Alli express ripped me off. What do I do?

[2tiki]

I've been very nervous to buy anything from AliExpress since I heard about it years ago. But I finally went for it about a month ago when I thought I was going to be buying a new vape.

I wanted to buy an accessory and they had it for about 20 bucks less on AliExpress even though I know it's probably not as good quality, I went for it.

When it arrived I can see that they sent the wrong size. I double checked my order and I had ordered the correct size.

I was going to try and send it back and get them to send me the right size, but I ran into some financial issues, and decided just to do it as a return and not by the vape I was going to use it for.

They gave me a mailing label and said I could return it for free, but even though I sent it back to them they're refusing to give me my money back and not really explaining why.

I contact your customer service and it got escalated, but they still refuse to give me my refund.

So now I I don't have my money or the thing I bought. It's basically like buying something from a store then they hand you the item then they just take it back and don't give you your money. I've definitely been robbed here.

The only thing I can think to do is to go through the hassle of contacting my credit card company and trying to get them to undo the charge. Does anybody have successful experience with getting their money back from AliExpress?

It's not a ton of money, but it's more than I can really afford to lose right now.

*Edit: I forgot to mention, obviously I will never buy anything from AliExpress again. I know some of you have had success, but since this is my first experience and it's the shitty, it's definitely going to be in my last.

 

[chillAtGVC]

Did you dispute with the seller, or AliExpress itself? I have disputed many items with AliExpress and I’ve always been given my money back.

 

[biohacker]

My girlfriend just had an issue with them and had to get her bank/credit card to charge back.

 

[2tiki]

Did you dispute with the seller, or AliExpress itself? I have disputed many items with AliExpress and I’ve always been given my money back.

Yes. I even sent them the receipt from the post office showing that I did send it back.

 

[Cdwhit]

After a few hours of writing and weeks waiting for responses, at least some of which appeared to be written in chinese, I gave up and swore I’d never throw my money away there again.

 

[Tji89]

Shop there a bit more than I should since it's so convenient. Never had a problem. Got a broken item once, made a dispute and got refunded. Around 30 orders total.

Just my experience

 

[Flotsam]

I always thought some of those might be fly by night

I have never ordered from Ali Express, DH Gate or Temu for the same reason.
for me eBay has been the best.

 

[2tiki]

Did you dispute with the seller, or AliExpress itself? I have disputed many items with AliExpress and I’ve always been given my money back.

I don't really know. The whole thing has been very confusing. I'm going to respond one last time to them, and then contact my credit card company. I complained that I sent the item back and that they said they never received it. I sent proof of the receipt that it was sent, and then got a message back with no explanation. Just saying I will not be getting my refund.

 

[Hippie]

I've always found their dispute service biased towards the buyer and got some or all of my money back - once you've jumped thro their hoops and taken pics or made a silly video showing what's not been delivered lol
They keep your money from each sale aside in escrow and don't give it to the seller for about 6 weeks or until you've left feedback so it should be an easy process.

 

[LesPlenty]

taken pics or made a silly video showing what's not been delivered lol

I sent a picture of an empty hand when something had not been delivered and ended up with a credit. If you are having no success @2tiki, get in touch with your credit card provider as they should help.

 

[Bakin4Life]

I always thought some of those might be fly by night

I have never ordered from Ali Express, DH Gate or Temu for the same reason.
for me eBay has been the best.

I once ordered a knockoff watch from a china-based vendor (not one of the ones above). Was sent a watch, but looked nothing like what I ordered.

Contacting them, I got a response that they "were out of the one I ordered, and they substituted one they thought I'd like"

Their next counter was for a 'free' one on a future order. At that point, I knew I'd never see the watch I ordered, or my money, ever again. Lesson learned, and I've never been tempted to use AE, DH Gate, etc., as a result.

 

[Chicken No Name]

I've spent over €500 in the last 6 months on ali.
All but 3 transactions were fine. Of these 3, when disputed, 2 were sorted directly with the seller resulting in either replacements or refunds
Only 1 transaction, fortunately only valued at 5 €, did I have problems.
Wrong item sent,in this case the incorrect size. Dispute raised. Seller blanked me. Photos sent . No response.
Ali process is to return for a refund. Before I went to the hassle did a quick Google search. Overwhelming experience was as per yours. Item returned but no refund received. Ali are of no help.
So I didn't bother and accepted the loss.

It seems to be up to the seller how good or bad the experience will be. Generally they are honest. Of course exceptions apply unfortunately.

My advice is to buy using credit cards or PayPal so you can retrieve the money from them if any problems. Follow the dispute guidelines but beware sending anything back as you can loose both money and the item. Just raise with cc or pp and minimise hassle in your life. For any item over €20 I try to buy as a single transaction, not grouped into one multi item transaction so if any issues I can refer to this single transaction to aid refunds.

 

[Perfect_Speed4069]

Shop there a bit more than I should since it's so convenient. Never had a problem. Got a broken item once, made a dispute and got refunded. Around 30 orders total.

Just my experience

Pretty much the same. My two dodgy experiences both relate to the same vendor who refunded eventually. AE is just a platform like Amazon. The vendors matter.

 

[Suki]

Aliexpress is just like ebay, you have to check the seller reliability from the reviews and number of sales if you wanna play it safe.

 

[chillAtGVC]

I order stuff from AliExpress on a monthly or more frequent basis. I’ve never had a problem that wasn’t resolved by filing a dispute directly with AliExpress. I was never asked to send anything back when I had to pay for it. I never tried to communicate directly with the seller.

 

[Tji89]

I have a problem with Amazon though. Ordered a projector 11.november. It got shipped out then returned early December. Amazon demanded me to wait until 28th December in case I receive the item. Even though it got returned automatically without me involved. So I concated them again this week and had to speak with two operators as the email and chats was all bots and generic text.

So they asked me to fill out this incident report so they can further investigate what happened. So irritating that they have so lousy cs, not refunding me immediately as even smaller shops would do. They are like one of the richest companies in the world

Sorry for derailing. Understand your frustration OP.

 

[maremaresing]

Rules of Aliexpress defects:

• You are gonna get a defect so be prepared for it.
• If you have an image of the listing or a chat confirming that they will send you a specific thing, screenshot and save it until the order arrives so the listing can't be changed or taken down. (windows snip tool is bae)
• Always be disputing with the built in dispute process. Disputers get coffee.
• Don't accept the few dollars off or small credit if that won't make it right.
• Never accept a return label as an option, or placing a second order, or anything that isn't you getting a refund/credit from the seller/Ali
• Never take any option that takes time. There is a clock on the seller side that they can run out and give you nothing. Anything you accept that isn't what you actually need also averts this requirement.
• Dispute with ali through the built in dispute process, even if you are over time, even if you messed something up. Ali makes so much money and things are so crazy and they know their sellers scam people left and right, so they bias toward the customer as a rule.

I have a problem with Amazon though. Ordered a projector 11.november. It got shipped out then returned early December. Amazon demanded me to wait until 28th December in case I receive the item. Even though it got returned automatically without me involved. So I concated them again this week and had to speak with two operators as the email and chats was all bots and generic text.

So they asked me to fill out this incident report so they can further investigate what happened. So irritating that they have so lousy cs, not refunding me immediately as even smaller shops would do. They are like one of the richest companies in the world

Sorry for derailing. Understand your frustration OP.

Sorry you had that experience. You gotta know where to thread the needle, but CS is usually biased towards the buyer if you do it right (because they are a rich company).

Trick for amazon to get actual lenient help from a human associate (I'm going from memory so cut me some slack):

1. Go to https://www.amazon.com/hz/contact-us/foresight/hubgateway
2. Click "Help with something else"
3. Click "Something else"
4. Click "I need more help"
5. CS chat window will pop up (ensure your popup blockers don't block this one)
6. In the CS chat window it will start AI asking you a bunch of things. The trick is don't give it anything to latch onto to say "oh we already asked for these steps". Always pick "chat with an associate" or "no that wasn't helpful" options. [If #6 doesn't work, restart from #1 and at step #5 select "start a new chat"]
7. Once you finally have a live associate the rule is BE NICE. These poor people on the other end are essentially throwaway abuse targets 24/7 for everyone. Be patient, because they are dealing with 5 customers at once. Give them the time they need. Thank them for their help.
8. Explain your problem. They will tell you what the system has told you, such as having to wait, there is nothing else they can do, etc. Just tell them that you can't accept that, and you've done what you can, but you want a refund to your original payment method. (Ordering something $$$$ might interfere with this due to theft, but do it anyway.)
9. If you are nice to the associate, they really can't end the contact with you. They are stuck with you. So they will either move you to an escalation contact who absolutely can make the exception, or make the exception themselves. But you gotta be nice.
10. If none of the above works, try from #1 again and the next person you get will certainly be the one. Plus they don't want a bad review from you.
    If they do give the concession, thank them, and leave a positive survey for them.

Obviously being a prime member (ugh) or spending lots of money with them gives you an edge but, given how massive and convoluted their operations are, they understand concessions must be made if you ask for them correctly.