Aliexpress quality.?

[Jixer]

Hi,
Up ‘till now I have always ignored this type of outfit, especially Chinese and Indian made stuff.
I worked for both, in Automotive design and was never impressed with their attitude.
Does anyone here use aliexpress.?
There is a EV drive unit I like but it’s really a struggle to believe it would last more than a week.
thnx
Jix

 

[qwakers]

ive bought a fair amount from there. treat it like ebay.

 

[knighty]

I've bought a lot of stuff on there.... it's mostly you get what you pay for

handy for cheap stuff or stuff that has a massive mark up over here, fittings, connectors, etc. etc.

I bought loads of stainless hygienic fittings.. most of them where a tenth of the price I could find them locally (£4 instead of £40 etc.)

 

[m_c]

Some stuff is decent, some stuff is garbage.

You never know if what you're buying is genuine, factory rejects, or a copy (which themselves can range from as good as genuine, to garbage).

 

[Ross365]

Think it all depends on what you're buying. The Chinese have never dissapointed me with electronics stuff.... but, on any product where there are threaded components vital to the performance, my impression is that very cheap, mass-produced threads are usually pretty poor. That assessment was shown up best by some wideband RF amplifiers I bought; they work very well indeed provided you took very great care with the screw-on SMA connectors, which really felt they would seize up at every turn.

Bought some carbide tipped blades for my sabre saw from Ali last week (as recommended by someone on this forum) ; no threads on those and all very good.

 

[droopsnoot]

As with others, I've had mixed stuff. I had some washer jets and the threads on those were nothing I could figure out - certainly didn't fit the nuts that came with them, or any other nuts I had. I bought some small relays to repair the hazard switch on my TT (the indicator relay is inside it) and they've been great. I had a couple of torches from there too, which have been fine but annoying in the button pressing.

 

[Richiew]

Carbide milling cutters from aliexpress are good and relatively cheap. Can't comment on EV bits.

 

[Misterg]

Aliexpress is just a trading site - you're buying from a whole host of different sellers, like on ebay.

Quality is very dependent on who you're buying from. In general, I've got what I was expecting.

Beware misleading pricing - it's common for sellers to list something cheap under a 'headline' picture of an item. You need to be careful to select the actual thing you want in the detailed listing (so you get a widget, rather than a dust cover for said widget, etc.).

Prices didn't used to include VAT and duty, but they mostly do now.

I'm happy to buy stuff through them.

 

[RichardM]

I bought the lathes' dro system from Aliexpress, plus loads of other bits. No problems so far.

 

[Memmeddu]

I buy frequently from AliExpress, sometimes hit and miss but not about quality but shipping....
Fair enough temu is great with shipping.
AliExpress have a wide range of items and a wide range of quality/price range.
I've been satisfied with everything so far but sometimes I had problems with packages that got lost, not a big deal because they fully refund you but it takes time prior to declare the package officially lost.
When you're not satisfied with the item they either chose to partially or fully refund sending or not the item back.
I've ordered a AN-PEQ 15 for one of my AEG, selected the wanted model (IR pointer and illuminator, slave red laser) but after a month or so when it came home I've sadly found out they delivered the wrong model...
Contacted customer service, had to send it back to get a refund, pita to send it back, waiting for it to be delivered back, wait them to check if everything is ok and maybe get a full refund.
Decided to keep it and I'm going to sell it.
As other members said quality is directly proportional to the paid price, but AliExpress is cheaper than eBay and Amazon most of the times (a good 98% of the times)
They sell the same things/quality of them but cheaper due to less passages in between (manufacturer ---->AliExpress seller---->customer)
I've got an ACOG scope replica and it's way better than other ones sold here at double of the price

 

[angellonewolf]

no ali but temu but some stuff good some throw in the bin not worth the post cost so i only ever buy what i can afford to loose on there electric scooter stuff seam to be ok but ive only ever used xiomi scooter stuff controllers head units and brake levers throttles

but i expect this is there every day stuff so plenty of units got thrown in the bin before they got them right and a mass market for them

 

[MetalMonkey]

I've bought a few things off there - as said above its essentially like an amazon/ebay model, so what you get and how reliable is dependent on the sellers you buy from.
Avoid buying from anything less than about 4.8 star rated sellers. Check how long the seller has been registered from, check reviews for that product by that seller.
Due diligence is key - try and go for "choice" for delivery. Don’t spend more than you can afford to lose.

So far I've bought some Huepar products for about 50% of the price over here, and a load of label printer tapes for about a tenth of the price of the genuine ones, or a third of the price of the compatibles.
Bargains to be had, but also a lot more risk than ebay.

Enjoy it while you can before they impose the new import restrictions.

 

[Onoff]

Bought 4 solar lights from AliExpress. 1 "wouldn't work". Opened it up and soldering was pretty rough. They refunded me on all four. Then the duff one started working and has done everything since. Think it was just a case it wasn't charged...

Bought 4 V/A/Hz meters for my rotary converter. Cheap as chips, like a fiver each. One segment on one of them is duff. I'll live with it.

I've had quite a few tools and knives off them and Temu. No real issues to be perfectly honest.

We're going to be in deep **** when they switch it all off is all I can say.

 

[Memmeddu]

Bought 4 solar lights from AliExpress. 1 "wouldn't work". Opened it up and soldering was pretty rough. They refunded me on all four. Then the duff one started working and has done everything since. Think it was just a case it wasn't charged...

Bought 4 V/A/Hz meters for my rotary converter. Cheap as chips, like a fiver each. One segment on one of them is duff. I'll live with it.

I've had quite a few tools and knives off them and Temu. No real issues to be perfectly honest.

We're going to be in deep **** when they switch it all off is all I can say.

They already invested for worldwide shipping, they sponsored soccer squads and kinda remember they got to F1 too.
They'll not fall ...
They'll rather open physical shops and warehouses here in Europe rather than exclude us from their client base

 

[Erie Fred]

Hi,
Up ‘till now I have always ignored this type of outfit, especially Chinese and Indian made stuff.
I worked for both, in Automotive design and was never impressed with their attitude.

Same here....boy you ain't kidding.....

 

[Onoff]

I've had some excellent Chinese kit...and some utter crap.

The service I always find a bit pushy in either case.

The good ones bend over backwards to accommodate and fix any issues.

At the other end of the scale it's a bit "That why we so cheap!" if you complain. Same outfit advertised using German makers photos, then sent me blurred sample photos of what they made rather than physical samples. It was only when I received them that the poor quality was apparent.

 

[tigdlo]

It appears aliexpress has gone the same way as Temu, clearly selling items at below cost to encourage buying more or things we don't need or want, like supermarket loss leaders but with more predatory selling techniques, like if you add one more item you will get a discount so good that 5 pieces of tat is cheaper than 4 pieces of tat. I believe it's often the suppliers that take the hit, so if they aren't making a profit will they send their best? I doubt it. I'm sure there are stores that specialise in shifting rejects and charging us for the pleasure of filling our landfill instead of theirs, which costs all of us.

There are still proper suppliers on there that appear to specialise and have been going for years with good feedback. I would still buy from them but avoid what appears to be the offers that I'm sure they are obliged to take part in to be able to sell on aliexpress. DEMK/XCMY CNC and Lek Official have been good for lathe tooling and inserts, HIDANCE have been around for a long time if you want electronic, power supplies, battery tester type things, Tywelmaster for welding bits like tig torch parts, mig wire feeders, etc.

 

[zzr1200]

AliExpress or Temu have been fine for me, apart from the constance advertising emails from Temu, both have European based warehousing now and some items arrive within a few days, somethings still come buy road and takes 2/3 months but so far they have all arrived in good condition.

Sino 2/3 axis DRO's on special offer, plus scales can't be beaten price wise by UK suppliers, most of my Lathe/Milling tooling comes from these two now.
Tungsten tips can't be beaten for the price may not last as long as some top brands but aren't the price, I tend to wait for the special deals and buy inserts by the 50 or 100.
Some of the hand tools are junk but some are brilliant.

A while ago I purchased a HG Line 4 line Laser Level kit for Just under £36-00 (arrived in 3 days from AliExpress UK stock), I had to buy other bits as well, a tripod/single pole stand, but for less than a £100 I had a 4 line laser level system for my DIY, a no-name brand but it does what it needs to well, my much other older 2 line level costs £60-00 from Screwfix.....

Having retired now, my work is diy based, the likes of Husqvarna, Milwaukee, Snap-on and Mac quality/longevity are still nice but aren't required now.

The likes of Ebay, Machine Mart, Sealey and others are just the middle men, but they have always been just the middle men........now there's Aliexpress/Temu for now......until someone else takes over......