Marketplace
As title suggest, I’m keen to hear what everyone’s been like of late
And if you also show with temu, how does that compare
Any general feedback would be appreciated
Thanks
What’s Your Experience with AliExpress of Late
Aceboy884 on 20/07/2024 - 12:52
Poll Options
- 475Good
- 24Average
- 44Shit/never again
- 19Don’t care, just want to see results
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Buy mostly what we need first, then if we want to buy something that is a want, consider whether we really like/want it and according to our budget …
Need is different than Want
Self control is important.
Water is also wet and fire, hot!
yep both are awful now, between scams, lost deliveries and stuff that doesn't remotely resemble what was advertised they have become pot luck. It is awful, even my wife who was addicted has stopped buying from them now.
Really I haven't had a single item that isn't as described. Although i do only buy electrical components etc.
In the last month I've had countless resistors, diodes, temp sensors, Arduino boards, LCDs displays, Ryzen CPU, Solenoids, Various bolts screws nuts etc….the lost can go on for ever.
Not a single wrong order or lost item (100 seperate orders in 45 days.
I'm not saying you're lying or exaggerating but I'm interest to know what sort of items you typically order? My guess would be the type of stuff commonly found in $2 dollar shops etc.??
Same as any other marketplace. There was a part about a user finding someone selling pictures of bluey coins on eBay. Amazon is full of fake storage products.
As always:
- Read the description carefully
- look at seller feedback
- look at age of seller etc.
Aliexpress have been fine for me, been using them for years. Yes, you need to be careful but generally things are fine.
Scams… scams everywhere…
Last few years, faultless. Spot on, quick delivery, great products…
Last month or two, about 80% of my deliveries are either “missing”, “not as described”, “wrong items sent” or just empty bags with the shipping label stuck on it. I think about 1/3 of my last few delivery “errors” have been clear empty bags with shipping labels stuck to them. It’s like they are not even bothered sending a random piece of junk, just make up a plastic bag and stick the AliExpress address label to it.
Always read the reviews and choose sellers with good or high amount of sales of the products that you want to buy. This is why I never have any issues with online shopping.
Thats not all.
Every time I take up thier "Buy any 3 items to get free delivery" they charge 17.5% GST instead of 10%So always check the amount of GST charged!
When you hit the help button and type overcharged GST the BOT replies that 10% GST is applicable.
Cant chat with real people any more and if you are lucky enough to get hold of one they "parrot" the same answer
No win sitiationGST Rip Offs!
I was talking to one of the AliExpress team members about this 5 days ago and they said:
A temporary team including the head of AliExpress AU, Finance and legal has been formed yesterday to address it. Seems something wrong with the flow of tax calculation.
Hopefully resolved soon.
Be good but I'll believe it when I see it. Been going on for so long, I'm sure they were aware.
Not just "Buy any 3", any time there was a discount applied seems they would charge GST on the pre-discounted amount (though sometimes even that didn't add up) Shouldn't be that hard to just apply to the final value instead of whatever they are doing now.
It's always been a small enough difference on a cheap item that I've let it slide but love to know where all those extra cents were going. (I still lay blame on our government for forcing overseas companies to collect tax on their behalf though, and sure why not, Gerry for pushing for sub $1000 tax in the first place :D)
Be good but I'll believe it when I see it. Been going on for so long, I'm sure they were aware.
They've only just started up an AU team as of this month so getting someone with good English comprehension has helped. Communication between departments is poor unfortunately. The live chat CS rep isn't able to talk to legal/finance and would need to find a manager that can. We'll see what happens.
The coupon is from AliExpress, to me it seems normal to pay tax on the actual price of the good, and the coupon is then applied to the total order.
Just like if you buy something through eBay with a coupon, the tax invoice from the shop will show full amount and full tax.
Difference here is that prices you see are pre-tax, so they add tax, then reduce the coupon amount.better way would be for them to just add the 10% to everything and make the shopping experience more seamless.
But like you said, it was a very silly move to push tax for sub $1k, and it really didn't help any small shops like it was claiming to… thank Gary and liberal government.better way
You mean legal way.
@flywire: Is there a rule for foreign companies to show GST included prices in Australia?
At least they add the 10% in your cart, I've bought stuff from boutique European stores, where you pay, then a few days later they come and ask you for GST.
Tbh, it's a silly thing our government has done, and I'm not even sure it's actually achieving anything, as an example, Redmi 13 Pro Plus 512gb, locally is almost $900 (without sale), you can buy it from AliExpress, for $550 shipped including GST…
No problems here, got 3-4 orders just this week.
ive used it for years, never had an issue other than a few missing items
I was a heavy users for years. I switched to temu for most stuff and now pretty much don't even open aliexpress.
Aliexpres has a website where the search doesn't work properly, their shipping is slow, they are stingey on allowing you to even request a refund for items that don't show up (making you wait months and months), their support can make it very difficult to contact a human, temu is cheaper.
The problem is the variety of products in Temu is much less than AliExpress…
I was tempted to buy a portable DAC with big cashback from cashback companies. Most brands are not available in Temu, but available in AliExpress …
Never used it, likely never will.
Stopped using it a few years ago when they locked me out of my account and won’t give me access unless I give them my phone number.
Why don't you want to give them your phone number?
Because then big covid will put 5g in his wallet to secretly transform into a cashless society of adrenochrome addicted woke people.
Not just phone number, ID as well.
Profanity that.
I've been buying from AliExpress for twelve years and they've never called or texted me, or given my number to anyone else.
@rogerm22: Same here for probably 8 years.
I use a unique email address for AliExpress and never seen anything but AliExpress emails on that alias
I had my credit card details compromised through AliExpress.
Purchased on a few different occasions with no issues, then began having a $17.27/month charge applied each month.
Complained to AliExpress, they required an order # to check which there was none. They couldn’t help.
Bank refunded charges, and new credit card issued.
Never again.I had my credit card details compromised through AliExpress.
Doubt it. Probably your fault some way or another.
I'm sorry the subscription service you forgot about buying was cutting into your meth budget, cooker bro.
I had my credit card details compromised through AliExpress.
How do you know it was AliExpress?
Bank statement.
How did your bank statement show you that your credit card details were stolen through AliExpress?
@eug: Are you and all the voters being intentionally dense?
OP is claiming his bank statement showed repeated charges from aliexpress, despite him not ordering anything. The bank sided with him and refunded the charges and cancelled the card to prevent further charges.
Whether the card details were stolen, or aliexpress had some issue and made the charges themselves, he doesn't say, and if it's true, he probably wouldn't know.
@ssfps: There is no need to resort to insults.
OP claims his credit card details were compromised through AliExpress.
I'm not sure if you (or OP) are aware what compromised means in the context of personal information like credit card details. It means the loss, theft, accidental release or accidental publication of such information.
So OP was claming that his credit card number was stolen from, leaked by, or fraudulently used by AliExpress.
When a card number is stolen, it is usually very difficult to trace the source. That is why people are questioning how OP is so certain that his card details were compromised by AliExpress - it is entirely possible that his card number was stolen elsewhere and used on AliExpress.
Just bought something off AliExpress.
About half the things claimed in the advert were true. The price was about half what it'd be if they were all true. So I guess I'm satisfied with the purchase.
It was Android pad.
The brand name product it claimed to be was a lie.
The screen size it claimed was a lie.
The version of Android on it was a lie.
The amount of RAM in it was a lie.
The amount of storage in it was a lie.
The capacity of the battery was a lie.
That it could do phone calls was a lie.But in the end what I got was worth about what I paid. And it seems well-made and does actually work.
Very good. Last order arrived in 6 days. In my letterbox late Saturday, with notification and photo evidence. I was impressed by that.
FHE, they delivered on a Sunday for me too.
I am sure two recent packages where just thrown over the fence and a picture taken, they usually put it on the front door welcome mat.
Order placed 14/7
Shipment 16/7
Expected delivery is this Monday!!Their delivery times have indeed improved almost weekly
My last order was for 15 of a particular item. Seller shipped on 11 items. Lodged a claim with AliExpress and they wanted me to submit photographic evidence of non-receipt!
They would not accept my statement that one cannot photo proof of nothing - they closed the case.I’ve had that in the past too
I ordered something, and instead was sent a lightbulb. I sent them a photo of the lightbulb, and they rejected it. Luckily it was only $4, but I was pissed off
I guess I've been lucky so far. Have claimed a few times on small items where item wasn't as described successfully (ie niimbot thermal labels that weren't as they didn't have the nfc tag so wouldn't work, phone case that didn't fit etc)
Another time I had ordered some other thermal labels, seller sent some roll of silver tape. Submitted claim with photo and think it was robo-approved as got an instant reply that it was being refunded.
The only one that was a bit more work was something I ordered, can't even remember what it was but along with a bunch of my other orders were combined into one package. The item I received was a folding knife, was a bit of back and forth. Had to supply photos with packaging showing shipping weight, weight of the actual item shipped etc. Was still approved in the end though.
Most of my Aliexpress orders are 4-7 days these days. They have always been great on customer service, though it can be annoying that sometimes it automatically just offers a return and full refund without giving an option for partial refunds. Compared to TEMU I find Aliexpress is more likely to have reputable goods from real companies, Temu stuff seems a lot more generic.
Generally ok, though I did have a parcel not show up for about 3 months.
I've had no issues, shipping seems to have become a lot quicker this year compared to previous years.
When I search for something I sort by the amount of orders the item has had and check the feedback, haven't had an issue using this method yet.
Pretty good. Ordered full sets of Shimano brakes and rotors. All legit parts and got them in 10 days.
Wow you're brave ordering something that could potentially kill you if it fails! Are you 100% certain they are legit?
Yeah the Deore XT set I got is 100% legit Shimamo. Confirmed by alot of sources. The only part with high chance of being fake are the chains.
You have to pick your sellers carefully, but there are a few legitimate Shimano parts sellers on AliExpress. Main fakes to be careful of are chains, pedals and rotors.
I'm pleasantly surprised with their Choice free shipping deals; it's usually two weeks or less from China and occasionally the '3 from $2.99' has the same items I want for even less if I'm patient.
I am buying cheap junk and electronics that I don't expect to have a warranty like 3D printer parts, but it's usually half the price of an eBay local seller if I'm prepared to be patient and don't expect a warranty return.
And the local eBay seller is either dropshipping it from AE or ordered it previously in bulk from AE too and adding their cut. 😅
Sometimes it's worth paying a premium for 3-day delivery, or adding a single cheap item to make it to the $35 voucher minimum!
Done 12 orders on Aliex and 2 orders of Temu in 2months, all perfect and fast.
I do note nowadays that Aliex does funnel you to automated customer service options so you need to be smart with how you approach claims. Temu has become equally stingy with minimum orders and customer service.
Temu if you want really really cheap low value stuff and AliExpress if you want Chinese brands or more expensive items. I'm 200+ orders deep this year and 6 orders refunded due to being lost in the mail (thanks Auspost Sunshine West) and two refunds including a ~US$200ish product for being faulty.
In other news AliExpress have told me they now have legal and finance investigating the GST overcharge that happens sometimes.
I love the pricing. AliExpress is more for the savvy bargain hunter as its a lot of time wasting to toss between promotions to work out the best deals.
Lots of time wasted collecting game coins, badly targeted advertisements, promo codes for AliExpress, promo codes from individual stores, promo codes on individual items, cash back rewards, etc.
I regularly analyse cheap combo deals with the mindset "if its too good to be true there's a catch somewhere". If it was a competitor such as Amazon or eBay the item descriptions are clear whereas AliExpress requires a lot of clicking on photos and memory configurations verify the correct pricing that matches description cause sometimes you end up with something unrelated like a tooth pick.
I've rarely seen eBay or Amazon beat the prices on AliExpress even with coupon codes or Friday Frenzy.
As long as I set expectations appropriately I'm always happy. In the last two years I've been pleasantly surprised that the postage has arrived quicker than advertised. The tracking system is often useless so AliExpress is not recommended for worry warts.
I had a browse and found it really annoying. Prices kept changing as soon as I added things to the cart. Kept popping up crap and too many random offers. Ended up just buying the one thing I needed and ditching the rest.
Found Aliexpress to be cheaper when Temu first came up but recently a lot of the same no brand cheapie items end up being cheaper on Temu. But Aliexpress has a way better range so it's a mix. Sucks that they took away a lot of their free shipping options though :(
All good, mostly buy Choice products for the speedy postage.
Recently received two (non Choice) items ordered over 6 months ago, they’d been refunded long ago. Tracking implied the delay occurred in Australia. I msged both sellers about it, not their fault.
Long term Ali user. Sometimes good, sometimes shit. It went to complete shit when they started using fast horse couriers for deliveries over auspost.
I almost always use choice for the delivery guarantee because shipping from global sellers is just too risky. Your delivery address is critical.
My order from November showed up in May. Got a refund after 3 months. Haven’t bothered ordering anything else.
Satisfied with Aliexpress.
With Temu could go further than download the App.
No problems at all with Ali Express, even getting refunds where necessary.
I've now blacklisted Temu because their minimum spend just keeps going up and up and they wouldn't budge when I asked for it to be lowered (apparently that has worked for some people). I just told them I'd take my business to Wish or Ali Express and they still didn't care. Their loss!
Same here; Temu imposes $40 minimum spend so I'm flicking it off
Yeh worked for my last order @ Temu, plus it tracked at new user cashback rates but haven't ordered again since then. Guessing I won't have the same luck next time.
Purchased some electronics in the last few months.
Everything came on time or before scheduled date.
One came on the correct date but they listed it as delayed (in Aus) so they gave me money back for delivery..
Pretty satisfied tbh.well… belt road initiative has completed. So can get ten day shipping more often. Buy all my "myopia" glasses (for short sightedness) at Ali and most I've paid is $40. That one is an aviator style with transition/photochromism lenses. I get $5 cheapies delivered. No one local can match that. I can also get contacts for $5-6 delivered. In general, as long as you order of a store with lot's of orders, you should be ok.
Funny, I just placed an order with Aliexpress.
First I went to my usual Temu, added few things on the cart. Then realised the total seem all excessive!
Checked Aliexpress, same stuff, total was half the cost to Temu. Order placed.
Not sure if Temu have increased prices lately. I have never had issues with either of them but have been using Temu frequently in the past 12 months.I find some things cheaper on Ali, some on Temu.
Temu becoming PITA tho since they increase the min order to at least $40 for subsequent orders. Guess just creating new accounts might get around it but Ali is better at US$10 for free Choice shipping.Temu also does marketplace selling now as in shipped and sold by 3rd party. Listed as local warehouse, prices tend to be more than those shipped by them from China.
Temu's business model was to expand their customer base at the cost of their revenue, but it was clear from the start that at some point that would have to change.
Its basically my go to place whenever I need anything these days.
Once I discovered that 80% it eBay, Amazon and FB marketplace/ads are basically drop shipped items from AliExpress, I use it multiple times a week to buy basically every gadget, house accessory, clothing, garage and garden tool I need.
Their free choice free delivery and algorithm makes finding things that are related to my interests super easy to buy things constantly. And the 10 day delivery means I get must stuff quicker than if I ordered something from within Aus most of the time.
Out of the 50+ purchases I've made, 2 didn't show up and 1 was the wrong size. Got an instant refund for all of them, didn't even need to make a case for it just apply and got the refund. Plus being able to pay with paypal is good peace of mind for security and tricky refund issues .
I see the exact same stuff being sold in "local" online shops and even retail shops for 10x the price and can't help but roll my eyes.
Big thumbs up from me 👍
I too love sticking it to the drop shipper middlemen parasites that add no value, and buying direct from the industrious Chinese. The closer you can get to the manufacturer, the less markups you have to pay to rent-seekers.
In the past couple of years I've been shopping more and more on Amazon and AliExpress, and sometimes on specific websites (e.g. East Digital HK), depending on the items. Ebay and local shops seem to consistently be the worst option now, both for price and quality.
One thing to note for all platforms though, is to make sure you buy from a reputable seller, so always check the reviews, how long they've been on the platform, etc…
The way aliexpress shows you what its algorithm wants to show you, instead of what you asked for, is absolutely infuriating. The prices are also shite compared to aliexpress of old (as compared to Ebay etc).
yEs. this! and the promo ads. Can't just be me but I jumped onto aliexpress because of this thread and I'm currently seeing the ad for the leg-treatment product for removing boils or veins or something like that everywhere! I don't want to see this stuff!
Best way around this Ive found and it works quite well for me anyway because I was tired of searching in the app and getting a two good results and 100 algorithm predicted results.
Open up browser google what you are looking for eg. XRN19 24v Solenoid "AliExpress".
And use googles results to browse instead. Many times I haven't been able to find something in the app and have found multiple sellers with a google search.
Qutie good. Gets us access to great products at excellent prices. Customer service has always been positive and can't complain about delivery given the distance its got to go.
But many hings annoy the hell out of me.
- Difficult to determine if either the store or product is legit or official.
- As much as I like savings, I don't like the promotions and savings. I'm just tired of working out which products qualify for the promo discounts etc and reorganising my cart to hit the coupon promotion amount.
- The pick 3 bs, i just want good prices without the hassle. If they prefer I buy certain together at once, then categorise it better in the cart view.
- The bs item prices when there are 532590 variations and prices when you go to the item page.
- The promo stuff that keeps popping up or being shoved in your face when trying to browse the webpage or app
- Aliexpress business /bulk buy thing? Not relevant to many users, stop shoving it in my face.
- app notifications? So annoying and turning them off didn't always work. I now use app through android app 'Hail' that freezes the app until i open it
- the 'recommendation' algo is bit annoying. accidentally tap on one thing and variations of that product keeps hanging around. you like mens underwear? here's endless photos of bulges for ya
I got two dashcam deals posted here without any problems. Have also recently got some thermal tops from them that are almost exactly the same as what I used to get at Uniqlo for a third of the price. Postage takes about 2-3 weeks but they are upfront about the time frame when you order.
Three things I always do when buying off AliExpress is:
-Make sure they have feedback and good reviews, preferably with photos.
-Read the specifications/full listing because what's in the title is not always accurate but the specifications are usually close.
-Check the 'color' heading to see what you're actually ordering because each listing is usually for multiple items.Legit free returns are a thing again now, pretty happy about that.
What categories of products do you shop for for those who enjoy Ali products/services?
Their business model exploits labour and disregards quality assurance, therefore subpar or cheap knockoff products are in common.
The customer data is fully accessible to CCP with no encryption shxt, e.g., your address, credit card, or password is probably stored in plain text.
What's your source on this? Do the CCP own AliExpress or something?
Also to avoid the conspiracy theories just use PayPal to checkout.
Qanon probably
AliExpress is a Chinese company owned by Alibaba Group listed on NYSE
Paypal has a solid payment infrastructure and robust security, which means customer payment information is secure.
However, other information transmitted or shared within AliExpress like Account details(email, shipping address, password etc), purchase histories etc are definitely exposed and accessible to CCP
The source is that CCP is actively controlling major companies like ByteDance, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent by injecting Commie groups (I don't know the exact terms for that).
Essentially it means that those groups of Commies operate above the consumer laws and get whatever they want because there is no supervision as they are the supervision entities.
This is how influential those Commies are - Jack Ma was the founder and he said something made the upper/central Commies mad and caused him to lose the entire company.
Chinese market runs on different rules, even Microsoft and Apple need to bend over for the mainland market share and revenue.
The baseline is that would you be comfortable to share details with any CCP in return for much cheaper products?
There is probably no harm except some scram calls from time to time?
That's why I try to use PayPal wherever possible and barring that I generate single use cards.
I ironically the one time I know of where my personal details were leaked that actually caused problems was an Australian company, Optus.
The customer data is fully accessible to CCP with no encryption shxt, e.g., your address, credit card, or password is probably stored in plain text.
Do you have a source for this? If true that's massive, massive news…. PayPal is complicit in storing all your information plain text and sharing with China.
AliExpress is a Chinese company owned by Alibaba Group listed on NYSE
Paypal has a solid payment infrastructure and robust security, which means customer payment information is secure.
However, other information transmitted or shared within AliExpress like Account details(email, shipping address, password etc), purchase histories etc are definitely exposed and accessible to CCP
The source is that CCP is actively controlling major companies like ByteDance, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent by injecting Commie groups (I don't know the exact terms for that).
Essentially it means that those groups of Commies operate above the consumer laws and get whatever they want because there is no supervision as they are the supervision entities.
This is how influential those Commies are - Jack Ma was the founder and he said something made the upper/central Commies mad and caused him to lose the entire company.
Chinese market runs on different rules, even Microsoft and Apple need to bend over for the mainland market share and revenue.
The baseline is that would you be comfortable to share details with any CCP in return for much cheaper products?
There is probably no harm except some scram calls from time to time?
That's one of the dumbest things I ever read since the internet has been around. Besides all the external audits these companies have to go through to be listed on foreign stock exchanges, you're implying that major financial institutions around the world are happy with potentially going bankrupt if they allow users to make payment through such a platform.
how does this relate to " major financial institutions" around the world?
Great experiences recently. Bought a headtorch (sofirn) for $18 after a discount voucher, and a Heart Rate Monitor for $30 approx (Coospo) and IEMs from Linsoul (CCA CRA) for $18.
Only bought items that had been extensively reviewed (i.e. not just a fake review page with affiliate links), and bought from the official store of each manufacturer.
Each item was significantly less than the equivalent mainstream brands (i.e. head torch 1/5 of a petzl or something) and often had better features performance.
Durability/longevity is a bit of an unknown at this stage. Build quality seems as decent as mainstream brands on the items I bought. The difference is mainstream brands have local distribution, warranties and after service car to mop up the units that meet QC but fail aftewards whereas with these items I don't like my chances with warranty/cost of return.
But if you are discerning and can read independent third party reviews of items then you can save quite a bit compared to mainstream options.
So many local warehouse items too, bring shipping of orders, sometimes within 1 week.
Made an order in June and it came within a week! Used them a few years ago and things took a month or more. Cheaper than Ebay and Amazon for that particular item.
I am actually shocked that so many people get scammed on AliExpress.
I'm a pretty heavy user (100 orders in the past 45 days) mainly electrical components (SMD stuff and console parts) but a few random things here and there like a Ryzen CPU in the last month, LCD displays and retro gaming emulation devices.
I steer clear of the clothing and two dollar shop type items though maybe that's why my experience is so positive.
Biggest purchase was $2.5k for a GPD Win Max 2 portable gaming device and had no hesitation or doing outlaying the money.
I've never had a problem and I would have made at least 1000 seperate orders in the past 3 years.
Always check the reviews read the description carefully, sometimes I'll speak to the seller if I get the slightest bad vibe.
I don't buy the typical $2 dollar
But other than that I can't fault AliExpress, Temu on the other hand I would not touch with a 10 foot barge pole it easier to just go to the local two dollar shop.
Also had positive experiences with support for refunds on items that are delayed (the few times this has happened the items always arrive eventually)
all the big ticket items get delivered without any hassle and promptly.
there have been a few small items that didnt get delivered although Ali refund magic happened within a few hours of claim.
i really cant complain at all to be honest.
last purchase i got from them was a naviforce watch, resident evil umbrella corp stickers and slogan and some generic guitar stuff to try out.
all came in and quick too.
Aliexpress have improved their logistics to a startling degree, lots of products coming with a 11 day postage guarantee.
For bicycle stuff it's also really interesting to watch the development of Chinese products and brands. They used to be all about being ultra low cost with barely any thought put into brand, and people couldn't believe I'd buy stuff from them, but they've improved their quality to the point where they're competitive with big names in wheels and frames, and they're not there yet (at least with the high end) but they're coming along with drivetrains.
I've been tempted with alot of the MTB stuff, especially brakes (XT disc) and pedals but haven't pulled the pin and have bought locally. What kind of stuff have you been buying?
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If you havent buy from ali in the say past 6,10 months, you will be surprised now.
Same with temu.
But I warn you may hate me later because you will get addicted buying from them