Anyone ordered items from AliExpress

[teedoubleudee]

Thanks Terry and WTD

Terry was that shipment from AliExpress as I said I have not progressed from the shipping details which do not allow any means of specifying the carrier or to specify the goods for customs duty. I get the impression the next stage was simply to enter your payment details.

WTD was your order through the AliExpress US website? Out of interest I did try to change the region just to see which countries restricted the shipment of these items and it was a surprising large number including the USA.

Richard

TBH Richard it wasnt, though I have ordered from them before but cant remember what though I believe it arrived OK and in time.

BTW sometimes Chinese stuff is shipped directly from Europe as they have their own warehouses there, so generally no problem with customs (at least pre Brexit!) and a quicker delivery.

[Tricky Dicky]

Argggh! This is getting frustrating, I can see what I want just cannot get it! Looks like i will have to try and get something near the right type and if necessary modify the car to take it. There are a few likely candidates available locally through RC model shops that should get the car up and running just might affect the duration slightly and when he gets to running it on a beach he will just have to avoid the water.

Richard

[Tricky Dicky]

Sorted! Finally got some and by the name of the seller it looks like they are coming from China anyway. The only drawback is they seem to be coming by camel caravan on the Silk Road ETA 22nd June to 1st July and I think it is this year.

The irony of it is that I got them through guess who? Amazon Big Doh moment!

When we bought the car in 2018 it was in the RC models section on Amazon and all the spares including batteries were there and it was there we bought the spare battery. So naturally that’s where I looked this time only to find they were not available. After my frustration with AliExpress I trawled around some RC model sites hoping to strike lucky or get an equivalent type. Just happened to be on Amazon regards something else and just wondered if I put Li-Po in the search box? Guess what there was a whole section just devoted to Li-Po batteries with at least 3 sellers offering the ones I wanted doh! Now senior moment aside I do blame Amazon for poor cross-referencing of their database it is not the first time I have looked for something under one category to find it listed somewhere completely different and as for the spurious articles that pop up in totally unrelated listings!

Anyway lesson learned, try every permutation next time. Mind you the more important lesson has been go to the specialists, you might pay more but they seem a more reliable source when it comes to spares and stock. I only bought from Amazon due to my SiL it was easier to say “if you need spares go to Amazon”. I did plenty of research at the time to buy a model that Amazon were holding spares for knowing how these things can get damaged. Unfortunately, as this episode has shown Amazon are not that reliable.

Now I had better go and get my binoculars out and watch for those camels coming over the horizon

Richard

[teedoubleudee]

I've bought stuff from Amazon re-sellers before that came from China. Just make sure you contact the reseller through Amazon messaging if you do have a problem.

[RAF96]

I have used Ali-Express a few times.
They won’t pay the seller until you say the goods have arrived.
Goods have usually always arrived within stated delivery forecast, bit I recently bought some platform lights for peanuts with free P&P, which took longer to come than forecast.
I queried delivery and the seller made contact and asked me to wait a few more days as they were probably held in Customs, etc but would I please let them know if they didn’t arrive so they could send replacements out.
They arrived a week later. I informed Ali-Express and they paid the seller who again made contact to thank me for waiting and for releasing their payment.
Totally happy dealing with them.

Edit: my worst experience was buying a motherboard for a slim PC, from what was listed as a .co.uk company, which turned out to be direct from China. It took me 18 months of chasing to get the mobo, but it arrived in the end, only to be grabbed by customs and I had to pay their import duties. The irony was the damned thing failed after about 10 months and the final cost wasn’t far off the cost of a new tower PC base unit.

[Tricky Dicky]

Edit: my worst experience was buying a motherboard for a slim PC, from what was listed as a .co.uk company, which turned out to be direct from China. It took me 18 months of chasing to get the mobo, but it arrived in the end, only to be grabbed by customs and I had to pay their import duties. The irony was the damned thing failed after about 10 months and the final cost wasn’t far off the cost of a new tower PC base unit.

Talking of customs, I have obviously bought from Amazon before but never really bothered about the sellers most of whom have probably been UK. However, this time I know for certain the items are coming from China. Will the items be subject to customs duties? There is no mention on the Amazon page about customs except to say that all relevant VAT is included.

Richard

[RogerB]

Customs Duty and VAT are payable on goods purchased from the outside the UK in most circumstances.

This link explains the details.

R-

[yelrow]

Did you forget the link Rog.

[RogerB]

It is there John. The words This Link are underlined and in a lighter blue. I think before you have said your screen resolution makes that hard to see. R-

[Walkingthedog]

This link is a bit lighter on my iPad but not underlined.

The colour will be because I am using the Latte (brown) format.