Experiences with Aliexpress...?

No real 'Off Topic' place to put this, so here it landed...

I was wondering if anyone here buys through the Aliexpress website. I think I first heard about it through co-workers and I think I saw it mentioned in an A.V.E. video.

Long story fully detailed:
I've been playing with the idea of installing a DRO on my little Rockwell mill for some time. I even pondered diy'ing one. The mill I learnt on, at a former employer, had a 3 axis DRO, and it made it so much easier to work on. Considering backlash becomes a non-issue and operations like bolt hole circles are a button press away. However, the costs are significant when a DRO out of North America starts at 50% of what I paid for the mill to begin with, and closer to 70% if you go for the 3rd axis.

Well after googling "cheap dro" I stumbled across a thread on the 'hobby-machinist' forum that talked in depth about the great product via Aliexpress.com, and mainly this seller:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...801.html?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.6e464b87vs4AvR

The vendor has quite a few offerings and I almost opted for a more expensive unit that came with free shipping, and subsequently ended up being just as costly as the lesser model with shipping costs....lol. I took the cheaper one based on reviews and made the purchase immediately.

Well I guess based on me creating an account and then reopening it on a different window to compare shipping costs of the different items, I threw a red flag on my "new" account. This caused it to be locked out, but not before accepting my credit card info..lol, typical... Verifying my account was now mandatory but the process they force you to follow wasn't working correctly.

After a lot of hoop jumping I finally managed to get on a live chat with an Aliexpress rep and she explained why my account had been locked out, and that although she couldn't immediately reset my access, she would tag it as verified and it would be unrestricted in 2 days. At my request she also confirmed that I had made an order for the DRO, but the charge for the item was being held until my credit card could be verified against my other personal details which are required when setting up an account.

So here I sit, wondering if I goofed up and should just call the credit card company and cancel the payment. The comments in the thread that pointed me toward the Aliexpress seller were fantastic, and the reviews on the seller's store front echo'd them.

I was just wondering if anyone here had any experience with the site, good or bad.

 

I've had no problems with the Ali Express website, if I recall correctly, they had some kind of escrow service where the money was released to the seller once you confirmed receipt of the goods. Most expensive item bought so far was USD$300 in value. I've bought maybe ten items and not been burnt yet....item quality is another topic however.

I see the scales are 0.005mm which is about two tenths of a thou resolution and for $20 per scale they will supply 0.001mm resolution 0r about 1/25th of a thou....I wonder what the accuracy is like.

 

Yup. be patient.. Once you get over this hurdle, it will be point and click easy next time. You look around that site? If you can think of it, they sell it. If you want a gross of BP's for 6bucks? They got 'em. For under 20bucks, I could have one delivered to Davids house every day for A YEAR!

 

Just as a follow up...

My "verification" was completed in shorter time than I was told, and my DRO purchase has been processed.

Hard to complain about a web service following due diligence to make sure people using credit cards aren't committing fraud.

 

Only thing I've gotten from Ali Express has been some harder to find electronic and ham radio parts and it's worked out quiet well if not the only option in town. However you often have to be careful of what you buy... for example, all the Chinese 572b tubes that a US retailer rejected after QA ended up guess where... ali express and ebay. Like anything else knowledge of what you are getting is key. Shipping times can be agonizing for those of used to 2 day amazon. No idea what Chinese DRO's are like so can't comment on them.

 

Well since the thread got a bump I may as well update the DRO purchase...

I'm still waiting on the seller to process things on there end. That amounts to them getting okee dokee from Aliexpress regarding my payment, to seller shipping my order.

Now a part of that I would assume entails the seller cutting the glass scale to the lengths I requested, so it's understandable that it doesn't happen within a day or so. However its been the better part of a week, so I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever end up with the DRO.

Reviews speak highly of this seller, so I haven't given up hope.

 

Aliexpress just takes patience. I'm amazed at how fast some of these boats move from China. I don't think everything travels by chinese junk. The really small stuff ends up on aircraft.

 

Use them regularly (1-5 times a month), no issues.

 

Still waiting on the seller to confirm my purchase.

According to my account cart, they have another ~15hrs before my order is automatically cancelled. Agreement states they have 7 days from point of purchase to ship the item(s). Looks like they're going to suck every minute out of that allowance.

 

Yep, down to the wire. Received notification this morning that the DRO has been shipped.

Another 7-14 days to go...lol

 

It could be they were backed up from the Chinese New Year break and are just catching up. The vendors I regularly do stuff with remind me when that time of year is coming so I can get in any orders I want in time to ship before the break. I've seen shops that close from 1 week to 4 weeks for that break.

 

Things take time... ..and I'm probably coming off as a little bit of a whiner.

Truth is.. I'm really excited about getting a DRO on my little rockwell. It's a bandaide I've been picking at since I bought the machine, and now that I finally pulled the trigger I'm wired to get it installed.

 

Wow... So it took nearly 7days to the hour to get the DRO out of the warehouse in China, and less than 2days to get it to my home town...

In true UPS "screw Canadians" fashion, they have added brokerage fees to my parcel. Not sure if it will make to my office today or not...

 

I get the similar screw job when importing from the UK. Customs fee, customs processing fee, you name it. You are probably still money ahead even after getting fee'd to death. What was the final cost?

 

Plus ~$45cdn of rough UPS anal...

...about $350cdn at my door.

Here's the first "comparable" hit on Amazon.ca for $540cdn, but this one comes with 3 scales at a mere 200mm each.
https://www.amazon.ca/Digital-Reado...TF8&qid=1521230411&sr=8-3&keywords=3+axis+dro

 

Shipping IS brutal to Canada, I'll give ya that one. I got that lesson when I mailed Tobho a box. SO about $270 bucks all in... still sounds good to me.

 

So in classic UPS form, check out this route of travel for my parcel(s):

Note the stop in Louisville before Barrie ON, (home town) and then supposedly back to Louisville...lol ...and the back and forth between Concord and Mississauga Ontario

So the other day when I was floored it had reached me within two days, it actually hadn't. I went to see if I could pick it up and when they said they didn't have it I assumed it simply wasn't scanned into the depot yet. I paid the UPS usage 'fines' and told them to hold the package at their location. I'm supposed to be on the road right now for work and didn't want shipping/receiving mishandling my glass scales.

Long story short, my DRO is less than a mile down the road from me. Going to pick it up at lunch. Can't wait to crack open that box and catch a nice big wiff of chineseium.

 

You think we will ever identify that unusual off gassing STANK present in chinese plastic? Years from now, we will probably discover it turns people into liberals.
I'm sorry, I couldn't resist...

I wish I needed a DRO. I'm still searching the ads looking for some 3000lb toys and trying to figure out how to explain to my wife why I NEED them.

 

I wouldn't mind replacing the little Rockwell this DRO is going on with something more 'unique'. Something like a Schaublin, Deckle or even an Aciera F4 universal type mill. Just something a tad more robust and cool features. However, the Rockwell for the most part does everything I need it to even though it is small.

I'm done on the lathe front for the time being. The big-ish Monarch will do anything I'll ever take on, and maybe someday when I liquidate the rest of the collection I'll focus on finding something like a 10EE for small stuff.

Of course none of that stops me from hunting for meaty old iron deals...