AliExpress is worse than Ebay?

[dadistic]

Found an outfit on AliExpress that seems to be running some kind of bait and switch scam, ZJCHAO JEWEL Store.

Advertise a product at a very attractive price.

Accept the order, then mark the order as "shipped". This locks the order. It cannot be canceled or disputed.

Don't ship the order, and contact the customer saying that they need more money before they can ship otherwise they will "lose money".

Unfortunately, the only way they can fix this is if I mark the original order as received, then dispute, then "contact them" about re-ordering.

There is no way that I am marking an order received that I haven't received, and AliExpress is a brick wall about an order in this state. The best I could have done is wait 75 days and then claim no receipt for a refund. I wonder how many people just forget?

So, I am disputing this via PayPal, and the order now shows a "frozen" state.  We'll see what happens, I do expect that PayPal will come through eventually.

In the future I'm going to make sure that PayPal payments are charged to my credit card, in the US that adds another layer of protection, which I've needed to use in the past.

 

 

 

[spectre6000]

To answer the question in the title: Oh ya, you betcha! (That may be more Minnesota than Wisconsin, but I think you get the drift.)

I've had some crap experiences on AliX too.. My ultrasonic cleaner arrived in tact and as advertised. That's it for the positives. The 4 or so other transactions all resulted in refunds. It was a nightmare that required way more "proof" (runaround) than should be required, but I ultimately got there. So there's at least that. A tube phono pre-amp arrived with broken tubes.

Me: "the tube is broken, the getter is flashed, that's how you know"

AliX: "We need video of it broken"

Me: "???"

A silicon work mat arrived with the lids to the little compartments halfway ripped off, and I forget the rest off the top of my head. Source of last resort, and I try to make sure the product is already located in the US for shipping purposes.

What's worse is the Wal*Mart website (I think that's how they spell it)... They're trying to copy the Amazon model, and have NOT figured it out... I have not had a single successful transaction there. They're much better with the customer service though, and I've actually not spent any money with them so far! So... So I guess it's slightly better than AliX?

[HectorLooi]

I've bought hundreds of stuff from AliExpress over the years. Occasionally I do get problems but it gets resolved by AliExpress and get a full refund. Sometimes stuff arrive with slight damage and when seller is informed, it gets resolved.

I've actually bought stuff from ZJCHAO before and didnt experience any problem.

I guess there will be black sheep in every online store. It helps if you check the seller's ratings. I don't think it's any worse than eBay.

[jdm]

7 hours ago, dadistic said:

Unfortunately, the only way they can fix this is if I mark the original order as received, then dispute, then "contact them" about re-ordering.

Actually on AliExpress one can dispute orders that have not been shipped, or have wrong or false tracking information, after 10 days have passed from the order. I did that yesterday and refund was approved in two days. 

From the dispute dialog enter not received, logistics problem, full refund.

The alternative, as mentioned, is to dispute directly with PayPal the credit card issuer, but I never needed to do that as my general experience is the same as HH's above. The dispute process is quick and easy and in case of faulty item the request of pics or video is not unreasonable.

[dadistic]

Good to know about the 10 days. There was nothing I saw that indicated this on the site, just a reply that the order cannot be disputed in this order state.

Thanks!

[Nibbler]

The only complaint I have about ali-express is time it takes to get something shipped out. I usually just pay the lift in price from amazon or ebay to get items sooner. That said I do order from ali-express.