I tried to buy the MT90 Plus flashlight from the Mateminco Aliexpress store and they won't send the flashlight to my APO AE address, but would not refund my money either, after repeated requests for a refund I eventually had to file a PayPal claim against them to get my money back. So far, my purchasing experiences on Aliexpress have not been good, however for this order did not use the Aliexpress payment system as they sent me a PayPal invoice to pay instead, the payment itself didn't go through Aliexpress.
Why send me an invoice via PayPal if they refuse to send to my APO address as they had earlier agreed to do? After payment, they told me they couldn't send to my military USPS mail address, but that was the point they needed to refund and wouldn't. Now I'm wondering if one of their employees tried to scam me using his own PayPal account and perhaps this is why Mateminco would not refund me. I don't know either way now, the possibilities are endless but in any case, I won't try ordering from them again. My understanding is Aliexpress is safe, but this situation of being invoiced outside of that system ended up in a problem.
Well that’s crappy. It almost seems to me that Mateminco doesn’t want to sell much directly, to the US anyway. Their prices went way up and shipping as well…not sure what they have going on. Personally, I wouldn’t have agreed to that invoicing arrangement. I buy on ali a lot and have only had a couple experiences that weren’t overall peachy. Ali has pretty good support, so I’m comfortable with the platform, and if there’s something amiss they’ll usually take care of the customer even if the seller is opposed (just depends), but using paypal is my backup to their platform policies, just in case. Dealing direct like that probably breaks ali’s rules (just like it does with amazon) but it also puts the buyer in a disadvantaged position if they need to get paypal involved…or rather facing a mountain of hassle, rather than disadvantaged maybe.
Saw your other posts……is there a regional freight forwarding service that you could use and would be safe? I wonder why they won’t do APO addresses…not familiar with the US system, perhaps, or worried about long delays for receipt of goods and potential claims?
Mateminco plays hardball. Inquired about a driver of theirs. 1-year-old replacement for a prior warranty replacement (this be my third). As I didn’t originally buy from them (Astrolux light), jacked the price: 20 USD + 12.11 shipping.
Same item thru BangGood; $13 – free shipping.
As for APOs and POs, many merchants won’t deal with such. It becomes logistically impossible to counterclaim lost items or break the International Postal Union agreement regarding trade among member countries.
I've had a thousand orders through APO, AE get to me without a problem over the last ten years, so I don't understand why some sellers are refusing to sell to me, not based on my own experience.
I think Mateminco has issues with sales. That MT90+ I can’t find on BangGood.
Bummer when you had your sight on a particular light but the merchant doesn’t want to play ball. Maybe have the item sent to a standard US address (friend/family member) that they can then re-ship via APO?