Is it safe to order something on Aliexpress - experiences ?

[scorecard]

On 4/18/2023 at 6:03 AM, gargamon said:

AliExpress is better than lazada or shopee. Bigger selection, cheaper, more secure.

 

The biggest plus is that the seller is not paid until you acknowledge that you have received the goods and they are as described on the site. You pay when you order, at least I do, AliExpress holds the money until you mark it as received or the delivery deadline has been reached. If it's later than the delivery deadline, even by a day, it's essentially free if it shows up late. If it isn't as described you also dispute and the seller doesn't get paid and you get the money back. 

 

My family (son, DIL, eldest granddaughter and myself) have used aliexpress many times (a wild guess 50 times) here in Thailand, In Australia and in China. Never had any difficulty  or confusion or wrong payments, always delivered on time. No hesitation to use them again.

[Peterphuket]

20 minutes ago, Pdavies99 said:

Try getting the money back! No chance or fat chance!

That's not true, more than once I've got my money back, when not delivered or recently, when the seller makes problems about delivery, Ali come between without my request and cancelled the order and in 3 days the money was back on my account

[Peterphuket]

But it is also possible the same item is cheaper in Thailand than at Ali.

Last week I need a can opener, brand Findking, 160 thb excl sending, at Lazada 150 Thb, including sending and delivered in 2 days.

I always look first at Lazada and Shopee, because the delivering time, if don't have or to expansive I look at Ali.

[moogradod]

On 4/18/2023 at 9:57 AM, NextG said:

Shopee is ridiculously easy with which to open an account. I cannot imagine how you can have an issue. All you need is a mobile number. 
When I forget my password, I don’t bother to try to remember it as I can simply recreate a new account in a few seconds…. and then you can order via COD immediately. 

I am sorry, you are right and I am wrong. Last night when I woke up I just created an account with my mobile in a jiffy just because it was boring to lay around. The access works as well from my destop (you have to disable one tracker, but this corrects itself on logout). Using COD there is as well no danger for credit card details although you could input those in your profile (which I woud never do).

 

I wonder whre eventually limits for the amount for COD are.

Edited April 19, 2023 by moogradod

[Digitty]

Never had an issue with them. Most credit cards offer some form of consumer protection to guard against those sorts or risks anyway. 

[ThaiFelix]

On 4/19/2023 at 1:56 PM, Pdavies99 said:

Try getting the money back! No chance or fat chance!

INCORRECT!  You must be an extremely unlucky guy!  I have been using Aliexpress for years, maybe 5 or 6 times a month.  Have had to cancell a few orders (3 or 4) over that time and always got a refund and usually before I go looking for it.  Excellent service from Ali!

 

 

 

 

[Henryford]

On 4/18/2023 at 1:11 PM, scubascuba3 said:

AliExpress isn't as good as Lazada due to poor tracking, sometimes items can take months to arrive or not at all.

 

It's a last resort for me

Same with me. I never use Aliexpress except for small items phone cases etc so if they don't show up no problem. Also prefer not to have to pay up front, especially using a credit card. Also if you had to return an item how easy would that be to China? With Lazada in Thailand easy to do and track.

Having said that the things i have ordered all turned up OK, albeit after a long time.

 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Henryford

[scubascuba3]

5 hours ago, Henryford said:

Same with me. I never use Aliexpress except for small items phone cases etc so if they don't show up no problem. Also prefer not to have to pay up front, especially using a credit card. Also if you had to return an item how easy would that be to China? With Lazada in Thailand easy to do and track.

Having said that the things i have ordered all turned up OK, albeit after a long time.

 

Yes the lack of COD is a problem if they accepted that i would risk it more often

[fusion58]

I like Ali Express because the website is better built and much more functional, readable and reliable than Lazada or Shopee. No issues with language translation. No glitches with payment gateways that suddenly stop working at certain hours, etc.

 

I use the site whenever I want to order something I’m not in a hurry to receive.

[moogradod]

Surprizes with my first two orders using Aliexpress:

 

1. They have really a very vast selection

2. To enter I need to virtually take down all my browser security add-ons of which there are many. After my visit I have then to clean up a little bit

3. One item (quite a big one in the price range of US$ 300.-- overall) was delivered with a hefty surcharge for transport, but the import tax was below 1KTHB

4. Delivery was quite quick although it was not clear in the end where they did send it exactly. It was waiting in the Chonburi Post Office and it was not delivered to the indicated adress, nor did they inform us via phone

5. The documentation was only in Chinese - AND HERE THE BIG SURPRIZE: I made a photo (!) of it, pasted it into Google Translate and it came back with a perfect translation in English. And I mean perfect.

6. The Seller had a reputation of 0% in the end - when I ordered it was something like near to 94%

7. But the Seller (obviously only Chinese speaking) was communicating via Alitranslate in the message center. No problem. He was polite and swift and I would recommend him.

 

All in all I am happy to get what I wanted for this one was unavailable in Thailand.

 

Item 2 - a household item with much less value then item 1: The tracking link they indicated wanted to install a trojan on my machine, but with no success. Then they said that they changed shipping to DHL, but the tracking number was unknown on the DHL site. Then they said it was in transit indicating another link. My Antivirus Software warned me that the Security Certificate for the site it pointed to was issued by a non trusted organization. It should arrive in 3 days according to the Seller. We will see. If this one does not work (not for sure yet) I will not loose a lot of money

[scubascuba3]

45 minutes ago, moogradod said:

Surprizes with my first two orders using Aliexpress:

 

1. They have really a very vast selection

2. To enter I need to virtually take down all my browser security add-ons of which there are many. After my visit I have then to clean up a little bit

3. One item (quite a big one in the price range of US$ 300.-- overall) was delivered with a hefty surcharge for transport, but the import tax was below 1KTHB

4. Delivery was quite quick although it was not clear in the end where they did send it exactly. It was waiting in the Chonburi Post Office and it was not delivered to the indicated adress, nor did they inform us via phone

5. The documentation was only in Chinese - AND HERE THE BIG SURPRIZE: I made a photo (!) of it, pasted it into Google Translate and it came back with a perfect translation in English. And I mean perfect.

6. The Seller had a reputation of 0% in the end - when I ordered it was something like near to 94%

7. But the Seller (obviously only Chinese speaking) was communicating via Alitranslate in the message center. No problem. He was polite and swift and I would recommend him.

 

All in all I am happy to get what I wanted for this one was unavailable in Thailand.

 

Item 2 - a household item with much less value then item 1: The tracking link they indicated wanted to install a trojan on my machine, but with no success. Then they said that they changed shipping to DHL, but the tracking number was unknown on the DHL site. Then they said it was in transit indicating another link. My Antivirus Software warned me that the Security Certificate for the site it pointed to was issued by a non trusted organization. It should arrive in 3 days according to the Seller. We will see. If this one does not work (not for sure yet) I will not loose a lot of money

You can get your money back if it doesn't arrive but you'll need to wait 60-75 days, that was the case when i used AliExpress, may have changed duration. The waiting was a PITA

Edited May 17, 2023 by scubascuba3

[h90]

I buy like once a week on Aliexpress:

Save: Seller only get the money after delivery, and if something broken, does not work from the beginning Aliexpress is helpful.

Had several complains and always got some fair refund without shipping back.

 

Latter warranty: Forget it.

 

Lots of excellent products but also lot of crap...Fake SSDs are famous, fake electronic chips, but real good and honest things.

Most small things come without paying import duty.

Bigger things like bicycle frame and wheels I paid import duty. Note that 10% import duty is you paying about 30%.

Some do "special line" which means no customs.

I can only recommend it for small items....I would think twice (or more) before buying some thousands of Dollar item there.

 

[orang37]

I’ve ordered from Aliexpress a few times, but my experience hasn’t been great. Once, I bought a phone case that looked good online, but when it arrived, it didn’t fit right and felt really cheap. It even cracked after just a week, which was really disappointing. So, I realized that the quality can be hit or miss on there, especially for phone accessories.

 

Now, I always get my phone cases from here because they’re much better quality. The cases fit perfectly and last a lot longer, so it’s definitely worth it.

Edited September 17 by orang37