I have noticed that when you look at a dealer’s page for an item there is a postage cost published if there is no free postage.
This is OK as we don’t mind paying a reasonable cost for postage. BUT sometimes when you add that item to the shopping cart the cost of postage goes UP.
If you are in a hurry to buy you may not notice that the actual postage cost is higher than to one advertised on the main page.
Also if you are buying a number of items at once you may not notice the increase.
It seems as if some dealers are trying to extract maximum money from the buyer by not being up-front and honest regarding the postage charges.
Another thing to be wary of …
Sometimes the postage cost goes up if you order multiples of an item.
1 item Postage is $1.25
2 of the same item is now $3.00
etc.
The solution maybe is to place multiple orders for a single item as the postage is usually more that double the cost for a single item.
When buying from an Aliexpress dealer you must be very very careful and check the ultimate postage costs.
Thanks for the postage warning! What I notice is price chaanges for the same items. Like one day it’ll be say $10 and then next day, it’s advertised for $15-$20?? I dunno if this just happens sometimes with certain sellers but I seen it happen.
you search on lowest price, and see a watch or something, for $1.23
going to the listing, you discover that the watch is actually $20.87, but they include a box in the listings for $1.23, so that is the price they use when you search by price
Almost every single item is listed this way, it’s just the way of AE now. Looking for a $30 power supply? the listing shows a price from $1.50 for a UK adapter. Looking for a $200 phone? listing shows a price of $50 for a totally different model.
They force you into clicking the item to reveal the real price, and when you enter, you are bombarded with endless other items from the same store, all showing click bait prices of course.
After 2 hours of desperately searching for the best offer, you now have seen thousands of other items, and most probably some have ended in your cart.
Buyer BEWARE - Tricks of the Trade
How to extract as much money from buyers with no regard to honest dealings.
I had a dealer contact me to say I would have to pay extra as the shipping cost had gone up since I placed the order, 2 days. Cancelled order & did get my money back so not all bad
It might seem like a dumb trick for us that does nothing other than wasting our time, but do you imagine the amount of first time buyers getting fooled by this…
There should be a rule that forces the seller to show the item photo and name which price is being displayed, instead of the lowest price always being shown and the seller can choose what title and image to go with it. but I guess people are ok with it because they do it in eBay too, although not as abusively.
thanks for the advisory, have seen many new tricks
- Free shipping is only from some weird country it ships from (which never ships to your place)
- Several items cost 3-4x in shipping (as said above)
- Gift box scam (as listed above)
- So many stores now have 99% vouchers (x.00 off of x.01 dollars) - however, that is not valid for any item except a tiny screw in the store or something useless
- Prices will be increased before a “sales week” is coming so the rebates look awesome, sales week is now every other week
- Vastly different prices for different colors (!). Like the black and silver variant is twice as much, while the pink one is half off?
Sales week final prices are now higher for the same product than weeks ago; there is no point in this sales marketing scam
On the plus side, I have received some decent Aliexpress coupons randomly (popup when you open main website) and Aliexpress shipping is significantly faster than before. Also, more and more stores now automatically use registered shipping door to door. Tracking works across the board. And paypal is now entirely free (no more charges I could see).
Well again, no such thing as “free” and if looks too good to be true, well you know how it goes….it probably isn’t. The Chinese sellers all do this, lure you in and then bait n switch you. Simon from Convoy doesn’t do that, Kaidomain doesn’t, and there are few others who don’t, but most do. Not uncommon for sellers to sell the same exact item, but discount it one way or mark it up another.
Seems like they also stall the online chat feature. Logged in Ali app and went to do general online chat(not sellers). Can’t get tru at all. Keeps spinning and spinning. Looks like they’re blocking some communication channels. At least for me. Reminds me of the old “sweep the dirt under the rug” trick.
The system allows sellers to automatically do this without manual intervention, and the smart ones have it enabled.
Place all items in the cart, check the boxes, and the additional incremental shipping charges should automatically be deducted. All of the items must use the same shipping method.
Being AX, I have little doubt there are quirks and limitations, but it has worked for the typical smaller items I’ve shopped, and played a role in deciding between sellers without having to message and wait for a response.
To combat the fluctuating prices I use both a browser plugin and I also regularly screenshot my shopping cart. That way if I decide to buy something I know for a fact it is at an alright price.
Regarding the sellers that ask for additional money, just don’t answer it. I’ve had it happen to me once and I ignored it, they shipped 1 day before the ship-before timer ran out.
ADDENDUM: Regarding “sale-periods” I noticed that the lowest price is on the first day (maybe even the first hours). Be sure to buy it then, I regularly saw items having a higher price the day after the start of the sale.
Also, be sure to follow a store before buying an item. Some stores give a bit of an extra percentage off (like Sofirn). I usually follow a store, refresh the page, check if the price changed and if not I unfollow the store again.
Right before buying also check the coupon options on the right. Happy shopping!
Another sad thing that’s happening to on-line buying is that Amazon is now representing a lot of very strange dealers. They have strange names eg …
Ships from & Sold by …
Vatagen
shenzhenshi luzheng maoyi youxian gongsi
HaimingjunmaoyiAU
and many others. Maybe the names mean something in chinese ?
They seem to be mostly Chinese-based & a lot like the Aliexpress dealers.
Their range of products is vast, often hundreds of items, mostly rubbish & cheap with free postage.
A lot have names ending in AU as I am in Australia. The delivery times are always from 1 - 3 months.
Amazon had a very good reputation but it seems as if money talks. I guess they make a good profit representing these dealers.
I will not buy from any of these dodgy dealers. If it’s not Ships from & Sold by Amazon I will be very wary. Although there does seem to be a few local (Australian) based dealers selling on Amazon.
Maybe I will try them.
I dunno if this just happens sometimes with certain sellers but I seen it happen.
