When I came across the so called “AliExpress scam” complaint in one forum, I couldn’t help laughing. The angry buyer claimed that AliExpress sent him a wrong item he never ordered. Based on my knowledge about AliExpress, it is no way possible as AliExpress is only a wholesale transaction platform – it does not sell any item, not to mention ship out any item to any customer. Obviously, this buyer was either ripped off by a seller doing business on AliExpress.com or encountered an unprofessional operation carried out by the seller.
In this case, the buyer should report the problem to AliExpress for mediation or contact the seller first to solve the problem. Given such misunderstandings about AliExpress, I think I should share all of my familiar facts about AliExpress, which may help you more clearly identify whether AliExpress scam is a reality or not.
Facts about AliExpress.com
1. An express wholesale channel of Alibaba.com, which was founded in 1999;
2. Officially went live in April, 2010;
3. Mainly serving small businesses, including Chinese small suppliers and global small re-sellers.
4. Accepting PayPal, credit card, MasterCard and bank transfer (TT payment);
5. Offering Escrow service to protect payment from buyers. AliExpress will only release funds to the supplier after the buyer confirms satisfactory delivery of your order. If the buyer is unhappy about the item or purchase, he or she can submit a refund request to AliExpress to ask for a refund or a solution;
6. All orders placed on AliExpress will be processed quickly, mostly within 1 week.
7. Small quantity orders are extensively accepted while for some items, minimum order quantity starts from 1 piece only;
8. AliExpress adopts a set of strict policies to verify each supplier before they are accepted as registered members and start to list their items there. In Chinese foreign trade communities, many suppliers complain that they can’t pass the censor by AliExpress and thus are not able to successfully register with the website.
But as the number of suppliers there is huge, some may willfully escape the verification by difficult-to-spot means. Before you trade with any seller, do remember to check every detail of the supplier, including feedback score, membership tier, item specifications, etc. Besides, in case any problem occurs, make sure to save a record of all communication with the supplier, which will be used as powerful evidence in the event that a dispute between you arises.
9. Once you open a dispute against a supplier, AliExpress staff will take care of the mediation work. However, the whole process may need some time as the platform needs to collect enough evidence to make an impartial ruling. So if you happen to encounter such unpleasant experience, you’d better be patient enough before AliExpress helps you solve the problem.
I personally believe that it’s unfair to spread the “AliExpress scam” voice everywhere while the company is trying its best to help you get through the issue. Nothing is born perfect — AliExpress is still young in cross-border express wholesale business and needs time to improve itself. After all, the wholesale website belongs to the world’s biggest wholesale group and its credibility is unquestionable.
My advice: shopping at AliExpress.com should be cautious to avoid scams committed by certain suppliers – following the guidelines about how to find good sellers there may help you out; before doing enough research on the suppliers, items and services on AliExpress, never assume that the AliExpress scam complaints are 100% true, otherwise you may miss out really fantastic business opportunities; the best way to make sure you are trading with a reliable supplier and will get satisfactory item from the supplier, is to place a very small order to test all the details before you place a bigger order.
AliExpress just rips people off for “small” amounts of money. How many hours of work are you prepared to do for free just to get your money back because something didn’t come or wasn’t what you ordered? Not to mention the frustration level–they routinely disable the second, necessary log in after you have already logged in to My Account, so you can’t even MAKE a complaint! I tried a direct email address and only reply, after several emails, was to log in, go to next step…..impossible! After two weeks, till deadline was reached and I gave up. That escrow protection is bullshit. You will never see your money again. AliExpress enriches countless crooked Chinese businesses, which is why Paypal LOST megabucks on them and pulled out after only one year! Save yourself time and money and adrenalin and STAY AWAY from AliExpress. Liliane, in France, November 2012
I purchased the hair based off the description no tangles pure virgin hair brazilian human hair all cuticles in one direction I received the hair omg it was synthetic Hair not human at all it tangled the first day I had it in I contacted the seller he stated he would give me a 5% discount if I changed my feedback to 4 stars so he is scamming every customer and a lot o the feedback is revised sad but true
I ordered a helmet suppension system in a size S/M in dark earth colour and of course seller said I ordered L/XL black, which I recieved. Also the seller stated that it would be shipped via EMS, and after payment I recieved a promte email stating it would now be shipped via China Mail, adding another 3 weeks to the arrivel time.This is just par for the course with 3rd world suppliers. Word to the wise stick with eBay and you will be safe.
Hi Lee,
For your case, I would suggest you request your credit card company for a chargeback as soon as possible.
Jessie
Danviews.com
How do we get them to REPLY! I do not know Chinese and even if I called the office I would not know how to explain the situation!
I recently had a transaction go through on my card – tried to call the USA number got voice message and left a message to call me back NO SUCH LUCK! Also, faxed head office and have not gotten an answer back. SAD
This supplier wouldl not cancel my order. The I phone 4S leather red case was not in stock so, Sherry, wanted me to take it in black and requested that they cancel my order. I was redused c cancellation because she was me to state some other reason other than our of stock. Now they are trying to force me to accept the black on and bill me anyway. I have reported them to the BBB..who then gave me a phone # that only was a recording. Scam Criminals
Hi Jon,
Sorry to hear that you got an unpleasant experience with the Aliexpress seller. From your case, we noticed that you followed the advice of the seller after the dispute was incurred. This is how some scammers always do! They mislead and cheat their unhappy customers by promising that they will refund them if they delete the bad reviews. Based on our knowledge, you should submit the case to Aliexpress.com for an unbiased ruling. As long as the evidence you provide is valid, you will get your refund. Unfortunately, you may have missed out the deadline to open a dispute against the seller.
Anyway, one bad seller does not mean all sellers there are evil. Aliexpress is very famous in China as it belongs to the biggest foreign trade company Alibaba.com. Hopefully they are doing their best to attract and serve customers in order to compete against their competitors. For wholesale transaction platforms like Aliexpress.com, one thing you should always remember is to read carefully their policies before you place the very first order. That may well protect you from any scams.
Jessie
ChinaWholesaleReviews.com
Aliexpress is real scam. I just bought tablet pc calling f7 with the seller name is KATE WANG. In the her website said, the tablet can use sim card to call but actually when i tried to put my sim card did not want to insert and i tried so many different way to insert it and it still won’t let me insert. So i complained and wrote the bad feedback to her and then she said if i delete my feedback then she will refurn me my money. She also said return the product to her and she took care the shipping charged. So I followed her word sent the product back to her and deleted the feedback, then i never get any refund from her not even a penny.
This is her website: http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/566271666-New-7-Tablet-PC-F7-Calling-Funtion-Android4-0-MID-8GB-512M-1-5GMHZ-Build-in-wholesalers.html
I suggest to anybody don’t buy China Product cause they will steal ur money.
Thank U (07-1-2012)
Aliexpress and alibaba is a scam. I got ripped off by them. Lots of criminals working there. They violated an account i dont even use. I think we should start a class action suit against them and shut them down and jail the criminals who run the web site.
Do not buy from them.
Paypal dumped them because they are ripping people off
If you cant use paypal, then you are not protected. Alibaba and Aliexpress will take your money and you may never see it again or your product, and they do not cut off scammers. Stay away from these dirty criminals
AliExpress hosts dishonest companies as well as a FEW honest companies, just as this writer stated. However, AliExpress is ALSO a dishonest company and they have ripped me off about 10 times the last quarter of 2010. One seller sold items listed as 2PCS, so I bought three of these orders which should have totaled 6 items. The seller said that each order was only “1 PCS”, and they only wrote “2 PCS to introduce product to public”. AliExpress let it stand. I bought some gold “leather” bags which ended up being made of plastic. AliExpress let it also stand. I bought 50 of one item, but 5 items showed up. They said it was a listing mistake by their employee. AliExpress also let this one stand. I never received 50 of an item, and 50 of another item. AliExpress marked both of these items as “received” without my permission and also let these sales stand. In EACH of these cases I complained, filed formal protests and send photos and copies of emails, and in EVERY SINGLE CASE AliExpress found in favor of the seller who ripped me off! So, don’t act like AliExpress is an honest company and it is just the sellers that rip off the public. BOTH the sellers and AliExpress rip off the public. I did find 5 honest companies, but because of getting ripped off by the 10 dishonest sellers it is impossible to make a profit so buying anything from AliExpress is a complete waste of time!
Decided to try AliExpress and ordered 4 SD cards, all from different supplyers, thinking maybe one will turn out ok…3 were all fake, only taking a small percentage of there quoted mem size…All 3 failed data tests…The 4th, well that never arrived, in each case I have had my request for refunds turned down….Aliexpress have don nothing to help me….I think Aliexpress is a scam in its own right, by keeping on suppliers of fake goods…..
AliExpress is a website that allows or possibly takes part in selling memory chips that have been hacked to display larger memory volumes than are actually in the chips. If you order and try to cancel prior to shipment forget it, they have your money and that is the end of it. Complain to the US Customs service, and actual manufacturers whose name is imprinted on the product that you ordered and lets try to get China scammers banned from sending any products to the USA. Deal with the AliExpress and any China mainland supplier, manufacturers at your own risk.
Principly speaking you are right 50/50 in my opinion, I am the AliExpress customer for only the 1st time and last ever. Their “Escrow Service” is just a fake “Dept” to keep customer waiting for a full month and to use those monies for their own investments, I think .
You want to complain ? No luck ?
I would say DO NOT BUY THINGS IN Alibaba/AliExpress.
Buy from Amazon or Ebay is much much better and for trusted.
Regards.
Ailexpress is only for Wholesale items?
All sounds wonderful until you buy something from Aliexpress (AE).
I bought a car part and selected the option of completing the transaction through the AE own transport system. The supplier sends to AE and they send to the user. This obviously happens after payment. The following happend:
I paid
The supplier send the item to AE warehouse
AE said they cannot send the item as it is a car part
I offered to send my own courier to pick it up but they refused
They do nothing
They don’t answer emails (which was answered daily before payment)
They dont respond to the complaint on their website
I am totally frustrated and annoyed and cant help thinking its a scam.
*favors sellers, that is.
Aliexpress is a business currently utilizing dishonest business practices by American standards. Are they a scam? Take my example:
I placed an order for 5 iMac desktop computers for almost $5,000. The seller accepted the order and posted a tracking number for EMS shipping, even though I selected UPS. The tracking number offered no information. I had to wait ten days before I could file a complaint with Aliexpress. During that time, the tracking number repeatedly showed no information. After ten days, this is what happened:
I explained the situation in the *very* small amount of space allotted for the complaint. No communication from the buyer, false tracking, etc. I actually filed this on January 1st, 2011. They responded on Jan. 4 with a message stating:
“In order to move forward with this case, we need to receive a response from the buyer within 5 days.”
HOWEVER, the message was dated 3/1/11 or March 1, 2011. They gave the buyer two extra months, on top of their “five days” in order to respond. I suspect this is to ameliorate their only source of income: the buyers.
I sent messages to every single complaint department, including the department designated for complaining about the practices of the complaint department (literally, the email is customer.voice@service.alibaba.com) Today is Jan. 27th and I have received nothing back, and nothing has changed.
Twice I chatted with an online customer service representative who told me they would leave a note for the person assigned to this case, and I have received no response. Aliexpress underhandedly favor buyers in mediations, as buyers are their only source of income.
AliExpress is only a wholesale transaction platform.