What is the least shit online store of the shitty ones? such as: Wish, AliExpress, etc..

What is the least shitty shit store? Never had a good experience with any of the shops such as, wish, aliexpress and the rest of em. But which one of them is considered the better one, or more likely to actually arrive with the correct item? Is etsy considered better than the rest? Are there any of these “low priced” stores that actually have some sort of guarantee to deliver what is purchased? Let me know your experiences and tips!

Bonehead, (edited )

My success rate with Aliexpress has been only slightly worse than with Amazon. I've gotten screwed over on a few lost shipments, but never had a problem getting a refund. Shipping times are much longer though, considering where it's coming from. But often I'll get items much faster than their estimates, so it's not completely terrible. And you can always look at the shipping options to see if a few dollars more can get it to you faster or with a better carrier. As for quality, I find it's not much different from Amazon since half the stuff there was made in China and just sits in a warehouse in North America.

Don't bother with Wish or Temu, which is just Wish with warehouses in North America.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

The best part is that it’s typically not their fault. The actual transit time to the US is only like 1-3 days.

Then it sits in customs for a week.

Ejh3k,

With any of them, make sure you read the descriptions fully and check reviews. Also, go through the purchase options. Sometimes you run into situations where you think you are ordering a pair of something and it’ll only be the right or left one.

I’ve ordered a bunch from wish and AliExpress. Gotten plenty of good products from both and really only got burned once in wish.

ivanafterall,
@ivanafterall@kbin.social avatar

Amazon, but only marginally.

mysoulishome,
@mysoulishome@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve gotten stuff from Wish and Temu that is fine. Flashlights, tweezers, microfiber cloths, $10 wireless earbuds. I even ordered several pairs of shorts from Temu that were $8 to $10. They aren’t very durable but they function and look fine.

I ignore 100% of the gamification shit, I very much doubt you can get much that is free or a better deal…when it comes down to it they sell cheap shit for a small profit margin and that’s it. Spinning the wheel and inviting friends and having a shiny app is all just a fancy skin for the exact same stuff as on Ali, Wish, and eBay.

Curious_Canid,
@Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca avatar

AliExpress screwed me recently. A vendor sent me the wrong items. I mean, they weren’t even the same kind of items. I disputed it with the vendor and they said they’d sent the right things, so there.

I opened a case with AliExpress. They asked me for a whole lot of information, some of which didn’t make any sense, along with some pictures. I sent them everything. They sided with the vendor.

Fortunately, I had paid with PayPal. PayPal looked over the information from both sides and promptly refunded my money.

I don’t expect to be doing business with AliExpress again any time soon.

Linkerbaan,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar

Ordering from AliExpress is a risk but factoring in the times you get screwed over it’s usually still worth it over buying 1.5 times the price to get it from Amazon (and possibly still get screwed by Amazon).

PayPal for the win btw

earmuff,

I have ordered so many things over the past 8 years on AliExpress and the only issues I had was shops not delivering the right amount. Disputing that was never an issue. I wonder why so many other people have serious issues with it.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

I bet they’re waiting too long to open the dispute.

UnityDevice,

How did you pay with PayPal on AliExpress? They haven’t supported it in years?

pearsaltchocolatebar,

It’s the default payment option for me.

noobnarski,

I dont know what you are talking about, I use it all the time (although I am in Germany)

Curious_Canid,
@Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca avatar

I think some vendors support it and some don’t.

gever4ever,

They started to accept Paypal a few years ago, actually.

But there was a long time I didn’t use AliExpress because of that.

altima_neo,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

I’ve bought a few things of AliExpress. Haven’t had any issues with them. As long as you do your research and know what you’re ordering, it seems pretty reliable.

Sami, (edited )
@Sami@lemmy.zip avatar

Aliexpress is basically amazon with longer shipping time in my experience. Each seller has their own store rating similar to ebay so as long as you exercise judgement ie. Dont buy from brand new stores with 0 feedback or things that are too good to be true and avoid certain things like batteries and storage media unless you know exactly what you’re buying you should be fine. I’ve bought a lot of stuff from there (mostly electronics) and haven’t had bad experiences

punkwalrus,
@punkwalrus@lemmy.world avatar

This has been my experience as well with Aliexpress. I know there’s a huge caveat emptor going on, but it’s like you said about batteries and storage, be careful unless you know exactly what you’re buying. Like a 64TB SSD for $15.99 proooobably not the real thing. But I have gotten a lot of SBCs, some stuffed animals, and cheap costume jewelry for my wife (who knows it’s cheap, but doesn’t care). Weirdest “quality” purchase? My “gold colored” tungsten wedding ring was $10, comfort fit, and in 6 years still looks like the real thing. But didn’t dent like my original wedding ring (which is why I needed a replacement, got smashed in a door accident). I’d never buy anything that I knew might cause a fire (like batteries) or possibly poison me (like pills).

Wish and Temu ripped me off in some of my first purchases. I was only out $30, and I know it was possible, so I just deleted my account and the apps.

limonfiesta,

AliExpress is not even close to Amazon except for the fact that it does a great job at providing a wide selection of Chinese products, but cheaper and with longer lead times.

What makes Amazon, Amazon, is its customer service. Without that, it’s like eBay. But even eBay has significantly better customer service than AliExpress.

Speaking as someone who has used AliExpress a lot, it’s pretty good, but only if you understand that all sales are final. Best cast scenario, the seller makes you pay for shipping which generally costs anywhere from 50% to 250% of your original purchase price.

Their customer service always defers to sellers in my experience, and even if they approve a return, what’s the point if you lose money by shipping it back?

Hawk,

Amazon support has been terrible for me, while AliExpress has come through almost every time.

Passerby6497,

Can’t confirm, only ever had one bad order with AE and they refunded my money and didn’t take me ship my bulbs back.

punkwalrus,
@punkwalrus@lemmy.world avatar

I have had three Aliexpress orders go bad, and two of them I was refunded. One of them I was not, despite the fact their own shipping still showed it as on it’s way to New Jersey. They kept insisting I “pick it up at the local post office.” I pointed out Virginia was not near New Jersey. I was denied, but only out $8. As far as Amazon vs. Aliexpress, I will agree with you about Amazon customer service being better. But I have had “AliExpress shipping times” on some Amazon products, which led me to believe that the particular store was outside their local jurisdiction.

BOFH666,

Ali got a nice escrow payment system, when you and the selling party disagree about delivery or quality, you get your money back most of the time.

Did have some issues with deliveries in the past, but always got them resolved or refunded.

No experience with the other platforms, but have done hundreds of purchases using AliExpress, from a few euros to hundred+

Valmond,

Yeah I have got tons of stuff from there, only time it didn’t work out was:

5€ watches, they are just as crappy as you’d imagine 😁

Once an item didn’t show up, and seller needed a video/photo so I just filmed my empty hand. Didn’t get refunded.

But that’s about it.

Ofc, there are obvious scammy stuff, so check out size etc and if it’s too good to be true, well then it’s probably not true.

Wizard_Pope,
@Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world avatar

If it looks too good and has no reviews avoid it like the plague. I never understood why they need video or photo proof of an item not arriving. How do you take a photo of something you do not have???

infinitepcg, (edited )

I’ve bought a lot of electronic components from AliExpress and 99% of the time I got exactly what I ordered. It just takes a long time.

UnityDevice, (edited )

Same here. I used to get a lot of it via eBay since it had a lot better protection for only a bit more in price. But after the pandemic, most of the stuff I buy moved off of eBay and is only available on Ali now.

nieceandtows,

Im not a regular shopper or anything, but I’ve had good experience with AliExpress so far.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • asklemmy@lemmy.world
  • localhost
  • All magazines
    •
    Loading…
    Loading the web debug toolbar…
    Attempt #