Well, I’ve been patient, but now I’m livid. Frustrated with Sofirn’s lack of response, and absolutely furious with AliExpress’s useless customer service, false allegations, and delay tactics.

  • Placed two orders with Sofirn on AE on 11.11. Both advertise a guarantee “Delivered before 12/7 or full refund.” Clear, right? Hold on…
  • Dec. 7 rolled along and still no package, so disputes were filed for both orders for refunds.
  • Sofirn’s only response to the disputes was to reject the refund and ask me to wait. I rejected that proposal, and simply asked the guarantee be respected. Since then, no communication.
  • On Dec. 12 AE ruled one order’s dispute valid and issued a refund. A few hours later, the other order was ruled invalid allegedly due to it being detained in customs (false), without providing evidence.
  • Kicker: both orders were shipped together with the same tracking number! How can one be valid and the other invalid?? Customer service continually dodged the question saying case management team would respond.
  • On the AE dispute, I provided a screenshot from the postal service showing the package was processed through customs promptly, plus mentioned the other order’s dispute which was judged valid.
  • On Dec. 22, AE finally replied to the dispute with THE EXACT SAME INVALID JUDGMENT as on Dec 12, claiming the package is detained in customs. Literally copy/paste. No evidence. They either did not read a word I wrote or ignored it outright.

Note that every AE judgment starts a 5 day timer for more negotiation, which is useless with a non-responsive seller, plus an additional 48 hours for AE to respond. This means each exchange takes about a week, making it a perfect tactic for wasting time and running down the clock. Customer service can’t seem to do anything other than repeat what is already known and issue “speed-up” tickets for case management.

The main question they repeatedly ask is whether the package has been received. They ignore the fact that any eventual delivery is irrelevant to the on-time delivery guarantee!

Claiming customs issues is clever because that falls under the buyers responsibility to clear it or pay taxes. There is NO indication of that being the case here. I confirmed this from the tracking and by calling the post office. The package arrived in my country on Dec. 4 and was processed through customs on Dec. 6. It seems the local postal service lost my package, at least temporarily, since the target delivery date was Dec. 11, which still would have been past the on-time delivery guarantee. Now they have suddenly found it and it is expected to be delivered within the next couple of days. Let’s see…

Sofirn is giving the silent treatment, AliExpress is playing dumb, and everyone is wasting time and failing to respect their own word: the Buyer Protection on-time delivery guarantee which they specified. Beyond frustrating.

Previously I might have been willing to be accommodating, but given the behavior displayed, I will not let this go. I will continue to insist the guarantee be respected in the dispute. I will also keep an eye on the approaching deadline for a credit card chargeback as a last resort.

It boggles my mind how such a straightforward case is still an ongoing issue. Even with a precedent!