they're not really "different" sellers, they're all a small handful of sellers using multiple accounts. That's why they have IDENTICAL listings. This is even more so the case on eBay where each seller has dozens, if not hundreds of accounts.
- 22:35 I wonder if the leak is fixable. 🤔 Maybe a splotch of caulking? Maybe you could 3D print the whole thing with a silicone printer like 3D Printing Nerd tested (though that wouldn't be financially practical).
- 23:38 It WAS assembled by someone with nimbler fingers than you: a child. 😕
- 24:32 You were SO CLOSE! You were pulling on the rubber, looking for a "pinhole" and had the water squirting your fingers, but you didn't notice the big tear until editing?
- 25:47 Again, China gets free shipping due to their international agreements, so no, the seller hasn't paid for that.
Atomic!!! AliExpress??!!! £12 ??? I hate to say it... but you get what you pay for AND where you buy it from. Interesting video.... I hope you make a lot more on monetization than £12 👍👏
"How do you take a photo of something _not_ working???"
I dunno... send a picture of a dead plant?
And yeah, that rust was not formed over-night. It looked like that when they assembled the device. If I had to guess, I'd suspect that they're just using sub-standard parts to build these, which is why they can be sold for such a low price to begin with. But you know the adage as well as anyone... 'You get what you pay for..."
Also concerning... the instructions were in very broken english, with grammatical errors and incontinuities all over the place..
But perhaps most concerning of all... You mentioned that the device has a lithium battery... Which, if it gets wet, will begin a terminal runaway reaction causing it to burn, and burn HOT, potentially even exploding. They can be very dangerous...which is why it's so scary that the inside of the device has a leak within it. If that water were to be able to make its way into a poorly made battery... well... you're gonna have a bad time.
Otherwise, love the videos, love what you do, and I always look forward to your next upload.
An eBay seller accepted my order but failed to get the item into stock from his wholesaler. After seven months (and, I discovered, past eBay’s dispute deadline), I asked for a refund. I was told “12% of the transaction is non-refundable as we are no longer able to process the cancellation on ebay and claim the fees back.”
My response:
"No, I am unable to accept your offer of partial repayment, as the risk of loss of eBay’s fees paid falls on the party who failed to perform, i.e. the seller who failed to timely supply the goods, as opposed to the buyer who has received no value in exchange for his good-faith payment. I suggest you make a claim against your business insurance to make good on the 12% in fees you say are not recoupable from eBay."
I did get the full amount in the end, after some further wrangling about the sales tax.
I think: Its aliexpress: They sell the stuff they make in china directly, so you got a thing for 1/10 the price. in my opinion: I treat aliexpress and wish as "roll the dice: sometimes good, sometimes shit" If its broken, you can buy another for 1/10 the price and gable agian. and if it works, gg! you got a good one!
Glad you got the full refund. If something isn't "fit for purpose", regardless of whether they get the faulty item back or not (or even if you can use the parts for something else), then it should be the responsibility of the supplier to cover that cost.
Hey bud, I really enjoy all your various content. Thanks for your efforts. Glad I happened to still be awake for this upload. Usually I catch them the following morning.
Also anytime I'm driving or walking my dog, I always listen to replays of your scambaiting videos. I've seen them all several times. Hope all is well my friend. 🤜🏻🤛🏻
I love your videos! There is something so fascinating about you tearing down objects and seeing how they work inside.
Shrimp flexing his bit collection makes me feel insecure. I only have ONE screwdriver at home - mostly used to open jars. ;)
Fully rusted parts inside and no full refund and demanding pictures of it NOT working smells like a scam. But the system seems to wanna work. Mabe you was unlucky. Mabe next one is ok.
The tubes are not the best and partly looked folded shut. But the water came threu the main tubes at least. I don't think i would trust a thing like this going on holiday away from home.
I think you'd came home to dead plants or burned down house. And i don't think you'd get a refund for your house. And i think they would you to take pictures first of the house not working.
If I pay for a product that is supposed to perform a function, or is supposed to at least arrive unbroken, if either fails to happen I don't think I should bear any of the cost of the item. They didn't say ; "Purchase at your own risk. If you purchase this it may or may not work, or it might not arrive in one piece". I'm no lawyer, but I believe there's an implied contract that I should be delivered a non defective product or if not, I should be given a full refund. That's how I feel about it anyway. I'm sorry this didn't work. It looked like it could be useful. I'm glad you were made whole again.
I think internet shopping has become broken in the last six months. This style of “service” (where a product that only just crosses the line into being real rather than a fake is sold for next to nothing and then a refund is almost impossible to get) has becomeu biquitous, while the main purpose chat GPT seems to be being put to is flooding a supplier with 5* reviews to counter the inevitable 1* ones from real customers.
Get a 5 gallon water jug, drill a hole in it and install a bulkhead fitting. Connect a 0 psi water timer on the jug and bulkhead fitting. Connect your drippers to the timer. Gravity feed it. That's how I do it. It works.
You can even use the parts fromm this pump :D
A case of "too cheap to be true" and an allegory of what's wrong with the world when junk can be shipped halfway round the world for next to nothing and yet - presumably - the shipper still makes a profit.
Waterproof adhesive is more expensive than that entire pump😂
Ah, nice, nothing like a new Big Clive video on Saturday morn… wait a bit… and where are The Schematics?!
Asking you to post it back to China is ridiculous, it would cost you more to post it than what you paid. On top of that, you wouldn't be able to post it anyway, you can't ship devices with lithium batteries to China through consumer post.
Glad you got the full refund. If something isn't "fit for purpose", regardless of whether they get the faulty item back or not (or even if you can use the parts for something else), then it should be the responsibility of the supplier to cover that cost.
bigclive did a teardown of a diaphragm pump like that, showing the inner workings. Worth checking it out.
I’m impressed they tested it! But it didn’t work so you should (did) get full refund.. eventually
I love these kinds if videos.
I Just came here to let you know, I Just found a girthy carrot, was Happy and tought of you and your Channel.
Should have gotten a full refund, yeah. Good faith refund is worth a lot in maintaining a long-term customer.
I find that a sonic screwdriver is great for screws that have been welded in plastic using a sonic weld.
I always have time to use the sonic screwdriver. Only a doctor who knows who invented it.
10:54 I have been asked to provide photo evidence of not getting an item... Gave them an image of my empty mailbox, and it was accepted.
15:51
That thing has been sitting in a very damp enviornment for a while. No wonder the manual was the way it was. I'm amazed the box wasn't moldy but maybe they repackaged it.
I think returns should be partial but damages and fake/wrong item should be full refunds
> 16 heads
> shoots water around
> not called "hydra"
disqualified!
one idea, I think the circuit board would be perfect for a simple DIY ebb&flow hydroponics system, just add two of those stackable IKEA "Trofast" storage boxes, a cheap aquarium water pump and a relay. I am tempted to buy it just for the PCB for this purpose.
A cheap aquarium water pump that runs off a lithium cell? Or use the output to energise a (5v?) relay for a mains pump?
@@Shaun.Stephens yeah I assume a relay to power a more powerful (mains) pump
@@Shaun.Stephens I was thinking using the output from the PCB to energize a mains rated relay to switch on a mains water pump.
Ah yes, "goes squish". My new favorite way to describe things.
Given the possibility of water inside the packaging, I wonder if the unit was returned or something already. Probably just part of the pot luck you get with cheap items. I've had a couple of fans die after less than a year, but a more recent one (same make, similar model) has lasted for 4 or 5 years no problem. The difference between getting lucky and not.
Shrimp has officially become my favourite UA-camr
I bought a similar pump unit from a vendor here in Denmark, and it failed in a similar way. Luckily I had an older pump of another type that I could refurbish and reuse, so my plants won't suffer.
Now I am keen on taking the defective pump apart to see if it is the exact same error...
Perhaps you could could fill the leaking 'cylinder' with a little blob of silicone sealant and retest.
“Enough waffle…. Maybe” an unexpected gem
Came for Atomic Shrimp, stayed for Big Clive
AtomicShrimp goes pretty much full Bigclive 😂
could you plug the hole in the diaphragm with silicone caulk?
I'm not sure about the UK but Australian consumer law says full refund on defective product and if the vendor wants it back they are responsible for sending the shipping satchel.
I would actually be amazed if the UK and EU weren't more or less the same. We're supposed to be saving the planet from climate change meanwhile this substandard shit is made with what resources we have left and then sent around the world spewing CO2 to arrive at your door for no value other than a video and what little you might be able to recycle.
It is the same in the UK, but the problem here is China.
I once flooded the downstairs neighbour with this one
Partial refund is disgusting, but this what to be expected with these companies these days.
He explained in the pinned comment that he got a full refund
@@y-yyy oh okey, thank you I didn’t realise this, my bad. 👍👍
Aliexpress will in most cases fully refund you regardless of what the seller offers, they know their sellers aren't the best and the system is set up in a way where Aliexpress itself keeps the money until you confirm that the item is OK (or a few weeks pass from receiving it). Yes someone can game the system but there is a decent effort involved so it's a much safer platform than say Wish
I have this exact same pump, but from banggood. I've had it for more than 2 years, and I use it to water my balcony flowers when I'm away for a few weeks. I think the amount of watering heads waaaay too much for that little pump, and also impractical, you can't physically bunch together that many pots, the precut tubes are just way too short. I have 2 of those pumps, 1 for each of the pots I have at the moment. I use it in the summer every month for 1-2 weeks
From my experience most of the items are not up to standard, what easier way to get rid of faulty items but send then half way round the world. Even if 50% of the buyers ask for a refund, it's probably still a profit.
I'm never this early! Yay insomnia! 😂❤
You are quite clever so you could have purchased a raspberry pi and made your own custom pi pump
It’s always good to see it from a seller side too. It still costs money to manufacture, keep in stock, package and ship a faulty product. Most of this cost cannot be recovered even if the product was shipped back. A 50% refund is not necessarily terrible at these really low prices. I’d probably start complaining at 30 GBP+.
I’ve certainly had issues too at higher valued products from China via eBay, where I received a damaged customer return sold as new and unopened for 150 GBP. This was high enough to have me unsuccessfully try to get back my money for two months via the seller, PayPal and eBay. Considering that, I’d have been happy about a 50% refund instead of losing it all.
being asked to provide a photo of something _not_ doing something reminds me of that time a tech support person asked me to turn on my computer so I could run a diagnostic for them...when the complaint was that the computer wouldn't turn on. I don't know how many times I had to tell her "It won't turn on! That's the problem! Yes, its plugged in!" When I finally got them to take it back to repair, it turned out that the problem was that the power button was broken. Everything else was fine, it just wasn't getting the boot signal.
It really shouldn't be up to the customer to prove that their device is defective, especially when that often requires disassembly, a process that (in untrained hands) can often cause more damage. Provide a reliable product or accept that you're going to get refunds all the time. But then I, personally, believe in holding companies accountable for their products.
It's not defective, it's water-cooled👍
The problem is we are dealing with China, and they don’t really care about our legislation. Standard practice over there is to offer partial refunds as it’s almost always more expensive for them to get something returned and/or replaced. Same with eBay, Amazon and other similar sellers of that origin. I’ve found that if you are firm and persist, they will eventually refund in full. They will do anything to avoid negative feedback and reviews.
I disagree with return costs in general.
In this specific case it costs them next to nothing to send it to you, so having to pay a premium to send it back is just a way for them to threaten you so they can keep your money.
For local stores I understand the excuses they give (people who order clothes in two sizes and return one), but even then, it feels like a way to dissuade me from returning a faulty product.
If you don't want to pay for customers to return products, consider putting up a physical store.
Glad you got your money back. AliExpress is very hit or miss with that kind of stuff.
Not sure how your country's consumer laws work, but where I live; platforms like eBay require foreign sellers to comply with our consumer laws. If they don't, the platform removes them. I have been through this partial refund nonsense with overseas sellers before in situations like yours and eBay have always stepped in to rectify the situation (including closing sellers accounts and providing full refunds). Haven't had this problem with Ali Express yet. Where I live, the seller must cover the cost of the return postage for defective stock.
The problem with the refunds is people take advantage so honest people get punished with policies to reduce the loss from people scamming. For a few years I used to buy broken laptops, fix them and sell them on Ebay. Unfortunately I had to give it up because of the number of times people would contact me, tell me it didnt work and after I tried to help them diagnose it over email they would return it and the "broken" part was the fact they removed the hard drive/RAM or both. Nearly 1 in 5 of the laptops I sent out would be returned like this and I know they worked because I always gave them one last test before removing the battery and putting them in the box to send. With such low profit from the sale of each fixed laptop I ended up paying out of pocket for all the thefts of the hard drives etc.
Mike it's pretty obvious you love electrical gadgets. I think you'd enjoy amateur radio. Have you ever thought about taking your foundation licence? I have just passed my exam, if you're interested I will send you my foundation licence training book for free. Just a way of saying thanks for your excellent content 👍
It's an interesting idea, but not something I really fancy taking up as a pastime
@@AtomicShrimp No worries, thanks for your reply 👍
partial refund is bs - they sold you poop, they should give a full refund and either accept they won't get it back, or pay the costs to send it back
Aliexpress stepped in and gave full refund
Its crazy how a tiny cut is enough to entirely ruin something that is -- *deep breath* -- a battery, a pcb, a microcontroller, an electric motor, a plastic case, and was manufactured halfway across the planet, but arrived in a month.
None of that existed a relatively short time ago and it all fell apart in this instance because a soft thing got nicked a bit.
the battery being on a connector is useful for reuse... changing the motor out and just putting the pump on an arduino with a wetness sensor is also a possibility.10 ppounds might be a bit expensive for "extra parts" but my DIY heart loves it. if you can just buy the pump component alone for a couple bucks, that would be useful!
I think this was holey avoidable.
Even if you only got a 50 percent refund, I think the undamaged bits and the fun you had tearing it down was probably worth at leased £6. In the end you got a full refund, so all is well.
Notes on the solenoid operated watering system, hopefully will save you some trial and error time. Unless you have an exceptionally high head of water on your gravity system, it won't work, because most solenoid water valves are Pilot Operated, so they need a fairly high pressure to operate the pilot component.
I like keeping track of watering my plants, it's a skill to know when your plant is thirsty for water or nutrients aswell. I guess this could come in handy with going on a trip for holliday and foodplant setups though, maybey even a "grow op" :D
You introduce me to things in our world I did not know i had an interest in. From birds singing in a tree to angry scammers you are an amazing content creator.
If you just keep pushing Ali-Express, harassing them with the clear evidence, they usually will provide a full refund (always buy with free shipping for this reason!). There are heaps of garbage on Ali-Express, but there are a heap of good vendors too.. really you just need to stick to the obviously major vendors. Even so, sometimes you can get lucky with the smaller stores, but it is 50/50, often sometimes you might need to fix it yourself, or ready yourself for an Ali-Express battle. For me Ali-Express has provided access to some great products at mind blowing prices, and this has enabled me in projects that would have otherwise been impossible. So do I enjoy the occasional scam that I need to battle with Ali-Express about, definitely not. But is it worth the hassle?, sad to say, but undeniably yes. It's not for everyone though! Great videos by the way.