What is the least shit online store of the shitty ones? such as: Wish, AliExpress, etc..
What is the least shitty shit store? Never had a good experience with any of the shops such as, wish, aliexpress and the rest of em. But which one of them is considered the better one, or more likely to actually arrive with the correct item? Is etsy considered better than the rest? Are there any of these "low priced" stores that actually have some sort of guarantee to deliver what is purchased? Let me know your experiences and tips!
Aliexpress is basically amazon with longer shipping time in my experience. Each seller has their own store rating similar to ebay so as long as you exercise judgement ie. Dont buy from brand new stores with 0 feedback or things that are too good to be true and avoid certain things like batteries and storage media unless you know exactly what you're buying you should be fine. I've bought a lot of stuff from there (mostly electronics) and haven't had bad experiences
This has been my experience as well with Aliexpress. I know there's a huge caveat emptor going on, but it's like you said about batteries and storage, be careful unless you know exactly what you’re buying. Like a 64TB SSD for $15.99 proooobably not the real thing. But I have gotten a lot of SBCs, some stuffed animals, and cheap costume jewelry for my wife (who knows it's cheap, but doesn't care). Weirdest "quality" purchase? My "gold colored" tungsten wedding ring was $10, comfort fit, and in 6 years still looks like the real thing. But didn't dent like my original wedding ring (which is why I needed a replacement, got smashed in a door accident). I'd never buy anything that I knew might cause a fire (like batteries) or possibly poison me (like pills).
Wish and Temu ripped me off in some of my first purchases. I was only out $30, and I know it was possible, so I just deleted my account and the apps.
AliExpress is not even close to Amazon except for the fact that it does a great job at providing a wide selection of Chinese products, but cheaper and with longer lead times.
What makes Amazon, Amazon, is its customer service. Without that, it's like eBay. But even eBay has significantly better customer service than AliExpress.
Speaking as someone who has used AliExpress a lot, it's pretty good, but only if you understand that all sales are final. Best cast scenario, the seller makes you pay for shipping which generally costs anywhere from 50% to 250% of your original purchase price.
Their customer service always defers to sellers in my experience, and even if they approve a return, what's the point if you lose money by shipping it back?
AliExpress is a rock solid platform. You just need to know official Chinese brand accounts there. It's just like Amazon - you order random shit there, you get shit in the mailbox. You order from a reputable branded shop there and you get a high quality item.
Find an official Chinese brand web site and they usually have a link to their shop on Ali. For example, you want to buy some eSun filament for your 3D printer. You go to their web site https://www.esun3d.com/pla-pro-product/ and BOOM! Ali link!
AliExpress screwed me recently. A vendor sent me the wrong items. I mean, they weren't even the same kind of items. I disputed it with the vendor and they said they'd sent the right things, so there.
I opened a case with AliExpress. They asked me for a whole lot of information, some of which didn't make any sense, along with some pictures. I sent them everything. They sided with the vendor.
Fortunately, I had paid with PayPal. PayPal looked over the information from both sides and promptly refunded my money.
I don't expect to be doing business with AliExpress again any time soon.
I have ordered so many things over the past 8 years on AliExpress and the only issues I had was shops not delivering the right amount. Disputing that was never an issue. I wonder why so many other people have serious issues with it.
Ordering from AliExpress is a risk but factoring in the times you get screwed over it's usually still worth it over buying 1.5 times the price to get it from Amazon (and possibly still get screwed by Amazon).
Just wanted to point out that Etsy isn't really in the same category as the other shops you listed. Think handmade crafts and souvenir store compared to Walmart.
Edit: I'm apparently reminiscing on the Etsy of yesteryear. I guess it's shit now.
It’s such a shame really, because there are really cool independent sellers with some awesome handmade / hard to find vintage stuff, but they’re drowned out by drop shippers (who wouldn’t even be able to sell anything on there if people knew that same item was available through aliexpress without the 100x markup)
I've ordered everything from audio stuff to knives on aliexpress. Find a good reputable seller and you're good. That's pretty much the same for any platform like Ebay. Amazon has increasingly gotten worse. Now it's either really big name brands or cheap chinese clones
Edit: check out Louis Rossman's video buying electrical equipment from Amazon. If you buy the top rated results, you'll probably fuck yourself over. One of the top products is a fuse that won't blow like it's supposed to, if you put this in your system, it will be catastrophic and life threatening.
Aliexpress also has fakes, but if you want to shop for brands that originate in China, you can find actually good quality products for very cheap. Like Ugreen, who makes nice phone/multi chargers, cables, powerbanks, or Sonoff for smart home stuff, or Anycubic for 3D resin printers.
Amazon is a shitshow, I can't even find the original stuff. Wish is just a scam. Ebay is okay, but their shipping is not the best.
Amazon definitely has. Almost all the clothing is either brands I can't afford or no name brands that are terrible quality. I have returned my last sweater. So freaken down with them. Go back to clothing shopping in a physical store like it is 1999.
I enjoy buying merch from some youtubers tbh.
LTT makes awesome quality garments. I was multiple times commented that they look high quality. And I really like how they feel.
Kurzgesagt has some cool shirts.
I bought some stuff from Ali express. Mixed results. Bought a video adapter for my wife's car so an aftermarket radio could use the factory backup cam. Worked great.
Bought a 'billet' camshaft for a Suzuki. Was obvious it was cast, because they didn't bother to align the two halves together they were off 1/8". Left a bad review about it, they deleted the entire part listing, then re-posted it to hide my review, then blocked me as a customer.
Support from AliExpress is quite good. They don't take any bullshit from their sellers and often refund at least a partial amount of your purchase.
I think I got 30% back once because the wrong color was delivered.
The biggest issue is that they tend to fake delivery time by switching around old tracking numbers. If you want something quick, I really wouldn't recommend it.
Yeah, I've ordered from Ali a couple times for various smart home gadgets, and I got a refund on some zigbee lights because they didn't light/change properly. All I had to do was show them a photo of the couple red lights that came in my set and I got the whole pack refunded and got to keep the lights.
My success rate with Aliexpress has been only slightly worse than with Amazon. I've gotten screwed over on a few lost shipments, but never had a problem getting a refund. Shipping times are much longer though, considering where it's coming from. But often I'll get items much faster than their estimates, so it's not completely terrible. And you can always look at the shipping options to see if a few dollars more can get it to you faster or with a better carrier. As for quality, I find it's not much different from Amazon since half the stuff there was made in China and just sits in a warehouse in North America.
Don't bother with Wish or Temu, which is just Wish with warehouses in North America.
Same here. I used to get a lot of it via eBay since it had a lot better protection for only a bit more in price. But after the pandemic, most of the stuff I buy moved off of eBay and is only available on Ali now.
If it looks too good and has no reviews avoid it like the plague. I never understood why they need video or photo proof of an item not arriving. How do you take a photo of something you do not have???
I agree. Plus they actually refund you. I use them to buy phone cases, parts and other things.
Edit: if you find the official store, I reccomend Kodak USB sticks
Temu is the current loss leader. You have to be careful as there are some items more expense than the Amazon or Aliexpress options, but many are 1/2-2/3 of the Amazon price with free shipping. Most items are 7-10 days shipping, but Amazon (to a rural address) is barely a couple days better with prime and about on par without.
Shipping has pretty much killed Aliexpress for me. I’m not willing to buy anything expensive as it’s effectively impossible to return and most sellers have an Amazon sellers account that is the same price or less once intl shipping is added.
As if it doesn't when you input it for other sources? I haven't had a single issue I can trace to Temu specifically. I get my Thai slave-mill "found your number in my phone" or "are you available for dinner" scam text once every other day regardless. Xfinity has probably sold, or lost, my information to dark web resellers more times than I can count. Heck, I get an email every couple of weeks from one of the "free" credit monitoring subscriptions I've been given thanks to breaches at Equifax, OPM, Chase, etc. that my email - the one I've had for 30 years come this spring - has been "found" on the dark web. No fucking shit; I'll bet the have my password from 1995, too. I'd worry about it but I have far more pressing things in my life - like making sure I'm not overheating the queso I just put in the microwave.
Honestly, if you consider amazon on the same level of shit as the ones mentioned especially with it being overrun by cheap knockoffs and chinese brands, they probably have the widest and most reliable delivery network. The return/exchange is also very easy as long as the product is shipped by them.
Seconded. Amazon has been a cheap shitty online shop for the better part of a decade now but they‘re still the best cheap shitty shop. Especially if you shop in central Europe. I‘ve tried many available competitors to avoid them completely but the direct competition is just so damn abysmal. You can complain about Amazon a lot as it has many problems, but any complaint against them is a general complaint against online shopping as a whole and they‘re becoming worse because everyone else is just so bad. At least Amazon refunds the garbage sellers send me no questions asked. That has always been a huge pain with other crappy shops.
Ali isnt even a shit site.
The sellers are what you have to look out for.
It's basically Amazon but more obvious amd with less protection for the buyer.
I’ve gotten stuff from Wish and Temu that is fine. Flashlights, tweezers, microfiber cloths, $10 wireless earbuds. I even ordered several pairs of shorts from Temu that were $8 to $10. They aren’t very durable but they function and look fine.
I ignore 100% of the gamification shit, I very much doubt you can get much that is free or a better deal…when it comes down to it they sell cheap shit for a small profit margin and that’s it. Spinning the wheel and inviting friends and having a shiny app is all just a fancy skin for the exact same stuff as on Ali, Wish, and eBay.
Also mostly using AliExpress, sometimes Ebay. AliExpress has good shops; check the other stuff they sell and the reviews to get an idea. Official company stores are great, but there are also fake company stores. And customer service on those rare occasions when it's just that bad, sucks.
I got a decent CPAP machine for cheap on Wish, but otherwise the stuff just seems flimsier and more expensive.
With any of them, make sure you read the descriptions fully and check reviews. Also, go through the purchase options. Sometimes you run into situations where you think you are ordering a pair of something and it'll only be the right or left one.
I've ordered a bunch from wish and AliExpress. Gotten plenty of good products from both and really only got burned once in wish.
I've bought a few things of AliExpress. Haven't had any issues with them. As long as you do your research and know what you're ordering, it seems pretty reliable.
Amazon is only slightly better than AliExpress here, lots of bullshit recently, but at least they are faster.
But if you look closer you often find the same stuff from AliExpress for more than three times the price there.
So far I only had one or two issues with AliExpress, but as a rule I tend to not buy anything that goes on my body or food, has batteries in it or is worth more than 20 (very rarely more than 100 due to my countries custom rules) bucks with the exception of microelectronic components.
Etsy has been good for me if you look for actual local sellers or digital products - Only once has an issue there,that was clearly dropshipped.
But most of the stuff I buy there is a digital download from some obscure graphic artist anyway.
Nowadays I more and more tend to use Fiverr for that and get properly made to order graphics anyway.
I just wouldnt use/buy anything that goes directly on my body for extended periods of time or that will be used with stuff I will ingest (like food, tools for prep).
Often there is a small company based in the us that has real reviews because they have used the things. ThingYouWant.com or some variation. They don't have everything, but they have a good selection ofithat one thitg for prices not much worse than amazon - and useful advice about what is quality. Find and support them.