aliexpress

[davidphilips]

Anyone use Aliexpress? Have read and even listened to great reviews about Aliexpress, Great low price deals etc, only used them the once and doubt i will use them again,
Ordered a camera battery 2 months ago, shipping information to Poland then nothing, past delivery date,contacted seller (theres lots of sellers on Aliexpress) this morning and alli got back was a message saying no refund offered by seller?
Lucky in that i paid with paypay or looks like i would have lost my money along with wasting my time?

 

[fossyant]

Used them a couple of times - mainly the odd bike light. Arrived within a couple of weeks

 

[numbnuts]

I've had quite a few things from Aliexpress so far so good
I always use mastercard for that reason

 

[derrick]

All good here, use them a lot for one of my other hobbies. as long as you don't need it urgently, so cheap.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Anyone use Aliexpress? Have read and even listened to great reviews about Aliexpress, Great low price deals etc, only used them the once and doubt i will use them again,
Ordered a camera battery 2 months ago, shipping information to Poland then nothing, past delivery date,contacted seller (theres lots of sellers on Aliexpress) this morning and alli got back was a message saying no refund offered by seller?
Lucky in that i paid with paypay or looks like i would have lost my money along with wasting my time?

Aliexpress is like a market with individual sellers. I could draw an analogy and say that I bought something in a shopping centre and it was bad so I'm never using that shopping centre again. A bit extreme.

It's more confusing than a regular market though, because there's a whole lot of imitation going on. The quality of the seller is the important thing.

It'd been a few years since I bought from there but when I used it I always checked out the reviews. If I can recall correctly I could check by country which was useful for getting an idea on delivery issues. I also checked by date so that it was recent information I was looking at.

A lot of the stuff can be cheap and poor quality but some of it can be just what we need.

Delivery can be very slow and sometimes surprisingly quick.

It is (or was) very popular on backpacking fora for innovative and cheap tents and equipment. Or, to be specific, individual sellers were popular.

I don't recall having any serious issues.

 

[vickster]

Prefer to use UK based sellers even if costs a little more. I have Amazon Prime so that battery would likely have turned up next day and their returns are quibble free (indeed a few times, they've said not to bother returning and refunded immediately!)

 

[FishFright]

It's another thing made a bit worse through Brexit. They have European warehouses for the most popular items but most things are sent direct from China now because it's simpler and cheaper for them.

 

[sevenfourate]

I do use AE for stuff i can't get from anywhere else. My impatience sees me normally buying closer to home.....

However; i am currently a Platinum member on AE; and order fairly frequently. Probably made over 40 (?) orders - and had zero issues with any. Some slower deliveries.....but everything made it in the end.

Most of it ok quality. They copy and reverse Engineer stuff like no-man business. Industrious little buggars. Unlike us Brits....

 

[markemark]

Ordered a piece of equipment for work that I just couldn’t buy easily in the U.K. Almost worth me buying 3 and selling the other 2 at U.K. prices and I’d have made a profit.

Delivery was funny though. Kept saying it was being delivered but it went the most convoluted route via about 5 different countries until it got to me and each notification of delivery was a leg.

Some post purchase chat where English is clearly not great but it’s all good.

 

[lazybloke]

Be careful when purchasing from Aliexpress "store" pages.
Just found an example - at first glance this appears to be a shift lever and a derailleur for £17, but on closer inspection it's the shift lever only - the page loads with a photo that doesn't match the item selection.

Check your basket carefully before paying!

 

[Cycleops]

'Do ya feel lucky, well do ya?' If you do go ahead, pay by PayPal if accepted but I would never give them my credit/debit card.

 

[welsh dragon]

I have ordered quite a few things from there without incident. However the last item I bought I never received and I put it down to the postal strike.

Things take longer to get here because most items come from China, or America.

I like the site. Easy to use.

I've had more problems using Ebay and Amazon.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Ordered something once and the transaction was blocked by my bank, don't need to be told twice its a scam site!

 

[welsh dragon]

Ordered something once and the transaction was blocked by my bank, don't need to be told twice its a scam site!

It isn't a scam site. I have bought a couple of dozen items. All but 1 arrived and that was during the postal strike.

 

[FishFright]

Ordered something once and the transaction was blocked by my bank, don't need to be told twice its a scam site!

AKA Extrapolating from incomplete data