My experiences with AliExpress

CHINASHOPS

For a while now I buy stuff at the site Aliexpress.com

Before I ordered regularly at DealExtreme, Focalprice etc.
But after DX made a fuss about problems with some faulty stuff I was looking for another source.
And after reading and experiencing I have the idea that AliExpress operates significantly differently than the other (China) shops.

AliExpress gives sellers a platform where they can sell their stuff.
AliExpress itself is not a shop and there are some benefits derving from this.

A shop like DX or Gearbest will suffer damage when a problem arises like a defective product.
However for AliExpress a faulty buy or product can cause damage to their reputation and thus to the platform.
That is why AliExpress itself wants everything to go well.

A shop like DX or Gearbest is mainly moving boxes, selling various products. The people who are doing the consumer relations there probably do not know al lot about the products they sell and maybe even never had them in their hands.
On AliExpress it s possible to find vendors who focus on one product or category and therefore really know what they are selling. Simon from Convoy is an good example of this.

When you buy via AliExpress the conditions are clear:
If a product is not sent on time by the seller you will get your money back.
If a product does not arrive on time, you get your money back.
If a product has a problem, and you can prove this (by a video of the operation or video of unpacking) you will get the money back.
Then AliExpress also verifies the sellers and I have had the experience of receiving a message that AliExpress did not trusted a seller, had cancelled the deal and a short while later I received my money back.

RATINGS

It is possible to evaluate products and the seller.
Sellers want nothing more then a good rating, which gives us buyers a way to put some pressure if needed.

Once you indicate that your product is received, this is immediately followed by the question whether you want to give a rating. I usually do it later and I do it only if I can say something sensible. For example I bought a pile of seeds but they’re not in the ground yet so I can’t rate them.

The rating for vendors and products do create interesting decision aids.
I sort by price and scan through the ratings,
I prefer a product with good reviews over something that loks the same, is a tad cheaper but without ratings

But of course it can happen that there are only very few product ratings.
10 or less, is not worth taking into consideration as aid for me.

But besides the producs there usually also are rating available for the seller.
For example I would rather go for the seller with 751 positive ratings then buying from some seller with just one or none :slight_smile:

DISPUTES

I have now completed 118 orders of which seven were not going well (2 x canceled by AliExpress, one time almost incomplete receipt 2 x product is not working properly, one order is incomplete and one order not as described.)

In the remaining 111 were all up on time and I am satisfied with the stuff.

The seven failures than.
The first was a set with colored plastic balls that represend atoms to build molecules.
I received the package and the internal bag was open (probably customs), and there were hardly any atoms. To begin with i sent the seller an e-mail. Half a day later no response, so again a mail that I had to write a negative review in the absence of reaction and would open a dispute (oops I had not taken into account that there is a the time difference).
The seller responded the next day and asked for a photo and what weight was written on the packaging.
I sent the information and they wanted to give me a refund. In this case however, I wanted to have this set and what had arrived, was of very good quality. So I proposed to buy another one (you can’t have enough atoms now can you? :laughing: if they would send two as compensation. They did go along and 10 days later it arrived and I gave them a good rating.

Two times now I got a message one day after ordering something that AliExpress did not trusted the sellersand that the order would be canceled, soon followed by receipt of money.

The two non-working products, the disputes are very recent.
About a week ago I uploaded videos proving the stuff is not working correct.
I bought two peppermills from two sellers, they are the same and both not working.
1 seller wanted me to close the dispute and continue via email, so outside the dispute system of AliExpress.
I did not honour this request and want to keep it neatly in the diputeprocess.
The current situation is that the seller wants to refund 50% so I escalated the dispute today, we’ll see what will happen.
After seeing the video of the flawed working the other seller made a lot of apologies and refnded 100%.

Then there was an order in which things were missing. 10 glass heart pendants of which 6 were not included in the package. I checked the 4 that had arrived in the orderdetails and confirmed the arrival. I got refunded for the missing shortly after that.

Today I made a mistake.
I bought a coat (beware clothes are tricky because of the measurements) advertised as autumn coat but it was thinner then my summer coat. I asked for a partial refund via message and the seller blew me of. So I opened a dispute. When I checked things this morning I saw seller had accepted my claim for a full refund and there were a couple of options for me to click (accept decline cancel and escalate). Escalate means AliExpress will look into it and decides what will happen. So i clicked accept, I had missed that this also included I needed to send the coat back at my own costs. So this was educational, costs of sending it is half of the price of the coat. So either way I will lose 50% in case of a refund but sending it back means I got nothing left, so I will keep it. And next time I will make sure to excalate and clearly state that the shipping back is not an option unless paid by seller and see what happens.

COMMUNICATION WITH SELLERS

I now run all kinds of orders, including many flashlights. I have emailed many sellers asking for the specs. If these are not good then I have those vendors pinned.

Something to keep in mind;
I think most of these Chinese sellers pulling our messages through a google-translate like site or service.
So use short sentences, simple words.
Very clear and to the point and communication is perfectly fine.
Long complex sentences and chances is you just get copy/paste to specs.

FREE SHIPPING

I almost always choose for free shipping, then I run no risk of losing money if a product is not good or does not arrive.
The shipping process is often calculated in the price. So for example, product A can be bught for $5,- but if you click on free shipping is the cheapest starts at $8,-. Well so be it.
Sometimes you get the choice to choose for a paid shipping from Europe, for example.
Very rarely you get really lucky with free shipping from a location nearby (in my case Europe).
For example I wanted to get my wife a telescope a week before Sinterklaas (a Dutch tradition of giving familymembers presents December 5th) and to be sure I looked and found one on AliExpress. The same one I wanted for half the money WITH shipping from Germany. Three days later it arrived at our home and it is a wonderful thing of good quality.

Normally it may take a lot of time for things to arrive.
I do not expect anything to arrive sooner then about two weeks after orderng.
It may be faster but usually is slower though.

I wrote that AliExpress will give your money back if a product does not arrive in time.
About one week before the deadline for receipt expires AliExpres will send you a mail to remind you followed by three more reminders.
You can also specify to extend the shipping period to give the seller (a little) extra time.
If the seller agrees with the extension request all is fine, if not you start a dispute (thus a vendor always agree with your proposal (which is nothing more than clicking a button, choose an additional period in days and click OK).

CUSTOMS AND WARRANTY

If you exceed a certain value then it may be that you have to pay import duties. It depends on the provisions in the country where you live.
I do not know about here in France, but the Netherlands is possible to be charged the V.A.T from €22,- onwards and inport rights from € 150, - onwards.
Now they almost always label packages as “GIFT” with a low value.
Personally I do not buy really expensive stuff.
The two most expensive things I bought from China are a 20L stainless steel distillation set at € 130, - and a Doogee Titans2 phone which was less than that. The postman did not ask for payments.

I would be reluctant to buy real expensive things like notebooks. Because in case of any problem within warranty it will cots you monay and a lot of time. Sending stuff for repairs is expensive and the process will take much longer than going to your local store.
So when something breaks, most of the times it can be considered lost and that’s something to be aware of.

Example, I wanted the LED lamps in the bedroom of my son replaced by others. The ceiling element contain three E27 LED lights that were too bright and worked at 3W.
The LED had cost me € 7.95 each. And then I found lamps rated at 2W with those beautiful yellow LED filaments for less than a dollar a piece. They are indeed less bright and look pretty even when off.
If these fail I will not be claiming warranty with such low prices. They are working prefectly for ore then a year now, so well worth their cents if you ask me.

COMMUNICATIONS with Aliexpressss

To start here I must say that I do not like to opt-out of newsletters or adds. So I am happy to inform that I have not received spam from AliExpress. Very nice, while Gearbest and Banggood like to send out lots of emails about nothing. Thus any mail from AliExpress is indeed an email with a reason.

The following e-mails you will get (or with an * can you get) when ordering
1 order confirmation immediately
2 payment confirmation, after a few hours
3 shiping confirmation, if the seller has shipped

  • Warning that end deadline for receipt is coming (week before it expires and you have not clicked on confirm order reeived if it is not already entered)
  • Warning that the deadline receipt term (five days before it expires and you have not clicked on confirm order if it is not already entered)
  • Perhaps more warnings about the expiration of receipt period but I have no experience with that.
  • If you have signed when the mailman dropped the parcel off several days thereafter a requst whether you also want to acknowledge receipt
    4 after receiving a confirmation email with the request of the seller for a rating

All logical mails in English that contain little text and refer to the order with the number clickable.

I believe it is possible to change the language of the site but I only use the blobal English site.

APP

There is an APP.
This gives you a quick overview of all orders and messages.
I like order tracking and communication with vendors via the app, it seems clearer then the site.
They often give a percentage extra discount when ordering via the app so that’s nice, It is also logical, with the app it is very easy to order anywhere so I can imagine they would want all customers to have it installed and checking them when they are in a mall for example.
The APP has the following permissions
Turn on data (which is not a real positive thing imho but I got it disabled and the app still works fine)
Turn on WiFi (ditto)
send MMS (ditto)
And the APP just works nicely without being able to use the permissions (We use Android V4.4 or 5.0).
Browsing for stuff in the app is harder then finding things on the normals site via a computer.
on the site it is easier to choose and select the properties and I especially the option to exclude keywords in a search on the site. For me this is very useful and is not possible in the app.

The APP very handy to have if you want to buy something at a store. A quick scan and you can make a choice, but it for X now or for Y and receive later. Vey nice to see that some BIG SALES seem rather small after a glance at the AliExpress app.

TO CONCLUDE

You can pay for by credit card.
You can choose to add a credit card to your account to checkout faster, but this is not necessary.
I formerly did everything with Paypal and did not like that a real credit card was needed here.
But after more than a year of experience I’m confident that they properly handle the data and the trust given to them.

For me AliExpress an ideal platform and preferred China Shop.

PROS
Large choice
More protection then other China shops against rotten apples (both products and sellers)
Seller only get their money if a product is confirmed to have arrived (or in case no action is taken at the end of the protection period
Rating system for a general idea about sellers and products
Seller can be found who know the things they sell
When a seller proves to be not trustworthy AliExpress will cancel the orders and refund you (bo action required)
Easy to use APP (see cons for a note on this)

CONS
Sizes of clothes are mostly wrong, unless you have a kid that can wear the things you order t is best to avoid buying clothes on AE.
It usually takes a long time for things to arrive
Not the cheapest for a lot of things
A lot of fake stuff is sold
Fake discounts (claiming a high discount because starting price is set to high just to make it look like a better deal
Shipping methods not always as described
It takes action from buyers to get money back when something goes wrong
Not everything arrives, and in these cases action from buyer is required from buyer to get money back
No Paypal payment option
APP wants permissions that it does not need since it functions when the permissions are denied after installing (user actions required to deny the permissions on Android)
.

.

.
This is a rough translation and actualisation of a blog I wrote in Dutch.
Sorry for any strange typos or grammar f@#kups, please PM me if you want me to correct something_

I’ll just mark this as spam mmkay?

Why?
I wrote this piece and saw this section for experiences with budgetshops.
These are my experiences and also I saw a question about the advantages of an APP for shops like this (why would a shop want to give you discount for using an app?) and the answer to that is also in the blog.

I got another one in the making about Gearbest.
So please tell me what “Budget Dealer Experiences
Discuss your experiences with the various budget and foreign flashlight sellers.” mean? Before I spend time on something dismissed as spam.

Can you read?
budget dealer experiences
You are writing about a sales platform. Not a specific shop. Aliexpress sells nothing but space on an internet page.

I think you’ve posted your discussion in the right area.

And your English translation is very good.

As to your subject matter, I can see how some people might take it as overly promotional. It kind of reads like a commercial or advertisement, rather than a personal testimonial.

Overall, I think it is okay. :slight_smile:

Well, as poorly as I may write, I do have some reading skills.
Yes AE is a platform, but other then messages, payment, account creation, refunds, arbitrage and looking for products is done via the platform.
IN other words, the most important stuff :wink:
And even though one buys at different stores the pages one look at are all riddled with AE logos.
So in a way the platform acts and feels like a shop.

Isn’t it the same with Amazon and Ebay? They also feel like a shop more then a platform for a whole bunch of shops.

But ok, I go with you, please direct me to the forumsection where I as consumer could put the post with my experiences with AE. I think that budgetlightforum should have some global information about AE for people who do not know it, since a lot of questions on flashlights and how to get them will drop these people in this community and forum.
I would even go as far as to say that it is safer to get stuff from China this way compared to all other Chinashops if some basics are made known as I just did and thus feeled compelled to translate and post it here just for that reason.

Because your post looks more like advertisement than expressing personal opinion, also most of the members here with 50+posts are familiar quite well with aliexpress and how that place works.
Personally I have about 80 purchases from Ali, with trend of increasing disputes because individual chinese sellers would eat their balls for 1$-2$ so they sale something with China Post air mail registered option for shipping that I pay additionally but when it comes time to actually send the shipment they use cheapest untraceable shipping options despite that I paid for tracking.
If you participate on a mass sales events like 11.11 was, chances are that you will not get what you ordered & paid because most of the seller just want to promote their shops so the give something for very very low price, hundred if not thousand people buy and then they realise they are losing money so they stall, mark jour order as shipped but again without tracking and then after about month or two when you ask them where is your stuff they give you some pitiful excuses…
etc, many more examples of cheating and lying

To be fair, I would say that ‘The Miller’ does know that. :wink:

Maybe the problem comes from the fact that the Dutch source text is a blog from me, it was not written as a forum post.
I have to add that the only reason I dared dving into this flashlight hobby that crept up on me is AE.
There are about 17 torches on their way to me and without the dispute possibility I would have never ordered these.

I stayed clear from the 11-11 deals since I saw prices rise before that so sellers could advertise with huge discounts.

Sure I can appreciate that members here know a thing or three about China shops, a lot of the people who find us via Google (and BLF seems like the best place when googling for info) may not.

Now that would be much more interesting subject for us to read.
You can delete that promo for Aliexpress and write what you ordered and why, maybe add a image or two for each light, then we could discuss if your decision was right or what you can do to make some particular flashlight better/more powerful or just how to fix annoying next mode memory (common mistake of uninformed buyers) :slight_smile:

Oh yeah! I can’t wait to get my hands on them and start reviewing.

OK here we go, let me show you what is ordered.
There actually are a little more then 1 I just saw.
It is in the chronological order of orders.

Again let me stress, it is about the fun of testing them, a nice theme for some youtube videos for the to be created channel of my son and me. We gotten lights we liked and if the housing is OK they present a good posibility for modding, which in turn gives us an ideal learning option. If they are bad, I will be having me some disputes.

Also don’t be afraid, Panasonic cells and Digicharger D4 and XTAR single cell charger are underways. As is an decent multimeter.

I have shed some light on why and how in my introduction yesterday, but that is a long post. So do not dismiss me right away when looking over this list please.

.

The starter of the streak of orders, I will be happy if the LED produces some light, because the lenght and shape of this torch is the main reason for buying it.

.

Oh rooky me, feeling glad this one has a 18650 and charger included when I ordered it. I will test it and if not good (probably :() not use these. I do not expect a lot from the light but hey, it adds to the play and test fun.

.

We like the looks and build-in diffuser of this strange zoomie

.

A C8 clone with cheap LED probably nice foundation for some modding.

.

A standard Concoy C8 as reference for testing of the rest.

.

And a brownish thingy with zoom

.

another golden skywolfeye for grabs

.

Our absolute favorite when it comes to looks of all I ordered is this skywolfeye

.

A pattern emerges, we like the brownish/bronze color over the military looking black ones

.

Nice color on the housing of this light

.

SkyRayKing, looks like a little monster, had to order one :wink:

.

we liked the looks and size of this skywolfeye

.

This one I ordered for 14.44, I really like the magnet and rotatable light head

.

Nice little thing with magnet and i like the LEDtrip on the side

.

Very cheap skywolfeye
Got this model twice, they both are planned to be given als gift to friends of my son (brothers so no problems posed by different torches :wink: of course with a triple AAA cell holder.

.

Skywolfeye, only $8.09 when i ordered it

.

Skywolfeye for the looks

.

A small one in strange colors from skywolfeye

.

MECO zoomie, just liking the looks of it

.

Convoy C8 with T6-4C LED, 1 group low/mid/high because I wanted a warmer tint and like the fact that Simon offers these options (so also like to support him)

So a lot of experience posts (then written for this section) with presumably some or a lot of dispute progression will follow and hopefully make for some interesting reading.

Good Day The Miller,

Welcome to BLF.

Btw, LOVE your home in France.

Looking forward to your experiences.

Best Regards,

George

And I’m not picky about whether AE is a ‘dealer’ or not since they act much in the same way by channeling all the important transaction stuff through their own set-up. One could argue that ‘drop-shippers’ (GB and many others do this) are not ‘dealers’ either but I think most folks consider AE or GB or DX to be a ‘dealer’ too.

Of all these “Chinese Mega-stores”, the only one I’m aware of with buyer protection is AE. Can you imagine GB doing that? They’d be broke in a couple days :stuck_out_tongue: I bought my BLF Maxtoch through them and they actually held my payment until I notified them that I had received it and was happy with the transaction. IMHO that’s going a bit too far but in the right direction regardless.

I do business with them all, but I have no expectations of great service, fast shipping, or decent packing from any of them. So far I haven’t been disappointed because that’s what I get from them all with few exceptions (such as my Maxtoch for one).

Thanks for the review “The Miller”,
Phil

I ordered a fenix batterie case from aliexpress two month ago. Got the information that it was shipped quickly. I got the e-mail that I could start a dispute if it had not arrived within two month. Pressed the button, that I want the money back. According to the FAQ I have to wait now 20 days and see if I get my money back.

That’s my first experience:
Ordered 1
received 0
money back: waiting and hoping

Nice and easy to deal with, but would be nicer if things would arrive.

Looks like a paid post…

Aliexpress as a platform is fine, not all sellers are great though. from my 11/11 purchases about 35% are missing and it has been more than a month now. had to extend the purchase protection and I don’t know whether the seller (!) will agree to this? why can the seller disagree to extend the protection if they might not have shipped the goods in the first place? strange.

Yes it does.

I have bought plenty of stuff from AE. AE offer alot to choose from but have some obvious disadvantages:

1. A lot of fake products and bad shops (but there are some really good sellers there too)
2. No support for Paypal
3. Sellers often use different shipment methods than advertised

Well its not paid.

I updated and got rid of the “very good” in the title (read like an advertisement I understand)
Also added a list of pro and cons that reflect my experience and well it seems pretty clear that it is not perfect.

Thank you “The Miller” for helpful info about AE. I am new here and have found several flashlight reviews that helped me to decide what my purchases will be. HOWEVER, I was lost when trying to make a comfortable transaction without knowing “anything at all” about the process. I also rely heavily on Paypal for peace-of-mind. I finally PM’d sb56637 to inquire about AE and exactly how ordering takes place, or to learn what I could. sb56637 politely directed me to this forum which led me to your post.

I am now at last starting to learn some interesting things which appears to be a big part of purchasing products (AE) that I am reading about on this excellent website BLF.

I will be reading more posts to glean anything that helps me make a good buying decision, and would like to thank you again for taking the time to educate those not yet familiar with some of the forums linked retailers. I had a heck of a time trying to find out just what AE is and why different vendors links redirected me to AE. I now understand.

Now if I can just find the post that diagrams the different flashlight choices available for a particular need. :wink: It would be similar to the all-familiar “trouble-shooting diagram” (in high tech electrical equipment manuals) which gives a choice of yes/no trail for each particular function, and all you do is keep following the trail until you end up with the most-likely problem component. If it already exists in this forum I will gladly donate some hard earned cabbage to the author for the extreme amount of time it would take to not only write it, but to keep it updated. I also understand completely that most purchases are made on the opinions of others, but a valued members opinion is still valued! With that said, a good diagram would have several results in each function category directly relating to best choice (generally higher cost) and best value.

In other words, I guess people call it “A MAGIC BUTTON”. But from what I have been reading over many hours on BLF before joining up to learn more, I realize there is an answer for probably anything someone wants to know. It is in BLF somewhere I believe, but how do you find it without reading endless threads? I look forward to a response with the link to the magic diagram.
Anyone reading this I ask to take with a grain of salt, and keep in mind I will be a newbie for some time. :beer: Cheers

My experiences with AE are pretty much inline with the OP. Many great bargains but if you have a problem you have to ship the item back at your expense which often costs more than the item did originally. They usually give very clear and detailed photos of their items so you have a good idea of what you are going to get.