Alie express vs eBay

[pucho812]

Same item available on each site.
Prices aside, is there reason to pick one over the other?
Any buyers protection, etc that would cause a person to pick one or other?

 

[Tubetec]

Amazon seems to be the one that consistantly gets the worst price ,
upside is relatively fast delivery ,
The shipping can take ages from Chinese sellers via ebay , price is competitive , and in the event of loss your covered , but it can still be a bit of a pain to go through the claims system .
I dont have any experience of Allie ,so cant really comment on it , price does seem good though .

 

[Matador]

Ali is the wild west - stuff takes a long time, and if it isn't right it can be quite complicated to remedy the order. A few times seller accepted my order, then never shipped, and it can take several months to get your funds back. The vast majority of the time it's fine.

If you buy heavy stuff (like transformers) it gets more complicated, as they want to air ship everything. Sometimes the shipping charge is twice what the product costs. Sometimes you can negotiate sea shipping but it's extra work.

 

[pucho812]

To further add to it, the item is described in English as a 99.9% failure rate. I don’t think that’s what they mean and I do think definitely lost in translation.

 

[user 37518]

AliExpress is great, but, most products come from China, which means "get ready to wait three months" if it ever gets there. You can always use the more expensive shipping though, but it gets rid of the main appeal which is low cost. If I had to choose between AliExpress and eBay, hands down eBay, no question about it. However, there is some stuff you can only buy at AliExpress or it is considerably cheaper at AliExpress than on eBay. For example, around 2 years ago I bought a hobby VNA, it was a lot cheaper in AliExpress than on eBay.

If I can buy it on Amazon, I will. I know, I know, but Amazon is fast AF, and you can quickly and easily return it, I also have Prime, so I don't usually pay for shipping. I am old school, I still use Amazon to buy books mostly, which was Amazon's original purpose.

 

[iomegaman]

I have been rather surprised at "Non western" sites that seem to have figured out the supply chain...
Recently I needed for really obsolete transistors for the Nikko Alpha-1 I have been rebuilding...some of these things are so far out of production as to be "vintage archaeological components".

However there seems to be a surplus of old transistors in China...and I have found myself getting product in less than 10 days from ordering...all the way from mainland China to Tucson...its really sort of remarkable...of course what I order can be slapped into an envelope and for about $6.45 it gets airmailed...

Lots of folks having good luck with Ali...and bad luck with the Jeff Bezos Space foundation warehouse...

 

[cyrano]

I've been very lucky with everything I bought directly from China. Never had a problem on dozens of purchases. Mostly laptop batteries and parts. All new, of course.

Not so with ebay. Seems more like Ali Baba and his 4 million robbers these days. I might still buy from ebay, if I really can't source it anywhere else, but I'll never sell again through ebay.

Still, most of the stuff I buy is from the local 2nd hand site. If it's close, I pick it up and can see what I'm buying. Recently picked up a capacitor decade for 5€. Ex-edu. All Siemens glass caps inside. Still perfect after 50 years. Hungarian made.

 

[user 37518]

I've been very lucky with everything I bought directly from China. Never had a problem on dozens of purchases. Mostly laptop batteries and parts. All new, of course.

Not so with ebay. Seems more like Ali Baba and his 4 million robbers these days. I might still buy from ebay, if I really can't source it anywhere else, but I'll never sell again through ebay.

Still, most of the stuff I buy is from the local 2nd hand site. If it's close, I pick it up and can see what I'm buying. Recently picked up a capacitor decade for 5€. Ex-edu. All Siemens glass caps inside. Still perfect after 50 years. Hungarian made.

Really? My experience with eBay is completely the opposite, I haven't had any real issues since I started around 2006. The only issue I had is that a seller once sent me a slightly different model, but that is it, eBay refunded me. But I have never been through a situation in which they just take my money or whatever. What exactly is your experience with eBay?

 

[Tubetec]

I think I just got stung by a company who used a local free adds website to sell items from the Bangood catalogue ,they pretend they have the item in stock until the money is recieved , then oooop's sorry , its gonna take a month for your parcel to arrive from China , the seller appears to have legit bank accounts set up in all the usual high street banks , so you can make a payment very quickly , then the bad news arrives , worse than that he had the same part advertised twice at different prices ,its still for sale on the site for 35 Euros now , I had also pointed out that before the sale went through ,

I dont want to have to walk into the local police station to give this guys name ,bank account details and a statement detailing whats taking place , law enforcement here are under pressure enough already due to staff shortages and the rostering conditions that happened during covid still remaining in place . A Blue flu day is being threatened .

Meanwhile the last two Irish navy ships that were in service now are at the quayside because of staff shortages , along with its 6 other vessels . Fisheries patrol appears to have been taken over by the Dutch mainly ,
The big question that arrises is this , if an inteligence report lands on the desk of the navy top brass and minister for defence saying a craft is suspected of drugs or gun smuggling into the country have we even got the manpower to respond as a nation anymore,


theres an old saying ,
If the dutch got Ireland , they'd have turned it into the breadbasket of the world ,
If the Irish got the Netherlands we'd have sunk it below the waves long ago .
The good ship Ireland is taking on water ,

 

[Tubetec]

I have him on the hook now well and truly ,

seller:
April 7th, 2023 - 11:36am
Hi, the item is unavailable in stock, kindly send your details to get your full refund. I will have the item back in stock in a month thanks.

me:
April 7th, 2023 - 12:52pm
Your operation is a fraud , I see the item has now dissapeared from the listings If you think I'm sharing bank account details with you to get the refund ,you are sadly mistaken , I just checked the actual price on Bangood for the filter , 16.99 Euros + 1.80 postage , Your trying to charge me 15 euros extra , for doing what exactly ?


Just thinking, the Bank might be the best place to report this guys suspicious activity , they will almost certainly get on the batphone to the revenue commissioners , who are much better placed than the Gardai to be dealing with this .
Probably little or no chance of recovering my money from this 'gouger' , he might come up with the goods eventually , I just cant be arsed waiting around only to get let down by this conjob yet again .

He'll probably go silent now again , thats my guess ,

 

[cyrano]

Really? My experience with eBay is completely the opposite, I haven't had any real issues since I started around 2006. The only issue I had is that a seller once sent me a slightly different model, but that is it, eBay refunded me. But I have never been through a situation in which they just take my money or whatever. What exactly is your experience with eBay?

The last item I sold on ebay was a Cisco router. It was sold as defective for 5€. In the ad, I mentioned in 3 languages that item was sold as defective because there was no way to change settings and password.​

​

The buyer complained to ebay that it didn't work as advertised. Ebay sided with the buyer. I just paid back the 5€ and didn't waste any time. Told the buyer he could keep it.​

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Then my account got blocked (by ebay) for "possible fraude". A short while later, my PayPal got blocked. Again, possible illegal activity. PP at least notified me.​

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In both cases, mailing them got a standard reply, or none at all.​

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About a year later, while cleaning up old passwords, I tried my ebay account and was granted access.​

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The account never was hacked, or used for anything remotely dodgy. My PP account never got reinstated.​

 

[user 37518]

The last item I sold on ebay was a Cisco router. It was sold as defective for 5€. In the ad, I mentioned in 3 languages that item was sold as defective because there was no way to change settings and password.​

​

The buyer complained to ebay that it didn't work as advertised. Ebay sided with the buyer. I just paid back the 5€ and didn't waste any time. Told the buyer he could keep it.​

​

Then my account got blocked (by ebay) for "possible fraude". A short while later, my PayPal got blocked. Again, possible illegal activity. PP at least notified me.​

​

In both cases, mailing them got a standard reply, or none at all.​

​

About a year later, while cleaning up old passwords, I tried my ebay account and was granted access.​

​

The account never was hacked, or used for anything remotely dodgy. My PP account never got reinstated.​

Ohhh I understand, you are speaking from a seller's perspective. Yes, I agree with you, eBay and PayPal will always rule in favor of the buyer, no matter what. That's their strategy to keep buyers from fleeing. They don't give a rat's ass about sellers. I've heard many sellers complaining (not about eBay but from a very similar website) that they sell an item, after it arrives to the buyer's destination, the buyer would argue that he didn't receive it or that the item is defective (when its not) and they buyer will get his money back, whilst the seller will get charged for it. This is the sad reality of selling on the internet. Buying is a bliss, selling is a nightmare.

 

[user 37518]

I have him on the hook now well and truly ,

seller:
April 7th, 2023 - 11:36am
Hi, the item is unavailable in stock, kindly send your details to get your full refund. I will have the item back in stock in a month thanks.

me:
April 7th, 2023 - 12:52pm
Your operation is a fraud , I see the item has now dissapeared from the listings If you think I'm sharing bank account details with you to get the refund ,you are sadly mistaken , I just checked the actual price on Bangood for the filter , 16.99 Euros + 1.80 postage , Your trying to charge me 15 euros extra , for doing what exactly ?


Just thinking, the Bank might be the best place to report this guys suspicious activity , they will almost certainly get on the batphone to the revenue commissioners , who are much better placed than the Gardai to be dealing with this .
Probably little or no chance of recovering my money from this 'gouger' , he might come up with the goods eventually , I just cant be arsed waiting around only to get let down by this conjob yet again .

He'll probably go silent now again , thats my guess ,

What could he do with your bank account number? Or do you think its just a tactic to get info on you, still, I don't know what's to gain by knowing your bank and bank account number.

 

[Tubetec]

Ok , this seller has quite a lot of bad feedback I should have checked out before , he may not have defrauded anyone but taking their money only then to tell them the item isnt in stock and they have to wait 4-5 weeks for delivery is a crap way to do business .
I didnt report the guy yet , guess I just have to wait and see what happens , he's supplied lots of goods that werent as described or with bits missing etc . The site opperates a buyer beware policy , so if you get stuck with something its upto the seller to arrange any compensation or refunds/exchanges , however if the seller is doing something fraudulent the site will interviene .

anyway I wont be taking the risk in sending this guy my bank details , thats for sure ,

 

[cyrano]

ebay caused that kind of scam when they started taking a percentage of shipping cost.

It's not unusual to see 10$ items with a 360$ shipping. Even if it's from US to EU, it's clear that's a scam. The seller sends you your 10$ in case of a complaint and pockets the rest.

ebay doesn't give a rat's ass.

 

[user 37518]

ebay caused that kind of scam when they started taking a percentage of shipping cost.

It's not unusual to see 10$ items with a 360$ shipping. Even if it's from US to EU, it's clear that's a scam. The seller sends you your 10$ in case of a complaint and pockets the rest.

ebay doesn't give a rat's ass.

Wait, so eBay is charging sellers a fee for the shipping costs? unbelievable...

 

[user 37518]

Ok , this seller has quite a lot of bad feedback I should have checked out before , he may not have defrauded anyone but taking their money only then to tell them the item isnt in stock and they have to wait 4-5 weeks for delivery is a crap way to do business .
I didnt report the guy yet , guess I just have to wait and see what happens , he's supplied lots of goods that werent as described or with bits missing etc . The site opperates a buyer beware policy , so if you get stuck with something its upto the seller to arrange any compensation or refunds/exchanges , however if the seller is doing something fraudulent the site will interviene .

anyway I wont be taking the risk in sending this guy my bank details , thats for sure ,

Is this seller on eBay or where?

 

[Tubetec]

No this seller is on a locally based service , the guy does appear to be in the country as he passed me a mobile number to try and negotiate .


Thats interesting about Ebay and the 10% , maybe it was to try and discourage( the very thing thats happened in my case , ie a shop on a for sale website that opperates simply as a front for ordering from Bangood or Aliex and doubles the cost . I checked the item I purchased on Bangood , it comes out at 19 euros delivered , this guy charged me 24 for the item +10 euros delivery .
Very often if you search a particular item in ebay you'll find chancers like this , it appears like there locally based with stock on the shelves ,but in fact its only an automated bot .
I wouldnt be surprised if the seller never even sees or touches what hes sends you , the order is simply relayed to his supplier in China and shipped in the normal way , he still insists his site isnt a hoax .

Again when buying something from any online store be careful your not getting caught up in the short stock scam before you hand over the cash , in my case the seller has doubled the price and lied about delivery dates to hook buyers in ,but I still have to wait a month and the item probably exits China with my address on it otherwise the seller has to pay Irish postage ,which he isnt going to want do .

Theres a tidy profit to be made re-routing packages from China , Ebay doesnt give a shit . Its not even in their interest to serve you up the lowest price if there in on a cut of the sale, is it ?

 

[cyrano]

Wait, so eBay is charging sellers a fee for the shipping costs? unbelievable...

Oh, yes. They have been doing so for a few decades.

When I started selling stuff on ebay, their take was 1,5% on the winning bid, IIRC. Later they included transport, to slow down that kind of scams. It resulted in sellers getting even more 'creative'.

Most auction sites seem to suffer the same faith. They all follow ebay.

Local 2nd hand sites, like kijiji aren't auction sites. They make their money from inserting paying ads from companies between the 2nd hand ads from individuals.

 

[Tubetec]

Heres a blatant case of price gouging on a simple part I was looking for ,
a simple plastic connector and four crimp pins , 11.94 euros excluding vat ,
https://www.butlertechnik.com/webasto-controller-harness-4-pin-electric-cable-plug-kit-p2731Same part , same seller , on ebay.es will cost you nearly 50 euros , including shipping ,
https://www.ebay.es/itm/Webasto-Swi...able-connector-Plug-kit-9029703A/293835675802Someones taking the rip roaring piss here ,

Another thing is when I look at ebay.uk they often dont seem to discount the VAT for export , its the same price as a person in the Uk gets only shipping and then import duties are added onto the cost including vat , its a scam , a rip off .

I was able to order the heater control panel from Germany , 71 euros plus 20 shipping , so 91 euros total.
Same part via the UK costs 101.99 euros ex vat plus 14.95 postage ,also ex vat so end of the day If I'd ordered from the UK the part would have cost around 150 euros to Ireland ,
what a fucking rip off .

Heres another example ,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233430492041total price around 143 pounds including shipping and import charges (163 euros) .
Ebay seems to be facillitating this robbery and why wouldnt they , they get 10% off the top.