Scams on Aliexpress

XSailor · July 9, 2021, 6:17pm

I use Aliexpress a lot, and generally even the refund process works pretty OK. Now had had a few interesting cases. Actually did not lost money but time and did not receive what i needed. Both cases are related to a situation where, for some reason, the seller obviously not want to ship( freight increase, increase of product sourcing price maybe, no idea).

Case 1 After order and payment, seller asks to cancel the order. The reason changes on each reply when you ask why. If You don’t, this can happen: You wait a few days and the You see item is shipped. You think all is good…NO. Suddenly You se on the tracking history that shipment is cancelled. There is a bug in the system so the general status shows still “shipped” and you can not open a dispute, at least in a very long time. 3-4 weeks. Sure you get a refund but still annoying. I really don’t often read the messages in the aliexpress so this easily happens.

Case 2 Item shipped and everything looks good. When item arrives to your local postal network, you notice that its mowing to wrong postal area, and also usually you can see that the dimension/ weight is off. Its not addressed to You!! Again another month gone…The seller used same tracking number twice, one customer gets the goods, another not:) In neither case You loose money as such, but waste a lot of time.

With the new EU regulating in force this july will anyway probably purchase from there only in case of eu inventory, think the customs will be totally over worked for a long time to come…

SaltyPaws · July 9, 2021, 6:27pm

I once ordered a battery supposedly good for 20 amps on Ali shipping from China. When I got it weighed way too little. After opening a dispute (showing weight on a scale) I got my money back. I opened the battery, inside mostly air but 3 small cells for which I yet have to find a use. After this no more Ali battery, prefer to build them myself.

XSailor · July 9, 2021, 6:43pm

Yeah, the quality of the items is another story, usually we get what we pay for:) But there is for sale DIY grade stuff that is really difficult to find elsewhere. Well ebay , but that is basically the same.

XSailor · July 16, 2021, 7:30am

My case 2 example took a bad turn. The “wrong” package is stuck in custom. Obviously I can not pay tax& duties, as i have no authorization as it is addressed to another person. Now Fu***** Aliexpress is not refunding, they say we have to wait… The funny thing is that this package was shipped two days before I did my order I have said that to Aliexpress, but obviously this is normal in China…
Great, no motor, but they hold my money…ha ha…luckily not that much.

SoEFoil · July 16, 2021, 1:06pm

Thanks for posting your story.
1- Is it really a motor waiting ? Is the weight of this packet coherent with a motor ?
2- Asking this because will it be returned to sender eventually ?
3 - When can you expect a refund from Ali ?
4 - Do Ali take measures to eradicate this plague for their business ? Amazon close a seller account from as little as 1% of product defect with sellers of good faith. Here your seller is obviously not of good faith.

XSailor · July 16, 2021, 1:47pm

No, its not a motor, at least not my motor:

Weight is to small
package size is also wrong( i have already 2 of those motors)
going to wrong postal code.
shipped before purchase
I am sure seller is not in good faith. But they are clever to trick the “arbitration” and this time they succeed( firs time for me this happened). Also this seller suggested by e mail various tricks how i would get the refund, without them getting caught( think the reason is they don want to be black listed) but i did not agree as usually the dispute resolution works. No idea how long refund will take when You win, its rather fast, but this time they are on the sellers side. The problem is, logical reasoning does not help. I am a Platinum member there but that obviously does not help…Little pissed that hey dont realize the seller scammed.
I would like to file a Mastercard claim against Aliexpress, but just don bother, start my holiday today, maybe later.

XSailor · July 16, 2021, 6:43pm

Here is what the seller suggested before the dispute, actually been suggested the same before also:

If you want to get refund soon, could you please open a dispute as following steps:
1.“confirm receipt”，then click the button"open dispute"
2.“Return Goods” or answer you received goods, then there will be the “Personal Reasons” under it.such as "No longer need the item " or “Shipping method not as described” .
3.Send a message to us (Please don’t forget !!!) Note: No need to return anything. We will abandon product return and refund you after that. Thanks for your help!

Guess what, did not agree, no idea would i have got any money or not…Seller already scammed by not sending the item, good chances to be left with nothing… They also sent this at an early stage ( long before custom) meaning they new the tracking number is fake and i will not receive the item.

XSailor · July 30, 2021, 6:04am

Custom duties was paid for the package and it was delivered(not by me or to me obviously). Aliexpress agreed that it was delivered to wrong address, where as the real problem was that the tracking code was related to another sale…and my package was never shipped. Aliexpress still hold my money as they gave time to the seller to reroute the package to the “right address” ( this would never happen off course). In the end I won the dispute, based on " wrong address", not received the money yet, will be another 2-3 weeks…

Still not happy. The problem is that the seller get a way with a obvious fraud attempt and this was not spotted by the “Case Management Team”. I pointed out several times to them the how can the China Post tracking dates starts days before i even ordered the product but this was not noted. So don’t count on solutions based on logical arguments…

I suspects its the seller whom enters the tracking number in to the aliexpress system. So looks like they can actually add a tracking code for another parcel if they wish to do so, and nothing you can do about that.

Here a list of some of the scams.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Aliexpress/comments/hlk157/common_scams_on_aliexpress_and_how_to_avoid_them/

This seller started with Scam #011 Please Cancel, then proceed with Scam #005: Fake tracking number and thirdly tried to get me to confirm receipt of the product scam…

Lost a bit of the already limited trust i have on Aliexpress, on the other hand don’t think ebay is much better.

El_Ricardo · July 30, 2021, 9:42pm

It is not just that they can scam you, with the latest measures in the EU, pay customs and VAT, I do not think it is worth buying from China, thank goodness that all the material, motor, ESC, battery, connectors that I have bought has been before The entry into force on July 1, as an example some neodymium magnets for a generator that I am building that cost 1.20 euros I had to pay VAT and customs 5.04 euros, is bad news for all of us who are looking for material for our constructions. As data buy in Aliexpress and my country Spain, good luck with the orders
Saludos.

XSailor · August 3, 2021, 7:18am

In the past almost never had to pay VAT or custom, mainly due to purchasing rather small value items from there. Aliexpress seams now to charge automatically the VAT (they will remit that to the local custom automatically) so probably rather hassle free, but indeed price going up. Think als as everything will be much more controlled this way, illegal transport of various batteries they do will also be reduced. Think the main problem for them in the future is the general price levels, some of the stuff is these days really expensive, you can get good quality products for almost same price. The new EU regulation will for sure be a hit in their business model, i guess they will increase the EU direct sales to remain competitive.

XSailor · August 17, 2021, 5:04am

Think i am so done with F****ing Aliexpress. Have been trying 3 times now to buy another 6384 motor from there…
May 22 purchased one and paid. Soon seller had loads of explanations and asked me to cancel. So i did.
May 26 purchased another one and paid, that’s the scam above…still no motor.

July 23 purchased the third motor…now i got the happy massage that shipment is cancelled…WTF???

Obviously not the only problems have had there but just to mention…The explanations given is not even worth mentioning, they do seams to believe the buyers are total idiots, the dishonesty is unimaginable. In fact maybe they are right, one should not buy from there ha haa…

Actually think its good that EU now controls the VAT and custom also for small purchases, that might open more possibilities for more honest sellers with EU inventory, time will tell.

sat_be · August 17, 2021, 7:46am

Maybe you can get one from Alien Power (GB), they only seem to have sensored 6384 but the sensor can be removed: https://alienpowersystem.com/shop/brushless-motors/63mm/aps-6384s-sensored-outrunner-brushless-motor-130kv-4000w/

63100 140KV sensoreless from them works well for me.

Ordered from them last year, was on back order, it took a long time (2 month) but arrived in good condition.

XSailor · August 17, 2021, 9:34am

Thanks for the hint ! Actually, today found it on amazon…

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07VTQ635Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have had zero issues over the years using prime. This is also a far east seller but fulfilled by Amazon, interesting to see how it goes. 4th try !

SoEFoil · August 17, 2021, 10:19am

You could tell AliExpress that you suspect the same tracking code is used for several purchases or that the sellers regularly uses a same tracking code several time.
If this process is used intentionally, AliE can demonstrate the scam very easily since they have the global view.

XSailor · August 17, 2021, 10:34am

Thats the problem… i did. Sent them screenshots of both domestic and international carrier dates, and did explain all this during the " arbitration" a few times. They probably don’t care or just dont have time to handle these cases properly, so they just proceed with a “standard” prolonged process. I got my money back but the scammer get away with it.I i would have followed sellers “advice” would have lost the money also… I totally lost trust after this as very logical reasoning had no effect. Looks like they are more concerned loosing vendors than customers.

Just · August 18, 2021, 5:27am

24-36v, idk how much u planing to volt it up?

XSailor · August 18, 2021, 5:37am

6-7S at this stage should be OK

XSailor · August 18, 2021, 4:00pm

The Amazon order was shipped today…and together with other items so pretty sure its a eu shipment. I use the free shipping option so it’s little slower, should be here early next week. If so, its a miracle compared to Scamexpress…auch sorry Aliexpress.

XSailor · August 23, 2021, 12:37pm

Magick is happening, 4th try and finally a motor at home, incredible. less than a week.

Below a copy of the ordinary correspondence with the Ali seller, time wasters:

Just to show the inteligent dialogue for third attempt to buy the motor, the previous 2 was no better…

Me: Hello. Shipping company status says " Pending shipping by the seller" Why is that ?
Seller : friend, don’t worry, i will check it with the shipping company , hope you can wait a few days.
Seller : hi friend, don’t worry we do real send out the package for you, the package is still on the way, Hope you will get it in the near future, many reasons will cause the delay. Thanks for your kind understanding in advance .

On tracking can se status changed to "cancelled " so contacts the seller again:

Me : Good day. Kindly advice reason why this shipment was cancelled?
Seller : Dear friend, I am so sorry to tell you. I just check the logistics for you,and get a news from our shipping department,
your parcel was lost and I still do not get the reason, We feel so sorry for this problem so i will refund to you, is this ok?
Me: Duly noted. If lost, maybe You can send a new one thanks?
Seller: friend sorry , it is out of stock now, so we can refund to you now, ok ?
Me: OK, please do so
Seller: hi friend I’m so sorry about that, Under such situation, You can open a dispute, Choose the reason of"purchase protection is running out, but the parcel is still in transit",
We will agree to return your money back.

WTF? Sure will get my money back but why all this lies an hassle… and why did they accepted the order in the first place if they don’t want to deliver?

Still some parts is hard to find any other place than Aliexpress but in the future will be happy to pay the premium if same part can be find, even at a higher price, somewhere else.

XSailor · October 8, 2021, 7:00pm

Oops i did it again

Well ordered a propeller for a 15 hp outboard…i.have time… for next summer…for a moment consider it went well…but i was wrong ha… ha. Think it would be extremely interesting to understand why they do it like they do it… no idea. This is a repeat of the 6384 case:

I order & pay
then some BS why shipment was canceled
then me asking for clarification why
then they ship( or in fact they don’t…)
today passed local custom but than can se that the package is going to another city and the weight is wrong, too light, a letter, (obviously they just gave a tracking number for another customers parcel). In the end will get a refund of the money as always. Still not understand what is the point in this…