Avoid ALiExpress/Alibaba at all cost!

[dcabbar]

I purchased bunch of items from a reseller ( Shenzhen Kaweier Technology Co., Ltd), and things have been fine till I received the order, but then it turned out to be a terrible experience. Basically, one of the items was clearly broken... I sent an email to the reseller with a picture of the broken item and was told to fix it myself and offered a $5 dolar refund (items was $40). I told them that I can't get it fixed (living in a small town), and so they asked me to send it back to China for repair and that I should pay for the shipment. And, the issues started from here on:

1. I am not a pro English speaker myself, but at least I can explain myself. The customer reps there cannot speak reasonable English. I mean, you get messages like: "Why this product is $40, also let us refund the freight, we in the mail, is free shipping to you by mail in the past. Now let us refund the freight to you again. Why is that?"
Basic form of communication is almost impossible, you need to exchange 4-5 messages to understand each other, and most of the time, you give up!

2. Aliexpress.com complaint center is terrible, just simply terrible. I opened a complaint, uploading all the pictures I have and explained the situtation, and kept receiving messages like "no evidence" provided, and some random emails like "your payment is being processed", "confirm your deliver", etc.

3. About 2-3 weeks later, I got an email from aliexpress saying that the complaint is rejected and money was transferred to the reseller due to insufficient evidence (again, I uploaded pictures / explained the thing twice on the site, it is still there)

4. There is no place to contact on aliexpress or escalate the issue. Check their site, there are some stupid / insufficient automated systems, but nothing that you can contact an actual customer rep.

At the end, I ended up throwing $40 away.

In summary, just stay away from AliExpress. You think you can save a few dollars, but you end up wasting a lot more!

 

[WheelsUSN]

I purchased bunch of items from a reseller ( Shenzhen Kaweier Technology Co., Ltd), and things have been fine till I received the order, but then it turned out to be a terrible experience. Basically, one of the items was clearly broken... I sent an email to the reseller with a picture of the broken item and was told to fix it myself and offered a $5 dolar refund (items was $40). I told them that I can't get it fixed (living in a small town), and so they asked me to send it back to China for repair and that I should pay for the shipment. And, the issues started from here on:

1. I am not a pro English speaker myself, but at least I can explain myself. The customer reps there cannot speak reasonable English. I mean, you get messages like: "Why this product is $40, also let us refund the freight, we in the mail, is free shipping to you by mail in the past. Now let us refund the freight to you again. Why is that?"
Basic form of communication is almost impossible, you need to exchange 4-5 messages to understand each other, and most of the time, you give up!

2. Aliexpress.com complaint center is terrible, just simply terrible. I opened a complaint, uploading all the pictures I have and explained the situtation, and kept receiving messages like "no evidence" provided, and some random emails like "your payment is being processed", "confirm your deliver", etc.

3. About 2-3 weeks later, I got an email from aliexpress saying that the complaint is rejected and money was transferred to the reseller due to insufficient evidence (again, I uploaded pictures / explained the thing twice on the site, it is still there)

4. There is no place to contact on aliexpress or escalate the issue. Check their site, there are some stupid / insufficient automated systems, but nothing that you can contact an actual customer rep.

At the end, I ended up throwing $40 away.

In summary, just stay away from AliExpress. You think you can save a few dollars, but you end up wasting a lot more!

Those websites are also full of sellers that misrepresent others work as their own. My wife crochets items that she sells on ETSY but many of the photos of her items are used by Chinese sellers on AliExpress/Alibaba as they sell cheap copies of her work. A few people who have bought the knockoffs have then bought from my wife after being disappointed in the quality of the items they got from AliExpress. AliExpress/Alibaba refuse to do anything about the illegal use of copyrighted photos on their website. Lately the same thing has started to happen on Amazon and they are also less than helpful at getting the pictures removed.

 

[dfx]

This is the risk you must be prepared to take when buying cheap (cheap cheap cheap) stuff straight from China, stuff that would otherwise cost double or more from a proper retailer. You must accept the fact that there's a relatively high chance that whatever you're gonna get either sucks badly in terms of quality, or isn't actually the product that was advertised, or is just plain broken. And that in such cases, you're SOL for returns, exchanges or refunds. I thought that was common sense.

I love those sites. Yep, I've also gotten some things that didn't work, were junk, or broke shortly after being put to use. But here's the deal: even of you buy 3 of the same thing (maybe different versions/models) and only one of them works properly, you're usually still off cheaper than buying just one from a local retailer. A good DIY fixing mentality also helps a lot. And a lot of patience for the slow shipping

It's cheap. You get what you pay for.

 

[Sieg@VU]

Sorry for your experience, but often dealing offshore is a gamble (and it's always much more fun if you gamble with your money at a local casino).....moral of the story is to shop with a proper on-line retailer or LDS!