My experiences with AliExpress

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.

I’ve ordered three items through AE dealers and they’ve all been positive. All of them arrived within a month. There are some dealers on AE who will accept Paypal but as you know, not a lot. All of the dealers I ordered through accepted Paypal.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered another item from a dealer that did not accept Paypal. I had to pay with a credit card. I received an e-mail stating that they had received my payment but nothing since then. I realize that they’ve been closed for Chinese New Year but I hope this order goes as well as the other three.

As long as you an prove the items are not as depited or described no shipping back is involved.
When you decline the sellers solution of refund after shipping back the dispute escalates and you get to tell your story again.
AE will give a number of solutions to choose from (generally option A refund and shipping back option B partial refund no shipping back)
And then agina you can provide evidence and tell your story.

I have had 1 dispute over a crappy flashlight set with charger and cell for $15
Seller wanted items back then refund.
I escalated
AE said, option 1 partial refund $5 no shipping back option 2 shipping back full refund
(at this point I could clearly prove the charger and cell to be rubish

I responded that the flashlight could be bought for 6 so getting only 5 back would still be a bad deal for me.
Seller responded, goods are good, shipping back and then refund

Then I removed the plastic reflector spacer and found a LB star, made a picture uploaded it, asked for full refund without shipping back, since I now could prove also the flashlight was not as described.
AE decided I would get a full refund no shipping back.

Just make sure you can prve what you claim.

I had an issue with a couple of pairs of golf shoes, they were listed as “extra wide” fit but when they arrived they were just a standard width. I complained to the seller and he said the shoes were extra wide, just not marked. A quick check revealed the manufacturer didn’t make an extra wide size so I contacted AE. End result was that I was instructed to return the shoes and get a full refund. I informed them that the return post cost from Australia was over $60 so not a viable option, the seller refused to pay return shipping and referred me to the conditions on the item sale page. I contacted AE another three times and the best I could do was to get a partial refund of $20, the shoes cost $120.

This is gold. Clearly a promo-post. Any fool could ascertain that from the first paragraph or two.

No matter how much the OP disputes this fact.

I was approached years ago to promote an air rifle manufacturer on an international airgun forum. I have been in to them since I was old enough for my parents to buy me my first one. Still am. The OP is a template for a promo post. “Don’t forget to throw in some negatives, so it looks legit”.

I never participated. Never sold out my hobby. But I did drop my favourite manufacturer, and their products, after their approach.

I sincerely apologise of this post IS legit. But from my experience - it is not.

Magila, that is awful. I do not buy clothes if I cannot touch them after some disappointments. I did order some shirts on AE, but my son of 11 wears them, that big of a size difference.

HereAgainandAgain, apologies accepted since I did not write this as promotional post nor do I have any affiliation with AE or a shop there.

AE has a buyer protection policy that allows you to keep the item and receive a full refund for items that are proved to be not genuine but only if the seller has tagged the item with the guaranteed genuine symbol, a capitol “G” in a shield. I have been buying off AE for about 3 years and are yet to see one seller tag his items as genuine.

Yes I know, so when filing a dispute, do not use the “not genuine product” tag but “product not as described”. This is a trick of sellers, AE will indeed check if the G is there and if not the claim is less likely to turn in your favor.
However, “not as described” and then proving it is not genuine has made AE change the dispute from “not as described” to “counterfeit good received” a couple of times for me.

I also will update the OP because clothes are indeed a no go unless you hav a kid running around who is able to wear them, thanks for that input

I know this is everywhere on their site, but my order did not arrive on time, and I don’t get my money back.
Comment of Aliexpress is that this is a guarantee to be fulfilled by the seller and they will urge him to negotiate with me.
Now I try to get money back from Visa, but I got comment it might be too late now and also advice when you use dispute system of Aliexpress also at the same time complain at Visa, so you’re in time. Seems Visa doesn’t see Aliexpress Buyer Protection as a good protection…

Wow that is not nice.
So you had an order that not arrived and AE did not refund but said as dispute solution, they are _urging _the seller to repay you?

Wow, this is nasty, because then AE would be playing very foul play, they do not release the funds unless the item has arrived (to be said by the receiver) of when the purchase protection is over (the time the product should have arrived) without the buyer start a dispute.

This is new information, it is totally different from my experiences, all disputes started for items not arrived were accepted by the sellers and AE never had to say anything about it. In fact when something is not in in time, no evidence is needed and this makes it the easiest dispute to start. I just had a seller accepting one so I could get refunded. I did not notice a change in how AE treats these ases the last couple of months, so your input is a shocker.

I usually start asking questions to a seller when the first reminder email that purchase protection is to end arrives. And I do not know how often AE sends an email like that, the first is about a week, the second 2 days later. I do no know f more are send, I always took action.

Please can you explain more? Like what dispute label you choose?
Visa has 90 days protection right? How long did it take you to notice the item would not be delivered? I do not think I even seen period for receiving longer then 60 daysm so hopefully you are getting it sorted in time!
And well please post name of the seller/shop.
I buy frequently at AE so would like to avoid a seller who is blatantly scamming buyers like us.

If you order something from AE and pick the free shipping option you better be ready for a long wait, because they often use the cheapest and most unreliable shipping method in existence. I used to buy a lot from AE but then realized most of the time webstores such as GB, BG, FT, etc offers same or better pricing and far quicker shipping speeds.

Aliexpress is a chinese ebay created to trade with foreigners. DO expect a lot of scamming and item not as described situations, but from the vendors you purchase from, not aliexpress itself.

Budget shopping have always had its risks, it’s responsibility of the buyer to be aware of these risks and avoid them. You can’t say aliexpress is bad because some sellers tried to scam you.

The only thing I don’t like is the lack of PayPal at check out.