Buying on AliExpress without PayPal, should I?

I’m poor but I’m not 80 cents poor. I recently started to make sure few purchases on AliExpress. It charges 80 cents to use PayPal. The item I want Is a load tester I think bluesword or teacher mentioned in another thread. The RD HD35. U already own the UM34 so I thought they would go well together. Anyway, at the price, with a deal, the 80 cents is annoying me lol.

I know PayPal offerd protections and adding my card makes me nervous. Any thoughts?

I never use PayPal on AliExpress because I don't want to pay the extra fee.

So far, I haven't run into any troubles.

Did you add your card?

I paid with my credit card.

@JoeRodge, you’ll never have any problem regarding Aliexpress if you stick to known sellers, like RD Tech.

I’ve bought everything on Aliexpress using my credit card, which includes the HD35, UM34C, and UM25C.

:slight_smile:

I hope you never mind if I ask you, when I’m looking for an item, who those sellers might be lol
I’ve heard from everyone on here that there are a lot of pretend, knock off stores too on here.

No problem.

There are no wrong questions.

And besides, by answering your questions, other people will know which sellers to buy from.

Joe, do you use a credit card or debit card?
I think most credit cards let you dispute fraudulent transactions.

When you search on AE, you can sort by orders and see sellers on top have sold the most and that gives you some idea who is good to buy from.

Absolutely NOT! I have had many bad experiences on AliExpress and without PayPal they will NOT side on your behalf even with indisputable proof.

I had one dispute on AliExpress, but I provided proof, and got my money back.

If that were to fail, I could just call my credit card company and get my money back that way.

I haven’t used PayPal on Ali yet. I have only bought from Sofirn, Convoy, and Lumintop though so I haven’t had any problems. I would also be wary of anyone wanting you to pay by the friends and family method. Got bit once by it. Luckily it wasn’t for a huge sum and Karma has a way of fixing the stupid.

I order a lot from Aliexpress and never use paypal. It’s about 20 orders (and more than 20 items) a month in average.

There were some problems with some items, but I got my money back without any problem after providing evidence.

Only time I lost dispute was with liitokala fake 18650’s, but I think that was only because they don’t understand difference between fake and real cell.

It’s interesting. Your comment is really unusual. Would you mind sharing your story?

Personally I’ve had like 20 disputes on Ali. I won each of them.
I’ve heard of one kind of disputes that Ali rejected before though - some fake cells that looked close enough to what was pictured. Note that I had a similar dispute as well - and I won it - but in my case the wrap was quite different from pictures.

First issue was a light that arrived nowhere near as described. It was a c8 XPL claiming 1600 lumens. It was fraction of that with a driver that was not as advertised. I sent pictures of the light, the driver and beamshots compared to lights with 1080 lumens (ANSI) showing their light noticeable dimmer. I was called a liar by the seller and the dispute never was resolved.
I bought another light from another seller and it did not function at all. It took a REALLY long time to get reimbursement and only after filing a paypal claim.
About a year later, I bought three different orders of Li-Ion cells. All three were clearly rewrap counterfeits. I sent photos of tester numbers on my Liitokla engineer machine and internal resistance numbers. I sent pictures of the bar codes, positiove terminals and markings as well. Indisputable proof. Aliexpress offered no help for many weeks only asking for more pictures and videos in an apprent stall tactic. I provided what they asked for anyway. Finally, after a Paypal claim was filed, they offered return which is a joke and they know it. Shipping of the cells back to China from the US would be more than the orders cost.
I have only had one claim out of four come out in a satisfactory way. Paypal is your friend when ordering from Aliexpress.

Wow, that looks really bad. Thanks for sharing!

I have a story for you but i have not put it up yet cause my Flickr account is locked. I got a horrible light that’s rubbish from Aliexpress and they refunded me half only. So now i have to do a credit card charge back. They asked me to send it back i asked for a return label and got no reply shipping would have been like 20 AUD what a waste of time.

i’ve made at least 50 orders with a credit card, never paypal, never had a credit card issue

i did have 1-2 vendor issues but that is different

wle

I only buy from reputable shops on AliExpress. Such as RuiDeng, Convoy and Sofirn. IMHO HotRed Official Store is also one of them. Usually pay by creditcard. Use PayPal only if without surcharge. Shipping time is between 1 and 8 weeks. Never had any complaints or disputes. I guess you’re looking at a happy camper.

Two disputes out of the last three orders from A.E.!

A.E. refunded one, thankfully Paypal refunded the other. Kind of leery about them now. It seems, like others have stated, you have much better luck getting your items from the official stores especially if they onboard here.

Shop wisely, for vetted products from known quantities, and keep the risk of disputes low.

I started shopping with AX before it took PP, and guess I’ve never gotten into the habit even after it became an option. The one credit card I use for AX is already in its system and in the wild, so any insulating benefit from using PP has already been lost. If there’s a dispute, PP may provide an additional avenue for dispute, but I’ve never felt it to be any better or worse than what the card company already offers.

Any minor issues that have arisen were handled by the seller, and refunds where I’ve cancelled have been prompt.

Orders from unproven sellers have been low cost/risk, where an 80 cent fee would be a not insignificant portion of the cost.

Buying that designer handbag on AX because it’s really cheap, and the only place to offer it at that price, from a seller who has been in business for six months, ought to ring alarm bells.

Just gotta weigh the various factors (availability, cost, risk) , and use your head.