What's your shopping experience with AliExpress?

All of my stuff from Aliexpress comes by USPS. It takes about as long from China to customs in L.A. as it does from there to me in northern California. I recently had to return some stuff that I screwed up when I ordered. I received my refund the same day I dropped it at the Post Office.
 
I've had good experiences with Aliexpress (postage to Australia) no downsides to dealing with suppliers there at all.
 
I've had pretty good luck also but had my share of problems over the years. I've learned to buy everything with Paypal and pay them with a credit card, and Paypal reimburses me when things don't go right (I buy a lot of stuff). I've never had to get my credit card to deal with any of it (but it's another layer).
 
I've been buying a lot more lately these past 10 months, cheap little items for my new job (automotive related). My orders have been coming extremely fast, like 4-8 days. Many of my orders are delivered by Piggy Ship. They'll consoldate packages from different orders, put em all into one bag & deliver, I like that. Very few of my orders still come by USPS & those take much longer to arrive.

Just got the second half of my last order today, first half yesterday. Placed the order on the 13th, so that's 3-4 business days delivery. Pretty damn good.

I just had an order last week come that wasn't what I ordered. Had one a month ago like this too, Aliexpress refunded me immediately. But this one I was asked to return the item, first time ever with Aliexpress for me. No problem I thought, printed out their shipping label which was UPS Mail Innovative Returns but shipped through USPS.

Was a label I had never seen or heard of before, had no address on it. Took it to the post office in person just in case, clerk scanned it fine & gave me a receipt. I kept an eye on the package, next day it arrived at a major hub near me, then said it was available/ready for the returns agent to pick it up. Then it updated saying picked up by returns agent. That's so weird, totally different city/area than the returns address that is listed on the package when it arrived.

But whatever, Aliexpress refunded me as soon as the tracking number showed movement.
 
darkzero said:
I've been buying a lot more lately these past 10 months, cheap little items for my new job (automotive related). My orders have been coming extremely fast, like 4-8 days. Many of my orders are delivered by Piggy Ship. They'll consoldate packages from different orders, put em all into one bag & deliver, I like that. Very few of my orders still come by USPS & those take much longer to arrive.

Just got the second half of my last order today, first half yesterday. Placed the order on the 13th, so that's 3-4 business days delivery. Pretty damn good.

I just had an order last week come that wasn't what I ordered. Had one a month ago like this too, Aliexpress refunded me immediately. But this one I was asked to return the item, first time ever with Aliexpress for me. No problem I thought, printed out their shipping label which was UPS Mail Innovative Returns but shipped through USPS.

Was a label I had never seen or heard of before, had no address on it. Took it to the post office in person just in case, clerk scanned it fine & gave me a receipt. I kept an eye on the package, next day it arrived at a major hub near me, then said it was available/ready for the returns agent to pick it up. Then it updated saying picked up by returns agent. That's so weird, totally different city/area than the returns address that is listed on the package when it arrived.

But whatever, Aliexpress refunded me as soon as the tracking number showed movement.
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So they gave you a shipping label? I have never had that happen with aliexpress, they always wanted me to pay for any return postage for their mistakes and problems (which wasn't going to happen). If I did it, fine. If they did it, no way.
 
robert574 said:
So they gave you a shipping label? I have never had that happen with aliexpress, they always wanted me to pay for any return postage for their mistakes and problems (which wasn't going to happen). If I did it, fine. If they did it, no way.
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I think it may be a new policy, something about one free return with each order. My recent (and only) return, they provided a shipping label similar to @darkzero 's description. It was my fault, I fat-fingered the order. I am noticing that, one by one, they are improving the buying experience. I'm no longer forced to log in each time I visit, nor prove that I'm not a robot. Their search still leaves much to be desired, but considering the language issues it's a wonder it works at all.
 
MrWhoopee said:
I think it may be a new policy, something about one free return with each order. My recent (and only) return, they provided a shipping label similar to @darkzero 's description. It was my fault, I fat-fingered the order. I am noticing that, one by one, they are improving the buying experience. I'm no longer forced to log in each time I visit, nor prove that I'm not a robot. Their search still leaves much to be desired, but considering the language issues it's a wonder it works at all.
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Their search is a problem. I have found that if you can find something similar to what you want, click on it, then go to the bottom of the page and they will start to toss out everything like it. Down there you might find what you're looking for. Once you find one of them, open it and then go to the bottom again and you'll get a dozen sellers for it. Also, just use a google search and add the word aliexpress. That will find stuff too.
 
I have always been leery of Ali; but, ever since Jack Ma was disappeared by the CCP only to reappear in Tokyo I tend to really steer clear of them.
 
robert574 said:
So they gave you a shipping label? I have never had that happen with aliexpress, they always wanted me to pay for any return postage for their mistakes and problems (which wasn't going to happen). If I did it, fine. If they did it, no way.
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Yes, as @MrWhoopee said, I noticed it said first return in the order is free. I've been buying from Aliexpress for many years but just here and there. Only in the past 10 months have I been ordering more often, like 2-4 times a month.

This month is the first time I really had any issues (minor, 2 cases), and the first time I was ever asked to return an item.

What's weird is I purchased from the same exact seller 3 weeks ago. After receiving, I liked the item so I ordered a second one in a different color, again same exact seller, but then got something totally different that what I had ordered. Ordered an OTF utility knife but got some sort of vinyl mat with colored beads that made a mess when opening the package. So it seems sellers on Aliexpress just have items dropped shipped from suppliers also. Funny cause many people in the US & other countries use Aliexpress for drop shipping.

The other case I had in the past month, wrong item received but the package label was labeled with the correct description for the item I order. Was a 3 pack of utility knives but I received a mini tape measure. Aliexpress refunded me.right away & did not ask for the item to be returned. That worked out cause I really didn't want those utility knives anymore anyways.
 
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