Be careful buying ANYTHING from ALIEXPRESS

[krudawg]

I've only had to rely on refunds a couple of times from Ali and had no issue whatsoever. Parcel delivery times for us in OZ can be up to 3 months so we take that with a grain of salt. They generally always turn up sooner or later.

It keeps telling me that my parcel is sitting in the local post office - It absolutely is NOT there

 

[krudawg]

I have always been leery of AliExpress and BangGood, never shopped with either of them. They just seem ripe with scam-ability. I'm not even particularly thrilled by Etsy. It just seems like the potential savings are not worth the headache, if there is a problem.
I have purchased a few 3D printed things from ToolCurve and they worked out ok, but I didn't see much of an alternative? Some day I would like to get a printer of my own, but I'm too busy for something new right now.
So many of the recognized brand goods are made in China, that it's somewhat hard to avoid, but somehow it feels like the potential to get scammed is lower if you stay away from buying direct.

From my experiences, Banggood is a very good place to find woodworking tools, but do your homework on their tools). Never had a problem with them except they spam the hell out of my inbox. 

 

[Mini Me]

You'd hate living in OZ then! For most stuff we pretty much only have two choices, get absolutely reamed on pricing locally or overseas, or save money and wait a massive amount of time!

I'm after the 3/8" set of tambour router bits from Canada, with the terrible exchange rate and shipping costs it's many hundreds, same 1/2" set from Ali is around $75AUD. If Ali had the 3/8" set I'd buy it in a flash even if I have to wait over 2 months for it.

We in Australia have a whole different perspective on dealing with China and over the years it has become a normal thing for us to do. For good or bad other countries have not had that experience. I wanted to put a DRO on my slider, normal sources for that job would have cost me over $600AUD, buying from China was a $100AUD exercise and it does the exact same thing. Traditional suppliers of stuff like this are going to have to face facts and their business model.

 

[luvmytoolz]

We in Australia have a whole different perspective on dealing with China and over the years it has become a normal thing for us to do. For good or bad other countries have not had that experience. I wanted to put a DRO on my slider, normal sources for that job would have cost me over $600AUD, buying from China was a $100AUD exercise and it does the exact same thing. Traditional suppliers of stuff like this are going to have to face facts and their business model.

Yeah we really have little choice in OZ, but what really gets my goat is when companies preach about buying local, don't buy Chinese, blah blah blah, and are simply drop shipping the same item from the same Chinese sellers. My CNC machine was around $25k locally, the exact same machine from the same factories cost me $5k all up! And that was WITH getting ripped off on our end with GST, duties, etc, etc.

 

[Adamsse]

I worked in manufacturing and supply chain for 30 years in several different industries. When a supplier can sell something for SIGNIFICANTLY less than the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer with the patent/design), there can be several reasons and it’s worth asking why before making a decision to buy.

The material (the largest cost component of a product) may cost less because it is not the same quality, or the company has the ability to source components at significantly lower cost.

The labor (usually the second largest cost component) may cost less because of lower labor rate paid or lower benefits offered to employees which is a cost component.  Is it just lower labor costs or is there risk of other issues such as child labor?

If the company is based in a country that doesn’t require as stringent safety or environmental regulations as the OEM, they can run the manufacturing plant more cheaply (but at a different cost to employees and the environment).

A significantly cheaper source will not likely have legitimate customer service or warranty.

If the significantly cheaper product looks suspiciously similar to the OEM product, you have to question if the company either paid the OEM for their intellectual property or (based on the significantly lower cost) obtained the design for free by reverse engineering or getting a copy of the OEM’s design. When a company doesn’t have to pay for development and engineering departments, their overhead costs are lower.

I worked at two large companies where we had to get the FBI involved because of computer attacks from foreign entities that deliberately stole our intellectual property.  It is more common than you think.

Smaller OEM businesses with good ideas they are trying to develop are even more vulnerable to attack because they rarely have the expertise, procedures, and money to invest in solid basic IT security.

With this knowledge, many times I choose to willingly pay the higher price to support the company who designed the product I want (Festool, Woodpeckers, Jessem).  Other times, particularly for more commodity items, I’ll go with the cheapest source.  When I decide on what contractor to use on my home, I don’t always go with the cheapest bid either.  Each has to make their own purchasing decision, but I thought these insignts might be helpful on this thread.

Sandy

 

[ChuckM]

If a buyer initiates a refund process, Aliexpress automatically gets involved if the buyer and seller can't reach an agreement:

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A friend of mine didn't receive any support from the Walmart online site when the seller involved was a third party listed on the Walmart site. He never got his money ($50-ish) back because the seller refused to entertain his request while Customer Service, Walmart kept telling him that he needed to deal with the offshore seller direct. He gave up after a while...who wouldn't?