I generally purchase most of my electrical , ICs , Robotics - stuff from AExpr.
They now promotes this Bonus Points , I thought it sounded like a plus.
NOT ! If you are Not careful of Your Refunds - they will Redirect YOUR MONEY here called the Bonus Account - instead of Your Bank Account !!!
Dont click the - 'Instant Refund' button ! - It will NOT be Refunded to YOUR BANK Account !
I was lost my money this way.
Yesterday, I had accidentally ordered the wrong item for $40.
One hour later , I discovered this and Canceled it - for a Refund (so I thought).
I then ordered something else , a little more expensive , but Ali offered $30 on my Bonus.
Hey ! - so Great ! - Only $10 with my bonus points (I thought I had earned).
Nope, the Bonus points / 30$ was my REFUND money from previous day - I just discovered today.
When I looked at my bank account today : Charged for $40 , but No Refund for $40 - WHY ???
I looked at my email - and it Ali STATED that My REFUND was placed into what they called the Bonus Account - which I thought was for earned points (???) !!!
-- Which I ended up wasting un-knowingly !
These were NOT any BONUS POINTS , this was my REFUND Money Redirected !!!
I ended spending more of My OWN Money - thinking that this was Earned Bonus Points.
Thats the point - it says: 'Click here for instant Refund for experienced members'.
But I did Not see anything saying that you do not get the refund back to your card...
I just assumed that it was a program for "quick refund for experienced members".
They are playing word games - and I would Not have noticed - except that I prefer checking all my refunds in my bank sheet.
Neither of us has a screenshot, but in my case, when I read that the instant refund was in funny money, I paused and looked around the screen and saw, probably in smaller type, that I could get a refund back to my CC, but it took longer. I don't participate in any of the points or coins or anything other than cash or CC, so I chose the longer refund. Maybe your store didn't offer the two choices, but all I know is my store did.
If I noticed then I would Not have clicked it.
Same point.
Other buyers may miss it too.
I have placed hundreds of orders, and Refunds once in a while
-- being scammed by assortment of sellers.
Such as shipping to alt address - and stating that the pkg was delivered.
That was torture arguing with Ali multiple times online (maybe 2 hours total customer service) before I got my refund.
But I still missed this change in the refunding screen.
Some refunds were torture - just arguing in circles with customer supt, not shipped product, false / unworking item etc.
I saw other prints elsewhere saying that this Bonus was for rewards.
Nothing stated anywhere that it was also used for refunds.
This was a new scam - did not expect ali to try something like this.
Do you want to be helpful for others who also could be scammed - or just worry about yourself and dont care ... You work for them or something ?
I mind , because a refund is not a refund -if it does Not go back to my card.
I was doing a REFUND , Not requesting for Credit.
Ie: deceitful buttons and application.
-- What if there was fine print added sometime , stating that 'no guaranteed delivery'.
Are you just going to walk away and say "oh well" ... ?
This was posted to other buyers - so that they don't make the same mistake.
This is an open forum for Everybody.
Try to think about what you say - so that it might be helpful for Others too.
No I don't work for Ali, I am an 83yo autistic chief programer retired from my own company as of 1999. I am sure you know Ali is just a shell, the stuff for sale comes from thousands of individual stores so some may offer a proper refund, some may not. I had one that Ali initiated when the ship to address was screwed up (not by me). I got an email telling me about the refund which I have received and I then re-ordered. The replacemenbt should be here soon I hope.
I get shipments from Ali about every 2 weeks and I have had a few shipments lost or damaged and I always received a refund to my CC. In one case after the refund I found the goods at a neighbour who was away. Ali told me to just keep the extra package.
I hear a few people complain, but my experience has been great. The only on-line company I have trouble with is eBay and that is mostly because I am in Canada and shipping from the USA to Canada can be a nightmare because the ignorant Americans don;t bother to learn how to ship anywhere but the USA.
Ali is a lot worse than ebay.
I would say 1 out of 15 purchases (if I am very careful) are scams, never shipped, fake etc.
I have only found 1 seller for 3d print fiber, still can't find a Bluetooth HC-06 that works as master, etc.
Ebay is more like 1 out of 70 purchases.
But ebay isnt perfect either.
I had one kid arguing that he was biking to deliver it to the post office , when I asked 2 weeks after the sale if the product was shipped yet. Then he stated that he was Not responsible to ship it - because even though I paid for the listing , he did not agree to the sale (???)
He then sent me about 20 threats by ebay email to me in just 1 day, after I reported product not received to ebay. I complained but ebay still left him online as a seller.
I also have 40 years of embedded programming and robotics , developer & project leader - under my belt.
There is supposed to be a complaint mechanism with AliExpress that is of course separate from the store that did the refund. I can't remember how to get a hold of them but if you can find a link to that you may be able to get the refund back on your card.
Found it, under the user menu near the bottom, Disputes. Here is what that looks like. 2nd pic is what the Dispute screen looks like. You probably need the order number and any other refund numbers, codes, etc. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
I don't think the HC06 was even meant to run as a master:
The hardware is slightly different and it has different firmware to the HC05. For master mode you need the HC05 which has additional pins including an EN pin.
I have not had a problem with AliExpr so far, so maybe I have been fortunate, but I know my daughter has. Thank you for the heads up on the "refund" problem though.
With 20 orders thru Ali, > 100 items, thousands of parts, I have had:
1 item disappeared en route, disputed, item replaced by seller.
1 item DOA, disputed, refunded immediately
1 item incorrect item shipped, replacement sent no charge
1 item ordered in error, cancelled without issue next morning.
EBay is a nightmare for anything not here in Canada, and a shit show for items that are. Never again.
My experience with Aliexpress.com has been generally good and the few problems I have had have all been resolved to my satisfaction by their customer services.
Having said that, you can't generalise because it is simply a platform for multiple stores analogous to a shopping centre where there will be good stores and bad ones.
I generally select items which are tagged "choice" which also results in a combined and quick shipping and these orders mostly work. You can also check some of the statistics, reputation and reviews to look for warning signs.
One ominous sign, when you have placed an order, is an excessive delay before tracking information starts appearing. After about 10 days the order will be cancelled automatically but some stores seem to just send anything just before the deadline resulting in the wrong part arriving after a long wait. It puzzles me why they do this instead of simply cancelling the order with a "sorry. Out of stock" message. I guess that aliexpress has some sort of penalty system for the stores which promotes this behaviour.
My experience is that there are more bad than good stores on Ali, compared to ebay.
Trying to sell bad, old or fake stuff.
It all depends on the experience of the buyer, to see through the BS.
Leo..
