Alternative to Aliexpress with better invoicing?

[Whales]

Aliexpress:
 - Displays a cart's total in AUD, complete with GST
 - Charges my card in AUD.
 - Issues me dozens of invoices in a mixture of USD and Chinese Yuan, with no exchange rates, so you guess at how it multiplies and adds up to the total.

Question: Is there a similar chinese marketplace/greymarket that does better invoicing?  Ie gives you an invoice that matches the amount charged to your card?



Whilst I'm here:

(1) I think Alix might now handle almost all warehousing and shipping for the "choice" items, because they come with identical labels regardless of which seller they're from.  This could mean many "sellers" are paperwork companies that externalise financial risk from Alix and scrape a small profit margin in return.  Dunno.

(2) Finding bulk items seems to be harder.  Eg I wanted to buy a lot of dupont 2.54 jumper wires, but it seems the biggest batches available are 120pcs (3x40) and it looks like shipping costs might be getting backed into the base price more often.  Doesn't help that they keep making their search worse.

[nctnico]

Amazon

You can find the same items from Aliexpress on Amazon as well.

[pcprogrammer]

Guess you are on the wrong continent. 

On the invoices that I get from Aliexpress the base amount can differ from the currency I paid with, but the final amount and the tax is mentioned in euros.

See the attached invoices. I removed the privacy sensitive information of course.

[Whales]

Woah those are awesome.  Screw it, I'm moving to the Netherlands.

Here's what mine look like in Australia.

* Doesn't use the word "Tax Invoice", just "NOTICE"
* The "GST platform number" isn't an ABN, I can't find info about it.
* There is nothing more beyond what I have screenshotted. Doesn't have my name, address or any other info.

Would you mind posting the URL that Aliex gives you to generate these?  Just out of curiosity to see if they use a completely different service or if it's all in one and they could toggle a setting if they wanted to.

For me it is https://trade.aliexpress.com/ajax/invoice/invoiceExportAjax.htm?invoiceId=NUMBER&orderId=ANOTHERNUMBER

[Whales]

Amazon

You can find the same items from Aliexpress on Amazon as well.

Doh.  Have not tried them yet.  Will do.

I have avoided them because of their nasty business model and practices, but I now realise that Alix isn't that different.

[thm_w]

(2) Finding bulk items seems to be harder.  Eg I wanted to buy a lot of dupont 2.54 jumper wires, but it seems the biggest batches available are 120pcs (3x40) and it looks like shipping costs might be getting backed into the base price more often.  Doesn't help that they keep making their search worse.

Their search is always bad, this listing has 120pc for $3-4 free shipping: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003641187997.html
Is that really too expensive for you?

[pcprogrammer]

Would you mind posting the URL that Aliex gives you to generate these?  Just out of curiosity to see if they use a completely different service or if it's all in one and they could toggle a setting if they wanted to.

There is no direct link. I have a button "Factuur downloaden" which directly downloads the pdf file to my disk and opens it in another tab.

Would have to dive into the javascript to find the actual method used to get to the file.

Edit: I tried your link with the numbers found on one of my invoices, but it results in an error message.

[Whales]

Same for me.  It's still being fetched with a plain HTTP GET behind the scenes, I found the URL by right-clicking the downloaded item in Firefox's download manager and selecting "Copy Download Link".

On further investigation it looks like the cookies could also might be relevant.  I found this using the Network tab of Firefox's page debugging tool (right click page -> Inspect (Q) -> Network Tab, then download the Invoice on Alix)

Code: [Select]

set-cookie	xman_us_f=x_locale=en_US&x_l=0&last_popup_time=snip&x_user=AU|snip|snip|ifm|snip&no_popup_today=n&x_lid=ausnip&x_c_chg=snip&acs_rt=snip; Domain=.aliexpress.com; Expires=Tue snip GMT; Path=/

I wouldn't use an invoice made by editing the request to pretend to be a different country (that's legally dubious because you have arguably altered the invoice, similar to writing a fake one yourself); but it would be hilarious if that is all that is needed for them to issue you a proper invoice.

[kripton2035]

for me same items between amazon and ali, amazon is almost always more expensive...

[pcprogrammer]

I looked at the download link like you wrote, and the base is indeed the same. Why it resulted in an error probably has to do with the InvoiceId being a different number then what is written on the actual invoice as "Invoice No:"

With the correct numbers it gets the same invoice again.

Seems like, here in Europe, it is handled differently than in down under.

[nctnico]

I looked at the download link like you wrote, and the base is indeed the same. Why it resulted in an error probably has to do with the InvoiceId being a different number then what is written on the actual invoice as "Invoice No:"

With the correct numbers it gets the same invoice again.

Seems like, here in Europe, it is handled differently than in down under.

Yes, but you have to note that the invoices you have posted show the French VAT tariff instead of the Dutch VAT tariff so the Aliexpress invoice ain't 100% kosher either.

[SiliconWizard]

for me same items between amazon and ali, amazon is almost always more expensive...

Not only are they usually 2 to 3 times more expensive on Amazon, but you can find only a very, very small fraction of the items that are available on Aliexpress. That's certainly not a replacement.

[pcprogrammer]

I looked at the download link like you wrote, and the base is indeed the same. Why it resulted in an error probably has to do with the InvoiceId being a different number then what is written on the actual invoice as "Invoice No:"

With the correct numbers it gets the same invoice again.

Seems like, here in Europe, it is handled differently than in down under.

Yes, but you have to note that the invoices you have posted show the French VAT tariff instead of the Dutch VAT tariff so the Aliexpress invoice ain't 100% kosher either.

But that is correct since I live in France. I use the member country flag to show that I'm Dutch. Not that I'm a nationalist, but there are cultural differences and these might show in my writing.

The fact that I live in France can be seen in my profile, where the location states "France".