I bought this tripod to video a couple of conferences. It's cheap, and very good value for money. It isn't a fully professional tripod by any means, but it's not bad. My main complaint is that the centre column is rather wobbly unless locked tight. Apart from that it's not bad - reasonably smooth in pan and tilt, reasonably light, reasonably sturdy, and generally pretty effective. It isn't the smoothest, lightest, or sturdiest, but, well it's often said that you get what you pay for. I think this one goes a bit better than that, and is, as I say, excellent value for money. If you're on a budget I doubt if you can buy a much better tripod at anything like as good a price as this.
Oh, and the locking plate fitted OK on my one. Maybe they've fixed it.