AliExpress scamminess?

[Connecteur]

Lately, I've been hearing from friends about all the scams that are happening on AliExpress.  Mis-shipping, non-shipping, issuing phony order numbers etc.  I went there looking to look at wireless earbuds, and I see scores of them priced in the sub-five dollar range.  Something is obviously wrong there, and I wouldn't want to buy from AliExpress until they cleaned up their act, like Ebay had to do years ago.

Anyone else had problems?

[ataradov]

Never. I've only had positive experiences with AliExpress.  But I generally don't buy stuff that is too good to be true. But if something is available from many sellers and it is a prevailing price, then it is probably a real deal. Just don't expect great quality from it, you get what you pay for.

[aix]

I buy from AliExpress a lot.  I'd say around 1-2% of my orders run into any sort of issues (excluding poor packaging, which happens a little bit more frequently than I'd like).  I've never had an issue that could not be resolved either directly with the seller or by escalating to AliExpress.  Both are rare and I've not had a single writeoff.

I do pay a lot of attention to whom I'm buying from, but do not shy away from new (to me) suppliers if they look reputable.

That said, quality can indeed be hard to judge from afar but it does tend to correlate with price.

[capacitor_explosion]

I have a lot of purchases from aliexpress .Non of them were scams . My tactic is always buy logical purchases and not  "its like they are giving it away for free"  and always on my number 1 list  , buy the most popular choice among the other products  .

[jfiresto]

From a couple weeks ago: China Manufacturing Risks are Sky-High Right Now. Act Accordingly

[bingo600]

I have not have more issues on Ali vs *bay ... Actually less i think.
That said i'm still waiting on stuff ordered late feb 2020, never had that long delivery time before. Must be Corona related.
If i make a dispute due to package not arriving, i get a refund wo. problems.

For the last year or so i have chosen Alimail as shipping, costs a bit more but i get the package within approx 3 weeks.

Order while it lasts ... AFAIK EU is ending (2021) the "low limit" where customs doesn't have to be involved ($11 in DK) , for all NON EU shipments.
That means +23$ in VAT handling (to DK mail) + 25% vat ... for even a 1$ usb cable , where the vat would 0.25$ to the State.

/Bingo

[Connecteur]

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.

[tooki]

Never. I've only had positive experiences with AliExpress.  But I generally don't buy stuff that is too good to be true. But if something is available from many sellers and it is a prevailing price, then it is probably a real deal. Just don't expect great quality from it, you get what you pay for.

My experiences totally mirror this.

[bateau020]

Order while it lasts ... AFAIK EU is ending (2021) the "low limit" where customs doesn't have to be involved ($11 in DK) , for all NON EU shipments.
That means +23$ in VAT handling (to DK mail) + 25% vat ... for even a 1$ usb cable , where the vat would 0.25$ to the State.

See https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/modernising-vat-cross-border-ecommerce_en and https://www.webretailer.com/b/european-ecommerce-vat/#The_2021_VAT_ecommerce_package
It will be July 2021. AFAIK 2 options will be available for those that play by the rules and do not use the "no commercial value" trick.
The limit seems to be 22 EUR now, as reported by various places. My experience tells me that a lot of parcels with higher a value got through without problems, so it remains to be seen how this will turn out.

[uer166]

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'm about to order a few hundred PKCell 18650s. What seller did you buy from, was it the official PKCell store?

[ebclr]

" scams that are happening on AliExpress.  Mis-shipping, non-shipping, issuing phony order numbers etc."

Don't worry Aliexpress is safe is always on the buyer's side, The side on risk there is always on the seller, only extremely fools buyers are scammed, the system protects the buyer. The most you will lose is time on your money until a refund comes. I made  1280 orders have very few issues, ( including the ones on the David Calibrator scam ), but all problems are refunded, all things that didn't work was replaced or returned.

The only thing does not expect nothing branded to be original, will be " similar copies"  with some exceptions, Even the so-called fake ic's is not a huge problem, must will work,  and will fail only if you really need the boundaries of the specs.

It's  reasonable that you know what are you paying for, Don't expect milagres

[thm_w]

I had no serious issues with alix for years. But lately I've seen a few highly rated sellers give me fake tracking numbers and lie about shipping items out. There was another thread where this was discussed recently, I think due to logistics issues shipping rates shot way up, so if they ship the part they will lose money or know its going to take too long to arrive. Normally you'd just cancel the order as a seller, but in this case they are playing games for some reason..

Ali is refunding easily for now, but we will see. The issue is I have to wait for delivery time to run out before disputing. Its possible to contact CS and report it that way, if you want to spend the time.

I've completely moved to taobao where none of these logistics issues exist (shipping within china is crazy fast). Oddly some popular stuff is actually cheaper on Alix.
This seems to only be a problem for Canada and maybe a few others, as I can see sellers are still shipping items to various countries after my item was purchased.

[ebclr]

Taobao is much better and risker than aliexpress, But is more centered on the internal China market only,  very few vendors ship internationally or have a way to receive your money or even speak anything that is not Chinese. You can buy from sure with the help of a China agent ( will charge you a commission on that )  but in this way all the risks are on you.

I would resume Aliexpress more expensive, more  filtered, more export centered,

Taobao extremely cheap, very wide options, very agile,  you will find anything from original 1st quality gods to stolen or refurbish things, Chinese sense of acceptable quality  is quite lower than westerns sense. But you need some help from someone on china side, You can't handle that if you are not Chinese


We also must consider that we are in " COVID " mode none of the logistics are working as usual

[rsjsouza]

The only real problem with Aliexpress was with Dave's calibrator scam as well. Everything else arrived quite well.
I don't order that much, though.

[floobydust]

AliExpress stores/vendors were barely tolerable. About 1/3 of my purchases have been ripoffs. Goods are defective, parcels never arrive, and the usual runaround where you can't communicate with anyone because it's copy-pasta gibberish. Fake tracking numbers, or partial like "hand over to airline". Items under $5? are not covered by Buyer Protection so you will never see those parcels.  This is about the seller's lack of integrity.

It's much worse now with the pandemic, if you can believe it.
Now, sellers are procrastinating shipping so you can order, then weeks later still have no shipping notice. Latest is I'm getting "shipment cancelled by seller", weeks after the order.

AliExpress website software really needs improvement and some might say it's designed to rip you off.

There's no way to request a seller combine shipping without first paying and getting an order number.
Sorting by price does not include shipping costs, and the game is jack up the price but say "free shipping".
Mysteriously, dates get pushed back (i.e. when an order will be closed).
It will give status as "Awaiting Item Receipt" but a mouse click it changes to "Shipment cancelled by seller".
Buyers can leave feedback about you, but sellers cannot view this information, welcome to the "black list".
Everyday, searching for the same part will give results excluding some stores or adding others. But going to the store you can find the part, so why did it get dropped from search results given to you days before?
Everyday, the item picture that you ordered gets changed. So now it's the older cheaper version of what they baited you with.

It's really frustrating and I think I'm done with the bullshit. You just waste months waiting for nothing and projects die waiting or from crappy parts.
Right now shipping logistics have collapsed from china and they can't be forthright about any of it.

[thm_w]

Taobao is much better and risker than aliexpress, But is more centered on the internal China market only,  very few vendors ship internationally or have a way to receive your money or even speak anything that is not Chinese. You can buy from sure with the help of a China agent ( will charge you a commission on that )  but in this way all the risks are on you.

I would resume Aliexpress more expensive, more  filtered, more export centered,

Taobao extremely cheap, very wide options, very agile,  you will find anything from original 1st quality gods to stolen or refurbish things, Chinese sense of acceptable quality  is quite lower than westerns sense. But you need some help from someone on china side, You can't handle that if you are not Chinese

We also must consider that we are in " COVID " mode none of the logistics are working as usual

Definitetly only ship within china, and yeah communication is very difficult. But most sellers accept CC now. Refurbished stuff is actually nice to see, if they are honest about it.
Its funny to see sellers offer "domestic" and "imported" part option, and the price difference is very small, 10-20%. So for me its not worth purchasing.

I am OK with logistics issues, its the pretending to ship part that is annoying.

AliExpress stores/vendors were barely tolerable. About 1/3 of my purchases have been ripoffs. Goods are defective, parcels never arrive, and the usual runaround where you can't communicate with anyone because it's copy-pasta gibberish. Fake tracking numbers, or partial like "hand over to airline". Items under $5? are not covered by Buyer Protection so you will never see those parcels.  This is about the seller's lack of integrity.

Didn't know the <$5 thing, good reason not to spend less than $5 IMO. But I have disputed $2 items on $10 orders, so at least that is possible.

There's no way to request a seller combine shipping without first paying and getting an order number.
Sorting by price does not include shipping costs, and the game is jack up the price but say "free shipping".

When you add items to your cart, the shipping costs will combine. If they don't support that option, then I buy from someone else.
Sometimes you will need to choose another shipping method before it combines the costs.

Never ever ever use free shipping option to Canada, unless its via china post or some other "proper" shipping method.

[ebclr]

Where is this USD 5 protection limit written I didn't found?

[ebclr]

" There's no way to request a seller combine shipping without first paying and getting an order number."

It's possible, just order and asks for the seller to adjust before payment, I already did that several times, But this must be agreed in advance throughout the chat with the seller

Also, Alexpress combine the shipment for you from several different sellers and gave you free shipping. But just for items marked as " Free shipping over US$30"

[Bud]

For the last couple years or so I changed to using Banggood and stopped using Aliexpress.

[bitwelder]

On the subject of the shady/unsafe business with AliExpress, how's the safety of the banking transactions with AE,
e.g. has been any cases of credit card numbers going into wrong hands, with the result of otherwise unexplained charges, etc. ?
Just asking as AliExpress notoriously doesn't accept Paypal payments, so buyers have to 'expose' their wallets a little more.

[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

[ataradov]

On the subject of the shady/unsafe business with AliExpress, how's the safety of the banking transactions with AE,
e.g. has been any cases of credit card numbers going into wrong hands, with the result of otherwise unexplained charges, etc. ?

Individual sellers never see your payment details, and I personally trust AliExpress more than I trust some western companies to keep my information safe.

I've never had any issues with them, nor have I heard of anyone having any issues. And a lot of people shop on AliExpress, so you would definitely hear about that, which would be the end of them.

[floobydust]

Reddit FAQ's on AliExpress 101 has loads of advice on dealing with the site.

[ebclr]

" e.g. has been any cases of credit card numbers going into wrong hands, with the result of otherwise unexplained charges, etc. ?
Just asking as AliExpress notoriously doesn't accept Paypal payments, so buyers have to 'expose' their wallets a little more."

I made more than a thousand orders I never have one issue of this kind.

It's possible to pay even without credit card, with bank account only ( this for some countries only).

I write down my credit card  on Aliexpress without any fear

[ralphrmartin]

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.