Buying a New Phone, How's AliExpress Vs Amazon These Days Especially on Warranties?

TiredKitty78 on 26/11/2023 - 18:14
Last edited 26/11/2023 - 19:24 by 1 other user

Hi. Considering getting a phone off either Amazon or AliExpress because I can get what I want cheaper then over here locally.

Yes, buy local for the best warranty and i can hassle the store yada yada…..

But I hear a lot of mixed things that make me think Amazon has gone downhill if you have to deal with something
being broken in or out of warranty, and possibly AliExpress being not as bad as you'd think. Though good luck on getting ANY warranty and any post purchase help should your phone need fixing.

You hear some people buy phones - off 'reputable' AliExpress sellers, no problems, great phones, still running. Other buys from Amazon (myself included, love my older now phone) and good luck getting any help or reimbursement after like 6 months. Australian warranty laws or not.

The phone I want says it'll be global rom, thus open box, so I'm guessing Chinese hardware version of the phone or whatever. Seems iffy to me, even if I'll happily flash a new rom on there. But that kinda lessens the 'new phone feel' right?

So I'm just wondering what you guys think?

Related Stores

AliExpress

Marketplace

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  zonra on 26/11/2023 - 18:28

  +4

  So i'm just wondering what you guys think?

  I think you should buy somewhere that you can come back to for warranty. Assume no enforcable warranty if buying from Ali or third-party sellers.

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  freefall101 on 26/11/2023 - 19:06

  +2

  It sounds like you’ve figured it out, it’s a lot cheaper and the warranty sucks when buying from Ali. From Amazon I’ve never had issues with warranties - I returned a $500 item in August zero questions asked, but I wouldn’t spend $500 on a third party seller.

  If the phone breaks, can you afford to buy a new one easily? If not, don’t gamble. If yes, basically you accept that you’re self insuring to get the discount.

  • 

    TiredKitty78 on 26/11/2023 - 19:36

    +2

    If the phone breaks, can you afford to buy a new one easily? If not, don’t gamble. If yes, basically you accept that you’re self insuring to get the discount.

    This is probably what it boils down to….

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  Horacio on 26/11/2023 - 19:15

  Aliexpress warranty lasts only a few weeks, after which time they just don't want to know. I recently had a problem with a device from Aliexpress, but as it occurred a few months after purchase, the Ali system officially refused to do a return or refund - although the vendor eventually sent me a third of the cost of the device, to stop me nagging them I guess.

  • 

    TiredKitty78 on 26/11/2023 - 19:19

    Did you pay with paypal? I've heard unless you've paid with paypal, forget about any help ever.

    And some sellers apparently mention that if you pay with paypal, they won't accept the order….

    • 

      Horacio on 26/11/2023 - 19:21

      It was with a credit card. Which means I could possibly have opened a complaint via them, although it would have been more difficult than a simple case of a purchase never turning up at all.

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  randomusername2017 on 26/11/2023 - 19:43

  What,where and how to buy a cheap phone…. The series…

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  OMGJL on 27/11/2023 - 00:09

  I think comment above have summarized the warranty matter really well, now I'd like to discuss another matter about Android+Google Service.

  As you probably known that Google don't operate in China and requires VPN access, Chinese made smartphone often come with limited Google Service pre-installed.

  some brand keeps the backend Google Service installed but remove all front-facing Google Apps (Play Store/Maps/Gmail/Keep….. everything), to ensure their phone is compatible with certain apps requires G-Service API to run, with this type of Phone, usually you can just install the Google Play Store APK and sails smoothly with most G-Apps, including Wallet (if the phone implementation didn't break Safe-Net —- usually they don't, but if they did, not only Google Wallet won't work, your bank app likely won't either)

  But you'll still have trouble with Android Auto — it requires to be installed to system partition in order to connect to your car, which means the Android Auto app have to be factory pre-installed on the phone in order to work, nothing you can do afterwards (unless you install custom rom, patch the G-Service, and by-pass the safe-net)

  moreover, another issue is: due to little to no regulation on Chinese Android App market, a lot of the Chinese app is very cancerous, and phone factory usually apply a super over-powered restriction to prevent apps from automatically launch on background, on their phone ROM that meant to be sold to Chinese market. With this restriction, Gmail might not able to make any push-notification —- because you can't whitelist Google Service (because it's not a front-facing app), you can only whitelist a 3rd party app (so you are forced to use some 3rd party email app)

  so the TL;DR is:

  If you want Gmail and Android Auto to work (full functionality): Only buy a phone from AliExpress if you are 1000% certain that this very phone can be flashed with a Global ROM (or India Rom, taiwan rom, ….you name it, basically any ROM that's not meant for mainland Chinese market), without needing to unlock Fastboot (Safe-Net requires fastboot locked)

  if you don't care about the 2 above, buy any phone that have Google-Service pre-installed (they usually state on the detail page of the product listing).

  if the aliexpress page didn't state anything above, and you are not 1000% sure from your own research, avoid that phone like plague