THE INS AND OUTS OF BUYING A CHINA PHONE FROM FASTCARDTECH

I can't really remember when was it when I bought my first knockoff clone phone from Fastcardtech. It was the iPhone first version that had a slightly warped screen called the Sciphone. The shipping was reasonably quick and everything was in order. After that, I did not buy any other clone phones because the specs and quality was not up to par with the branded phones at that point in time.

After having used the Motorola Milestone, the iPhone 3GS, Samsung Galaxy S, Sony Xperia S, I knew what I wanted in an Android Phone. In 2012 when Mediatek released the dual core MTK6577 and the single core MTK6575 ARM SoC, these cheap Chinese phones became an attractive option. Until now these phones only came with 512mb of ram with WVGA screens which is actually enough for everyday usage. The big breakthrough Samsung made was with the Galaxy S with 512mb ram and WVGA screen which is very much like the Chinese phones of today. So in 2012, I started to buy some of these phones. These phones no longer have warped screen, cheap plastic, irritatingly loud low quality speakers. They now rival the build quality of the branded phones. Only one thing is still lagging behind and that is the implementation of the Android firmware which can be buggy on certain devices.

Being a huge country with over a billion in population, China is seeing a huge growth in population of phone users as more and more chinese move into the cities and becoming part of the middle income group. New phones are being churned out every week to fuel this demand and one of these online distributors / retailer is Fastcardtech.

Overall, Fastcardtech is a decent online store but they have some bad practices which keep them from being a totally trusted company. After buying several phones ( 5 phones now) I can now list down my observations.

On the whole I like Fastcardtech because they have many payment options including PayPal. Any company that does not have PayPal as a payment option is dubious and could be a scam company because you will not be able to get your money back if you receive a lemon ( i.e. Chinaecarts )

Another good thing is the shipping option. They have FEDEX, TNT, DHL, EMS, and regular airmail which is often Free Shipping. Now the bad thing is (not necessarily that bad ) they try to keep the shipping cost down so even using EMS or Fedex or DHL will still take a longer time between 7-14 days. Fastcardtech is located in a place that is far from a major city like Beijing so they use a shipping agent to pick up their packages and I am quite sure that the shipping agent do NOT come round everyday to pick up the packages. So when you place your order and you receive your tracking number by email, do not get the idea that your package has shipped. It is packed and assigned the airwaybill number and sitting in the store waiting for the agent to pick it up and that can take up to several days.

Another bad practice is they claim to ship out your order in 3 business days but that is just bullshit. They usually take about a full week to prepare your order ( they actually do check the phone which is a good thing ) after which you get your tracking number.
So, from making payment to actually receiving your package will take about 2-3 weeks using FEDEX or EMS or DHL. Free shipping will take 3-4 weeks using registered airmail.

Since I monitor the Fastcardtech site often I know what are the new arrivals. When I spot a brand new phone and it says "IN STOCK" I suggest you wait for 2 weeks before ordering because what they have is a sample phone and they have placed the order with the factory and still waiting for the stocks to arrive. The good thing is, if they have the physical stock, the shipping will go smoothly and quickly. Also, after a week or 2, the price will usually be adjusted downward.

 I recently ordered the NEWSMY Newman N1 and it is listed as "IN STOCK" but guess what? After waiting for almost 2 weeks and I checked my account. It was still not shipped and they told me that I have to wait because it is difficult to get that model, so this means it is not in stock. I changed it to a Neo NO2-m and it came within 2 weeks even though I selected free shipping.

I get emails saying that Fastcardtech does not answer emails but actually, they do. You log in to your account and send them an email and then log out, expecting an email back from them but you receive an auto respond email with no details. They need to fix this system. They actually do respond but you need to log in to the fastcardtech site and check the response.

The last thing I would like to point out is when you make your order and order additional accessories and select your phone color, make sure you get it right the first time because when they pack your phone and whatever else you've ordered, they check your original order and may miss out any other email you sent to them later about color change or accessories. They will miss out your additional email 50% of the time.

I would advise anyone buying from fastcardtech to read all their info right on top of the page.

Keeping all the points I wrote about in mind, you can go ahead and enjoy shopping at Fastcardtech as I would still recommend them.

One last last thing: Their English sucks!