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.
60 days indeed is the maximum a seller can choose for delivery to Europe and most other countries.
In this case it was 60 days guaranteed by the seller, then some time for dispute and before you know 90 days is reached.
It is a bit unclear how long you have time to do chargeback on Visa card. The local Visa card issuer (Laservisa) told me that 45 days was the maximum and therefore they could not do anything.
I just googled a bit and found that international rules of creditcardcompanies usual have a period of 120 days for chargeback, with as start date the date that delivery could be expected, so that is completely different.
I emailed my complaint again with a link to the site I’ve found this and they will handle my case, so hope I will get back my money.
In a way that is true of course, but when you see on almost every site you get your money back when something is not delivered on time, Aliexpress should pay back your money, and not leave that up to the seller.
But please clarify since you state “receive in time” whether or not you actually received it.
Did you receive but too late or did you not receive?
And in the dispute you opened (you did open a dispute right?) AE decided they would urge the seller to refund you?
I have always had a clear decision in a dispute, shocking they would only say “urge to refund” if they had pulled something like that I would not think very positive of the dispute system.
Yeah, I think that’s because they don’t want charge-backs. I got ripped off on my last AliExpress order (product not as described, so useless to me). Messaged seller, and he basically said go away. I accepted the order, so I could leave a negative review (2 stars). After that, seller offered me a full refund! But it never came through; it was probably just another tactic.
I could have disputed it with Ali before I left the review (after that, you can’t), but I was already frustrated by that point. If I paid with Paypal, I probably would have disputed it there, at the very least to pressure the seller into resolving the problem. It just wasn’t worth disputing it with VISA. So, I think that’s why they don’t accept Paypal.
I think some sellers there, just like on ebay, are a bit underhanded. I’ll research the individual sellers much better, in the future.
Thank you for this thread ’The Miller’ , it is very helpful and informative!
AliExpress is a good place to buy products directly from China. I will share you a few helpful links about purchasing from AliExpress (this knowledge can help you to buy from this platform safely):
What is AliExpress and how to order products on this website?: https://chinasafeimport.com/blog/what-is-aliexpress/
AliExpress review: https://chinasafeimport.com/blog/aliexpress-reviews/
Is AliExpress legit? Useful tips that will help you avoid scam on AliExpress: https://chinasafeimport.com/blog/is-aliexpress-legit-and-safe/
Old thread but I’ve had very good luck with A.E. and a lot of the supported sites now accept Paypal.
AE gives you the option “Sort by: Orders” - then you have reliable sellers on top and you can choose the best price.
At the moment I am waiting for a lot of orders from last year - November and first week of december, those orders should have arrived by now.
But BG isn’t better - 22.11 ordered, not arrived yet - but another order a week later arrived before christmas 
Christmas, I guess. Even though I never had that many long delivery times.