Unless there is a significant financiel saving, or its an item you simply can't get through local sale vendor, don't use Aliexpress..
It's mind-bending the amount of rancid sellers I encounter there, and how misguided the Aliexpress dispute system is, to the point of encouraging scammers.
* Empty packages.
* Packages that hold something else, often something of no value whatsoever, and where it is obviously the seller is speculating in shipping that instead
* Put in fake trackingnumber from somebody else in your country, so Aliexpress own crude tracking check (or if you look it up yourself) it will look like it's on its way to your country.
The last one (*fake tracking numbers) I experienced it as late as yesterday.
Purchased a small item at the start of February [8US) with a long shipping delay from the CN New Year lunar, and the seller kept saying he wanted more money, and I should go to some newly added shipping purchase listing, and purchase xx amount (of shipping) before he would ship it.. more or less hold your "purchase" as ransom.
https://aliexpress.com/item/1005006008858941.html?But that ain't viable for people in Europe, as 1# you ain't covered by that extra expense, and 2# you will also pay VAT of that and something many sellers don't understand, not least all the ones that try to pay-you-back and wanna go outside of Aliexpress system, so the Aliexpress system doesn't hurt their store "rep" with disputes.
Yesterday 23-2-2024 the seller acted like he had shipped my item, by putting in a trackingnumber' that at first glance looks all fine & dandy in the Aliexpress tracking system, but when you then check that trackingnumber on sites that gives more detail, - it's an old used one from more than a month ago (January) from "Germany to Denmark" to somebody called Brian Andersen postalcode 9310, so the other side of the country.
https://parcelsapp.com/en/tracking/LP00623752145032They have an internal back catalog of tracking-numbers they can scam to circumvent the aspect of not shipping a purchased item inside the shipping deadline, which otherwise would hurt their Aliexpress account as then the transaction will just be annulled, so its a win-win to scam with somebody else's tracking, as (A) they will either keep the money and not delivering anything, or (B) just accept a given dispute when the buyer realizes it's a fake tracking number.
Certainly something one needs to have in mind when dealing with sites like Aliexpress.. there is a lot of good honest sellers (like most places) but China is also one of the most corrupt countries on the globe
https://images.indianexpress.com/2014/12/pti12_3_2014_000046b_kuma.jpg - and the norm I often take for granted when dealing with stores & sellers, vary a lot there.
If it's an expensive item, and you can get it locally with not much mockup, it makes absolutely no sense to use sites like Aliexpress, - purchase it locally where you have support & often 2-year warranty or some aspect of it.