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Was interested in buying some items that aren't carried locally and Amazon/eBay are way too high on and/or won't ship to Hawaii.
Anyone bought retail from a merchant thru them? What experiences good or bad did you have? Other than an apparent language barrier are there things to watch out for?
I imagine shipping will be a lengthy process but that is OK.
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Can't say I have but I will be very interested to hear more about this! Amazon could do with some solid competition, their delivery times get longer and longer. I'll go check them out myself next time I want to buy something. Thanks.
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I have used Alibaba but they are mostly wholesale. I usually use Aliexpress for retail items.
I have been impressed. Many times exact same items as Amazon but at about 1/2 the price. The shipping is minimal and most items we have purchased the shipping has been free.
Since Amazon has been holding items before shipping, some of the China items have arrived sooner than Amazon's. Usually 10 days to 4 weeks depends on shipping method.
The returns are not quite as easy as Amazon, but have always got my money back when there has been a problem. They are trying to compete with Amazon.
Last thing I ordered was shipped from US inventory and arrived in less than a week.
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Like tgalarneau, I have started using Aliexpress recently and all the orders have arrived within 2 weeks so far. One of the recommended shipping methods (ePacket) can even be tracked online on USPS.
Many Amazon sellers source their products from Alibaba and Aliexpress so when I find an item that I want to order on Amazon, I check Aliexpress first since the exact same item might be sold there for significantly cheaper.
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I've never bought from the Alis (though I have shopped) but I have ordered lots of things directly from China. I converted my home to LED lighting a good 5 years before the bulbs were even available in the USA by buying directly from China. Most of my purchases were Chinese merchants selling on eBay. That gave me the option to read reviews and see how they treat their customers.
My experiences have been mixed. Most of the products are the same as you buy here, but the seller support after they get the money hasn't been great if there is a problem. In at least two occasions I had to get eBay involved when items never arrived or else the merchants wouldn't issue a refund. They like to make excuses, give fake tracking numbers, basically trying to run out the clock for you to file a claim. Also both times after I left negative feedback they offered me $20.00 if I would delete it. I imagine a lot of people take them up on their offer, so one can see how their feedback ratings are artificially high. I'm guessing they probably require the negative feedback to be deleted before they pay, and then they don't pay, so the same customer gets screwed twice in a single transaction.
A word of caution- once you buy from a Chinese merchant, if they get your email you will, for the rest of your life, be bombarded with SPAM from every Chinese merchant on the planet. Use a throw-away email address. They will also attempt to stalk you on Facebook if you're naive enough to have your email address on FB. I never have, but I have heard of guys suddenly getting friend request from all these beautiful young women who want to video chat on Skype (to sell you similar crap to what you've already bought).
I knew a guy who had stuff manufactured in China for the US market. He said they always follow the same pattern- The first production run is great. You're hooked. The second production run, they substitute inferior materials and workmanship, and if you send it back, they will sell it themselves under a different brand name (your product has been counterfeited). The third production run is good again, and if the counterfeited products sold well, they will make more short-cuts and continue selling "your" product with even more inferior quality. By now you've figured it out, so you're shopping for a new manufacturer. Same thing. He said it's a tiring cat-and-mouse game, but nobody in the USA wants to pay 10x as much to buy something made here.
ETA: I forgot to mention- if your Chinese product craps out within the warranty period, they may require that you return it before they will issue refund or send replacement. I don't know how, but they get unbelievable shipping rates via USPS called an "e-packet". So for example if you buy a $10 radio from China, they can ship it to you for a couple of dollars, but when it breaks and you try to ship it back, you find out it costs $15 to return it. So it gets thrown away instead of returned.
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Aliexpress - did not know that existed. Spent 3 hours on the darn thing last night.
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I've used aliexpress a few times now for several hundreds of dollars of purchases. The shipping is slow and the visibility into the shipment tracking is poor. However it has worked. Many of the vendors on aliexpress also list their products on ebay -- often for the same price.
Background on epackets:
In 2011, the United States Postal Service formally announced the new shipping service and agreement with Hongkong Post and eBay China, allowing packages from China and Hong Kong to receive USPS First Class Mail Service along with a delivery confirmation service.
As the name (“e”Packet) implies, the shipping service was designed for ecommerce, to make it more affordable and quicker for consumers to receive their purchases from online stores and marketplaces that shipped out from China and Hong Kong.
In the past, China EMS was the only affordable and reasonable option to ship consumer products overseas to customers. However, it would often take over a month or longer for customers to receive their purchase. Other quicker options were too expensive, especially for small inexpensive products.
ePacket delivery began as a quick and affordable shipping solution from China and Hong Kong to the United States. Over the years, ePacket has expanded into 30 other countries such as Canada and Australia.
Lastly, ePacket delivery gives customers end-to-end tracking at no additional cost, allowing them to easily monitor and locate their package on official websites such as EMS and USPS. Any undeliverable mail is returned for free as well, which means merchants will have no issues refunding customers that never receive their purchase.
https://about.usps.com/news/national-rel...11_037.htm
and they've been expanding:
http://about.usps.com/who-we-are/financi...ch_049.htm
