Aliexpress Dispute

waterfaerie

I made an order on the 3rd of December and asked the seller for a special request. I asked them to contact me before shipping the order if the request was not possible. They didn't contact me so I assumed all was ok.

The processing time was due to finish on the 13th and Aliexpress automatically cancel and refund orders not processed within the given timeframe. One day before this, on the 12th, the seller marked my order as shipped and put up a tracking number.

A few days later there was no tracking update so I contacted the seller to enquire. He admitted that it was a false tracking number and said the factory were still making my product. I assumed this was due to my special request so I let him away with it.

I asked him several times since then for updates and he kept delaying with his answers until today. Today he finally admitted that he can't do my special request at all but he won't cancel the order and he says he's going to ship it on Monday. I asked him to please cancel it since he can't do what I want anyway but he said I will have to open a dispute.

I opened a dispute and uploaded screenshots of the entire conversation but I'm very concerned because I've since read his feedback and there are a lot of people saying they were scammed and lost to him even when they had authentic disputes. It was a fair bit of money so I'm really stressed.

I'm especially worried because since the order is marked as shipped, I had limited options for choosing a reason for my dispute and I had to choose one that's not quite right. I'm also worried that Aliexpress will say I should have confirmed if he could do the special request before placing the order. I know that's true but I think it should be irrelevant because even disregarding the special request, he shouldn't have given false tracking to extend his processing time. The product description states that the products are in stock so if he's not doing my special request, there's no reason the product should still be under manufacture but I'm afraid my special request will cloud their decision. Also, he has five days to respond before I can ask them to step in so within that time he can easily just ship the product even though it's not what I want and they'll just close the dispute.

I've bought a lot of things from Aliexpress with no problems. Only once did an item not arrive and I got a refund easily so I never worried about checking sellers' feedback before. I definitely will from now on.

I don't know what I hope for by posting here, maybe some reassurance. Unless there's anything else I can do? Hopefully it will help warn others not to make these mistakes as well.

if you bought an item you bought an item - the fact that you made a special request may not come into it tbh as that is outside the normal listing.

if you are provided with the actual item listed then technically the seller has fulfilled the order.

waterfaerie

glasso wrote: »

if you bought an item you bought an item - the fact that you made a special request may not come into it tbh as that is outside the normal listing.

if you are provided with the actual item listed then technically the seller has fulfilled the order.

Yes, I get that and that's what I was worried Aliexpress would say because that is technically true. I should have clarified the request before I made the order. It still doesn't change the fact that they added a false tracking number to get around the processing time limit. If someone buys any item and the seller does that it's breaking the Aliexpress rules, even if they eventually do ship it.

The request wasn't a big ask anyway. They're selling fabric in lots of 5 yards each. I bought 6 lots and asked for all 30 yards to be sent in one continuous piece, which wouldn't be an unusual request when buying fabric.

In any case, they actually agreed to my request for a refund and the dispute is finished. I'm a bit surprised based on their feedback but maybe they've changed their attitude because they can't afford to get any more bad feedback. It's a big relief and a big lesson.

good that you've got a good outcome.

aliexpress is grand for things but it's also not amazon in terms of service.

processing times can be slow and sellers may not even send you the item by the postage service that you have paid for.

never assume that you can cancel something after completing it.

sellers can also flatout lie about some items and if they get bad feedback on an item they just relist it as a new item

(hence why you see plenty of items with low feedback numbers)

waterfaerie

glasso wrote: »

never assume that you can cancel something after completing it.

Yeah, that's one of the things I learned since I didn't know that before. I thought if they couldn't do it for me they'd let me know and I could just cancel it. Lots of lessons learned!

Danick

I had a similar issue - item never arrived - opened a dispute - won dispute Today because seller didn’t reply - Who pays the refun - is it the seller or Alliexpress and how long does it take? Thanks

Collibosher

Danick wrote: »

I had a similar issue - item never arrived - opened a dispute - won dispute Today because seller didn’t reply - Who pays the refun - is it the seller or Alliexpress and how long does it take? Thanks

Aliexpress will refund the card you paid with, usually a couple days after the result of the dispute decision in my experience.

Danick

Collibosher wrote: »

Aliexpress will refund the card you paid with, usually a couple days after the result of the dispute decision in my experience.

That's great as I was afraid I'd have to rely on the seller refunding me and that idea didn't bode well as he didn't even reply to the dispute. Thanks

Danick

Won dispute on Amonday and money was back on my Revolut card by Friday - all good - thanks Guys