For all of the excitement surrounding the Retroid Pocket Nova, some have been met with disappointment when their packages arrived. Over the past few weeks, there have been an increasing number of reports of folks opening the packaging for what’s supposed to be the Pocket Nova, only to be met with nothing. Not that there the package isn’t actually there, but that the device has been stolen and the packaging re-sealed.
There seem to be a couple of commonalities with the onslaught of Pocket Nova’s that have been disappearing. The first is apparently when the shipment passes through Chicago when shipped via YunExpress. The seems to be related to GOFO, is a third-party “package delivery service,” which operates differently than Amazon or the U.S. Postal Service.
Here are the list of posts that we’ve been alerted to so far:
- Box arrived but no device inside
- RP Nova missing in package
- Another Nova Missing
- My Nova was stolen
- Nova Stolen from Box
And there’s an ongoing thread over at the Retroid subreddit that’s being used to provide “documented instances.”
In one instance, someone shared a picture that was sent to them as proof of delivery by GOFO. However, the image showed that the first layer of packaging tape had been cut, and a second layer of tape was applied.
Making matters more murky, no pun intended, are additional reports of people who are receiving their packages from Retroid, only to find them water-damaged. In both cases, the devices were still in the packaging, however, one of them had buttons that weren’t functional. With the other, it’s said that “the Classic seems to be unharmed but I don’t trust it won’t have issues.”
Part of the problem, at least for the time being, is that Retroid (and other Chinese-based companies) are currently on holiday. This started last week and runs until October 8, leaving some folks without much ability to get answers. We reached out to our Retroid representative, and were told that the feedback will be provided to Retroid’s “shipping contractor when we are back from National day holiday (10/8).”
In the meantime, there are a few different courses of action that you can take if you are affected by either a stolen device or one that’s been water damaged. No matter, be sure to reach out to Retroid, if not to at least put the problem on their radar. You might also have some way to get your money back depending on how you paid for your device, whether it be through PayPal, via your Bank, or credit card company.
This is a situation that we’ll be monitoring and keeping track of moving forward, and will provide an update once we have more information. Let us know in the comments whether you’ve been affected by these issues.
