Delivery by Aliexpress.

[Geoffsilverfox]

For the past two years I have purchased many items from Aliexpress.  Without exception everything has been sent by China Post, delivered to my door by our local Thai postman, with never an additional charge, and delivered in less than two weeks, sometimes a lot faster.  I have had no complaints with the service.

 

However, last December I ordered three pairs of long pants from Aliexpress, the money was taken from my bank account, and after some time I decided to check the tracking information.  Then, the tracking information told me that delivery had been attempted on 19 January, but there was nobody to receive the parcel.  I dispute this, as there is always someone at home, no card had been left, and our postman will redeliver the next day, if we should be unavailable.

 

I queried with the supplier in China, and they told me that the parcel was at the local post office.  We checked there, with a negative result.  Last Wednesday 22 February, the postman delivered a          notice that I had to pay money at the post office, 802 baht.  Quite obviously no attempt had been made to deliver to our address, when there was a sum of money outstanding.  We collected the goods from the post office last Thursday.

 

I now see from the Aliexpress web site that the items were sent via Aliexpress Standard Shipping, and not as previously, China Post.  Possibly the different method of transit enters Thailand at a different place. Net result, with the charges I have had to pay here in Thailand has cancelled any savings that I had expected from buying from Aliexpress.  On reflection I could probably have had the long pants tailor made here in Thailand, for the same money, if not less, and taken delivery in just a few days.

 

I still have one order outstanding which is in transit with Aliexpress Standard Shipping, so I wait to see how long that will take to reach me, and how much it will cost me.

long pants tracking..docx

[Lannig]

Well, that's what import taxes are made for, forcing you to buy locally.

Whatever country you live in, having to pay taxes or not on these shipments from Chinese internet shops is kind of a lottery. You can't always win.

[impulse]

28 minutes ago, Lannig said:

Well, that's what import taxes are made for, forcing you to buy locally.

Whatever country you live in, having to pay taxes or not on these shipments from Chinese internet shops is kind of a lottery. You can't always win.

  

With around 40 (mostly small) orders from AliExpress, I've been hit with import duties on 2 of them, both worth over $500 USD.  Last week, I received an order from China in 2-3 days (gobsmacked me), but mostly they take 2-3 weeks and occasionally up to 6 weeks.

 

I, too have a current order that tracks as "delivered"  (nope), and one more that tracks as "attempted to deliver" which is ridiculous because I have everything shipped to the office which is open 5 days a week.  In the past, they've always worked themselves out so I chalked it up to typos by the delivery guys.  We'll see on these 2.

 

It is a crap shoot, so I look locally before I'll order anything from AliExpress.  I'll buy from Lazada as a first choice because of their "all in delivered price" policy.  But that still leaves a lot of goodies I can't find except on AliExpress, which is a crapshoot, or Amazon or EBay where I'm pretty much guaranteed to get gouged under their international shipping programs.  In fact, I've gotten to the last page on Amazon about 20 times and cancelled my order on 19 occasions when the total came up.  But there was one software package that I needed...

 

On a related note, does anyone have any experience with BangGood?  They have some Arduino crap I'd like to order, but I'm reluctant to start dealing with yet another online vendor...

Edited February 26, 2017 by impulse

[keeniau96]

I have had about 30 deliveries from Aliexpress, never any extra payment to postman even as several were large boxes of electronic goods (security system etc). Had one that was not delivered but showed delivered which the Thai Post determined was to some place in Loei even though the computer generated ship-to was clearly my proper address in Phuket. Curious enough Aliexpress took it in hand and the shipper sent another one that delivered rapidly to my house, no payments of any form. Overall excellent delivery service. I do try to avoid the "Ali standard shipping" which could be anything, and look for another vendor of the same item but with China Post (I prefer them) or another identified shipper.

[CaptHaddock]

On the whole I have been pretty well satisfied with Aliexpress.  I have made around 60 orders.  All, but four of them were delivered.  I disputed the charges on the undelivered items and received refunds on all of them.  The most expensive item was about $175, about $100 cheaper than Lazada, and arrived by DHL in 7 days.

 

I haven't paid customs charges on anything, which is a big plus.

[jadee]

Over the past 3 years, I've made about 30 purchases from Aliexpress. I mostly buy low-value items, mostly cheap toys for my son, and things I can't find locally like an Android TV box on one occasion.

Reading the OP's post, yes I'd agree that Aliexpress is not the best place to buy trousers or high quality clothing. I haven't bought trousers but I did buy several dresses for my wife and they weren't exactly the greatest quality. 

Only one of my purchases didn't arrive and the seller refunded the money. I haven't had anything withheld or had to pay extra charges but I think that's because I've bought small cheap items.

I've made some great purchases. A model toy from the movie 'Pacific Rim' was 1,500baht in the local toy store, I bought the same toy for 600baht with free delivery, exactly the same quality (probably where the toy store owners bought their stock from!). Another time, I wanted a cooling stand for our Playstation 4. The game shop had one for 1,600baht which seemed a little excessive so I found the same one on Aliexpress for 550baht.  Overall it's a good site. 

Edited February 27, 2017 by jadee