AllExpress's Latest Scam Stunt?

[Chris56000]

. . .Is it just customers in the UK are affected by AliExpress's latest Scam Stunt or is it Global?

. . .I wanted a 7" monitor for my project table to examine the output from a faulty 1980s CCD camera I have for repair, one came up for £20 and "free shipping" in clearly visible, if not large, green lettering – only trouble is, now, when you go to checkout it says "Add £8 for Free Shipping!" and you CAN'T (well I can't see a way to!) checkout the item without having to buy £8–worth (the amount does vary from order to order) of other stuff I might not need to the order, that'll only end up getting buried at home if I don't use it, or them, straightaway!

. . .Has anyone found a way round this, do the Chinese hate our trade so much they have to start pulling unfair stunts like this now? I estimate it's been going on for approx. 6 months now!

. . .Could I report AliExpress for misleading advertising or is that just a waste of time and effort?

. . .Would I be any better with Temu, or aren't Temu setup to supply test equipment, semiconductors, etc. etc?

. .  It is only fair to add tho'  that the 7" monitor (with compulsory extras added!) arrived today, I only ordered it last Wednesday the 24th!

Chris Williams

PS!

. . .I agree I could stock–up on cheap tools, consumables or small components, etc., for these "compulsory extra add–on charges", but unfortunately I don't always need bag–fuls of extras with an order unless I'm specifically repairing something, and as far as it goes, I might just as well buy from eBay if these charges wipe out any saving over eBay prices!

[themadhippy]

wouldnt call it a scam,more taking  advantage of the stupid and it certainly aint just AliExpress,open yer eyes and ears and you'll spot plenty of similar examples of spend x  to get y free.

[Chris56000]

I wouldnt call it a scam,more taking  advantage of the stupid and it certainly aint just AliExpress,open yer eyes and ears and you'll spot plenty of similar examples of spend x  to get y free.

. . .I'm certainly well aware of this practice as it's on my friend's telly with JML and all the rest of the advertiser's, etc., every day, the first point I make is that it IS NOT MADE CLEAR UNTIL CHECKOUT that you will have to add "£x"–worth of extras to your order, and how do I know if I order the same monitor with "£8 Shipping" that the same isn't going to be done with an item whose shipping IS charged for?

. . .I should add I have bought dozens and dozens of items, varying from small components to pieces of T & M costing over £250 from AliExpress in the past 7 years, and before this practice started appearing, I could filter items for "Free Shipping" and it WAS that, occasionally VAT and import duties got added after despatch for some of the expensive T & M, but I would expect that as it's not directly in AliExpress's control!

. . .The second point I make is that "Free Shipping" should be exactly that – eBay have a related trick where if you look items you might be interested in up on Google, etc., there's numerous items listed "Free Shipping" at the bottom of the picture, except it's only in the U.S. Mainland – (shipping 3 figures to U.K. or "Ask Seller For A Postage Quote!"), and you have to check the listing to find out that, but at least with eBay you can simply ignore that listing and look elsewhere!

. . .eBay/Google should be made to add a country flag symbol in the corner so anyone can see where the advertised item is located – that is another blatant case of misleading advertising!

[sparkydonkey]

I'm correctly guessing that the opposite of Aliexpress could be Staples.ca (just for one example I knew was present now) which helpfully says "Free Shipping on Orders Over $35*. Order before 3pm for next-day delivery. Learn more" as a small banner at the very top

[brucehoult]

I'm not sure what the problem is here.

First of all: this is not Aliexpress but one of the tens of thousands of individual vendors using Aliexpress as a storefront.

Second: shipping is obviously, in the real world, not in fact free. "Free shipping" just means it's built in to the prices.  A while back I bought a car media player thingy with a big LCD screen and an FM transmitter for audio and Apple Carplay and Android Auto compatibility. Half the Aliexpress shops with clearly the same unit had it for $50 with free shipping and half had it for $30 plus $20 shipping.

Third: it's very common to have a minimum order value to get "free" shipping. e.g. IIRC Mouser and Digikey both offer free shipping (to NZ) on orders over $50. Amazon have a similar thing on certain products, I guess for ones which they keep stock of in their own warehouses rather than being dispatched by the vendor.

[SiliconWizard]

Yes there is no "free" shipping on AliEx, especially since shipping has become significantly more expensive, even from China, in the last few years.
A lot of items are indeed priced differently depending on the seller and some have free shipping with higher prices, and conversely.

"Free" shipping can attract buyers that think they'll have a good deal. The seller will compensate in the price of the item.
OTOH, some sellers (has been very common on eBay although they claim they have been fighting that) offer low prices for the items with a high shipping fee. The overall price is the same, but they'll pay less fees to the platform. While eBay has become relatively strict with that, it's still very common on AliEx.

[Randy222]

Can the same item be found on Amazon haul?

I found an interesting "scam" on Amazon. 1st, login, then place a typical chinesium item in your cart, browse some products, go to cart, remove the item, then browse into the Haul section. I often find that same item that was just removed from cart as showing up in page 1-to-2 of Haul with a very reduced price. Yeah, Haul is a "add just $more for free shipping"........  "scam".

[SiliconWizard]

I see a lot of items sold on Amazon that obviously come from China and except for the larger sellers, most are probably buying from AliEx and reselling for a markup. Yes I see completely identical items sold on Amazon and on Aliex - sellers on Amazon often apply large markup. +100% is common, but it can go up to +200 or +300%. And that's relative to prices per 1! If they buy in bulk via AliEx or Alibaba, the markup can probably be as high as +1000% or more for the cheap items.