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.
I don’t buy anything anymore thru Ali without using PP unless it’s just a few dollars. I ordered from a dishonest seller one time and Ali sided with the seller.
I lost a few bucks, not that big of deal but it taught me not to be so trustworthy when dealing with someone thousands of miles away that doesn’t speak English and the police side with the criminals.
i buy from so many vendors, i don’t really try to ‘vet’.
most of what i buy is VERY cheap though, i’m not getting smartphones and $500 camera drones.
i’ll get 100 magnets for $3, or balloon powered helicopters at 5/$1
or calculator watches for $1.01
it may be low quality, i expect that, but 99% of the time it does arrive, and isn’t any worse than what i expected
but to answer the question, i don’t really understand what is better about credit card vs paypal
paypal thoroughly annoys me, they sided against me once in a bad ebay transaction,
and i am actually banned for life now,
unless i pay $200 for something they should have refunded (i had my credit card take the money back from paypal, so they are annoyed),
so i have an 8 year beef with that, and try to badmouth them whenever possible.
wle
Be sure you use a credit card that does not charge a foreign currency transaction fee. I’ve only bought two items from Ali using a credit card from a credit union that offers a Visa card and was charged a transaction fee both times. Ditto for the same card used at Banggood where I bought a lot more. I now use Pay Pal backed with a debit card issued by the same CU. No transaction fee ever. The CU even called me trying to get me to revert to using the CC instead of the debit card because it screwed them out of fees. Most debit cards only cost the the seller a small fee while the CC costs them a fee and a percentage of the sale price.
@Vegas LED Fan, why exactly did that happen?
I always buy on Aliexpress in my country’s currency, and I’ve never had any problems.
Can you tell me how to buy with Paypal from Ali? There is no option to pay with paypal…
i think some vendors accept it but aliexpress as a whole, does not
personally i hate paypal but that is just me