For those of you who like to use aliexpress...

[pcprogrammer]

how much of aliexpress is just scams? try a search for electric bikes and you get pages of obvious scams with bikes selling from EU/US warehouse for less than half what the battery alone would cost with free shipping,  if they have any reviews it is people that got a fake tracking number and nothing else

It depends on who you buy from, if you're getting it from something like "$brandname Official Store" then it's likely legit, if it's Store1376326482 at half the price of the (likely) official store then who knows what you'll get.

Not always the case, but it can be an indicator. This shop poses as somewhat official, but I doubt it to be true. I bought these batteries and assessed them to be fakes. The one review there is mine. 

[ballsystemlord]

Well, at least their canned responses are generic. I really liked the "you really have a point" one, it totally felt sincere.

A: I know how you feel about this issue and I totally agree with you.
B: I assure you that I understand your concerns and support you on this issue.

Trying to decide which canned response to give you. How do these tech support people do it?

But really, it's sad how many of these companies read from a script. It makes it both easy and hard for the tech support and is meaningless to the customer in as much as such messages are insincere.

[KungFuJosh]

The funny part is you know they're just clicking responses from a few choices. They don't even need to type out the bullshit.

[5U4GB]

It depends on who you buy from, if you're getting it from something like "$brandname Official Store" then it's likely legit, if it's Store1376326482 at half the price of the (likely) official store then who knows what you'll get.

Not always the case, but it can be an indicator. This shop poses as somewhat official, but I doubt it to be true. I bought these batteries and assessed them to be fakes. The one review there is mine. 

Ah, good point, buying from "$widely-faked-battery-brand Store" could be a bit of a gamble.  I was thinking more vendors of electronic devices who often link to their stores from their web site or vice versa, or for which there's only one "Official Store" branded store which is likely the real deal.  ComWinTop and CDEbyte are examples of this.

Drifting off topic, I'd never buy 18650s off a random Aliexpress store unless info on it came from somewhere like candlepowerforums or budgetlightforums, those guys spend a lot of time sorting the wheat from the chaff and will post links to legit stores and sellers.  Alternatively, if possible find a local seller who posts legit capacities and charge/discharge curves where you know you're getting the real deal.

[pcprogrammer]

[Drifting off topic, I'd never buy 18650s off a random Aliexpress store unless info on it came from somewhere like candlepowerforums or budgetlightforums, those guys spend a lot of time sorting the wheat from the chaff and will post links to legit stores and sellers.  Alternatively, if possible find a local seller who posts legit capacities and charge/discharge curves where you know you're getting the real deal.

And that is what I did after searching on this forum. 

I found this store in the Netherlands: https://www.nkon.nl/fr/rechargeable.html

Bought 26 of the VTC4 for the same price per cell, including shipping, as the ones on Aliexpress. Expect them within a couple of days and have to see if they are good. According to the shop sales person they are genuine.

[5U4GB]

Oh, and for some of the other neat things you can get on Aliexpress, who could be without one of these useful devices?  The "Related Items" section lists many more vendors selling the same thing.

There are comments for some of the other items from people complaining that they couldn't buy these from anywhere other than China for some reason.

[PlainName]

who could be without one of these useful devices?

No idea - can't see what it is. Not available in my location, apparently, whatever it is.

[pcprogrammer]

who could be without one of these useful devices?

No idea - can't see what it is. Not available in my location, apparently, whatever it is.

I can see it briefly before a 404 message comes up. It looks like a cable with two male connectors at each end. If not mistaken American power plugs. 

[ballsystemlord]

who could be without one of these useful devices?

No idea - can't see what it is. Not available in my location, apparently, whatever it is.

I can see it briefly before a 404 message comes up. It looks like a cable with two male connectors at each end. If not mistaken to American power plugs. 

That's exactly what it is. The original comment is quite funny.

[5U4GB]

Ah, didn't realise it wouldn't be visible from some countries.  It's a power cord with plugs on both ends, more commonly known as a suicide cord.

[ralphrmartin]

One of our CS research students seriously burnt himself with a cable like this, that he made himself. Our health and safety bods started parading it as an example of why students (and staff)  should always get a qualified electrician to do any electrical work, until they found out that the student did have such a qualification from a previous employment.

[ballsystemlord]

One of our CS research students seriously burnt himself with a cable like this, that he made himself. Our health and safety bods started parading it as an example of why students (and staff)  should always get a qualified electrician to do any electrical work, until they found out that the student did have such a qualification from a previous employment.

My father, who works in a different field, sometimes has to walk the electricians through the job they're doing for him. It's scary how little these guys know sometimes.

[langwadt]

One of our CS research students seriously burnt himself with a cable like this, that he made himself. Our health and safety bods started parading it as an example of why students (and staff)  should always get a qualified electrician to do any electrical work, until they found out that the student did have such a qualification from a previous employment.

My father, who works in a different field, sometimes has to walk the electricians through the job they're doing for him. It's scary how little these guys know sometimes.

that someone passed a test doesn't necessarily mean they understood any of it

[nvmR]

Well to be honest it can be used safely, just people don't know how.
It is used to connect a generator to the power grid of your home, without a transfer switch. Not great judgement, but a working solution sometimes.

[PlainName]

Unless you pull the master breaker on your home it's surely asking for a big bang when power comes back, so a transfer switch should be the only way to connect up a generator. Further, with the suicide cable, you don't know which end is live - could be either and will vary.

[nigelwright7557]

how much of aliexpress is just scams? try a search for electric bikes and you get pages of obvious scams with bikes selling from EU/US warehouse for less than half what the battery alone would cost with free shipping,  if they have any reviews it is people that got a fake tracking number and nothing else

I got caught out with Ali Express when my account got hacked.
It seems Ali Express store your card CVV number so its not required at checkout !
I got £300 worth of gear bought on my card.
Luckily I spotted it quickly and notified my bank and got it refunded.

[langwadt]

Unless you pull the master breaker on your home it's surely asking for a big bang when power comes back,

or electrocute the guy working on fixing the power lines

[rhodges]

I think the generator would quit when you try to make it feed your neighborhood.

[langwadt]

I think the generator would quit when you try to make it feed your neighborhood.

sure, unless you are the only one on that line or your neighbors have disconnected

[PlainName]

I think the generator would quit when you try to make it feed your neighborhood.

There would be contention between supplies since they would be out of phase. The generator would, of course, lose but it wouldn't do so quietly or carefully.

[themadhippy]

Well to be honest it can be used safely,

There is no way a widow maker can be  safe, ever.Even if you disconnect the incoming supply whats to stop someone unplugging it and copping the full generator output

[ballsystemlord]

how much of aliexpress is just scams? try a search for electric bikes and you get pages of obvious scams with bikes selling from EU/US warehouse for less than half what the battery alone would cost with free shipping,  if they have any reviews it is people that got a fake tracking number and nothing else

I got caught out with Ali Express when my account got hacked.
It seems Ali Express store your card CVV number so its not required at checkout !
I got £300 worth of gear bought on my card.
Luckily I spotted it quickly and notified my bank and got it refunded.

I'm glad you didn't loose money on that.

If it makes a difference to you, the only site which asks each time for my CVV is newegg.com . It's rare for websites to ask for it.

[5U4GB]

I got caught out with Ali Express when my account got hacked.
It seems Ali Express store your card CVV number so its not required at checkout !
I got £300 worth of gear bought on my card.
Luckily I spotted it quickly and notified my bank and got it refunded.

Unless you're buying stuff there every day and need the convenience, never store your credit card details with vendors where PCI-DSS is more a guideline than a requirement and/or where authorisation to use it is nothing more than username+password at initial sign-on.  The only online sites I've given my CC details to are eBay (via PayPal) and Amazon, both protected with 2FA.

[PlainName]

A reasonable wheeze is to use a card with limited funds. Many nowadays let you have either a ring-fenced sub-account where you can only spend what you put in, and some even let you create a new card just for the purpose of a single purchase. Doesn't matter if it's hacked - if you only put in £20 for a £19 sale, the worst they can do is take the last £1.