Webdude and all,
One of the things I notice from your picture is that the black cloth tape did not seem to be applied to those connections. I have another Chinese unit that's windows CE which I am replacing with this one. The CE unit is pretty good quality and the manufacturer has an excellent track record and warranty but they do not sell android units. In that unit, they taped everything with the cloth electrical tape, and I'm wondering if it was to mitigate this sort of problem. When I get mine (at some point.. because they are backlogged) if it's not there, I was thinking to adding some of the cloth tape for reinforcement before installing it into the car. My guess is the adhesive failed on your connectors because they had a bad batch but used them anyway. Taping them down real good with tape that is rated for outdoor electrical use should prevent that from happening, even if the adhesive fails on the connector.
Granted, we should not have to do this; but having a background in professionally sourcing electronic components from China, I know they cut any corner they can. It does not surprise me that they asked you to glue it back down, that's typical. Many of these manufacturers have little to no quality control and there are zero consumer protections like there are in the states. You were smart to use your Amex for this which brings up another point for others to consider when buying something like this.
The group I bought from (I believe it is the same manufacturer that Kei Lo works for) was really pressuring me into paypal, or to wire transfer funds rather than using Alibaba's escrow service. If you are not using an AMEX,
DO NOT DO THAT. Paypal only protects purchases that are not as described for E-bay purchases.Which means that even if they ship you a pair of dirty socks in place of the $500 radio you ordered, Paypal will not investigate a claim. Wire transfer is about the same as sending cash, and there is little recourse there as well. Likely you will get your item as described, but when/if problems come up like webdude's any other method of payment offers 0 protection. If you're like me and don't have access to Amex, Discover is your next best bet. I've also had really good luck with my Capital One card in these situations recently.
Sorry for hijacking the thread for that, but I thought it was important to point out.
Finally, Is there a way to update the original post with your experience, I had actually bought this unit before I got to page 19 when you started having problems. It probably wouldn't have stopped me from buying it anyway, but that sinking feeling in my gut after I saw your post before I saw the pictures was not fun
Edit:
Never mind, I see that the first post was already updated with the black screen issue. My bad, I shot from the hip after a few days absence.
