syphus
Offline
Newcastle, UK

I came out of hibernation to order one of these 32 days ago, paying extra for EMS rather than Airmail delivery, and now feel rather foolish being bereft of both my money and a Smartboy Cart. People have said that it can take quite a while for the stuff to leave China, travel, then clear customs, but repeated emails to the gmail address on smartboycart.com over the past few weeks have been ignored and it's nearing the point of no return for raising a PayPal "give me back my fucking money" dispute.

So as well as being keen to know if anyone's bought from the site recently (like in 2014), I'd also quite like to know if anyone's had cause to email them and if they got a reply. There was no problem with my PayPal transaction going through, needless to say; somebody on the other end has their account in order and was happy to take my money.

I'm not angry yet, but should I be?

Cheers,
/b

Jazzmarazz
Offline
Michigan

32 days and you're not angry? I order from china everyday and although it always takes two weeks to get here, I at least normally see the courtesy of a tracking number and confirmation of being shipped in the first place. I have no clue if they are available ro who sold them in the first place, but I would be getting my money back.

kitsch
Offline
matt's mind

i'd very much make sure to not miss the deadline for filing a dispute

syphus
Offline
Newcastle, UK

I've got an original BleepBloop and haven't had much time for LSDJ lately anyway, so that's kept my fury in check - besides, the main reason I ordered this is that I wanted a USB reader for quick backups and to transfer GB Cam pics. And yeah, literally all I have is a PayPal transaction ID autogenerated by PayPal - no confirmation email, no tracking number, and the page I got when PayPal redirected me back to the seller site after the transaction was the Chinese version of the Microsoft IIS 404 page. I gave them a fair amount of benefit of the doubt, and thought that maybe they just had whack hosting, but it now occurs to me that...maybe their form never notified them of the order in the first place. That should have occurred to me before. Damn.

So worst case, I raise the issue before the 45 days is up and get a refund. Best case, I get my refund and then the cart magically appears some time in the future (whereupon I'll send them the money again, because I'm a decent sort of guy). But the more I think about it, the more I realise they probably never got my order in the first place, and simply didn't notice an extra $75 dropping into their PayPal.

Thanks though, for reassuring me that it *is* unusual not to get confirmation or tracking details! It's many years since I ordered something from China, but many years ago this was the kind of flakiness you expected of web sales (from anywhere - not just China).

katsumbhong
Offline
Taichung, Taiwan

My friend received his in about 3 weeks shipped to California. He bought his about 6 months ago.

PULSELOOPER
Offline
São Paulo, Brazil

It took more than one year to receive mine. And when I finally got it, it worked for about three months (even changing the battery didn't fix it).

That's all I have to say.

syphus
Offline
Newcastle, UK

Wow, okay... Thanks all - sounds like I'd better get that dispute under way.

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

I'm glad I found this thread, I was about to place an order... I'll spend the extra on a dragnderp or something similar.

Syphus, if all you're after for now is a cart reader, I have a few available. Can dump Rom's + Saves, burn saves and Burn Roms to Flash carts (i.e. MrFlash, Bung etc...) I made it to actually save my 20+ yr old gameboy camera pics to PC. $25AUD, and can usualy post as a 'letter' as its so thin which means only a few $'s for postage.

I've got them up on Ebay.au so you're covered with all that paypal protection.

Take a look at www.bennvenn.com for info on the hardware

syphus
Offline
Newcastle, UK

Ah, thanks BennVenn - that would've been great, but I've preordered the Altane programmer from ASM Retro. It's reputed to work with the Game Boy Camera, but if I don't have any joy with that I'll be in touch with you!

By the way, for the benefit of anyone still wondering about Smartboy Cart - I did raise a PayPal dispute and my money was discreetly refunded a few days before the dispute time period expired. Still not a single ASCII character of communication from the seller. Which is a shame...but there you go.

BennVenn
Offline
Australia

No problem Syphus. I've spoken with the guy that's designed the Altane's hardware, software and firmware. He has an unbelievable knowledge of all things game boy and has helped me out countless times with my projects. This is sure to be the most high-end, professional PC-Cart interface ever produced!

I wonder if Smartboy's supply has dried up? Its a shame that something as simple as good communication (or lack of) has ruined what would have been  a great product. Word of mouth is everything in such a small community.

syphus
Offline
Newcastle, UK

Perhaps - I'm not sure whether he/she was manufacturing or just reselling - but I suspect the bulk of the cheap GB cart business is geared towards gamers, particularly Pokémon gamers. Being badmouthed on chipmusic sites probably isn't a big concern. I could be wrong; if anyone else wants to hazard their money and time on that site, I'd be keen to hear how they get on.

rygD
Offline

This is exactly why I didn't order a Smartboy set.  I wasn't willing to take the risk, so I picked up another EMS cart.  I may pick up an Everdrive-GB when kitsch gets them in, but I will still need a way to back up my game boy camera stuff.  Whatever I use needs to run under Linux, so ALTANE is probably what I will go with.  What is even better is it should work with all my carts, possibly including Nanoloop.

BennVenn, does your flasher work natively under Linux?

Anubis
Offline

Placed an order, didn't get any information for a couple of weeks, tried contacting them, didn't get a reply so I opened a PayPal dispute, won and got my money back. That sure was a fun trip.

MaxDolensky
Offline
Alabama

I may pick up an Everdrive-GB when kitsch gets them in

If you have your hopes on using LSDJ with it, hold off for now. It doesn't play nice with saving and song loading in LSDJ even with LittleFM...

kitsch
Offline
matt's mind

i got them in on Friday (or was it Saturday)

will try to post those today, need to catch up on packages though.  that's priority

will have three other new things posted at the same time too smile

rygD
Offline
MaxDolensky wrote:

I may pick up an Everdrive-GB when kitsch gets them in

If you have your hopes on using LSDJ with it, hold off for now. It doesn't play nice with saving and song loading in LSDJ even with LittleFM...

Thanks for the heads up.  This was one of my plans.  When I read a review that mentioned issues with LSDJ saving I figured the reviewer (not someone from here afaik) was using the demo rom.  I guess I will be keeping my dedicated LSDJ EMS cart.

I was going to use the everdrive to have the full game library, as well as all other software, in one place, and with me at all times.  I already have to carry my Nanoloop cart if I might use it while out...looks like even with the everdrive I will be carrying a minimum of 3 carts.