Review Aliexpress.com - Feedback Thread

It is scary to read the Aliexpress forums.
Many horror stories about sellers not shipping items or giving fake tracking numbers or Aliexpress not helping for refund and all.

Btw after how much time does the tracking number given by seller show any information on the china post website ?
 
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Hmmm. I didn't go through the forums. I have ordered a screen and a body for my HTC One today. Total cost $112. I just looked at the seller ratings and the amount this guy has sold especially the ratings for the product I am buying. If something happens I will challenge the transaction with my credit card company and get the chargeback and switch back to eBay. My last order was delivered within 10-12 days.
 
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For me it has been over 12 days. Yet to see them item. China Post has been showing dispatching for a week now. That makes me wonder if buying costly items on Aliexpress is even worth it.
 
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sharktale1212 said:
For me it has been over 12 days. Yet to see them item. China Post has been showing dispatching for a week now. That makes me wonder if buying costly items on Aliexpress is even worth it.
Click to expand...

I actually never checked any tracking details etc the last time I ordered a screen. Might check it this time.
 
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rdst_1 said:
Hmmm. I didn't go through the forums. I have ordered a screen and a body for my HTC One today. Total cost $112. I just looked at the seller ratings and the amount this guy has sold especially the ratings for the product I am buying. If something happens I will challenge the transaction with my credit card company and get the chargeback and switch back to eBay. My last order was delivered within 10-12 days.
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Where was it shipped from? Because I get items shipped from HK within 10-15 days but for mainland china, it takes 25-30 days.
 
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Mine is from Mainland China and seller guarantee is in 39 days it should be delivered. But i have to be alert and a week before that i would have to probably extend the time by 2 weeks or so if i feel there will be a delay but after that it is always good to raise a dispute in aliexpress.

Btw what if the item gets stuck in customs, i mean how would one know about that and how to tackle such scenarios.
 
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raksrules said:
Mine is from Mainland China and seller guarantee is in 39 days it should be delivered. But i have to be alert and a week before that i would have to probably extend the time by 2 weeks or so if i feel there will be a delay but after that it is always good to raise a dispute in aliexpress.

Btw what if the item gets stuck in customs, i mean how would one know about that and how to tackle such scenarios.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. That depends upon the item I guess. Only stuff I have ordered till now (mobile spares) belong to the duty free category so I won't face any delays.
 
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even i have some doubts which i hope some one can clear -
1) which is the best shipping option that gives the best chances of it reaching safe & sound as well as avoiding duties?
2) if it gets stuck at customs or lost in transit after reaching india then do the sellers agree to refund money. how long does it take?
3) is there anything that we can ask the seller to mark the shipment as that will help in avoiding duties for eg "FOC" or "Sample" or "Replacement" or "Gift" or just have them under-invoice it for less than $20?
4) do customs open/inspect every single package?
 
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rdst_1 said:
I actually never checked any tracking details etc the last time I ordered a screen. Might check it this time.
Click to expand...
Well the Indian mail tracking quoted by @tech.addict doesnt seem to work for me. Still shows item "Receive item from customer (Otb)". The china mail still shows "Dispatching". My guess is it has left China but after that there is no info. Guess need to wait for the item to arrive on its own. I was thinking of getting a phone, next time around. Now not so sure.
 
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I have ordered many items from aliexpress but mostly around 10 to 15 dollars max!
Customs will be an issue if your item is high value and shipping is horribly slow for most sellers.
I have seen even my 2$ order go via customs, not sure what they want to check. lol

Avoid shopping during Chinese festival/other holiday season, your package will be take forever to ship.
Before ordering check the item feedback in comments below and the seller rating. sometime people add some useful info regarding the quality of item. Also a seller having high order/sales gives better sampling ratio for overall feedback quality.

I use below site for tracking orders once shipped. It will not be DHL/FEDEX style fast, delayed by few days.
Code: 
http://www.17track.net/index_en.shtml


Once order is placed in the status tracking tab there is a timer which shows in how many days the item will be auto confirmed as received and payment will be sent to seller. If due to some reason the package is delayed and the timer is coming to end you can extent it till you receive package. Make sure to use this functionality well if you plan to open a dispute with the seller.


raksrules said:
On Aliexpress i see some seller going for China Air Mail, some have Singapore Post and some have Swiss Post. What is the difference between these apart from they belonging to different countries. I mean how can they send the stuff from China in a Singapore or Swiss post ?
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Many countries postal office have POP(point of presence) in each country where the local post hands over the package which is destined to that country. So for example if once orders from switzerland and the seller has swiss post listing then he would get the item faster as swiss post is fast and excellent, sadly in our case both china and indian postal system are overloaded and not efficiently managed.

Singapore post is usually sent via HK->Singapore->India route. The seller might be probably in Hong Kong. Personally I have found singapore post to be better/faster than china post.
 
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My item was supposed to come in China Post and i also got a tracking number some 6 days back but that refused to work on all tracking websites. I contacted the seller and he told me the customs in China did not allow the item (i feel because of battery) and so he resent the item using Swiss post and gave me a tracking number as "RU481729226CH"
As of now this number is not showing any information probably since it has been less than 24 hours it was actually dispatched.
But how is swiss post and how well its tracking works ? Because China post tracking is horrible and totally unreliable.
 
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I had ordered a screen and a back housing for my HTC One repair project. The screen has been shipped but the seller whom I purchased the housing from has yet to ship it. I am guessing my choice of the color (Red) is what is causing the delay. I am gonna send him a message today and see what reason he gives for not shipping yet.

Edit - As I assumed, just received a message from the seller that he doesn't have the Red housing in stock. I have requested him to cancel the order so that a refund can be initiated. Will be buying from eBay instead.
 
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sharktale1212 said:
Well the Indian mail tracking quoted by @tech.addict doesnt seem to work for me. Still shows item "Receive item from customer (Otb)". The china mail still shows "Dispatching". My guess is it has left China but after that there is no info. Guess need to wait for the item to arrive on its own. I was thinking of getting a phone, next time around. Now not so sure.
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For China mail once the status is "Receive item from customer (Otb)" it takes 10-12 days for the item to reach Kolkata foreign post office for me .
SG/HK post is faster - usually it reaches Kolkata FPO within 3-4 days after the status is "Receive item from customer (Otb)".
 
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Received the screen I had ordered, today. Came from HK. Will definitely consider ordering from HK as a priority from now on as the shipping was very fast. Like previously stated it also helps that what I order belongs to the duty-free category.
 
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tech.addict said:
For China mail once the status is "Receive item from customer (Otb)" it takes 10-12 days for the item to reach Kolkata foreign post office for me .
SG/HK post is faster - usually it reaches Kolkata FPO within 3-4 days after the status is "Receive item from customer (Otb)".
Click to expand...
The status was updated on 23rd Oct. Last night I checked it was still the same -- so been like 13 days now. So there is hope that it will reach India someday :)
 
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I read at many places and especially the chinese stuff selling websites like DX etc that many of the postal agencies have stopped accepting parcels containing batteries to be transported through normal air mail.
This seems to be affecting shipping a lot. One of my items was coming via china post but the seller told it wasn't allowed and he shipped through Swiss post but that Swiss post tracking number is still not showing any information.
Anyone else facing issues with getting products that use battery and have battery as part of package ?
 
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Finally my tracking number is displaying something, but surprised to see the date and time. All same date and almost same time.
I can't really decipher the tracking as well. Let's see if I get this package or not.


Swiss Post (Die post): RU481729226CH
Track at official postal site
Date Zipcode Location Event Weight Additional
11.11.2013 15:10 Swiss Post Singapore Accepted from sender
11.11.2013 15:10 Swiss Post Singapore Arrival at international place of exchange
11.11.2013 15:10 Swiss Post Singapore Send item abroad (Export)
11.11.2013 15:14 Swiss Post Singapore Send item abroad (Export)
11.11.2013 15:14 Swiss Post Singapore Send item abroad (Export)
 
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raksrules said:
Finally my tracking number is displaying something, but surprised to see the date and time. All same date and almost same time.
I can't really decipher the tracking as well. Let's see if I get this package or not.


Swiss Post (Die post): RU481729226CH
Track at official postal site
Date Zipcode Location Event Weight Additional
11.11.2013 15:10 Swiss Post Singapore Accepted from sender
11.11.2013 15:10 Swiss Post Singapore Arrival at international place of exchange
11.11.2013 15:10 Swiss Post Singapore Send item abroad (Export)
11.11.2013 15:14 Swiss Post Singapore Send item abroad (Export)
11.11.2013 15:14 Swiss Post Singapore Send item abroad (Export)
Click to expand...
It means it has left Singapore and is on the way to India. It will be trackable again when it reaches the FPO at your nearest location. After it reaches India use the Indian Post tracking link that I posted before.
 
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