AliExpress is a cheap site offering an entire world of goods crap that you have to start wondering if you really need.
Are the prices that good?
Yes and no. Yes the prices are cheap, but cheap doesn’t mean good or unbeatable. The vast array of cheap plastics and electronics found on Ali could also be sourced from any local Asian market and then you get the option to at least look at the stuff you’re buying. Also when it comes to things that you want to actually last, then avoid AliExpress. Almost everything you buy from them is going to be inferior quality or a knock off.
Will your goods arrive?
Maybe. It’s a bit of a gamble. The internet is littered with complaints from people who have not received their goods and shit out of luck. On this point there isn’t much you can do without getting into a long drawn out process which may or may not actually work to get you a refund or partial refund.
Scammy and misleading
Often you’ll see stuff labelled as “set” and showing a photo of 2 units. You’ll then be surprised or infuriated to discover only 1 unit arrives and the photo and production description was misleading. This has personally happened to me on my first (and only) order. I went back to the site to check for other examples and within minutes found more.
Conclusion
I don’t have the time to sit and play games when it comes to my online purchases. Either I’m buying something and I expect it to :
- Actually arrive
- Arrive within a reasonable timeframe
- Be the item that I ordered
- Be in the quantity of item(s) that I ordered
- Be of reasonable (and ideally high) quality
AliExpress is an ideal paradise for people who :
- Don’t mind if their goods arrive or not
- Have no issue waiting months for their goods to arrive
- Find it funny when ordering a knife and a spoon arrives
- Think it’s hilarious when only 1 of 2 items arrive
- Don’t really care if the item breaks after one or a few uses
AliExpress might have all the junk in the world with pretty pictures and misleading descriptions but is it really making the world a better place. Are we still so far up the ass of consumerism that we accept all their low quality fake merchandise which mostly just ends up on landfills. Is that really who we are? Well that’s not me.
Michael's Techbox 