Ordering and Refund Experience from Alibaba 2025

0. Important Stuff

1. Always make an unedited unboxing video with all the personal details with yourself. YOU WILL NOT GET A REFUND WITHOUT IT.
2. If you apply for a refund, make sure to check your email or Alibaba app notification regularly as there is a limited time for you to respond to a case otherwise it will be closed.
3. The Alibaba Link for R36S by Shenzhen Qbuy Technology Co., Ltd. Seller seems genuine. The seller is nice, refunded without issues and from what I could tell (two ram chips, RK3326 and the emulation menu) it seems to be a legit one although it doesn't boot without SD card. (Still more research needed to be done for this though).
4. Consider the R36A Plus (wifi version with a slightly bigger screen) than this. Wifi matters for retro-achievements and also PortMaster and also netplay games both locally and on the internet, for scraping screenshots and videos for games. Yes, you can get a dongle but it's much more convenient if it's inbuilt. Also a taller screen helps with arcade games which in my opinion is the reason to get these consoles in the first place.
5. If you're ordering for the first time, order something of small amount like this product for example as there is an extra customs charge that you might have to pay on it.

1. Link and cost

Alibaba Link for R36S by Shenzhen Qbuy Technology Co., Ltd. Seller

[Aliexpress link for outside India] → I didn't order from here.

Cost: Rs.2400 or $22 (Includes Rs.70 for processing charges). This is only after I got a $10 coupon off(which I got by ordering something else full price which I cancelled immediately) otherwise it would have cost me Rs.3100 or $34 . Use the coupons page for coupons explanation.

2. Videos

Hindi Video → Keep hindi comments on this video only. |  English Video → Only English comments please.

Unboxing R36S by Alibaba Seller Shenzhen Qbuy Technology Co., Ltd. → Only English comments please.

3. Pictures

4. Timeline for order - Two Weeks Delivery to India

Surprised to see that the package arrived in India only in two days.
India Post other information→ Mail Category: Air. Article Type: Registered Post.

5. Tragedy - I dropped it from the table and the LCD Broke (￣y▽￣)╭ Ohohoho.....

I was furiously playing Stardew Valley with my sister (The game isn't a cozy and calm game). At least that's what I think that happened. I thought I dropped something else NOT this console so I am a bit confused if it happened due to that or not hence I went with the refund.

6. Asking for refund on the display issue

I have had a lot of experience with AliExpress' excellent service in the past where if I didn't get a product or a product didn't match the description I always got my full refund back. I first contacted the seller to know what can be done but after no reply for many many hours, I decided to open the refund only option to see what happens. The attached image is the one above.

Good to see that there is an automatic refund option in case the seller doesn't respond BUT THIS ALSO MEANS AS A BUYER YOU HAVE TO ALSO RESPOND QUICKLY, also I can ask Alibaba to mediate after two business days. There was other option to refund and return the product but I see no way of me booking such parcels because as I remember it not only requires a lot of money but quite a lot of personal information like Government issued ID Cards and all and something I am not going to willingly go into.

I might be wrong about this since if he did gave an option to full refund I might accept and get refund without anything happening. That makes more sense but the problem is I still have to edit the request to make sure I don't get 0.

A few hours later the seller asked for the package of the picture when it was delivered BUT THE REALLY SCAMMY THING HERE IS to change the refund request of the order from full to 0. Someone might just think that the seller is merely asking for evidence but what he has done is gave a proposal that no refund will be given and disguised it as an Issue. It's clear how these people know to run the system.

P.S: Had the seller replied earlier without this refund request we might have come to a conclusion like just sending a replacement LCD screen and such or even a way to send the product back or I might just have accepted that it's my fault but I need to have the experience so that I can recommend this to other people. I feel really bad doing this. I had accepted that it's my fault and decided to keep the broken machine but I thought what if someone does get a badly packaged product? What happens then? So I am doing this but when the seller gives a final resolution and if it happens to be full refund, I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT. It's not morally correct. Of course, the seller can't know this because it's more of a test for him. Is this what investigative journalism is like?

Update: Never got an option to even decide on the refund thing and was given the refund immediately with a few pics taken from the unboxing itself. Will buy something else from them and then won't return that, that's the least I can do.

Got the refund as you can see below. Didn't had to do anything except that I had to produce the original packing pictures. (That is important I guess)

That concludes the R36S from Alibaba. Will make a few videos both in english and hindi on the respective channel and for the review of the R36S you can check this out.

7. Regret

After this was done however, I felt really really bad doing this to someone and so I ordered something from them immediately but after I got a missing package from other seller and I decided there to repay the seller for it, I am now going to give this seller his money back also. I just am waiting for some money, things have been tough since November 2024.