Aliexpress - going from bad to worse.

I first came across Aliexpress a couple of years ago, which is basically the Chinese Ebay - a very poor imitation as it turns out.  I have ordered literally hundreds of items from Ebay itself and with one exception, everything has been peachy (order sent out allegedly,  but it never arrived, and unfortunately I bought into the Sellers assurances that it would eventually turn up, and waited too long before submitting a claim with Ebay.)

Aliexpress on the other hand has been a very mixed bag.  On the surface everything seems really professional, at least all the bits that channel the customers cash towards Aliexpress!  When you have a problem with an order however, you cannot fail to notice something decidedly odd - it's impossible to contact anyone at Aliexpress itself.  Your only recourse is to contact the Seller and hopefully work things out.  Failing this, you can then open a 'Dispute', which some Aliexpress rep. issues a decree on.  This is all fine and dandy for run-of-the-mill disputes, but there have been several instances when I have wanted to contact them about non-order-related issues - AND THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY OF DOING SO!

Aliexpress also acts as an Escrow, holding onto your money until you have received and are satisfied with your purchase.  What annoyed me about this 'service' was that even though I pay by credit-card, the payment being verified 'live' at the check-out, Aliexpress imposes an additional 24hrs for fund-verification - so before the Seller receives your order, at least 24hrs have passed, annoying!  Worse, until recently the Sellers then had 3 days to fulfill your order, with many Sellers taking it right up to the wire for unknown reasons - so that's 4 days that have passed since placing your order!!!

But having just placed three orders in the past week, things have really gotten absurd - now Sellers seem to have the ability to set their own 'time-out' period.  One of my orders was 'awaiting shipment' for 6 days, with a further 3 days remaining before the time expired!  Another order had a 13 day time-out!!!  And again, absolutely no one at Aliexpress to contact about any of this.  Even the Aliexpress forum cannot be used as it has been "down for maintenance" for at least a week.

I watched all this with disbelief for a few days, with none of the 3 orders having been shipped, before deciding to cancel the lot!  Just to discover more unpleasant surprises for the unwary Buyer.  While there is an option to 'Cancel' an unshipped order, it is more specifically a "Cancellation Request", and the conditions listed are completely Seller-biased.  The only reason for cancellation from the list provided that I found usable was "incorrect part ordered", which I duly chose.  As if to drive home the Seller-centric nature of this setup, my 'request' was almost immediately rejected by one Seller, the order's status being set to 'Shipped'.  This was the order for the highest dollar-value.  The other 2 orders appear to have been cancelled, although only details of one have been emailed to me.

Aliexpress Sellers are a breed-apart as well.  From my experience with them, they don't seem to give a damn about the Aliexpress rating system - the complete opposite to Ebay's Sellers.  One Seller bluntly told me that he wasn't sending my order because he had set the wrong price.  Another first bitched & moaned by email when I gave him 3-stars - my most costly Aliexpress purchase, a Water-distiller for $180, the idiot-seller had quoted me in dollars, invoiced me in yuan, and included the wrong power lead.  I ended up having to pay €58 customs charge thanks to him - itself a rip-off, as much later on I found that it should have been about half that.  I even contacted the Customs branch about it.  Although they quickly responded, on sending them scans of the only documentation I had of the purchase, I never heard from them again!  At the time, these idiots couldn't even convert yuan to Euro, so charged me an additional €9 for them having to contact me!  Another corrupt organisation of this equally corrupt State, no doubt!  Anyway, seeing that I wasn't going to give him 5-stars, the Water-distiller Seller simply removed his ad for the distiller and re-listed it - poof, no more reviews.  This makes a mockery of the Aliexpress review system.  As a result, I've never bothered rating Sellers since.

So why bother with Aliexpress if it's so bad?  Well, in general there is no need to, after all, there are a gazillion Chinese Sellers on Ebay as well!  However, on many occasions there are select items not available on Ebay that can only be got through Aliexpress.  This latest debacle has me wondering though if it is really worth the hassle...

Edit:  Since this was all instigated by a change of address, the item that was posted out to me apparently ended up being deemed 'undeliverable', so was returned to the Seller - which surprised me, I thought An Post would have just kept it!  The final outcome of this debacle was that after opening a 'Dispute' against the Seller, one which had been open for weeks - until the Seller's package was returned to him -  Aliexpress finally returned my money to me!  NO MORE! I'll stick with Ebay from now on.

Edit: Just checked and the Aliexpress Buyers forum is finally back online - after being off-line for MONTHS!  It just goes to show what little regard Aliexpress has for its Buyers.