BMS and GBK are the same company.....

[sacko]

According to Fedex, it does not matter if you are an individual or a company; you get charged either way.

The only thing I can think of to reduce the cost, is ask if that £229 they quoted already includes VAT.

Either way, looks like ill end up having to pay it.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Just for the doubters out there, here are copies of the invoices from the two companies so you can play "spot the difference":





As you can see, they are near-identical except for the apparent company name and address at the top of each. I fail to believe that two independent companies, in supposedly different parts of China, could come up with exactly the same invoice wording for two orders around two months apart.

 

[Samd]

So I have ordered from Greenbikekit on Fri 12th, Order sent yesterday with tracking number, so 18 day leadtime incl weekends.

I sent them an email after the order asking not to increase the freight costs or I would cancel via Paypal.

Interestingly I nominated DHL for the carrier but they switched to EMS at their expense for the extra as they claim DHL increased their cost.

Will wait to see what the delivered quality is like....

 

[Spacey]

Jeremy, I've just placed an order with them as well for a couple of cheap controllers and some freewheels. Hoping I don't get shafted on the customs.

 

[miuan]

I am just debating some BPM spares with Anna @ GBK. They claim being able to order gears, clutches and covers directly from 8fun. Looking forward to new covers for my 2 broken BPMs.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Jeremy, I've just placed an order with them as well for a couple of cheap controllers and some freewheels. Hoping I don't get shafted on the customs.

I had to pay tax and duty on both the order from BMS and the one from GBK. The problem I had was that, because both packages were addressed to a fictitious company, Fedex glitched over accepting the tax and duty payment from a private individual and were insisting that the payment had to come from this fictitious company. All told it's taken me a couple of months to resolve, including getting threatened by a debt collection service...............

The good news is that Fedex now understand the problem (after all the 'phone calls and letters they bloomin' well should) and have, I believe, changed their authorisation process so they will accept a payment from anyone against a particular charge.

 

[cal3thousand]

I did some WHOis searches on the domain names and it seems like they are not directly related (BMSBattery.com and GreenBikeKit.com) OR they did well to conceal that fact.

I easily found that ecitypower.com and bmsbattery.com are related due to the common billing business information. Greenbikekit.com seems to be headquartered in a different area (about 2hrs drive apart). If there were really the same company, I would expect them to share more characteristics. (I could be wrong though)

Here are the 3 pieces of data I looked at:

BMSBattery:


Domain Name ..................... bmsbattery.com
Name Server ..................... ns1.california.net
ns1.oakweb.com
Registrant ID ................... hc993809140-cn
Registrant Name ................. Eve xie
Registrant Organization ......... Eve Xie
Registrant Address .............. Guangzhou,Guangdong,China
Registrant City ................. Guangzhou
Registrant Province/State ....... Guangdong
Registrant Postal Code .......... 510630
Registrant Country Code ......... CN
Registrant Email ................
Administrative ID ............... hc993809140-cn
Administrative Name ............. Eve xie
Administrative Organization ..... Eve Xie
Administrative Address .......... Guangzhou,Guangdong,China
Administrative City ............. Guangzhou
Administrative Province/State ... Guangdong
Administrative Postal Code ...... 510630
Administrative Country Code ..... CN
Administrative Email ............
Billing ID ...................... hichina001-cn
Billing Name .................... hichina
Billing Organization ............ HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Billing Address ................. 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Billing City .................... Beijing
Billing Province/State .......... Beijing
Billing Postal Code ............. 100011
Billing Country Code ............ CN
Billing Email ...................
Technical ID .................... hichina001-cn
Technical Name .................. hichina
Technical Organization .......... HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Technical Address ............... 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Technical City .................. Beijing
Technical Province/State ........ Beijing
Technical Postal Code ........... 100011
Technical Country Code .......... CN
Technical Email .................
Expiration Date ................. 2013-12-19 01:48:38



EcityPower.com:


Domain Name ..................... ecitypower.com
Name Server ..................... dns17.hichina.com
dns18.hichina.com
Registrant ID ................... hc622819967-cn
Registrant Name ................. Ryan xie
Registrant Organization ......... Ecity Power Co., Ltd.
Registrant Address .............. Room 28B,North of RuiHua Building,WuShan Road 267,TianHe,Gua
Registrant City ................. Guangzhou
Registrant Province/State ....... Guangdong
Registrant Postal Code .......... 510630
Registrant Country Code ......... CN
Registrant Email ................ ecitypower@gmail.com
Administrative ID ............... hc622819967-cn
Administrative Name ............. Ryan xie
Administrative Organization ..... Ecity Power Co., Ltd.
Administrative Address .......... Room 28B,North of RuiHua Building,WuShan Road 267,TianHe,Gua
Administrative City ............. Guangzhou
Administrative Province/State ... Guangdong
Administrative Postal Code ...... 510630
Administrative Country Code ..... CN
Administrative Email ............ ecitypower@gmail.com
Billing ID ...................... hichina001-cn
Billing Name .................... hichina
Billing Organization ............ HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Billing Address ................. 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Billing City .................... Beijing
Billing Province/State .......... Beijing
Billing Postal Code ............. 100011
Billing Country Code ............ CN
Billing Email ................... domainadm@hichina.com
Technical ID .................... hichina001-cn
Technical Name .................. hichina
Technical Organization .......... HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Technical Address ............... 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Technical City .................. Beijing
Technical Province/State ........ Beijing
Technical Postal Code ........... 100011
Technical Country Code .......... CN
Technical Email ................. domainadm@hichina.com
Expiration Date ................. 2013-08-13 23:58:46

GreenBikeKit.com


Registrant:
Vincent Wan
No. 104 Baomin 1st Rd, Baoan District
Shenzhen, Guangdong 518133
China

Administrative Contact:
Wan, Vincent mywinson@gmail.com
No. 104 Baomin 1st Rd, Baoan District
Shenzhen, Guangdong 518133
China
+07-552-769-9338

Technical Contact:
Wan, Vincent mywinson@gmail.com
No. 104 Baomin 1st Rd, Baoan District
Shenzhen, Guangdong 518133
China
+07-552-769-9338

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Interesting bit of detective work!

What I don't understand is how these two apparently different companies can send me near identical invoices, with identical spelling mistakes and an identical made-up company name. Compare these two invoices I received:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=93976

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=93977

There has to be an extremely close link between them somewhere. Maybe they are both just selling via the same drop shipper and neither company actually holds any products? That might make sense, as certainly my experience was that BMS hadn't got a clue about what they were selling. I got the distinct impression that they didn't have eny technical knowledge and if they are just a front using a drop shipper then that would make sense, as they probably have never even seen the stuff!

 

[Samd]

Well I received my GBK order. All ok. 19days to AU. They said that shipping did increase but they paid for the extra - good.

I ordered three controllers, all labeled CON61, CON91 and CON121. They look the same as conhismotor controllers.

The difference is that BMS battery claim to sell the KUxxx series of controllers. Well according to their site.

Hmmmm....

 

[cal3thousand]

Interesting bit of detective work!

What I don't understand is how these two apparently different companies can send me near identical invoices, with identical spelling mistakes and an identical made-up company name. Compare these two invoices I received:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=93976

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=93977

There has to be an extremely close link between them somewhere. Maybe they are both just selling via the same drop shipper and neither company actually holds any products? That might make sense, as certainly my experience was that BMS hadn't got a clue about what they were selling. I got the distinct impression that they didn't have eny technical knowledge and if they are just a front using a drop shipper then that would make sense, as they probably have never even seen the stuff!

Are the words in front of "Bike Co" generic, or specific to you, or random?

 

[cal3thousand]

Interesting bit of detective work!

What I don't understand is how these two apparently different companies can send me near identical invoices, with identical spelling mistakes and an identical made-up company name. Compare these two invoices I received:

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=93976

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/download/file.php?id=93977

There has to be an extremely close link between them somewhere. Maybe they are both just selling via the same drop shipper and neither company actually holds any products? That might make sense, as certainly my experience was that BMS hadn't got a clue about what they were selling. I got the distinct impression that they didn't have eny technical knowledge and if they are just a front using a drop shipper then that would make sense, as they probably have never even seen the stuff!

Are the words in front of "Bike Co" generic, or specific to you, or random?

 

[Jeremy Harris]

Are the words in front of "Bike Co" generic, or specific to you, or random?

They are identical on both invoices, and not my name, just a made up company name that used the name of my house (misspelled in the same way) as part of the company name (not wanting to broadcast my whole address was the reason for me editing the images).

The wording of the invoice goods descriptions seems identical and doesn't relate to what either company actually shipped to me (neither order included any controllers, for example).

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes that both GBK and BMS are just agents, who don't hold stock. This, apparently, isn't that unusual in China. It seems that sometimes sellers there don't actually ever own any products to sell, they just act as agents for distributors of manufacturers. We saw the same thing a few years ago with Headway, where the person selling us cells wasn't an employee of Headway, but was an independent agent who collected money from us, took their cut, and then passed the order to Headway for them to ship out cells.

 

[miuan]

I think that's fairly obvious they have little contact with their stuff. See that they both list photos of BPM1 motors while shipping BPM2 for almost a year... with the crucial difference being GBK are actually listening to customers and give a swift email response.

 

[cal3thousand]

Are the words in front of "Bike Co" generic, or specific to you, or random?

They are identical on both invoices, and not my name, just a made up company name that used the name of my house (misspelled in the same way) as part of the company name (not wanting to broadcast my whole address was the reason for me editing the images).

The wording of the invoice goods descriptions seems identical and doesn't relate to what either company actually shipped to me (neither order included any controllers, for example).

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes that both GBK and BMS are just agents, who don't hold stock. This, apparently, isn't that unusual in China. It seems that sometimes sellers there don't actually ever own any products to sell, they just act as agents for distributors of manufacturers. We saw the same thing a few years ago with Headway, where the person selling us cells wasn't an employee of Headway, but was an independent agent who collected money from us, took their cut, and then passed the order to Headway for them to ship out cells.

Seems like a drop-ship type situation

 

[TheBeastie]

I am leaning towards that they probably are in someway the same company, and the most logical explanation for changing web sites it is that maybe too many dissatisfied customers from Bmsbattery are causing them to possibly loose their PayPal account?
This also solves the greenbikekit increased quality of service mystery as they would want they're new setup/reputation to last as long as possible.

I also wouldn't be surprised if its a bit of both if you belive in defection, maybe a frustrated part owner who is hungry for more money etc, gets a new office somewhere where they decided to setup a bit of a carbon copy of the original one to handle more/new business, i think most of us would agree the ebike bike industry and still growing.
With a new website/building site office, carbon copied with a new name etc all you would need is some new staff running the new one and the end result of service can end up being quite different.

 

[Drunkskunk]

Same company. Here's proof.

http://www.ecitypower.com/

Ecity Power Co., Ltd.

We are updating our website now. Regarding of the products purchasing, please email to ecitypower@gmail.com.

And you can visit another website of our company www.bmsbattery.com.

中国大陆客户，请访问：ecity.cn.alibaba.com

Company Name: Ecity Power Co., Ltd
Contact Person: Jack Xie (International Business)
Address: 6th Floor,Ecity Power R&D Center,#1128 Tongda Lu, Laozhuang,Tonghe,Baiyun District,Guangzhou,China
Tel: +86-20-87232823, +86-13318818991
Fax: +86-20-87232811
QQ: 1090296288
EMail: ecitypower@gmail.com
Skype: qqlinkup
Website: http://www.bmsbattery.com

公司名称：广州亿城数码科技有限公司
联系人：Lily Yang （中国大陆业务）
地址: 中国 广州市 白云区 同和老庄 同大路自编1128号 亿城研发中心6楼
电话：+86-20-87232823, +86-13302205681
传真：+86-20-87232811
QQ: 981201192
EMail: ecity168@gmail.com
网址: http://ecity.cn.alibaba.com

 

[d8veh]

BMSBattery and Ecitypower have always been the same company and they've been open about that. As far as I can figure out, Ecitypower buys the stuff and BMSBattery sells it. Where's the link to Greenbike kit.

I just looked at my invoice from Greenbikekit and guess what? It also has a made up company name, which is the name of my street plus "Bike Co", so this is obviously a standard thing that they do, and if the employees defected, then they would copy that practice over to the new company.

When Greenbikekit first started, I got an email from them that said that they knew I was buying stuff from BMSBattery, and that they had stimilar stuff, and perhaps I woul like to try them instead. That wouldn't make sense if they were the same company, so I'm now back to my theory that employees defected.

 

[Jeremy Harris]

BMSBattery and Ecitypower have always been the same company and they've been open about that. As far as I can figure out, Ecitypower buys the stuff and BMSBattery sells it. Where's the link to Greenbike kit.

I just looked at my invoice from Greenbikekit and guess what? It also has a made up company name, which is the name of my street plus "Bike Co", so this is obviously a standard thing that they do, and if the employees defected, then they would copy that practice over to the new company.

When Greenbikekit first started, I got an email from them that said that they knew I was buying stuff from BMSBattery, and that they had stimilar stuff, and perhaps I woul like to try them instead. That wouldn't make sense if they were the same company, so I'm now back to my theory that employees defected.

Except all the spelling mistakes are identical, and these were made long after the supposed split between the two. Having done a bit of digging around as to how these agencies seem to work in China, I'm now absolutely convinced that GBK and BMS are separate agencies, maybe with employees from one that left the other, and that both take orders and deal with the payments for the same drop shipper. This is exactly how some of the big name sellers in China, like Dealextreme, work, so it's no great surprise that ebike component sellers are using the same method. TBH, I should have guessed that this was what was going on earlier, as I bought a Seig minilathe years ago and that was sold via exactly the same method, as were the original Headway cells I bought "direct" around 4 years or so ago now.

 

[MAGICPIE3FOCUSPOWER]

But BMSbattery has nicer stuff :lol: and higher shipping rate

 

[k-harvey]

Fo me here in NZ I've found Greenbike so far have cheaper freight especialy for the BMS's. they could have same owners but in my buying a 4S BMS only bmsbattery have them not GBK & they know i'm buying one off BesTechpower.co.ltd who I recomend.(manfacturer-not trader) Who i Will buy off next.BMS's only though.