Hi Everyone.
I have had a bad experience with Xiaomi Redmi Note3 phones. Not because of the phone, but because of the ROM they came with by purchasing from non official sellers. A big headache for me.
Wondering if anyone else here has had the same problem.
Unfortunately, I am in AU/NZ and there are no official distributors here, so I had no option but to buy from non official sites.
(following below, I had to remove links from my message because I am new to this site, and the system would not let me post with links or email addresses)
First one from "Eternal Team" AliExpress store.
They never said the ROM they were providing he phone with was modified. But I found out the hard way, by many problems... ROM was even infected with virus and spyware.
I found out all this a bit too late as Aliexpress Dispute time frame is very short, and had expired after receiving it just on the mark. The seller did not own up to their sale, and wanted me to send the phone back to them (at my cost), once recieved they would pay me back. However they gave me no guarantee of this... of course I did not send it back.
I recommend everyone to stay away from this seller. Here is a link to the phone I purchased:
www_aliexpress_com/item/Original-Xiaomi-Redmi-Note-3-Prime-FDD-Cell-Phone-MTK-Helio-X10-Octa-Core-MIUI7-Fingerprint/32549116686.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.101.J5f5Ft
I bought a second phone from AliExpress (not learning from the first one).
This time from another store, who had a very attractive price.
I never recieved the phone, and it took many weeks of dispute with them and escalating to AliExpress Dispute team.
I was lucky this time and got my money back, but just learning from my first bad experience with Eternal Team... I quickly openned my dispute before time expired... Seller kept asking me to close the dispute, please, and they would return my money. In the dispute, they were proposing only %50 refund...
If I was to close the dispute, I would have never seen a penny of my money again.
Here I got my money back, BUT lost 2 months of my time!!!
This seller is a SCAMMER, and still selling in AliExpress. BEWARE!
They are called: POP music
And here is a link to the phone they were selling (and I bought but never received):
www_aliexpress_com/snapshot/3008842269.html?orderId=30187113133413
By the way, PopMusic gave me a fake tracking number, and kept ignoring my messages; they never replied to me until I opened the dispute. And it was only to ask me to close it and they would refund.
And now I kind of 'got tricked' to buying a third phone.
(I was still looking after several months of getting bad phones)
Tricked because I thought I was purchasing from a legit Xiaomi store. I quickly learned I was not... this is now, having received the phone just last week, and testing it out... finding it is also provided with a modified and locked ROM.
I say tricked because the way it was presented on the website, I thought I was buying from an official distributor, and this is actually just another one of the same guys as the ones above. I paid quite a lot more, and only because I thought these guys were legit/professional. Shipment was fast, via DHL, from Singapore, and the box was sealed.... but I have come to realize later, that they would have resealed using their own sealing system; as ROM is not original, and on their product description they do say the phone ROM will have Google Play Store added by them (nothing about locking out things like the bootloader and Updater software...)
And they also are now not answering my messages.
One good thing, maybe and I hope so, is that they did offer payment via PayPal, and I used it. So I am hoping that Paypal will come thru when I put my claim in the next day or so (just giving the store a few days to respond with something acceptable... before I claim via Paypal).
The store is "XiaomiDevice", and they offer several variants of Redmi Note3 phones.
See here:
www_xiaomidevice_com/redmi-note-3.html
Since I started looking into them, I have found they go by several other names: XiaomiDeviceShop, GSD, FocalAndroid
Anyone else lived this experience I am going thru?
Any good outcomes?
So, the two devices I have on hand now, are:
1)_ Xiaomi Redmi Note3 Prime (Helio)
2)_ Xiaomi Redmi Note3 Pro (Snapdragon)
Both have locked bootrom.
Anyone successfully been able to load an unlocked bootloader and official ROM?
Once that I can manage the phone properly, without spyware, without viruses, and with the ability to update via the Updater app, and backup/upgrade via MiPCSuite ?
Thank you for your time in reading my post.
And eager for solutions or others with the same experience where we may be able to team-up and help each other out.
