Beware If You Purchase From AliExpress!

Have you contacted AliExpress about the mix-up, or tried to initiate a return? I had a somewhat similar mix-up (got two 100 packs of LEDs that were not as presented), and after a few emails I received a complete refund from AliExpress, and didn't even have to return the wrong LEDs!

. . . and FWIW, your situation seems less a scam than the consequences of shopping on a site that uses Chinglish as its official language. Caveat emptor, for sure, but it sounds more like something lost in translation than a deliberate attempt to deceive. YMMV . . .

@Steve Tyler posted:

. . . and FWIW, your situation seems less a scam than the consequences of shopping on a site that uses Chinglish as its official language. Caveat emptor, for sure, but it sounds more like something lost in translation than a deliberate attempt to deceive. YMMV . . .

In my experience these ads always show a low price to get you to look and it goes higher to get what you actually want or think they are advertising. It is a classic bait and switch. It seems the Chinese think that is what we expect and not really to deceive.

@iguanaman3 posted:

In my experience these ads always show a low price to get you to look and it goes higher to get what you actually want or think they are advertising. It is a classic bait and switch. It seems the Chinese think that is what we expect and not really to deceive.

A lot of what you say is true yet there's really nothing that's certain here but a poorly designed interface.

Amazon frequently posts multiple alternatives in the same way, although perhaps a little larger and easier to see.  Also, rolling over them with the pointer usually brings up additional, clarifying detail.  Not sure if that happens here.

The language problem in this AliExpress listing is definitely present though.

Thanks to Rod for the heads up.

Mike

FWIW, I had a similar issue with AliExpress.  I bought a bunch of receiver modules, only to find out they were the wrong ones.  The picture clearly showed the correct modules, and the description also described the modules I wanted, but I got something different.  Same deal, you had to click on the "color" to select what I wanted.  However, I persisted and finally got a refund.

@iguanaman3 posted:

In my experience these ads always show a low price to get you to look and it goes higher to get what you actually want or think they are advertising. It is a classic bait and switch. It seems the Chinese think that is what we expect and not really to deceive.

So . . . you think the Chinese invented bait and switch? Nah . . . they just made it cheaper!

I recently purchased Bi-color LEDs from AliExpress and waited a month and a half for them to arrive.  I contacted AliExpress multiple times and got the run around.  At one point I asked for a refund, and they all but refused my request.  I got the LEDs and dropped the issue.  I do not plan to ever order from AliExpress again.  Not worth the hassle. 

@Steve Tyler posted:

. . . and FWIW, your situation seems less a scam than the consequences of shopping on a site that uses Chinglish as its official language. Caveat emptor, for sure, but it sounds more like something lost in translation than a deliberate attempt to deceive. YMMV . . .

Chinglish!….🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣……the same kind of language is used when I’m searching for off shore electric motors in my world,….we always call it Engilneese …..

Pat

@CS6 posted:

I recently purchased Bi-color LEDs from AliExpress and waited a month and a half for them to arrive.  I contacted AliExpress multiple times and got the run around.  At one point I asked for a refund, and they all but refused my request.  I got the LEDs and dropped the issue.  I do not plan to ever order from AliExpress again.  Not worth the hassle.

Sorry for your experience, but every order I've made with them has had a projected delivery after two months or more, and almost always the delivery has been in about two *weeks* or so. When did they originally say it would be delivered? At the end of such a feeble supply chain, my experience is that they tend to under-promise and over-deliver (literally!). FWIW, I *never* order anything from overseas I'm in a rush to get, and so far they've not let me down, other than some minor confusion about some LED packets which they let me keep and promptly refunded my money.

Oh, and I discovered another small trap for the unwary: do *not* just assume shipping is a linear progression as you increase the quantity of items ordered. I recently ordered some more buck converters, which started at a bit over a dollar for shipping one. Two was a few cents more . . . and for three or four, the shipping jumped to over four dollars! On rechecking, I discovered the estimated delivery date was much sooner for orders of three and above, so my assumption is that for one or two, they could use a cheaper, lower priority shipping, while the bulkier package for three or above required a more premium delivery system. Needless to say, I ordered the four boards as two (slow) shipments of two each, and saved myself a couple of bucks. Caveat emptor!

@Steve Tyler posted:

So . . . you think the Chinese invented bait and switch? Nah . . . they just made it cheaper!

That's really disturbing.  Now,  I am upset enough after hearing that,  that I am going home right now to remove everything made in China from my car.   That'll show em. 

John

I've ordered a ton of stuff from Aliexpress, some of it I can't get anywhere in the states.  I ordered all this stuff on April 7th, and it arrived on the 21st, not that bad for economy shipping.

I hate crimping any more connectors than I have to, so I order the 1.5mm JST-ZH cable assemblies, the smaller pitch connectors are the hardest to deal with.  I extended my laziness to the 2.0mm JST-PH cables, and then some double-pinned wires and JST-EH shells.

It's hard for me to find fault with them coming halfway around the world and arriving in two weeks!

@Craftech posted:

That's really disturbing.  Now,  I am upset enough after hearing that,  that I am going home right now to remove everything made in China from my car.   That'll show em. 

So . . . you're going to be walking, then?

@Steve Tyler posted:

So . . . you're going to be walking, then?

I could use the exercise anyway. 

John

I neglected to mention that I paid for expedited shipping and tracking at checkout on my LED order.  I now understand from reading the replies that AliExpress may still have value for me and I have to know that I can not expect an expedited service.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I've ordered a ton of stuff from Aliexpress, some of it I can't get anywhere in the states.  I ordered all this stuff on April 7th, and it arrived on the 21st, not that bad for economy shipping.

I hate crimping any more connectors than I have to, so I order the 1.5mm JST-ZH cable assemblies, the smaller pitch connectors are the hardest to deal with.  I extended my laziness to the 2.0mm JST-PH cables, and then some double-pinned wires and JST-EH shells.

It's hard for me to find fault with them coming halfway around the world and arriving in two weeks!

I second that motion. Making cables is the biggest time consumer in converting locos to digital control. I have found it faster to pin a length of uncut connectors down and solder wires to them rather than using the crimping tool. How about a link to the seller you bought these from. I'm not proud or excited about having to purchase parts from china but it seems to be a fact of life. My experience time wise is about the same as what you say.  One does have a choice you can have it fast or have it cheap from china. You just cannot have it fast and cheap.   At least most of the time.           j

Well, links are prohibited here, so I can't really offer links.  Here's graphics, click on each one to expand.  If you search on the first few words of the title, you'll find the store.

I wouldn't consider that a scam.  In my ordering experience with AE, they have routinely used "color" or "size" to specify which item is being ordered.  Also, the one time an AE order didn't arrive within the delivery time AE had specified, they refunded my money.  It showed up two weeks later and even though I notified them the item had arrived, they didn't take their refund back. 

My thoughts on train shows, buyers and sellers can be found here. Tis Train Show Season! (warrenvillerailroad.com) I hope it is helpful.

@PGentieu posted:

I wouldn't consider that a scam.  In my ordering experience with AE, they have routinely used "color" or "size" to specify which item is being ordered.  Also, the one time an AE order didn't arrive within the delivery time AE had specified, they refunded my money.  It showed up two weeks later and even though I notified them the item had arrived, they didn't take their refund back.

My experience with several delayed or incorrect purchases is usually they'll just write it off and give you a refund.  The one experience I had with the transmitter boards was out of the ordinary, probably because it was a bit more money at around $50.  I had to beat on them a little to get the refund.  I still have the boards, I told them if they give me a return shipping label, I'd be glad to ship them back.  However, shipping from the US to China is way more expensive than shipping from China to the US.

Hey thanks to all for the comments and feedback. I am hoping this gets resolved easily, we shall see. I am waiting a few days to see if the store gets back to me. If not the next move is to file a dispute with AE and see where that goes.

Even if I am able to purchase the components package separately, this kit has some big hurdles. For one it needs a main supply transformer with 0-15-23-31 volt taps at 5 amps. Or some creative combination of various transformer outputs that amount to the same thing. Hmmmm. It also needs a separate small 24 volt 1 amp transformer too. All that complexity might well be a deal breaker anyway.

And John, thanks for posting those connector graphics, I need to order a few myself. All good!

Rod

@Rod Stewart posted:

And John, thanks for posting those connector graphics, I need to order a few myself. All good!

If you send me an email, I can also give you real links.

I decided to try to order from AliExpress last week.  I put four items in the cart and when I went to check out it said the item that you could only buy one of was not available (Four days later and this is still not corrected on the sale page).

The cost of shipping and the length of time to receive the other stuff seemed prohibitive and what I really wanted was the item it says you can buy but you really can't.

So I emptied the cart.

LO and behold I get an email that saved my cart (the one I emptied) including the item you can't really buy.  So I went back and signed in and sure enough the cart was still  empty except for the item you can't really buy.  So I tried to buy it again and sure enough (not available).

Today I get an email telling me that the OTHER items (which they listed) were still in my cart (despite deleting them) waiting to buy.  They also said they had some sort of shipping deal.

So I click on the link and the website appears in French (but with US dollars as the currency).  So I tried to change the URL at the top of the page to

https://www.aliexpress.com

What opens up - French website again.

Do a Google search, click on the link , French website.

Try to change the language at the top and United States is not on the list.

Many thanks to GRJ for the connector info!

I have not placed an order with AliExpress for any components.  I did order several audio amplifier cards 2-3 years ago, and they arrived on time or earlier, and were as described.

Generally, I'm hesitant to order through offshore entities.  But often the cost of a busted transaction is small enough not to matter.

@Rod Stewart posted:

I re-opened the listing on the Ali site and did some exploring. Kinda disguised I finally found out what was going on. Here is a snip of the basic listing:

Notice the blue circle and arrow. Where it says "Color: PCB" is a small pic of the pcb only, showing it is indeed green in color. But if you click on the other small pictures to the right there are 2  more options. The farthest to the right is this one:

This is why whenever ordering from any online aggregation site one must examine the posting thoroughly for "options".  This applies to foreign and domestic aggregators, as well as the auction sites.  I can't count the number of times that I've found the version I sought to be priced quite differently from the initial page's price.

@KarlDL posted:

Generally, I'm hesitant to order through offshore entities.  But often the cost of a busted transaction is small enough not to matter.

Yeah, all of the above cautionary tales about confusing web pages and "Chinglish" descriptions, etc. are certainly well founded, but the cost advantage of Aliexpress can't be denied IMHO, and so far I've had good responses to the occasional problems. In almost all cases, I've been issued a prompt refund and allowed to keep the offending item(s). You *do* have to stay on your toes, and turn over all the rocks to be sure what you are ordering is what it appears to be, but if you do your homework and shop carefully and can afford the wait, the "slow boat" folks offer the best deals by far IME, and that is worth the occasional kerfuffle!

Early on I surmised that much of what we see description-wise on Aliexpress, is probably entered by the seller in Chinese. What we see is likely machine-translated. Many comment sections allow you to show the comment/s in its/their native language or translated, so it's not that much of a stretch to imagine the listing on the seller's end (and any messages you sent to them) is in their language.

---PCJ

I was just going to circular-file the bare circuit board that started this whole topic, but if anyone wants it for the cost of mailing, its yours.

It weighs exactly 30 grams but will just fit in a standard letter envelope. So I think I can mail it to anywhere in the lower 48 or Canada for about 2 bucks. Anyone interested shoot me an email with your mailing address! I can send a couple of pictures on request.

Rod

So far my orders are coming in just fine and the return process for one order was seamless (they paid for the return shipping).

John

@Rod Stewart posted:

I was just going to circular-file the bare circuit board that started this whole topic, but if anyone wants it for the cost of mailing, its yours.

Next time if you want a really nice bench power supply, consider these.

I bought a couple of these, they're 5A supplies that have constant voltage and constant current capability.  Also, the voltage and current output readings are spot on, if it says 12.3 volts on the panel, that's what's coming out of the supply!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Next time if you want a really nice bench power supply, consider these.

I bought a couple of these, they're 5A supplies that have constant voltage and constant current capability.  Also, the voltage and current output readings are spot on, if it says 12.3 volts on the panel, that's what's coming out of the supply!

John that's a slick looking power supply. I note it comes with a built in output enable/disable button. That should go a long way in preventing inadvertently frying it by attaching the load before powerup. And the price is right.

Is the USB output capable of 20W, so as to be able to charge an Ipad gen 9 and later?

Rod

@Rod Stewart posted:

John that's a slick looking power supply. I note it comes with a built in output enable/disable button. That should go a long way in preventing inadvertently frying it by attaching the load before powerup. And the price is right.

Is the USB output capable of 20W, so as to be able to charge an Ipad gen 9 and later?

Rod

I've never used it, but it claims Fast Charging...

@Rod Stewart posted:

That should go a long way in preventing inadvertently frying it by attaching the load before powerup.

Is this a typical problem for these power supplies? TIA  Pat B.

@lpb007 posted:

Is this a typical problem for these power supplies? TIA  Pat B.

Most of the inexpensive power supplies are switcher based.  Only the higher quality ones are safe to connect as they power up, many of the cheap Chinese models spike a high voltage on startup.  The enable switch neatly avoids this issue, and it's a convenient option to boot when you're using the supply to be able to turn the output on and off.

I addressed this unit with one of the cheap supplies:  Chinese Bench Supply Output Delay Mod.  Rod also addressed it in a slightly different manner, both options work.   Interlock Relay Project for Common 30V 5/10 Amp Bench Power Supply.  I went for the automatic option and Rod wanted the manual on/off option.

This is good to know.  I have been completely unaware of this issue.  Thanks, Pat B.