Chinese android sat/Nav radios for Fiat/Renault and Peugeot vans

[Squiffy]

As you may have noticed I have had a few run ins with those on this site who are technophobes, but in reality I am all for modern tech so long as it is of real use to me, recently I ordered from one of the Chinese sites an Android 7" double din sat nav radio to put into my van in place of my all singing all dancing Fiat bluetooth Radio, I'm now in dispute with the seller as after 5 days of tooing and frowing they have now asked for more money to ship this high tech gear to me, I've already paid the premium shipping charge of £55 and this email from them has hit me in my aggressive mood, I paid with PayPal credit which I applied for specifically to purchase this extraordinary piece of tech incase anything went wrong, so we will see if PayPal come up with the goods in returning my hard earned cash, as the sellers are saying that they will not return my money till they receive the package back but of course they have not even sent it yet according to their emails, so we shall see just how good PayPal is I'll keep you posted. Phil

 

[SquirrellCook]

Dealing with the Far East can be fun. I purchased a machine as a bit of an experiment accepting that I could afford to loose my money. I have an import/export licence so that was one hurdle. carriage was paid for to a port of my choice. I found a shipping agent to pay the duties and remove it from the port and deliver it to me. Checked that the price really did include the boat trip and it did. So what could go wrong? I had been warned of the scam where the ship’s crew threaten to put your goods over the side if you didn’t pay extra. In reality they would never find the container. But you still might not get your goods. I’d been tracking the ship, then it was going the wrong way! My goods had changed ship. Tracking that one it disappeared, seems they turn off the tracking in some waters. Finally it’s in the uk. Then the scam. The ship chose not to use my shipping agents, but used their own. The new agent would not ship to me,they didn’t do that. My shipping agent had to pay them to tell them where my goods were. Not a lot of money, but enough.

 

[wildebus]

I have found Paypal good when it comes to sorting out this kind of thing.
If the 'chinese' site is AliExpress then their own arbitration service is very good. Alibaba I have never used due to the unknown quantity of shipping costs and "unlanded prices".

 

[Nabsim]

Damn hope you get it sorted soon. PayPal are normally very good for buyers, sellers can sometimes lose out to crooked customers but you should be okay. Anything I have bought from Far East only problems have been how long it can take.

 

[Squiffy]

Damn hope you get it sorted soon. PayPal are normally very good for buyers, sellers can sometimes lose out to crooked customers but you should be okay. Anything I have bought from Far East only problems have been how long it can take.

Yes I've never had many problems, on occasions I've had a refund because the product was not available. However in this particular case I paid for what they called premium delivery to be processed in 1-5 days on the fifth day I get an email from them saying the £55 I paid for the shipping was not enough due to my remote location, odd really as I live in Barry right next to Cardiff not as you would call a remote location exactly. They then direct you to another site where your meant to enter your details and pay a further £10 this immediately rang suspicion bells, so I emailed back after several emails pertaining to this extra payment, and said as they had not shipped it to cancel the order, it was then they said they would not refund until the package was returned. Odd really seeing as they asked for an extra £10 before they could ship it and no tracking had been sent to me as promised when the radio was shipped, it all sounds 1) A bit unprofessional and 2) Something stinks in the state of Denmark, so hence I've opened a dispute with PayPal. . Phil

 

[Nabsim]

Yeah that’s definitely not right. Odd times I have had to pay a bit extra to Customs before they would release but even that is rare.

 

[wildebus]

Not sure if anyone else is on this programme or not, but I have the eBay 'concierge' service on both my eBay accounts. It is an invitation-only free programme and if you get the invite, accept it!
Any problems with an eBay order - buying, or from a buyer if you are selling - and someone from eBay will manage the issue for you and liease with Paypal where need be to get your money back.
As an aside, the program also covers return costs if you buy something and change your mind (upto 3 items per quarter).

 

[Squiffy]

Pleased to say that PayPal came up trumps this morning and went in my favour returning the complete amount after only 2 days review, obviously have had similar trouble with this company/Person in the past, as no evidential correspondence was asked for . Phil

 

[Squiffy]

I've now bought another android Radio/Nav from Icebox on ebay, it maybe £100 pounds more than the Chinese firm, but at least they are in the UK run by Liverpudlians, and very helpful and informative with a great following and feedback, and if anything does happen to go wrong they have a business address in a Liverpool business park where I can go and show a physical presences if necessary . Phil

 

[Millie Master]

These days our house policy is that wherever and when ever possible, even if it costs some more, to never buy anything directly from China, added to the fact that whenever possible we won't now buy anything made in China which is of course bloody difficult to do as they have us all by our short and curlies!

 

[Nabsim]

My van has single din for stereo, I did look at getting one with pop up screen as could t believe how cheep they were. In the end I went for a Sony on sale that had everything I wanted (bluetooth, Apple Play, hands free for 2 phones USB and mini Jack inputs and phone app for remote control). Think it cost me under £90 and straight swap for the very dated one it replaced.

If I didn’t already have a motorhome sat Nav then I would have probably tried the slide out/motorised screen models with sat nav

 

[RAW]

I've now bought another android Radio/Nav from Icebox on ebay, it maybe £100 pounds more than the Chinese firm, but at least they are in the UK run by Liverpudlians, and very helpful and informative with a great following and feedback, and if anything does happen to go wrong they have a business address in a Liverpool business park where I can go and show a physical presences if necessary . Phil

I bought one of these

Pardon our interruption...

www.ebay.co.uk

It is alright all in all for the money but the GUI is not that great

 

[Squiffy]

To be fair to the Chinese sellers, if they hold their side of the bargain you can not get them anywhere near the price in the UK, even though the UK ones are also probably produced in China or certainly the far east. . Phil

 

[wildebus]

My van has single din for stereo, I did look at getting one with pop up screen as could t believe how cheep they were. In the end I went for a Sony on sale that had everything I wanted (bluetooth, Apple Play, hands free for 2 phones USB and mini Jack inputs and phone app for remote control). Think it cost me under £90 and straight swap for the very dated one it replaced.

If I didn’t already have a motorhome sat Nav then I would have probably tried the slide out/motorised screen models with sat nav

I have tended to avoid the pop-out screen units but bit the bullet last September and bought an Android single-Din unit and am actually really happy with it
What I particularly like about it is the need NOT to have to connect the phone to it to use Music, Audible, and all the other things - I can use it just the same as I would a Tablet... Download the Audible books to listen to, play Amazon and Google Music on-line, watch YouTube (when parked of course), plus play DVDs and watch on the screen (again when parked).


There are lots of reasons why the UK supplied ones are much pricer ...

• VAT - at 20%
• Import Duty - of approx 10%
• Postage Costs - if you buy stuff from China, generally the UK Royal Mail, as the National Carrier pay virtually all the costs, and NOT the seller - the benefit of China, the 2nd largest economy in the world being self-classified as an 'Emerging Economy'
• Warranty Provision - Buy from a UK seller and you get a legally enforceable 2 year warranty which the seller has to prepare for with extra stock and the cost of sending it out. Buy from China and after 30 days (if you are lucky and use paypal) you are on your own.

But so many people just compare the two prices and decide they are being ripped off by the UK Sellers

 

[Squiffy]

I agree Dave, I've been in business for 40 years and understand the the price that UK dealers have to charge, but if I can get the same tech for 2/3rd the price then I will go for it, however you have to bare the sticky end if as you say a warranty claim looms. But in my last case I disliked being ripped off by the Chinese sellers after paying £55 for shipping I think that was more than enough to ship the Radio/Nav from China to Cardiff without them demanding another £10 after 5 days of ordering, they claimed that it would be shipped from UK stock that being the case Barry by Cardiff was hardly a remote location. So all in all that's why I was prepared to pay an extra £100 for a similar spec radio from British suppliers and at the same time get the back up and warranty that comes with it. Phil

 

[SquirrellCook]

I hope you didn’t put Barry ISLAND in your address? Obviously you live in an offshore location. Remember my English isn’t the best.

 

[Squiffy]

I'm a 20min walk from Barry Island 3 mins in a car, I had the bouncy castle on the beach down there for about 7 years, my wife and kids used to run it, once I'd sold the business about 25 years ago I've rarely gone down there. Phil

P.s. If you've never been down there you will not realise that in point of fact it hasn't been a island for almost 150 years.

 

[Nabsim]

Maybe a good job I didn’t get the one I was looking at as it was under £50, I knew it would be a gamble but was cheap enough to give it a try. I think it was delivery time that sealed it fate as I knew I would be moving around so needed it in under a week. If I hadn’t already got the dedicated sat Nav then I would have gone for it anyway I think.
I have one of those Aguri 720’s and initially I didn’t like it (used to TomTom for years or inbuilt system). It operates on a 7 point something android tablet so I could do a lot more than navigate with it but almost never do.
Edit: just to add, I think the Aguri is a brilliant bit of kit now I have used it a while (must be around 2 years). It has never sent me wrong when I have set the routes I want. I am 7.8metre, 4tonne coachbuilt motorhome and it definitely doesn’t like some of the roads I chose to take lol

 

[wildebus]

This is the unit I bought ... https://amzn.to/2V6bZ2o

For me the pros are the screen does not have to be out when using it if you don't want it (I didn't like those units where the screen was fixed in front of the unit all the time - concerned they look a bit of a thief-target); Also it has 2 USB ports, and I have two little memory sticks fitted which I can select from (plus a SD Card slot which I haven't used yet).
Sound is pretty good and being an Android unit, I can just install the usual apps like Audible and what have you as well as downloading stuff for off-line listening. It does have Sat-Nav as well, and that is pretty decent when I have tried it, but because I already have a Garmin Camper 660 which is definately superior, I use that.

I looked at the prices of units on Ebay from China and AliExpress, but I tend to be a "Want it NOW" person, and didn't want to wait and have the potential hassles if a problem (Get from Amazon next day - if no good, instant return and refund. To me, that is worth paying the extra).

 

[Squiffy]

By the way if any of you with a Ducato X250 2006 - 2015 wants to take the radio out even when using the two twin prong removal tool the radio is very tight to remove as there are two plastic noddies on each side near the bottom of the skirt that are very tight into metal dragon clips, the best way is to insert the removal tools ( Bits of 1/8 welding rod, if you don't posses the tools) and grip the top of the radio housing and pull towards gently yourself, at the same time close to the bottom slide a thin piece of metal ( I used a narrow paint scraper ) between the plastic radio facial and the dashboard and gently but forcefully lever the radio facial outwards, be careful you don't scratch or damage the facia or dashboard, do this to both sides. It's tight but it will eventually slide out of the two grippers. I've uploaded a photo of the two pins and the trippers so you know where to lever to the best advantage. The pins and grippers are at the bottom left and right corners .Phil

P.s. Yes I know I was listening to the radio while taking it out, electronically dangerous but there was a favourite song being played.