AliExpress

[ticojohn]

Does anybody here have experience buying products from AliExpress? I think they are part of Alibaba Group. Found a LGA775 Motherboard (Gigabyte GA-P43T-ES3G) that supports 16GB. Might be what I need to upgrade my old system.

UPDATE: Scratch that board. Does not have built in graphics. Don't want to have to buy a graphics card.

[aplistir]

Several firms sell their products through AliExpress. Some of them are better than some others.
That is why it is a good idea to read reviews from other customers before ordering.

My experiences. Everything I have ordered I have also gotten. The prices are a lot cheaper than in my home country.

The packages are often packed lightly without too much padding.

I once ordered about 12 LED light bulbs, and three of them were broken during the delivery.
I complained and they replied that They will NOT pay money back from the thee bulbs unless I first send them my email correspondence with my local post office, where I ask them to compensate for the damage.

Local post office would not compensate, because I had signed the package, which looked ok from the outside.
I did not bother to have email "correspondence" with my local post office and so I lost about 3 euros.
Would have taken too much of my time for only 3 euros.

I am a little annoyed with AliExpress, because they do not package the products properly and then they wont compensate for the broken products without requiring you to do a lot of work for a small sum of money

[ticojohn]

.....
I am a little annoyed with AliExpress, because they do not package the products properly and then they wont compensate for the broken products without requiring you to do a lot of work for a small sum of money

Thanks for that reply. Probably best to go with eBay. Although who knows what it would be like trying to return an item.

[marcetm]

How long did they take for delivery, aplistir?

[aplistir]

How long did they take for delivery, aplistir?

2 to 3 weeks. Which is quite good for a free delivery from china to europe.

[yeti]

My experiences. Everything I have ordered I have also gotten.

The fail rate of deals is higher (for me) than on buying in China via Ebay. It is annoying to wait 2+ months for nothing but getting your money back... but at least this worked always until now.

+++Edit @ 20170201-1322-GMT
The percentage of items lost on the way from China to Europe seems to be like the loss rate when buying in China via Banggood or Ebay but AliExpress sellers have invented a new game: I order something, weeks later the seller still hasn't sent it out, when the remaining time of the buyer protection is less than the minimal time it needs to reach Europe I open a dispute and the next waiting lasts until I get my refund.
Maybe someday I'll understand why sellers do this.
---Edit @ 20170201-1322-GMT

The packages are often packed lightly without too much padding.

I had lots of stuff with bent pins and similar issues due to sloppy packing... not very funny!

...and sometimes the quality just sucks. Look a while through the pictures, sometimes they even show bad or broken stuff in their advertisements like microprocessor development board with skewed header rows or other flaws... some sellers seem to be totally demotivated or immune to developing a feeling for quality...

...and there is no 18650 cell with 9900mAH!

Some of them seem to think the longnosed ones all are idiots!

But for stuff your life does not depend on, buying there is ok... and if an offer looks too good to be true, it probably really is a fairytale...

[Justin417]

I love buying stuff from china, but if possible I'd strongly suggest using Ebay. I've been ordering at least 30 or more items a month from China via ebay for the past 2 years. The few times I have had an incident, ebay / paypal steps in immediately rectify it.

I'm also quite impressed at shipping time to the USA, I can often times see my packages in 2 weeks or so!

Just got a new USB front panel extension for my PC since my case USB port got bent pretty poorly.

[debiman]

is there any way to know beforehand how things ordered via ebay are packaged?
or is the incentive to do it properly higher because dependence on community reviews?

[Justin417]

Correct, I've found that ebay sellers generally try to keep their reviews in the high 95%+ range, so thats a good incentive for them to ship items properly.

Recently I ordered 3 glass solar lights from China, all 3 came intact. And if something is broken, in order to keep up their reviews, sellers will often re-send or refund you for the purchase. And even still if a seller does not cooperate, ebay steps in quickly to fix it for you.

[qyron]

I have a long experience with AliExpress and Ebay and both suffer from the same problems.

AliExpress, according to what I have read, due to huge volume of complaints, acts as an escrow service and carefully controls all transactions. Sellers won't receive their cash unless you confirm your goods received.
Also, there is the Dispute service, where you can put in a complaint against the sellers. In a worst case scenario, if the seller does not reply to your complaint, the site will step in and process a refund to you, be it partial or full. You do have sometimes to provide evidences for your claim.

Personal experience: most products are worth more than the asking price and you can do a lot of good shopping if you spend the time to search and read the reviews about the items and sellers.
I've bought all sorts of items from that site: components (USB 3.0 expansion cards are a steal), cooking utensils, party items, novelties, silicone molds... All items arrived within 2 to 3 weeks, no problem at all and, when there were issues, most sellers were more than willing to give a partial refund. I've actually had more problems with customs in my country than with sellers.

And this leads me to my next thought: before buying anything form abroad, take in consideration the fees and taxes that can/will be applied to whatever you may buy. Most of the time, it will not be worth the trouble but sometimes it actually does.

[tynman]

UPDATE: Scratch that board. Does not have built in graphics. Don't want to have to buy a graphics card.

Don't reject a motherboard just because it doesn't have built-in graphics. It's not really that common for mainstream motherboards to have builtin graphics. More typically, "built-in" graphics capability is found in processors.

My impression is that most of the cheap x86 processor (i.e., the ones I tend to look at, < $75) do have built in graphics. The more expensive processors (> $100) sometimes don't have graphics. Maybe the logic is: if you are willing to spend the big bucks on a processor, you will also probably want to install a discrete graphics card.

[Justin417]

And this leads me to my next thought: before buying anything form abroad, take in consideration the fees and taxes that can/will be applied to whatever you may buy. Most of the time, it will not be worth the trouble but sometimes it actually does.

I'm actually very interested in this. I've heard various horror stories from all around the globe about import taxes and fees from their post offices. If you don't mind sharing out of pure curiosity, where are you located and what are the fees like? I often times forget that just because here in the US we don't have any import fees (that I know of, at least), that there are quite a few fees around the rest of the globe.

[qyron]

It's not a simple subject to approach but I'll try to sum up a very long, boring and complex subject into a nutshell.

Theoretically, customs taxes are put in place in order to protect the national industries by making imported products as expensive as those who are internally manufactured.
In the EU (where I live), these rates are set in a commonly agreed table, for all member countries to apply on each respective territory, to all inbound goods, although some exceptions apply. US, to my knowledge, charges outbound goods, which I am yet to understand why.

Besides the customs tariffs, which are EU taxation and a direct source of income for the community government, national taxes can and most often are applied on top of the customs tariffs, like VAT and other special taxes. In my country, as an example, tobacco and liquor have special, separate, taxes to be paid before the product is cleared for the internal market.

Let's take a look at a few examples:

a) importing electronics components (motherboards and general purpose electronic parts)
cost: €50
shipping: €5
customs tariffs: €0 (Europe does not have a leading electronic industry but is mostly an integrator and consumer, so no charges are applied)
VAT: 23% (calculated on the overall value of the package)
TOTAL: (50+5)*23% = €67,65

Motherboards from abroad, unless we are dealing with very specific/high end model, usually do not make it worth all the trouble. Other expansion cards, usually do. I once ordered a USB3.0 expansion cards, with 5 ports, for a friend and it cost me around €15. National market: €55.

b) importing a set of bed linens
cost: €50 (good quality Egyptian cotton linens will cost this and even more)
shipping: €10
customs: from 8% to 17% (for this example, I'll add 12%)(there are lots of clothing and related products manufacturers in Europe)
VAT: 23%
TOTAL: (50+10)*12%*23% = €82.66

On top of this, you may also have to add the fees for handling. National post service charges €12, fixed price. Third party companies make each its own.

Overall total: €94.66

For such a specific item, it would make a great buy. Egyptian linens are well over €200 a set in my country. You would save around 50%.

If you would like any other practical example, feel free to ask. If it's within my knowledge to answer, I shall try to do so.

There are, as I mentioned, a few exceptions. Parcel valued less than €22, in general, and considering the items, will not be stopped at customs and parcel with commercial value less than €150 will not be have customs tariffs applied but only local taxes, like VAT.
Alcohol and tobacco will stop, no matter the value of the parcel. Guns and ammunition can only be imported with special government permits and through authorized gun dealers and besides all normal customs proceedings will also face mandatory police inspection, with additional fees to be charged, and some guns and ammunition are simply banned to enter my country, in respect to national legislation. My country has one of the most restrictive gun laws in Europe, to my knowledge.
Prescription drugs and dietary supplements require a special import permits, who must be separately required at the national equivalent of the USFDA, with separate and additional costs. Some products, are, of course, banned to enter the market.

I could on but enough is enough.

[Justin417]

Ah, wow, thank you truly qyron for the information!

Definitely helps me understand what my friends across the pond have to go through.

[edbarx]

When I discovered that my first laptop had a defective motherboard, and I couldn't have it replaced as its warranty had expired, I ordered another motherboard from Aliexpress. The first one that arrived was plainly damaged with its integrated GPU malfunctioning. The second one was not the same model I ordered and instead of using DDR3 modules it used DDR2. So, to save my laptop instead of buying a new one with a large screen, I had to be contented with a different motherboard.

To this date, I am using this laptop with the replaced motherboard from Aliexpress. Yes, they may not be ideal, but in my case, it saved me from expending ~$300 more.

When readers read threads like this, I suggest them, to be more critical about what they read and take it with a pinch of salt. Everyone should understand people submerged in big business what their primary interests are: there is no exception, all of them are interested in one thing, and this is, monetary profit. Don't swallow the bait, businesses want to sell what they trade in, therefore whatever it is, it must be the best.

[qyron]

Most laptop motherboards, in my experience, are worth the hassle with importing.

Motherboards for laptops are considered "professional" products in my neck of the woods and are charged at a premium. I once owned a MSI Megabook M640 and when the machine broke down, repairing it would cost me €120, outsourced of course. Buying a full motherboard replacement would cost about €160, alone.

Buying from abroad do has its risks like anything else. In the bottom line, we can pin it to dumb luck, if one is prone to believe in it. My personal experience is 90%+ positive. Friends and acquaintances speak horrors of their experiences.