Aliexpress Return Shipping Question

[ahf]

Hi Guys

So I received an item which I bought from Aliexpress which turned out to be the incorrect item, they willing to refund me US$40 (original purchased price were US$27) and they want me to ship the item back to China....my question which will be the cheapest method (with tracking number) to ship it back?
PS It came with Buffalo Logistics however Yanwen picked the parcel in China and it was then handed over to BL.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jake45]

Have you asked Buffalo?

I would be very surprised if you can ship it back to China for less than $40. Most Aliexpress customers don't bother to return goods to China due to the high shipping costs and the seller is probably expecting that you will not return the item! The Aliexpress model is focussed on shipping low priced goods cheaply from China to the rest of the world with very few returns. Have you tried to ask for a smaller refund ($40-$27?) without returning the item?

I recently needed to send a letter to Japan rather urgently via courier and the cheapest quote that I got was around R600 for a small envelope. Let us know whether you were able to return the item at a reasonable cost.

 

[ahf]

@Jake45 thanks for your info and yes I did ask for US$28 refund and keep the item but the seller rejected my proposal and instead they just went ahead and approved the US$40 refund and return the item. There seem no way that I contact Aliexpress directly from their website because they closed the dispute case.
Right now I just think I must keep the item because I Googled for shipping quotes yesterday and as you said its going to be very expensive.
Cheers and thanks again.

 

[Jake45]

@ahf: You can try to contact rachel@aramex.com to get a shipping quote from Aramex. You could also try to get a quote from the SAPO for the EMS service as well as Buffalo.

You need to be very careful with some of the sellers on Aliexpress. Recently I bought a few items which the seller failed to ship and sent me a fake tracking number. It appears that some sellers do this when they are unable to ship out the products in time to avoid collecting a penalty. I was luckily able to get a refund as I could track the parcel and show that somebody else in another city had received the parcel but I could very easily have lost $25 if the seller had not agreed to process the refund. I now try to use sellers that have very good feedback. In many cases Aliexpress decides in favour of the seller and does not refund the money.

 

[ahf]

@Jake45 Thanks again for the information. I gave up on this seller because he told me to first return the item before he can refund too bad.
Enjoy your day.
Greetings

 

[Dill]

@Jake45 Thanks again for the information. I gave up on this seller because he told me to first return the item before he can refund too bad.
Enjoy your day.
Greetings

Have you logged the dispute with Aliexpress for the item? I would suggest logging the dispute with Aliexpress 1st before doing anything because I think the seller sending an incorrect item is covered under the Aliexpress purchase protection. Also don't ever close the dispute even if the seller asks you to. Aliexpress would close the dispute once they reach a judgement.

Seems like the seller knows the item would be expensive to ship back.

 

[ahf]

Yes indeed I did logged the dispute but as I mentioned first Aliexpress approved my case and offered me two options:
1. US$28 and I keep the item
2. US$40 and I return the item and seller pay return shipping

However yesterday both seller and Aliexpress claimed I accepted the new proposal which is not true, I then made a screen copy of my proposal and sent it to the seller and he/she now claims that there are two versions of the item and they expect me return the item and pay return postage.
On the new dispute page which details the return procedure shipping I can't contact Aliexpress.....do you have a direct email address for Aliexpress?
Thanks.

 

[gregmcc]

This is one of the issues with Aliexpress. It's impossible to contact anyone. Their online bot system is also useless and you can't phone/chat to a person.

If the dispute case is closed then you also can't open a new one.

 

[ahf]

@gregmcc I agree 100%