I was thinking about making a purchase through Alibaba.com, does anyone know if I'm covered by Insurance (if an item is lost)? I do alot of mail order purchases and occasionally an item is lost (or stolen by Chinese mail thieves), just checking to see if I'm covered by Insurance (through Alibaba).

I'll be following the replies.
Been wanting to order one of these for awhile:

That looks like a little cement mixer.

quote Originally posted by williegoat: That looks like a little cement mixer.

I can't answer but have seen people on a video camera sight say they've ordered many times through a trusted person's store on there. The seller is a sponsor on the sight I believe. Never had an occassion to read of a loss, though.

Insurance? Did not know that was a thing in shipping.

I have ordered a DiCE scanner for my Volvo years ago. Arrived as advertised. I can ask around if you give me a link.

quote Originally posted by maryjane: I'll be following the replies. Been wanting to order one of these for awhile:

I really want to see someone put a chicken in one.

I've ordered a several watches from AliExpress... it's mostly for the intrigue.

I'll get usually the nicest of a certain watch I can find, and then the cheapest crapiest watch of a certain kind that I can find, just to see how bad they are.

About 2/3rds of the watches I've ordered arrived. The really cheap ones did not... but anything of decent value did arrive. AliExpress if owned by AliBaba.

Anything from China will have to get thru Customs. Some Problems...
A lot of Chinese often put bogus data on shipping labels to avoid high Tariffs, Taxes, etc. Not just vendors @ Alibaba.com but sold thru Amazon, Ebay, and others.
Alibaba.com vendors often sell banned or dangerous products.

Bogus shipping labels and banned products can and often will get stop by Customs. Not just US but Customs in other countries too.
You hope Customs just take whatever because Depending on problems Customs Agents and Police can be after you for getting banned products.

Insurance by Alibaba.com often means little. Just like Ebay and Paypal insurance and fraud protection are often worthless.

Also China Law makes Alibaba.com TicTok and More Chinese Companies to give all user data to the CCP.
US companies doing business in China also does this to some point.
Is why Apple claim will protect privacy in US but bend over for the CCP doing whatever CCP tells them.

So If you use Alibaba.com and many others, use privacy.com etc that give you virtual payment cards to protect your real Debit/Credit cards.
(Cap One and others have these services too but can't remember names of them or contract company that they use.)

Above corn popper may look "fun" but it a version of a Pressure Cooker and if damaged in shipping, made or use wrong can explode any time trying to cook without warning and hurt/kill people.

My wife gets a lot of China, India and other countries things with bogus shipping labels and other problems like "crystal" stuff make of unknown glass may contain lead and worse HAZMATs but buy them anyway...

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave

quote Originally posted by theogre: Anything from China will have to get thru Customs. Some Problems... A lot of Chinese often put bogus data on shipping labels to avoid high Tariffs, Taxes, etc. Not just vendors @ Alibaba.com but sold thru Amazon, Ebay, and others. Alibaba.com vendors often sell banned or dangerous products.

Totally agree on this, and one of teh things I've noticed, a lot of watches (and other things) that they sell that are "fakes" ... they will often include things in the packaging that they reference so that they're not lying on the customs forms. Like for example, I bought one watch that looked funny. Turns out it's a fake of another watch (I had no idea). But they put a bracelet and a little teddy bear inside, so they put that on the customs form, but no mention of the watch, which is what I was actually purchasing.

It could also be sitting off the coast of Long Beach slowly decaying in a musty container in a leaking container ship.

quote Originally posted by Jake_Dragon: It could also be sitting off the coast of Long Beach slowly decaying in a musty container in a leaking container ship.

Ha!! Yes, your right. There are 60+ container ships off the California coast, with more coming every few days. Thats going to slow the shipping time, but I'm in no hurry.

Thanks for everyone's tips and suggestion's. Here's another.
So, Is AliExpress Safe to Shop On?
The evidence suggests that shopping on AliExpress is indeed safe. However, be careful and realistic. There are bargains to be had; just as many as there are poor quality products and scammers.

That said, many of the same sellers now list on eBay and Amazon, too, and the price isn't much different. Given that eBay and Amazon offer significantly better consumer protections, I'd recommend buying there over AliExpress where possible, even if it does cost a little more.

If the item you want is only available on AliExpress, or the price is significantly different, make sure you check the seller out before purchasing the item.
If this is your first order, it's possible that any refund request will be rejected, because AliExpress has no reason to keep you happy.

In that case, filing a chargeback on your credit card may be the only option.

I've ordered a number of items from Aliexpress and Banggood.. I always try to buy locally/USA first but that's not always possible. I haven't had issues thus far, slow shipping sometimes but it's always arrived.

Just got a V2.1S T12 Digital soldering station from Ali came in 16 days works excellent..

Anyone trusting Reviews for product and/or vendor have no clue.
While a few vendors got kicked out of amazon and ebay for faking and buying reviews... Most Just open another store w/ same problems.
Anyone getting Amazon Gift cards etc for Reviews are making more problems. Is why many such offers are on cards in orders or Snail mailed to make this hard to trace.
Nearly All Reviews at Alibaba, AliExpress, Wish, Banggood and more are worthless many times over.

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Totally agree on this, and one of teh things I've noticed, a lot of watches (and other things) that they sell that are "fakes" ... they will often include things in the packaging that they reference so that they're not lying on the customs forms. Like for example, I bought one watch that looked funny. Turns out it's a fake of another watch (I had no idea). But they put a bracelet and a little teddy bear inside, so they put that on the customs form, but no mention of the watch, which is what I was actually purchasing.

They add crap to an order and shipping doc's because Customs in many countries stop Counterfeit items and those vendors well know that. You may see news when stopped big shipment of "Red Sole" Shoes and more Counterfeits but Customs do stop small shipments as well and why no mention of your watch on shipping doc.