First of all let me say this is from the perspective of a “system” running Android 8.1 with full custom ROM and screen DPI reduced by ≈38.39% to increase screen size by ≈62.3% (effective screen size from 5.2" -> 8.44", small tablet territory), using desktop user agent (hardware is Snapdragon 820 with 6GB RAM).
After some recent changes, finally the AliExpress team has fully updated the interface of their site, and overall I can't say I like it.
They modified the items' web addresses, simplifying them. The basic format is zone.aliexpress.com/item/item_number.html. 0K with this.
However, when I tap on the heart icon to add an item to my wishlist, a pop up window appears containing a list of side scrolling related items. In the past I could long tap or double click on an item in the list, select open in a new window and it just worked fast and always. This is no longer the case. If that is done like in the past it will not open the tapped item, but the item two positions to its right after some jerking. It also does not allow me to tap slide the list sideways.
Search performance speaking it is slower. They have somehow bloated the search engine, it maybe does a couple things faster but it takes more time to load the pages. Seems to be using more bandwidth for caching item images or whatever.
On top of all of the above, a friggin' squatter search bar: :-|
i see you still can not tell it “search for X that do not include the word Y”
search for “watch -smart ”
it still finds smart watches
or
light -ultrafire
what it does is ignore the -
it finds all the ultrafire lights
which is exactly what i would not want
so, no, i hate it still
even trying to narrow down by INCLUDING words, only brings up more
search for “watch heater”
which i would intend to find things that have watch and heater
no - it finds watch OR heater
I”d just gotten comfortable using their iPhone app, and they went and improved it to where I can’t use it any more.
(My old iPhone tops out at iOS 7, and when I open the Ali app it insists I must upgrade to the new app requiring iOS 8. Can’t continue shopping using the old version.)
And no, there apparently is no way to let these netwits know they’ve screwed up and lost a passel of customers, no workable contact information option, just default options none of which apply.
There are a LOT of websites that nowadays just flat out don’t work at all with even slightly older versions of browsers. Vipon is one (“filling in” deals just keeps pinwheeling), AX is another (dark frame, but zero content), and so on.
When searching in AliExpress, a “Did you find what you were looking for?” section appears at the bottom of the screen. There you can select from a set of pre-defined reasons, and or submit an up to 200 character fragment of text (I've seen worse). A few hours ago I submitted the following there:
(please, someone add an option to disable link auto-parsing :-| to this forum)
Hank, my advice is to use the browser. Tried the application on Android a few years ago too, and NO…
Old versions of browsers, Lightbringer? How old is old nowadays?
With regards to the let them lose customers philosophy it may be the less bother causing solution, but if you can't find something constructive to do for at least hit 'em hard with a hammer.
How about setting off a banger like this one under their @%$€$:
For your viewing pleasure here are the chat screenshots taken with my smartphone. Screenshots with NSFW (Not Safe For Work) content are set in standalone links, open at your own will or risk:
Well, you could just order from another site (ebay for instance), they usually have the same products, prices are not very different in general (and they are often the same sellers)
I don’t think they are going to modify their site just for the 0.05% of users complaining
