The “seller” marks the item as shipped immediately after buying and the “buyer” has no payment option that works when Amazon tries to debit the amount. This does not work with credit card, obviously. Both the “seller” and “buyer” are on marketplace (the private exchange) and allegedly run by the same ring of people.
I do not know whether they “ship” an empty box or nothing at all (fake tracking number).
This scheme works best in countries with low credit card penetration and mostly debit cards and current accounts as payment option (ie Austria, Germany, some Eastern European nations, …). As an example, you could do this with a low value pre paid card and when the 1.00 $US check hits, it all looks good. Then you simply buy something more expensive and the payment bounces. However, then the seller has magically shipped the item within 2 minutes.
Since the seller has “shipped” the goods, Amazon collections then tries to collect under the false address and even gives this to a small claims court.
Taking a picture doesn’t work always. I recently ordered 5 Attiny85 and received only 2.
Dispute case is still open, but I am not expecting a refund. Seller has 98.9% rating as well and seems trustworthy, communicates well. Maybe just a mistake, or maybe the price was too low to be real (they deleted the item after I bought it, most likely a pricing mistake).
Haha yeah fraud. Reminds me of the time I ordered no name 32gb SDHC memory cards. Only 12gb usable out of 32gb! Emailed them the problem. Got free replacement few weeks later. Yep, only 10gb useable this time!
There are many of these type of listings but all the ones I’ve come across do make it clear somewhere in the tittle or description that you are buying a metal/tin sign or poster (plus the price gives it away as it’s usually much lower than the real items would cost).
Just like on eBay, it is against AE rules to put false or fraudulent info in listings.
If the listing the OP purchased from didn’t state anywhere in the tittle or description what he was actually purchasing then AE will side with him and issue a full refund.
A good reminder to always read the whole description carefully and if possible check the reviews too.
Don’t forget we in the West have grown up in a society that is inherently honest (not saying there’s no dishonesty). China is different, many countries in the east are similar…they get away with as much as they are allowed too. Good point mentioned that some China companies have adopted western values but ONLY when it makes financial sense to do so. The reward must exceed the cost. I’d like to see us all not rely on foreigners for so many aspects of our lives, food, clothing, medical supplies drugs etc. Local is good for a variety of reasons despite the free market not supporting this. So long as there are poor nations with cheap labor democracies will exploit this. So far it’s served us well but I think we are waking up to the true REAL cost of exploiting cheap foreign labour.
There are people with no ethics on the street you live on most likely. I have had reprat fealings with a few AE sellers who are helpful honest people. We should not group everybody into one bucket.
Wanna walk down the fraud road on aliexpress, just shop for flux paste or solder paste...geez. I've noticed that recently some infamous products have altered the labels to remove overtly fraudulent indication of companies and/or patent numbers, but they still kept the general form and information. That said, if you know what you want and aren't looking for only the lowest price, you can find so many awesome quality items that you can either get much cheaper there or can only find there. This is really apparent in the electronics arena. If you're careful about who you choose to buy from and what you're buying, you'll likely have pretty good experiences as many have. I got burned twice and disappointed one other time but out of probably 60 or 70 ali orders from maybe fifteen sellers/stores it's been super positive. I had two small issues and both sellers went above and beyond to make it right for me, didn't even have to use any of the platform's buyer services (but thankfully they have them now). The last few years it seems that finding the good stuff/good sellers there is easier but prices have also inflated considerably, which I think has more to do with them becoming more savvy to Western consumer thinking via adopting Western business marketing and pricing styles - that's a shame in some ways. We've definitely seen that more in flashlights but it's noticeable with a lot of product areas now. With the drawbacks of warranty/replacement/parts when you buy directly from China, and with the higher prices, a lot of times it just makes more sense to buy from amazon for a couple bucks more if they have what you need.
It's disheartening to keep reading statements - on this forum particularly, all things considered - that objectify with such a broad stroke every business, industry, and business person in an entire country. To me that speaks of inexperience or perhaps only limited and unfortunate experience. Shopping China-direct can still be the wild wild west, to be sure, and sometimes it's a real crap shoot until you learn the ropes and minimize your risks, but to a large degree we can see and say the same exact thing about most of ebay and even amazon...they just make things easier with returns and protections (usually). I think this is the result of the 1980s American business trends and the resulting incredible worldwide shift to manufacturing in China. When I was a purchasing agent in the 90s dealing directly with some of the earlier importers/merchants, often straight from China just for the trade shows, it was sure a learning curve with different approaches to business and different ways of thinking/describing/speaking - some of that has not changed but a lot of it has. Back then there were fantastic people to deal with and there were some real crooks or undependable merchants as well....all of that is the same today but there are more of the good ones now (I think) than there were back then. To be honest, after over 30 years of lots of domestic and international buying for work and personal, my negative experiences with USA companies actually outweigh those I've had from anywhere abroad, even recently.
It's sad that those statements would appear to include some great companies like Convoy, Sofirn, Lumintop (mostly) and several others that have brought us a lot and worked with us to create better things, and clearly have some good and kind people interacting with us.
Well said & I agree. It is completely unfair as well as unjust to paint all Chineese Vendors as crooks. To do so is ridiculous in fact.
Simon (Convoy), Paul (JaxMan), Lumintop, Sofirn, & Neal… to name a few…. are great to deal with.
Personally, I have never had a real problem with AE, BG, GB, or FT either.
Do your homework about who to order from & most likely you will have a harmonious experience.
I agree with Correllux, ShyOne and raccoon city as well. I’ve had a few bad purchases on AliExpress but that’s because I looked for the cheapest item possible, and most of the time I got my money back because I took good pictures/gave a good explanation in my dispute. Nowadays I look for stores that specify in a few things (charging boards, flashlights, solar panels, …) and buy from them instead of stores which have “everything”.
I’ve actually been happily surprised how active and responsive a lot of the stores are! Soon buying from outside of the EU will become much more expensive because of VAT laws so I’m going to miss that… You can/could buy such good, specific items for great prices if you just knew how too look for them. One time I needed a specific plastic enclosure from a store that sold volt/ampmeters. I already got some of their meters but just needed the shell. They send me some for free with another order I did later! I said I wanted to pay some more for it but it was not necessary!
So yeah of coarse some sellers try to rip you off but if you know where to look you can find great quality for a great price.
