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.
Hi dear all,
I am a Chinese who works in exporting work and these days I am wandering open a shop in aliexpress ,because some friends told me it is welcome to foreigners ,but these days I check a lot of items ,their price is really shocked me ,they sell price for example 0.75USD nd still free shipping to worldwide ……..
So i want to find answer why and read a lot of passage here ,now I am still feel confused .
Then I wanna to know what buyers say about Aliexpress ,when I read this page II was shock again ,hehe ,my god ,so many feedback about good and bad ,now I feel confused when i saw so many bad feedback ,maybe not open a shop in aliexpress ,is anyone can recommend me some wholesale B2B website please ?
I’ve bought things from aliexpress & have never had anything bad happen. You just have to read the reviews & find a trustworthy supplier.
I’ve bought several things from aliexpress successfully , I am including a purchasing silver seal and have no complaints , other than a seller who gave me the leg and was unhurt . The aliexpress closes an application as if it had been made in a short time , this is wrong because if you do not get every day missed the chance to complain . I bought several things from a store that was in different order numbers but the seller put the same tracking code for everything and when I received the goods the aliexpress closed my requests regarding them delivered to happen but I received only half of what I had lost and how the application was closed lost my chance to complain and get my money back . The seller said he would give me the money back in the form of coupon but stopped responding to me . Now I am without my money without my merchandise and without the right to complain and show everyone how this store is a scam . Then follow the link Store lest anyone fall in the same stroke I : http://www.aliexpress.com/store/524742
Seller Catherine wang from queen human wigs on ali express just told me if I don’t change bad review she won’t refund the partial money of $52 and that she helped me refund back to my visa the first amount of $159US when I cancelled ordered il have to wait 7-10 days to see that refund but she’s kept my remainder I will not change feedback and she says she will make aliexpress remove the feedback!! They are scammers and they cannot keep ripping people off
I will never order again bad experience they always blame you when you cancell order and demand u change bad feed back to 5 star no way I will lie to get back $52 supplier name Catherine wang order num 60746503245981, if I don’t get my money I’m gonna have them investigated
Aliexpress suppliers total scammers after you send the money and then double check if your gonna get same item as in photo supplier Catherine wang from queen wigs told me no for the full face I need to send $52 more the original amount that I thought was for full lace was$159 via , then when she said I had to send $52 more I dd it western union, after I send it checked again to to if I was gonna get exactly what I want she said it was diff price by that point I ask for my money back, she said she put the $159 back on my card which take 7-10 days , but the $52 she kept asking for my acc password claiming she needed to go into link to send back western union I refused so I wrote feedback , she then said she can refund the rest PayPal instead in 2 min if I changed the bad feed back to 5 stars I refuse they still have my $52 dollars I’m frustrated all I get is virtual responses no one to help total scammers never again will I order from aliexpress
Aliexpress is a scan. Seller got me for $100. Transaction in dispute for 5 months with not response from aliexpress. SCAM SITE
Another victim of Aliexpress. Seller never shipped item. Transaction has been in dispute for 5 months. No answer from Aliexpress. DO NOT USE ALIEXPRESS. SCAM
And not to forget, here is the seller you should NOT buy from:
aliexpress.com/store/918240
Here’s a short description of my experience with AliExpress and a seller named Jake Li:
On June the 6-th 2013, I ordered and payed for a touch panel.
Order details:
– number: ….
– item: GG705S touch panel
– price: 30.95 $
Note that this was my first order on AliExpress (and I think the last too…)
In August the order status changed to finished (time expired), and now I can not open a dispute anymore.
In September I recieved a package, that contained only an A4 paper, with a message from Mr. Jake Li: “Please tell me the touch panel type: PG708S or GG705S”
Immeiately after this I sent a message to Mr. Li that I need type GG705S.
He mentioned that I need to order it again to receive it!!! BUT I ALREADY PAYED FOR IT ONCE!!
So I kindly requested him to send me the item because its already payed, he reassured me that there is no need to worry, but still, after 6 months I still did not receive my item.
So now I want my money back, but I don’t think this will happen
At least I want to make sure that such kind of situation will not happen to anybody else.
I’ve done cca. 500 transaction on Aliexpress – great platform – buyer protection and refunds by dispute work 100%. I’m so addicted to them that I am not even interested in learning other sites policies even if they have cheaper prices for some goods.
I had few reasonable disputes and refunds ..all done in my favor… correctly and honest by Ali….
but if you are a begginer, naive…. simple harted … there are a lot of thieves opening stores on Ali and they would find way to rip you off. It’s not Ali’s fault but Your negligence, lack of experience and ignorance …sorry but this is a cruel world.
So… first read tips for buying, seller rating , track your order on 17track.net and react on time – open dispute if deadline is closing and there are no goods in sight.
Good luck….anyway it’s a game ..
Hi Fish,
Based on our knowledge, if there is a problem with your order, you can open or submit a dispute to Aliexpress.com and if you have valid evidence to support your claim, they will refund you the money.
Jessie
Hello
I’ve read alot of replies, and it seem’s like a 50/50 chance of getting a satisfied deal from aliexpress.com
I just don’t get it, Aliexpress.com write. They will hold on to your money until you give notice that you are happy with the product and that you’ve retrieved it. then they will send the money to the seller. So if there’s a problem with your order.. shouldn’t the money be transfered back from Aliexpress.com or am I missing something?
Regards Fish
I came on here because I was trying to find out why I couldn”t log in to my aliexpress account. Come to find out they were doing nightly maintenance. I have been reading many reviews and well… here is my take the good and the bad. I have purchased on aliexpress for many years and I have purchased many items in all manor of quantities.
THE BAD:
I agree escrow is crap. I have disputed many items. to be exact I have disputed 119 transactions.
Of the 119 transactions escrow and aliexpress dispute resolution center have helped on 1 transaction.
The others were a result of communication from the seller going from immediate response pre sale, to slim response after purchase, to absolutely none when trying to resolve a dispute… Just as many other buyers have said on here.
Disputes for:
items not as described
to working only after a few uses or not working at all
to poor quality,
to missing quantities,
to non delivery…
to shown as delivery but still did not receive……..I”ve seen it all.
Do not depend on the dispute resolution center, it is crap, it is there to waist time for the seller, It is a waiting game. to see who can last the longest. Why do you think it is so hard for you to find a true contact area or contact number. They are letting you go through the motions to delay time when the correct response is for you to dispute the charges with your credit card. The faster you do this the faster you will receive your funds. if paid by paypal you may be in luck, because while Aliexpress buyer protection is for the Chinese sellers, paypal is for the buyers and 9 times out if 10 your dispute will be honored.
The other bad is delivery times
This is not necessarily a bad if you understand the different delivery options.
Theres post/air mail 15-45 days after shipped (60 days for select few countries)
Theres epacket 2 weeks or less after shipped (only offered for select few countries)
Theres express 5-7 days after shipped (usually DHL, EMS, TNT, etc)
Notice I say AFTER SHIPPED…. BECAUSE PROCESSING TAKES 2-3 DAYS, NOT INCLUDING WEEKENDS OR HOLIDAYS (MEANING THEIR HOLIDAYS NOT YOURS)
The Bad slash Good:
A lot of these seller do not get to see the product themselves. We order from them, they order from a warehouse. Its the middle man game. So they are negotiating just like we are. they can not answer immediate questions because they are waiting on a response as well.. Its the classic, my people will be in touch with your people, when they get in touch with there people. And for the most part they really do try to provide good customer service. There are only a select few who physically have the product in there possession. This still does not get past the fact there are scammers and horrible sellers that abuse the awful system of checks and balances on Aliexpress. This is because they can just easily make another account and begin to scam again. Don”t believe me? Look up ebay and paypal stealth accounts. Experience right here people.
The good
Remember why we come to these websites, because the offer a product at cheaper than retail price…and for the most part the saying is correct, “You get what you pay for”.
I RELY ON ALIEXPRESS for my business as I am a reseller.
So here are some tips if you want to make a good purchase on that website.
If you are just a once in awhile buyer, my suggestion is once you find an item:
A. Find 10 – 20 more just like it. Some of the buyers may seem to be different but a lot of them have multiple accounts. Some do it to expand there visibility, others do it because of their low feedback rating.
B. Read the feedback. Feedback can be informative as well as deceiving. If theres little feedback and the rating is low. Read what the feedback is. Is it not as described, stop working, broken, missing pieces, missing quantites??? These are feedbacks I would stay away from.
Is it slow shipping, late shipping, never received. Sometimes its just misunderstand from the buyer with delivery times, or strict customs with certain countries (Italy, Spain, Germany, etc), or an item lost in the mail…believe me it happens, I”m from the U.S. and packages I ship gets lost by USPS. Bad feedback based on shipping isn”t that concerning unless the majority of the negative is because of late shipping. I say a 3 to 1 ratio on not receiving is bad enough to stay away from.
Best option, ask the seller they can tell you the shipping methods, cost and usual arrival times to your country.
Do not get caught up in the conspiracy theories. 1 person posted on here about a seller receiving multiple positive feedback from the same buyer for the same item. Stating why not purchase 10 or more rather than just the 1. Well…. I do that.. Like I said am a reseller and i have many items I sell in quantities of 1 that I have purchased 100”s of times and have my supplier ship directly to my customer. And i have left positive feedback for each successful delivery. It is not profitable for a seller to purchase there own item and leave positive feedback numerous times. Remember they pay fees for every sale and fees for all processed funds.
C. Communicate and ask Questions.
You can not just browse over the listing, then purchase, and when you receive (or not receive when you think it should have come) begin to complain about the condition, quality, or per assumed expectations of an item….
Ask the questions, the majority of the sellers are firth coming and will tell you.
I seen posted complaints about SD Cards… I sell them, I purchase them from Aliexpress…
You wonder why some sellers offer a 32GB SD Card 50% cheaper than some others? look at the listing. Ask the true capacity. you should have 10 or more seller lined up and asking the same question, “Is this 32GB?”. Some will say yes, the true others will say it is a 32 but its true capacity is 4GB. The you will begin to wonder why, then you will look at the listing and see the true wording and realize the listing and seller is not lying, you just assumed what it was. Once you get the answers you are looking for you can weed out who is a good seller and who isnt.
Ask About the quality
many items on Aliexpress come in stages of quality. Some can be graded on the “A” system
Meaning AA or AAA or AAAA or the whooping AAAAA…
Even charger cables can be rated this way
Even though its cheaper on aliexpress, believe me when I say “the cheapest is not always the best”
You can still buy it, but you may not like the quality, the durability, or the longevity.
D. Confirm your answers
Once you have your answers and you are satisfied……ASK THEM AGAIN
This way they know your expectations and you have a clear understanding about your purchase. This way is there is a problem both parties can leave away from the experience as happy as possible with maybe future purchases.
If you are a reseller or own a business
A. All of the previous tips apply.
B. Sample sample sample I can not stress enough to sample…Nothing like getting a larger order of something your going to loose money on, or have numerous complaints about, or even worse that is no good to you what so ever. Sample the product this way any issues or concerns you can question before trying to sell the item. Also, do not tell the seller you want a sample, some try to suck you in with a high quality product that they up charge for the 1 piece then send you crap on a larger order. If the have 1 piece available, purchase it and if you like try to negotiate on lager orders. With larger order the price per piece should go down but make sure they maintain the quality of the item that is sent.
C. Build a relationship with your supplier.. I can not stress enough that when you have a supplier you have made numerous successful transactions with…they will go to the ends of the earth to help you on any and everything. From price, to shipments, to solving problems, to finding other items…. the list goes on.
Starting out I used 15-30 great suppliers…Who were all good I might add. i have filtered that down to 2 suppliers. The more successful you are…the more successful they are..Its mutual beneficial.
SOME DONTS
Do not change feedback, its there for a reason, specially in the name of trying to get your refund.. Look at it from both perspectives. What incentive do they have to provide a refund once its changed. You have already had a bad experience so most likely you will not purchase again, so its a win win for them…no more negative feedback and they keep the funds. Not to say all will do this but why take the chance. Reverse it, only change the feedback if they provide the refund. But then again who is to say you are an upstanding individual, especially after being burned from the transaction.
Do not slow ship large transaction. $100 USD or more, Express ship, this way if you need to dispute with your credit card months have not passed making it difficult for you to.
Also remember if you try to take the course of a charge back stating you did not purchase the item please be sure you have not made multiple purchases on Aliexpress first… it kind of defeats your argumentative point. not saying you would not win though.
Do not purchase without
carefully reading the listing, Shipping options and times, and return/refund policies
carefully looking at the images
Communicate with your seller
Do not make large quantity purchases without sampling. Know what it is you or someone else may receive.
And people please stop trying to associate cheaply made products with China. Thats like associating cheaply made burger with Mc Donalds or White Castle. We still eat them and we are getting what we pay for. I mean this in more ways than 1..
While you look at your iPhone or Android device, read this from you Mac Book or laptop, play your PS3 or Xbox or use you mixer to make a smoothie….please remember these are all made in China. We are just getting what we paid for.
Hope this helps
My Daughter ordered pants, legging and shirts from this site… they shipped it to a non existent address and blame it on her. They said she put in the wrong address. You cannot mistake USA for something else but they did. My daughter is 18 yrs old. No way did she do that. Its a name we have never heard about or exist. They claimed they send it there and it was successful. The vendor refuse to refund or reship the order to the correct address. We try to find the owner of the site and make a complaint about the shop. We could not find anything or how to make such a complaint and instead we found this and many just like this. expensive lesson for a young person to learn.
DON’T BUY from this site.
Hi,
You said ebay owns aliexpress? It is definitely impossible. Aliexpress.com is the most famous trading platform for small and medium-sized merchants. It belongs to Alibaba Group. Although aliexpress and ebay may target different group of customers: one for businesses and the other for end consumers. They are technically strong competitors against each other.
Jessie
http://www.danviews.com
I searched bing regarding scams and harassment from eBay & aliexpress and found this site and hope that you all can help me with this extremely serious matter.I just learned that ebay owns aliexpress! After filing a claim against ebay for selling a hookah products and at the same time was scammed by an eBay seller that did not send all of my items, a man named Mr. King from eBay that responded to the bbb claim in which I challenged Mr. King who stated he worked in the eBay Presidents office is now harassing me from an old dispute I had to file from a defective item received from aliexpress. So these two companies are either linked/aliexpress owned by ebay which I certainly believe to be true considering I was speaking to Mr. King on bbb about ebay not allowing selling of my hookah item, however I am being harassed by Mr. King from the security department of aliexpress now. My main concern in the bbb claim in which ebay has basically bought the bbb as they closed my case before uploading a report I plan to publish about all of the drug parapharnelia eBay is allowimg sellers to sell even thoufh it violates ebays own policy of their drug and tobacco policy. I believe the harassment I am now receiving from Mr. King from emails connecting him to the tradesecurity at aliexpress site is directly correlated to the bbb dispute which is for public viewing and also an attempt from Mr. King to silence me and my report regarding Mr. King not allowing healthy hookah items to be sold on eBay yet allows after several months of reporting this matter to eBay the illegal drug/tobacco continue to be sold and in the thousands of items beings sold for tremendous profit for eBay on the FVF’s & PayPal fees. Any suggestions on how to handlw and seek recourse when the employee of eBay working in the Office of the President of eBay is harassing me from the aliexpress site. Another issue, with the eBay mobile app can locate and identity all known accounts, passwords, contacts..ie.. everything just about on your phone, the same with the privacy policy when using your mobile or pc withour an app. I do not know that my information has been compromised by Mr. King, however he responded to me unsolicited on aliexpress from a case previosly found in my favor and closed and Mr. King just reopened it. All positive suggestions welcome as to my legal rights that appear to be violated as well as who to reach out to regarding this matter. Thank you in advance as I will definitely come back to review your responses on a daily basis.. – 8/24/2013
I have bought many things in Aliexpress
not all seller are cheat
recommend a good seller for you
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/221692
i am sure you will like her
______________________________
Note: the above comment is posted by an IP belonging to Zhejiang, China and for this reason we believe it should be a fake review. We still approve the moderation simply to warn our readers.
Alixpress is one big automated marketplace
support will give you loop after loop on steps to do and ending up nowhere.
Most of the stuff they sell is fake and they understand you perfectly before you buy
but after that , no good english , no refund and continues repeating the same questions over and over
Alixpress alway favors the seller when it comes to claims.
There system of selling , customersupport and communication is pre 2000 and they don’t care as
long as the money keeps on rollin in.
There are so many errors in their website that it is unbelievable that this site is still up and running.
My advice , let other people get the hastle of buying on alixpress , and those people will sell it
on amazon anyway for the few cents extra profit.By it at amazon and your covert.
well i have seen allot of comments on here. the site ali express ie scams. or should i say some of their sellers are frauds. what bothers me the most. is that their still there ripping people off. i guess the way they work. is they rip so many people until they make so much money then they move on??. well this time they have ripped off the wrong fellow.i purchased from four sellers. that were selling 10 yuan 1/0z china panda coins. when i first received the first one which took 3 weeks or longer. i have tried all i could do to be civil about thease purchases. contacted each seller now at least 3 times. and of course there is no answer. i tried to do the dispute of course that doesnt work.i have tried for over two weeks now to get a response from anyone. still i receive no help no answer. so alibaba, or ali express. or what ever you feel like calling yourselves. im going to show you what a man with a legal degree does to thieves. i can guarantee you the sellers or the company that lets the sellers rip off their customers are just as much at fault as the fraudulent seller. so for myself and all the other people that have been ripped off from thease scammers. i am going to the federal trade commision, the better business bureau and etc. i will have this company shutt down. and then all the thieves will be stopped . i hope you are reading this because the american people are tired of being scammed. i am one of them this time you should take the time to read this comment. because im 100% for real. have a nice day. dg.wood