AliExpress scamminess?

[Connecteur]

I've got the opposite problem. I ordered some leads back in March, and as they had not arrived in May, filed a claim and got my money back. They actually turned up today - I suppose transportation is seriously disrupted by covid, and its hardly the seller's fault. I now have to figure out how I can reopen my order to give the seller his money.

Same thing happened to me, more or less.  But in my case they didn't want the money, only a good review.

[fixy88]

I've got the opposite problem. I ordered some leads back in March, and as they had not arrived in May, filed a claim and got my money back. They actually turned up today - I suppose transportation is seriously disrupted by covid, and its hardly the seller's fault. I now have to figure out how I can reopen my order to give the seller his money.

I've had this happen where it turned up eventually after a refund - what the seller and I arranged was to buy the item again but not actually ship it.

[ralphrmartin]

Happened to me 3 times so far (all for low cost items). One said "keep it as a gift", one I sent money to personally, and the other one showed me a dummy item to purchase for the same price.

[Connecteur]

If near-misses are any indication, my experience tells me that dealing with Ali-Express is a risky proposition.

[ralphrmartin]

I guess one recurring problem is mis-description.

Sometimes it's quite deliberate - there's a blatant spec war (e.g. battery capacity, magnification of lenses, light output of torches, etc.) - then it pays to figure out what a sensible rating is for the item, and avoid anything which has an implausibly high rating.  The sellers rely on the average customer never testing the rating. Sometimes even the quantity supplied is wrongly described, which is not too hard to spot...

Sometimes it is just bad translation - e.g. I was looking for an air duster to blow dust off. Lots of things described as dusters or even blowers actually suck rather than blow. I suspect there is no deliberate attempt to mislead here, just poor grasp of English, copying other people's descriptions, etc. Again, check carefully what you are getting (e.g. use Google image search etc to find the item for sale elsewhere, see if a better description is given).

The other thing, as others have said, is be realistic with quality expected vis-a-vis the price - it may be somewhat lower than the EU or US, but you are not going to get e.g. precision manufactured tools at pound shop prices. The advantage is greatest for light, low cost items that are very cheap to post, and in the UK, if the total is under £18, attract no import duty.

So, with the usual buyer beware, and making sure you know what to expect, I've been generally satisfied. When things did not work out (failed to arrive, arrive broken because of poor packaging, or not up to spec), either the seller has fixed things up or refunded me, or in extremis, AliExpress has given me a refund.

The main downside is having to wait up to a couple of months (and longer with covid) for delivery.

[HobGoblyn]

I used Ali Express for the first time on 15th May

Ordered 5 different things.

2 arrived on 27th May

4 days ago I got an email about the 3rd now being in the country, it was delivered the following day.

Still waiting for the other two but not concerned, it's only been 22 days, I was expecting 4 to 6 weeks

Third item arrived fine

Today my fourth item arrived.

A couple of days ago I got an email saying my 5th item had been dispatched.

So while it might take a while, so far everything with them has been fine and items exactly as described.

[MarkR42]

I've never had the sellers outright scam me.

I ordered 5pcs of a dev board once, and only 4 arrived, but I wasn't too bothered because they were cheap and I didn't really need all 5.

[MarkMLl]

I did some considerable research on which brand of lithium 18650 cells to buy, and PKCell was the best result.  I researched the sellers and ordered a quantity of them at a good price.  When they arrived, they were obviously fakes, weighing much less than a regular cell, and delivering a fraction of the capacity.

I've got a chunky Chinese torch which looks like it should take 4x 18650s... but half the space is taken up by a nicely-cut piece of basalt.

There are some things that I'd never buy from anywhere that can't issue me a proper certificate of conformity, and batteries are one of them.

The Chinese manufacturers can be naive, quite simply not appreciating the importance of making stuff properly and testing it. But if you want to be maliciously ripped off, try dealing with the Indian "reproduction scientific instrument" manufacturers.

MarkMLl

[dreamcat4]

I am guessing that for the case of li-ion batteries specifically, it might make a sense to try to order direct from the manufacturer. But you would probably have to put in a much larger order, several hundred USD's worth.

For other items - yeah the shipping speed has been varying substantially between items. BTW you can often select 1 of 2-3 different budget air freight method. And the cheapest shipping options definitely don't have proper tracking. Which then makes it a lot harder to know if that package has been held up or been lost. YMMV.

[tooki]

I mostly use the “AliExpress standard shipping”. It has some kind of tracking, IIRC.

[MarkMLl]

I am guessing that for the case of li-ion batteries specifically, it might make a sense to try to order direct from the manufacturer. But you would probably have to put in a much larger order, several hundred USD's worth.

Get 'em from RS or Farnell (not CPC), or AllBatteries if they're anywhere as good as they used to be, and request a Certificate of Conformity.

No traceability == no order.

MarkMLl

[chegueva01]

I'v been buying off ali from 2013 and i have never had any issues , just the typical order not arrived but i always get my money back through a dispute.
I'v read on reddit though , the scams happen through messages , when a buyer doesn't receive an item and opens a dispute , some sellers talk the buyer out of keeping the dispute and promise them to give back money or send another item if they cancel order , some stupid people ( sorry) do that and kaboom money gone , seller will never reply again.

So be vigilant and never trust what sellers say.

[aix]

I mostly use the “AliExpress standard shipping”. It has some kind of tracking, IIRC.

I'm under the impression that "AliExpress standard shipping" orders are fulfilled by Ali.  This would mean more consistency around shipping methods, tracking & timelines compared to other shipping methods.  This has certainly been my experience.

I have no insight into how Ali operates, but I'm guessing if orders are indeed fulfilled by them from their warehouses, there are fewer opportunities for a dishonest or unreliable seller to play games with the buyer.  (This is speculation on my part.)

I personally buy from Ali a lot, and have had a vanishingly small number of issues.

[Connecteur]

Cheap and shoddy imported goods is an old and familiar refrain.  There was once a time when such an accusation was leveled at Japan.  Going back far enough, in the 19th century, Europeans were complaining about "cheap and shoddy" goods being made in America.

[cliffyk]

Not specifically an AliExpress, ebay or Amazon issue, however i have given up ordering anything that has an estimated delivery time of more than two weeks. The instances i have been screwed over have all involved things with 4 to 6 week quoted deliveries...