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Ditron DRO Sale on Ali

architect said:
Honestly if I told anyone this buying experience everyone would tell me scams.
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Yup, that's Ali for you!

Given the varied experiences of other members, I suspect Ali has many nuances and a great variety of experiences. I'm not at all sure I have even brushed the surface. But I do believe I understand the Ditron scenario.

I chalk it all up to what life must be like for people who live in China. Gotta be a very rough life.

One of the guys I met in China (he was actually my "babysitter" while I was there last) ended up coming to North America for an assignment a few years ago and stayed at my home for a few days. I took him around and showed him Toronto, Windsor, London, some small towns, some slums, some average places, some lavish places, a bit of the north, and anything he wanted to see. As much as I could, I also told him about my own experiences in each of Canada's provinces - both East and West. He was blown away by everything almost doubting what I showed him. We talked politics, religion, freedom, and a host of other subjects that were all in taboo in China. Seeing China myself was eye-opening, but seeing Canada through his eyes made me appreciate all the things we all complain about in ways I never would have expected.

I am glad to be Canadian.
 
Susquatch said:
Yup, that's Ali for you!
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Another weird behavior that almost made me think that it was FOR SURE A SCAM was right after ordering, the seller asked me to cancel and reorder. Wouldn't tell me why, just said something was wrong with listing. I understand that me canceling is better than they cancel, but at that point I told them canceling would mean no reorder for me (just too many red flags). Instead they just "took care of it on their end", whatever that meant. I was really ready for them to not send me anything. I browe the Aliexpress reddit and it's full of these "cancel" scams and I thought I was caught in one (but wasn't too worried either as I'd just get my money back from Ali, anyway).

Any idea what that could be about? Maybe they didn't realie I was going to use a $80 coupon? Not sure how the coupons affect sellers. I would say I got fakes, but it's already a Chinese brand from China :p
 
architect said:
Any idea what that could be about? Maybe they didn't realie I was going to use a $80 coupon? Not sure how the coupons affect sellers.
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I really don't know. You could try to establish an email connection and then ask more directly. Both Ali and Amazon try hard to stop you from doing that. Sometimes attaching a photo of handwritten e-mail address works. Or disguise it with something else to make sure their AI doesn't catch it.
 
In case I'm not the only on that didn't know this mistake I made:

AliExpress default currency is USD. I always paid with a credit card that didn't the 2.5% foreign exchange fee. But I didn't realize that whatever currency you set in the app is going to be what Ali charges you, with a terrible rate where they take a huge cut. On the DRO, AliExpress took an extra ~$22 on exchange rate compared to bank/credit card! I'm use to other stores that simple showed you the estimate on your currency but at the end still checked out at USD. :(
 
I don't do much international shopping outside Ali. EBay/Paypal is much more transparent about the check-out where it lets you know the default currency and the other conversion choices. Same for BH Photo Video which I've done decent business over the years. AliExpress hides this in comparison, but I should have been more aware and cautious...
 
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architect said:
In case I'm not the only on that didn't know this mistake I made:

AliExpress default currency is USD. I always paid with a credit card that didn't the 2.5% foreign exchange fee. But I didn't realize that whatever currency you set in the app is going to be what Ali charges you, with a terrible rate where they take a huge cut. On the DRO, AliExpress took an extra ~$22 on exchange rate compared to bank/credit card! I'm use to other stores that simple showed you the estimate on your currency but at the end still checked out at USD. :(
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I have mine set to Cdn. Let's say I wanted a replacement 12V 20A switching power supply to fix the old 3D printer. The US price from AliExpress is $16.19US and using the XE Exchange app on my phone I get $22.67. In Cdn it's priced at $23.99.

Now we all know that what you buy at and what you sell at are two different numbers and even that depends on the bank or if you buy in the USA using your Cdn charge card the card's exchange rate is often more than say Scotia Bank. So it may well be that AliExpress has jacked up the Canadian list price compared to the US price or their cost of exchange into US dollars is higher than what we might get.

It's the price we have to pay for living here rather than in the USA.
 
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