Aliexpress

[Burgerman]

I dont get Aliexpress. Most things you buy take 3 or 4 months to turn up long after you have forgotten you ordered anything.

Then 5 days ago I ordered a small boxed £18 item with free delivery and 5 days later its cleared UK customs and due for delivery tomorow.

AliExpress Standard Shipping
Tracking number WG400005446GB

Shipping to J******n, +44 07******460, xx Westlands Avenue,North East Lincolnshire,England,UK,xxxxxxxx
Customs update: Customs clearance complete
Apr 5, 05:52 AM PT: Customs clearance started
Apr 5, 05:42 AM PT: Arrived at customs
Apr 5, 05:01 AM PT: Arrived in transit country/region
Apr 4, 10:01 PM PT: Arrived at line-haul office
Apr 4, 04:39 AM PT: Left from departure country/region
Apr 3, 05:50 AM PT: Leaving from departure country/region
Apr 2, 06:45 AM PT: Customs clearance started
Apr 2, 04:18 AM PT: Handed over to line-haul
Apr 1, 02:12 PM PT: Left from departure country/region sorting center
Apr 1, 07:57 AM PT: Processing at departure country/region sorting center
Apr 1, 04:50 AM PT: Received by logistics company
Apr 1, 03:16 AM PT: The seller has shipped your package.

[martin007]

From a certain amount of money the shipments are accelerated.

[martin007]

Another option is to group orders.

[biscuit]

I don't suppose it's in anybody's interests to hold onto consignments for longer than they have to. The seller might perhaps group orders if they can, but they might not find it worthwhile unless they have say a Europe warehouse or similar.

[slomobile]

I wonder if sometimes a thing I order may have already been in transit to a warehouse in my country, but when they get my order, they just reallocate it from warehouse stock to my order.

[Burgerman]

Well not in this case I tracked its movement from china. Aliexpress is a mix of scammers, super slow delivery and the occasional decent deal with fast delivery. Its a bit like forest gumps box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get. I mean some things are obvious scams. I almost bought a 4TB NVMe dive for £7 with 3 dollars delivery. Just to see exactly what I got...

[martin007]

I almost bought a 4TB NVMe dive for £7 with 3 dollars delivery. Just to see exactly what I got...

You would have 7 pounds less in your wallet and a shit in the package.

[Burgerman]

Yes but its fun just to see exactly what they send. You might just get what it says! If not then you get refunded anyway.

[Dan]

The Chinese government subsidizes the postage, plus, because China is still rated as a thrid world country the end delivery country pays for some of the cost.
I believe something has gone very wrong in the Chinese economy and they have mass over puduced stuff (to keep the workers working) that they can't sell. I just bought some electronic suff for home automation, a small electric air pump and a cute tiny N100 PC with Windows 11 pro for little money.

FIREBAT T8 Pro Plus Mini PC Intel Celeron N5095 N100 16GB 512GB DDR5
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005234838380.html?spm=a2g0o

PS, your harddrive must be a con. It might register as 4TB but read and write speed will be a joke.

[Burgerman]

Obviously!! Or it will be a 16G card with no cache or something that is pretending to be a 4GB drive. The chinese are very "tricky"...
Some stuff is worth buying though. CNC machined stuff, screen protectors, etc. But beware of anything memory or that can be faked.

[richkez28]

I am a great fan of Aliexpress and Temu. Items tend to arrive quicker from Temu. They are slightly more expensive on some items compared to Aliexpress. Temu also off a £4 discount or refund if your item arrives later than the given delivery date. I think that what happens both Aliexpress and Temu have drop shipping. Where a uk seller stocks so many items so you place your order with either of the Chinese selling sites and they pass the order to a uk seller. So you get some items quicker. A good alternative to the two websites mentioned SHEIN can also be a good source for electronics. (They don’t only sell clothes)

[martin007]

Do you know if Temu or Shein charge VAT at source like Aliexpress?

[richkez28]

Do you know if Temu or Shein charge VAT at source like Aliexpress?

The vat is included in the price with Temu. No sure of SHEIN

[ex-Gooserider]

I have not looked into it very extensively, but my understanding is that a lot of the items that are sent with "normal" shipping, (as opposed to priority) get sent from the seller to some collection point until enough packages have accumulated to fill whatever shipping container they are using... I don't know if that point is customs, some other central point, or some shipper specific point...

So how fast you get something is going to depend on how 'full' that container is at the moment that your package gets to the collection point. If they just made a shipment, you may have a long wait until it fills up again, but if it is the 'last' package to go in the container, it will go like priority speed.

I think they also have a 'fill the space' deal where if they have a priority package that takes a certain amount of room, but doesn't fill the available weight / space, they then add whatever additional packages will fit to fill up the balance, so possibly smaller ones may go sooner...

I know this is how some of the 'less than First' class mail handled by the US Postal Service works - they load the Priority mail, then the 1st Class and if space is left, they fill it with the junk mail, magazines, and so on...

ex-Gooserider