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 are scammers. I was trying to resolve the issue with the seller before opening a dispute and seller mostly ignored my repeated e-mails. I had to open a dispute at the last day before purchase protection was about to end, and I suggested a partial refund, considering seller is impossible to work with and I don’t want to be more out of pocket by sending the item back, as seller has proven themselves to be untrustworthy. They rejected my suggestion and offered a full refund, but since their track record in dealing with my claim has been crap, I decided to escalate the dispute instead and let Aliexpress review my evidence and make a final ruling.I’ve escalated a dispute on 28-07-2014. So far Aliexpress did not contact me even though I get this message when I check the order: Dispute Escalated – Processing .Reminder: The dispute has been escalated and our Case Management Team will now get involved. We will contact you as soon as possible. Please check your registered email regularly for communication from us.
I imagine THERE IS NO CASE MANAGEMENT TEAM, or they work for the sellers. So now, I am out of pocket US$220 and stuck with the instrument that does not do the job. While I can understand the seller wants to minimise their loss, I CANNOT ACCEPT the Aliexpress not doing what they say they will do, which in this case is review my evidence which includes all the communication with the seller and video of the equipment not working. If they’ve done this, I’d get my refund by now, but they do not care. So buyer protection at Aliexpress is a JOKE.
FRAUD! seller ‘Yiwu Silver Jewelry Wholesaler’ sold me 925 sterling silver & AAA zircon & platinum plated ring. not even 2weeks later the “plating” is wearing off and yellow underneath. no communication from seller or website and no refund
I have ordered on aliexpress before and was satisfied. However, I ordered an expensive front lights for my car and duly paid for it in the customary manner. I immediately got an email from the seller to say that the price was only for one light and not for a pair. The product description showed it is a pair (one left and one right). I pointed that out to the seller, and he or she admitted that the product description is wrong. After a month of asking everyday on the progress of my refund and not receiving any reply, I then cancelled the order and indicated misleading product description as the reason for the cancelation. That spurred the seller into action, requesting me to change the reason as he or she will get a punishment. I refused. And I still don’t have my refund.
There is no where on the website where I can lodge a complaint, other than waiting for the product to be shipped. If so, I can then lodge a dispute and can mean that I get refunded if I return the product. The shipping costs is then on me.
After a day or two, the cancelation is cancelled, and the order is waiting shipping. I would cancel it again, but after 2 days, the same again. This is been going on for 3 weeks now.
Aliexpress bad to do business favour only the seller and not the buyer.
Very close windows to complaint and also no door to enjoy the product warranty.
Don’t do business there or do it at a very minimum.
I am praying every day that all the product i have purchased there will not go wrong or else i am in trouble.
But i believe that if all we all ask our company ambassadors can made this known to their authority they normally take it up.
I bought an item for this shop http://www.aliexpress.com/store/205027 Yiwu Fashion Commodity Supermarket Wholesale of Bobos Zhang. I bought an item of the price of 32 dollars. He sent an item similar to the one i ordered of the value of 5 dollars. Then he offered 12 dollars first reduced to 5 for the refund, or i had to pay the return (to china). It is more than a month that i am waiting the customer protection’s team, i haven’t heard anything so far. Do not buy from this seller and be really careful to buy in aliexpres.com. It is impossible to contact any one there, and the customer protection is a scam.
Aliexpress is a scam
hi could you get back to me and tell me why you take my money out of bank and then 24 hours later the item is closed ive emailed id and pic of card and statement and use are still doing the same can you reply as ive heard nothing at all and ive done it threw your site
I think Ali express put the icing on the cake today. They adevertising a big sale and are selling coupons for $1 and in return you get $50 to spend on there marketplace. Obviously they are a hot item and go quickly. Anyway in the heat of the moment I quickly tried to purchase a coupon and the site seem to play up and then it said go to store. So I followed the link to the store bought the coupon and then realised they had switched the $1 price to $50 price.
Now here is the clincher.
It is not refundable so I am stuck with it. It is valid for one day and if you don’t use they keep the money. Now who would willingly swap $50 for equal value with a time limit of 1 day. I also have to spend over $199 to use it.
I give them credit. I am always pretty careful of scammers but I did not expect the web site itself to be so blatantly dishonest.
They count on the rush to get the deal and then sting you. I am totally disgusted in their practice.
They lost me as a customer.
I must say I found their protection program much better than Ebay, Paypal with prior purchases but I will not accept this obvious fraud.
I opened a dispute and Aliexpress wanted me to submit more information. They took weeks to come back whereas I am only given 3 calendar days to respond. Anyway I had been sick, and when I login on the 4th day to submit for info, there wasn’t any link for me to respond. I’m not sure if the link had been removed or it wasn’t there in the 1st place. And there’s no where for me to seek clarification. So my conclusion is, the mediation is a fake. They only protect sellers and not buyers.
After $ years of very few problems and about 80 deals I have finished with Aliexpress, they do not process refunds even when they reach their seller biased decisions, I will shop the independent outlets, goodbye Aliexpress.
Dear All
i bought tablet in ali express and shipment method was DHL, after i made a payment and waited 10 days item did not come to me, i opened a dispute and seller responded as attached 2014-06-06 03:58:08
Hello, friends, we no send DHL shipping, we send cheap China Post Air Mail shipping (already send shipping), so we need compensate you 10USD, you can send partial refund disputes (you can choose a partial refund disputes), we wait compensate you, thank you.
I accepted the dispute then my status was closed, order nr is 62351140343054, i have contacted several time seller does not respond, also talked to online aliexpress agents, they said that i was cheated by seller and they can not do anything, even though i trusted aliexpress and made payment and it was don in their web.
is there anyone had same problems as me and tell me how to get refund.
i asked agent to give me an e-mail where i can make complaint perhaps in their legal department they said that they are sorry but can not do that and they closed cheating with me i did that with 5 agents in the same night but non of them helped me.
than kyou
I have bought human hair extension from aliexpress sina hair. my hair hairdresser say the hair is virgin unprocessed i am happy.so soft and fast ship,recomments,here is the store i bought:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/201435
The main problem is AliExpress offers NO buyer protection, especially after you have received your item. I have bought several times with no problems, however, I bought a mobile phone (my most expensive purchase from them) & although it worked great initially, after only 2 months it died. The seller advertises 12 month warranty, but I have been given the total runaround trying to get them to honour this. They finally agreed to repair the phone if I sent it back to them, but when I did, they lied & claimed the phone didn’t arrive. After investigation by China Post, the phone was returned to me with the message that the seller refused to claim the package. So, not only do I have a dead phone, but I also wasted $20 on registered post only to have it returned to me. This has been going on since February & even after four online discussions with supposedly helpful customer service people, nothing is being done. Every time I speak to them they tell me they have passed my issue on to their Trade Security Team, who will investigate & get in touch with me. They never get in touch with me & I don’t believe anything is being investigated. Basically, AliExpress couldn’t care less about customers. This seller is still operating. AliExpress states on their site that all sellers are verified, so really they do have a responsibility to ensure that sellers are doing the right thing. Unfortunately they don’t and I will not be buying anything further from AliExpress due to this total lack of customer care or recourse after you have acknowledged receipt of an order.
I ordered from a china seller and got what I ordered, however they needed my phone number for the DHL shipping so like a fool I gave it and two months later I had over $500 in international charges, I had to change my phone number… NEVER GIVE THEM YOUR NUMBER They are parasites that will steal food from your children’s mouth and throw it away while laughing at the western fools.
well i ordered 11 items on aliexpress.com from different sellers. all was diamond sellers or more by china post air mail or china post parcel service to india
one item was not shipped by seller so i got my refunds back and another 9 was successfully shipped by sellers and on time . and the experience was too good. but one item by store name http://www.aliexpress.com/store/346865 provide me a wrong tracking code. when i was trying to find it on http://intmail.183.com.cn/icc-itemtraceen.jsp website it always show 0 results found so i contacted the seller back that you provided me a wrong shipping code so he gave me another code and said that this code will be tracked from his own website which is http://www.yw56.com.cn/english/DIY.asp but not from china post air mail. and havnt not received any of the item yet so i just opened a dispute on aliexpress with fake tracking information provided then he contacted me back
”
Hi,my friend.
Good day!
I am very sorry for seeing your disputes.
I can tell you from my heart that we really have send out the order,why you did not trust me .do you know,because your dispute ,it brings a very bad effect on my store now
the post office confirm me that the normal time for arriving your country is about 35 days,maybe your country customers strict clearance,result in a little delay.
In order to your country clearance ,the post office need exchange the
Tracking No to your country format for meeting your customs rule,so they need exchange the tracking information again,for doing so ,in order to
Parcels can pass through the customs clearance quickly ,successfully ,
mostly importantly, it let our customers never pay any tax.
There is too much jobs and parcels waiting for them to deal with ,they
Really need sometime to do the tracking information business.you know the
Post office work efficiency is really not very high,we always need push them to forward something.
Please be patient ,I much guarantee that you will get the order within
the normal days,if not,we will refund all money back to you immediately.
our company is the specialized seller online,we have been in this field for many many years,please kindly check the website of our company : http://www.elinkmall.com/
please ,please close the disputes and waiting for more time,we really
need you choose the nice way to solve that..we have extended the time by 20 days ,and we will wait for you any time
Many thanks for your understanding and cooperation!
”
lol
he want’s me to close the dispute but i know that the code provided by him is totally fake and he havnt shipped my item which was cost only 3.5$
lets see how aliexpress will solve this case
Even if you check seller’s feedback it don’t help you, i order from a good seller with great feedback, but got nothing. He even didn’t send me my order, just gave me a couple of times wrong track number, that’s it. Dunno how it will end, still waiting my dispute, but it is very disappointing 🙁 But should say that i received few things from seller’s with lack of feedback, and they did well. But when you meet guys like last one, you lose desire to use their service at all.
Javon Yang’s store (javon0288@hotmail.com) – DO NOT BUY FROM THEM
Hi Folks,
Spent over $300 on AliExpress over the last 6 months, and been a happy customer until now.
I have bought over 1000 items, mostly digital IC’s and other components. But a couple of months ago I got a taste of AliExpress’s terrible Customer Relations.
I received only 20 of 200 logic chips ordered from AliExpress supplier ‘Shanghai IC’. Seller offered 33% refund and politely asked me to close the dispute. No other responses from supplier, not even to acknowledge my queries. AliExpress HAVE acknowledged the dispute, but it is now over 1 month with no news. Impossible to contact AliExpress other than through the ‘dispute page’ which is just a bulletin-board where evidence is collected. I suspect, as in the previous example of 10 frauds which AliExpress ‘let-stand’, I will receive no justice.
I have not bought anything further, and will not unless AliExpress finds in my favour. If they are happy to lose a customer over $8.50
I took photos after opening the package, but from now on I see I will need to maintain a library of ‘package-opening’ videos for each and every item I buy through AliExpress suppliers. Not going to happen….
To be fair the previous dozen transactions were smooth as silk, but as soon as something goes wrong, you’re stuffed.
EBAY vs AliExpress
buys: 140 13
ok 137 12
fixed 2 0
failed 1 1
%$lost 1% 3% of total spend
Note that ebay couldn’t help me in the ‘failed’ transaction because I had taken the advice of the supplier and waited too long. The supplier actively conned me in that case and was communicating. Ebay represetatives were easy to contact at all times.
Shanghai IC have made no effort whatsoever to contact me, or reply to the dozen in-system messages I have sent. AliExpress personnel are nearly impossible to contact directly. They communicate via non-reply email. In 2 months I have received 1 email from AliExpress.
Upshot: I will not use AliExpress or AliBaba again. I have since found reliable and honest china-based wholesalers such as Honk-Kong based ‘Aurora IC’. Hi Tiana and Bonnie from over there 🙂
Better _watch out_ for this (LED bulb) supplier: Hongkong Ding Hao Technology Co., Ltd. Be prepared to lose (or hopefully refund…) your money. I spent US $ 65 and received nothing. No reply or apology. Email: 1239292883@qq.com Store: Hongkong Ding Hao Technology Co., Ltd. Don’t let those few positive comments bluff you! Cheers, Mike
The item ordered arrived DOA. I can’t find the return policy on their website. This policy was easy to find prior to the order. The website is set up to buy more and not set up for conflict resolution with a supplier. Be forewarned DO NOT USE ALIBABA!!!!!!!!!!!! I will never use it again. Its a convenient SCAM-PLATFORM for their suppliers.
Hello,
I ordered a phone from Aliexpress. The phone stuck at customs and went back to the Seller. The dispute was opened, then escalated dispute. Seller agreed to refund half of the amount paid for the product. I did not agree to the Seller’s proposal on half refund, somehow the button “Agree to the Seller’s proposal” was weirdly pressed not by me and at the time when I did not open the PC…
I sent thosand e-mails to Aliexpress on the issue and talked also to aliexpress chat.
No solution…. I paid for the air.. In Aliexpress there are no Buyer protection programs is fact…
Best regards,
Larysa Shengiun
I agree with some of you, basically AliExpress is a scam center by itself due to it does not do anything, AT ALL. It take money from sellers that’s how it earn a living so no matter how wrong is the sellers, AliExpress will stand by them. I have been ripped off by sellers before; one was sent me a used camera and the other one just took my money without anything send to me.
I complaint to AliExpress by wrote letters and talked to the customer support through “live chat”. The reply always NO REPLY. Unless you take legal action in China to sue it, otherwise it will just continue to rip you off if any opportunity it can get. The only I learn is I have to monitor closely of the expire date, open the dispute before it expired. The two ripped off cases due to I didn’t keep track properly and they lapsed.
Do not listen the seller if it keeps tell you to be patient and wait. Usually it’s up to no good! Likely is a scammer!