This web page contains and include my opinions.

 

NOTICE:

The content below was originally written to cover experiences with Lazada and AliExpress only. When we gave up on Lazada and AliExpress, we started buying exclusively through Shopee. We suggest you Google all entities to get an idea of just how horrifically bad they are. Nothing this bad exists anywhere else on earth; these are Chinese and SE Asia retailers and we've dealt with all of them for about 8 years now (Shopee for about 4 years). Trust us, you will be exceedingly lucky to receive what you order, in one piece, of the right quantity, not broken, not with its insides removed, or, indeed, to receive ANYTHING AT ALL.

Out of the past 69 Shopee orders we've placed, 29 had one of the problems listed above. Out of all that, how many refunds did we receive after weeks and months of fighting with Shopee on each item? Three. Yes, 3. The last FIVE ORDERS IN A ROW from Shopee were either the wrong item, or the wrong quantity. We ordered, for instance, a PAIR (as advertised) of rubber straps to hold a SCUBA diving knife. We received one (1) (very, very common -- the mistake will never, EVER be in your favor -- only to the benefit of the seller). When the seller refused to reply, we asked Shopee for either the second strap of the advertised PAIR, or a refund and return. Shopee says, essentially, "pair" means one; NO RETURN, NO REFUND. No further appeal possible. This is the absolute typical logic of sellers in Asia and SE Asia.

Is this only a problem when selling to white people? Not at all; every Asian I know has the exact same issues and very few will deal with Lazada or AliExpress at all. Just mention those names and they'll choke and scoff in disgust and revulsion.

We ordered the one missing rubber strap from America with a $33 shipping charge.

The three sons of bitches above do NOT get my money again, and they shouldn't get yours. If you're overseas and you need an item in or around Asia, order via Amazon and have it shipped to a friend; then reship it to you in Asia at a vastly reduced cost. It will STILL arrive in a fraction of the time it takes to go even 200 miles locally across any SE Asia country, or from China to any SE Asian country. The Chinese will often not even ship your item for two to four WEEKS.

I purchased 4 wetsuits when I was in SE Asia. One from Shopee, one from AliExpress, one from Lazada, and lastly, one from Amazon. I normally wear an XL; I was a commercial diver for much of my life and have owned and worn every kind of suit ever made. I know Asian sizes run small. Why? Because the manufacturers are cheap, and over the eons they've skimped more and more and more on material, probably thinking no one would ever notice a 1% reduction in size. But of course 1% turned into another 3% then another 1% then 2% more -- until their sizing scheme is completely bogus. In any case I knew this, so instead of the usual XLs I've ordered and worn happily forever, I ordered a 2X. Of course I couldn't even get it on. No returns accepted on wetsuits. So I contacted another seller and supplied my measurements. The seller assured me my first purchase was some kind of fluke and I was told a 2X would fit perfectly. I asked for a 3x and was told they didn't have one -- that should have been the tip-off. It showed up 6 weeks later, and of course I couldn't get it on. I laid it out on the floor on top of the first 2X and they were exactly, precisely the same size, right to the mm. I then found a 4x and ordered that. 6 weeks later I was stunned to find that I couldn't get it on, and it actually split apart while trying. No return, of course, because they are Asian sellers.

I then ordered an XL from a US manufacturer on Amazon; it showed up in five days. I slipped it on easily and lived happily ever after. Same price as the others; only the shipping was high, and the import duty tax was THE SAME AS THE PRICE OF THE SUIT. That's because that SE Asian country, in its infinite wisdon, applies duty tax not just on the price of the item, but on the price of the item PLUS shipping costs. Is that a scam? Of course it is. Government officials are getting FILTHY RICH off that crap, to the extreme detriment of their citizens who cannot afford to bring in the items they need to set up small businesses. Most SE Asian countries produce NOTHING of their own. They must import EVERYTHING. There is almost no import taxes collected for garbage, worthless items inbound from China. But from any western country? It often exceeds the cost of the item itself. Real smart. You want your people to move up in the world (presumably), but you make it financially impossible for them to do so. Sort of makes you sick to your stomach.

In conclusion, there is absolutely no reason to even ATTEMPT to buy ANYTHING through ANY SE Asia or Chinese seller. They are nothing but scammers, liars and thieves, and rank incompetents, and we mean that so very sincerely. There is a REASON the US makes it nearly impossible for any SE Asia to get even a tourist VISA -- it's because they know what they are: Liars and scammers and thieves. Do the research for yourselves, then take heed and STAY AWAY. Order through Amazon.com instead NO MATTER THE SHIPPING COST, because you'll receive your item in 5 days instead of 5-9 WEEKS, and it will be the color and size you chose (imagine that!) and the item will function (can you believe it?!) and work and fit and actually be of use (OMFG), and if there's a problem YOU HAVE LOGICAL AND PROFESSIONAL RECOURSE; with the three shifty-shits on this page, you have virtually ZERO recourse. Professionalism is a completely alien concept for all SE Asia sellers. They have less than no concept of that concept.

I've been an Amazon.com customer for 23 years as of this writing. My orders number in the many, many thousands, as during that time I owned and operated numerous companies in the USA, from printing shops to commercial diving to commercial fishing to eBay sales to manufacturing. Nearly all needed supplies came through Amazon. I'm not a particularly big fan of Amazon for a number of reasons, but my problems with Amazon orders run no higher than, say, one minor problem in every 3-500 orders, and with one exception, those minor problems were handled instantly and correctly by Amazon.

Contrast that, then, with a positive experience of no more than 50% with Asian retailers. Imagine how utterly disgusting they are compared to almost any other retailers around the world. I've been around the world for decades and started, built, owned and operated small businesses around the world, all of which require huge, huge quantities of goods of every type and description to operate. The three retailers list above, AliExpress, Lazada, and now Shopee, are not "among" the worst and most incompetent and dishonest in the entire world, they ARE the worst in the world. I say run as fast as you can from any of these jackasses.

THEY. WILL. CHEAT. YOU.

If you're not very, very careful, Asian and SE Asian retailers will drive you to apoplexy and will cause you (teach you) to hate all Asians and Asian countries. The sellers are truly that toxic. Absolute poison.

Below is the original content of this page:

 

 

GIHOO Balloons Store

We ordered balloons for an orphanage from the AliExpress seller shown above. The balloons were never shipped. We then cancelled the order and ordered the balloons from another vendor. Those balloons showed up without a problem, and we held the event and used the balloons. But the seller below STILL refused to cancel the order. The order was never shipped. The order was never even processed! But now, about a week and a half AFTER we first requested to cancel the order, the seller continues to refuse to cancel, or ship, or even process the order! They simply took the money and stopped everything.

GIHOO Balloons store refused to ship the order.
GIHOO Balloons refused to cancel the order.
GIHOO Balloons refused to refund for the order.
That makes GIHOO Balloons thieves and scammers.

This is a dishonest business. Stay away from GIHOO Balloons, but more importantly, stay away from AliExpress. Their sellers are mostly of this type. I dealt with AliExpress for nearly 19 years. In the old days I got screwed about 20% of the time. Now, as of 2019, I get screwed 70-90% of the time. AliExpress is a company made up of dishonest, lying, scamming sellers. I have now filed a dispute with my American VISA Card to remove these funds from AliExpress. AliExpress will not pay these sellers. If you enjoy doing business with sellers of this low quality, then by all means, buy from AliExpress. But if you want honest, straightforward, normal buying interactions, run as fast as you can from AliExpress. I guarantee, they will screw you over.

Business Information

Please see business information of the merchant below:

• Business License/Information

公司名称 ：

芜湖市派格电子商务有限公司

统一社会信用代码 ：

91340200MA2Q3Y4F19

营业执照注册号 ：

340200000357846

注册地址 ：

芜湖市弋江区芜湖金鹰世界中心写字楼12层1203

法定代表人 ：

谢贤能

经营范围 ：

网上销售玩具、婚庆用品、日用百货、家居用品，自营和代理各类商品及技术的进出口业务（国

家限定公司经营或禁止进出口的商品和技术除外）。（依法

须经批准的项目，经相关部门批准后方可开展经营活动）

成立时间 ：

2017-10-27

登记机关 ：

安徽省芜湖市工商行政管理局

All information above are from self-declaration of merchants and AliExpress does not guarantee its authenticity or accuracy.

Merchants shall represent and warrant that all declared business information is full, accurate and true, otherwise may face penalty of AliExpress and/or law enforcement department.

 

This web page contains and include my opinions.

PAPYBAL Official Store

We ordered balloons for an orphanage from the AliExpress seller shown above. The balloons were never shipped. We then cancelled the order and ordered the balloons from another vendor. Those balloons showed up without a problem, and we held the event and used the balloons. But the seller below STILL refused to cancel the order. But now, about a week and a half AFTER we first requested to cancel the order, the seller continues to refuse to cancel, or ship, or even process the order! They simply took the money and stopped everything.

PAPYBAL Official Store refused to ship the order.
PAPYBAL Official Store refused to cancel the order.
PAPYBAL Official Store refused to refund for the order.
That makes PAPYBAL Official Store thieves and scammers.

This is a dishonest business. Stay away from PAPYBAL Official Store, but more importantly, stay away from AliExpress. Their sellers are mostly of this type. I dealt with AliExpress for nearly 19 years. In the old days I got screwed about 20% of the time. Now, as of 2019, I get screwed 70-90% of the time. AliExpress is a company made up of dishonest, lying, scamming sellers. I have now filed a dispute with my American VISA Card to remove these funds from AliExpress. AliExpress will not pay these sellers. If you enjoy doing business with sellers of this low quality, then by all means, buy from AliExpress. But if you want honest, straightforward, normal buying interactions, run as fast as you can from AliExpress. I guarantee, they will screw you over.

Business Information

Please see business information of the merchant below:

• Business License/Information

公司名称 ：

义乌市日熙贸易有限公司

统一社会信用代码 ：

91330782MA28QBHM8D

营业执照注册号 ：

330782000908031

注册地址 ：

浙江省义乌市后宅街道北站四区111幢3单元201室（自主申报）

法定代表人 ：

傅旦磊

经营范围 ：

实物现场批发、网上销售：家居日用品、喜庆日用品、玩具、日用百货、婚庆日用品。（依法

须经批准的项目，经相关部门批准后方可开展经营活动）

成立时间 ：

2017-03-22

登记机关 ：

义乌市市场监督管理局

All information above are from self-declaration of merchants and AliExpress does not guarantee its authenticity or accuracy.

Merchants shall represent and warrant that all declared business information is full, accurate and true, otherwise may face penalty of AliExpress and/or law enforcement department.

 

BELOW: AliExpress' latest scam: They are apparently getting wise to the fact that hardly a single positive review exists about them anywhere on earth, and that the "AliExpress Sucks" pages and websites outnumber any other discussion of AliExpress or Alibaba, so, in their infinite Ferengi wisdom, they've decided to try to "use up" all the search results space with ads of their own, featuring....wait for it....sucks search strings. How completely fucking brilliant. No one will see through THAT, right? The idea is to push YOUR horrifically bad experiences down and down and down in the search results until no one can see it. Then AliExpress will suddenly because, uh, TRUSTED. Right? RIGHT?

 

VISA Credit card chargeback cover letter:

TO:

BECU / VISA 442868050---------

Re two disputes on my VISA card ending xxxx (see enclosed BECU dispute forms)

GIHOO BALLOONS
PAPYBAL Balloons

These are two orders for balloons through AliExpress, a Chinese online retailer. These were balloons to be used for an orphanage here in SE Asia.

I had had horrible, miserable experiences with AliExpress going back years (decades) but I was too stupid to learn. Now I have finally learned.
Before I ordered, I emailed the companies and told them that I had extreme, extreme trepidation about ordering through Alibaba (AliExpress), and that I wanted their assurances that they were decent, honest sellers and would ship promptly and not screw me over. They said yes, they would do a good job for me.

I then ordered.

I then waited.

But the orders were never even processed.

This is typical AliExpress. The sellers simply don't ship, and then hope to frustrate the buyer through the dispute process, thereby keeping the money. You can Google thousands of websites describing this exact behavior and a million other scams by AliExpress. I have lived, worked and shopped literally around the world. There is no worse seller on this planet than AliExpress and Alibaba. There are no worse sellers by a huge margin.

I then began asking for cancellations. These sellers ignored me. I then became angry and demanded cancellations. The sellers rudely, flatly refused, and still made no effort to process or ship or refund.

I then ordered the balloons from another seller here in SE Asia. They arrived quickly; we held our event, and all was well.

I then went back to demanding a cancellation from the Chinese sellers. They continued to flatly refuse. I then threatened them with a website dedicated to them and this experience. One of the sellers then immediately cancelled the order, but that left two, the two named in this dispute, who again refused to cancel. They wouldn't process or ship - but they refused to cancel or refund. I then created a web page detailing my experiences with them at this link:

http://www.truth-or-consequences.com/badder_business_bureau/aliexpress_sucks/index.shtml

I repeatedly showed this web page to these two businesses, and they continued to refuse to cancel my orders, essentially flipping me off.
I then prepared these two disputes. I will cancel and deactivate my AliExpress account once this miserable mess is resolved. I will never buy from Chinese people again.

Copies to: AliExpress Corporate Headquarters

Alibaba (China) Co., Ltd:

969 West Wen Yi Road
Yu Hang District
Hangzhou 311121
China
Tel: (+86) 571-8502-2088
Fax: (+86) 571-8526-9066

2-10-2019

 

Other Alibaba Group Offices

Hangzhou Binjiang Campus:

699 Wang Shang Road
Binjiang District
Hangzhou 310052
China
Tel: (+86) 571-8502-2088
Fax: (+86) 571-8981-5505

Hong Kong Office:

c/o Alibaba Group Services Limited
26/F Tower One, Times Square
1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 2215-5100
Fax: (+852) 2215-5200

Taipei City Office:

11/F, No. 188, Sec. 5
Nanjing E. Road, Songshan District
Taipei City 10571
Taiwan
Tel: (+886) 2-6602-9888
Fax: (+886) 2-6600-8818

U.S. Office:

400 South El Camino Real
Suite 400
San Mateo, CA 94402
United States
Tel: (+1) 1-408-785-5580
Fax: (+1) 1-408-748-1218

U.K. Office (U.K., Ireland and Nordics):

5 Southampton Street
London WC2E 7HA
United Kingdom

Italy Office (Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece):

Corso Europa, 13
20122 Milan
Italy

France Office (France, Israel, Middle East and North Africa regions):

124 rue de Réaumur
75002 Paris
France

Germany Office (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Turkey and Eastern Europe):

1st Floor, Viktualienmarkt 8
80331 Munich
Germany

The Netherlands Office (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg):

Herengracht 450
Amsterdam, 1017 CA
The Netherlands

Japan Office:

27F Kyobashi Edogrand
2-2-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku
Tokyo 1040031
Japan

India Office:

Unit No. 101A,
1st Floor, Platina Building,
Plot No. C-59, G Block,
Bandra Kurla Complex,
Bandra East,
Mumbai 400051, India
Tel: (+91) 22-4233-5233

Australia and New Zealand Office:

Level 2, 411 Collins Street,
Melbourne, Victoria,
Australia

Ant Financial Headquarters

Z Space
No. 556 Xixi Road
Hangzhou, China
Tel: (+86) 571-2688-8888
Fax: (+86) 571-8643-2811

FINAL (Maybe!) UPDATE, February 17, 2018:

We have recovered ALL money paid to these AliExpress vendors -- not because they voluntarily refunded it, but we filed disputes (chargebacks) through our VISA card. After the vendors saw that they weren't going to ever be paid, they cancelled the orders. They did that so that we were prevented from filing complaints against them through the AliExpress complaints interface.

We tried to cancel our AliExpress account, but there is one shipment, ordered nearly two months ago, that has gone missing from the vendor. Good ol' AliExpress strikes again. It just never ends with these pieces of Goddamned shit. Since the item is missing, and the order is not yet closed, AliExpress prevented us from deleting our account. We must wait for some period of time before they will allow that. We will be required to file a dispute for the missing item, wait the usual two months for it to run its course, then another month for the refund -- which will never come, and only then will we be allowed (allowed!) to cancel our account. --Problem is, VISA only allows chargebacks to be filed within 60 days of the chaege being made to the card. So, here we go again-- we will have to file a chargeback on this amount also, and get the money back, and then let the dispute to AliExpress run its course before we can finally get rid of these miserable sons of fucking bitches. No retailer on this earth is this bad. Trust us; that's a fact.

I don't anticipate updating this page further. We know what we have to do. We're positive we can get the money back. And eventually we'll get disconnected from the AliExpress scammy tentacles. If any of that does NOT occur, we'll come back and update here.

Are you "getting" this yet? Get away and stay away from these people. If you don't, you WILL get scammed. I positively guarantee it. Read more about AliExpress scams through the links below. After that, I see now that there are well over a million websites reporting AliExpress scams. Is that enough for you?

This page demonstrates what very often happens when you try to order balloons (or anything else) through AliExpress.
You will encounter nothing but chaos, dishonesty, scams, lies, and theft.

AliExpress Scammers #1

AliExpress Scammers #2

AliExpress Scammers #3

 

And now for Lazada.com Sucks

Open letter to Lazada; this was sent to both email addresses that Lazada lists for customer support:

(1) info@lazada.com, and (2) service@lazada.com

We received no reply from either email because both of these addresses are FAKE. They don't exist. This is the type of BS you are guaranteed to encounter when you attempt to do business with Lazada.com.

Interestingly, I was a registered member of a SE Asian blog site for years. I went into that blog site to see if others were having trouble with Lazada. Of course the Lazada complaints were endless. Pages and pages and uncounted pages of them. I replied to one particularly coherent complaint with an accounting of the above experience. Within a few hours, the site had contacted me and told me they had removed my post, and that if I posted anything negative about Lazada again, my account would be deactivated. Uncounted Lazada complaints still stand on the blog site, yet MINE was removed. I instantly replied to them and told them to deactivate my account immediately, as I could see that the site served no purpose that was of use to me.

Text to Lazada. It is simplified English because SE Asians do not speak nor read English well -- not even the best of them:

 

This is a problem regarding our Lazada order #xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We are now finding an attorney to take you to court.

This item, a 240 volt dehumidifyer, said it was rated for 150 square meters.

The manufacturer, however, states the item is really rated for 4 square meters.

Your seller LIED.

Your seller is a THIEF.

Your seller is a SCAMMER.

But the problem is even worse.

We set this unit up in a room with 65% humidity. After one hour it had not collected one drop of water.

We then asked for a return.

But while we were waiting, we tried the unit for another three hours.

It still didn't collect a single drop of water. Not one drop.

Clearly, the unit is defective, and it is also misrepresented. We have tried this unit in a room with 65% humidity for 23 hours. It collected not one drop of water. This is typical of the broken products we received from you, and which all SE Asians receive from you.

Your seller has refused to accept a return.

I don't care if we must spend 50,000 pesos to take you to court, we will do that, and we will advertise this experience around the world, for the rest of our lives.

We. Don't. Like. Scammers.

And that's what Lazada has become.

End letter.

 

There is no point in sending this. Lazada is too stupid to read it and too dishonest to reply. But we're sending it anyway, by "registered" mail, so Lazada must sign for it. Lazada is absolutely the worst online vendor I've ever struggled with, and I've lived and shopped literally around the world. I have placed multiple orders PER DAY here in SE Asia over the past 7 years for business purposes. I should have returned probably 30% of the faulty, misrepresented items I've received, but I've only actually returned about 3% of the really worst ones. Sometimes the return goes smoothly, but as often as not, it turns into an absolute bloody nightmare that spans months to get resolved. I am currently struggling with one order, and it will be my last from this gaggle of scammers. It was a dehumidifier rated at 150 square meters. The item arrived and seemed far too small to be of use. But we opened the box and set it up. After four hours it had extracted not one drop of water from a room measured at 65% humidity. We then checked the manufacturer's website, and found that it was rated by the maker at 4 square meters. The seller had simply lied. We immediately asked for a return, based on the fact that it (1) didn't work at all, and (2) wouldn't work anyway because we needed it for a regular bedroom sized room. We asked for this return within hours of  receiving the item, and we had shown copies of the empty, water basket, the manufacturer's website, and the seller's lying website specs. The seller promptly denied our return. We then knew it was going to be a bloody nightmare, and it is. Lazada chat has refused to connect to us when we try to initiate a chat. Lazada's phones don't answer -- NONE of them. We have run into exactly this before with Lazada on multiple occasions. In the USA, we'd simply file a chargeback on our VISA card, but things don't seem to work like that with SE Asian banks, which is why we try to avoid SE Asian banks. Unfortunately, Lazada doesn't accept USA VISA cards, probably because they know a screwed-over customer that has been scammed by a lying Lazada seller could get their money back through a USA VISA account. In any case, this will be another fiasco that drags on for months. In the end, we may have to spend 20,000 pesos to drag them into court. Trust us -- we'll do it, because we're weary to the bone of Ladada's scammer sellers, and Lazada's part in assisting their sellers to steal money from customers. We have now, as of today, nine office chairs from various Lazada sellers, all of which have failed, broken, and some have literally collapsed with people sitting in them. We got refunds on one. The list goes on and on and on and on ad nauseam. Yes, if you buy a relatively few things from Lazada, you might get lucky. For awhile. But we guarantee, Lazada will sting you eventually. Lazada is run like everything else here in SE Asia -- like a pack of lings. They don't have the vaguest clue of how to run such a business properly, or even semi-properly, but what's worse is THEY DON'T CARE. They barely have any competition (Shopee, yeah right). So they can act just as badly as they want with virtually no recourse. A couple of years ago we got to this point also, and we demanded in no uncertain terms that Lazada cancel our account and delete it utterly, so we wouldn't be tempted to ever use them again. But Lazada steadfastly refused to delete our account, and we eventually crawled back to trying them again, thinking that in that interim, they MUST have gotten better. Nope -- they got worse. They are now worse than they've ever been. This time we will actually take them to court. Our advice: Do ANYTHING, go to ANY lengths to avoid these pieces of dog crap. They are, in our opinion, nothing but out and out thieves, shysters, scammers and idiots. Now they will never get another damned satang from us. Not one. Not ever. No one needs to deal with this level of dishonesty, incompetence and greed. Lazada is by a wide margin the worst retailer we have ever encountered anywhere in the world. Hands down, Lazada is the worst. 

  

SUMMARY:

I purchased a dehumidifier through Lazada. It was advertised as having a room capacity of 150 square meters. It arrived. It didn't work at all. Then I discovered that the manufacturer of the item rates it for a room of four (4) square meters. That's a closet. I asked the Lazada seller for a refund. They refused. I left negative feedback on Lazada. Lazada removed the feedback and prevented me from leaving new feedback. I tried to enter CHAT mode with Lazada several times, but they never responded to the chat requests. We tried calling every phone number Lazada lists on their website. No phone was answered. I then sent an email to the email address Lazada lists. The email bounced back "No such address". I then read a SE Asian blog site to see if other people were complaining about Lazada. There were too many complaints and horror stories to read. I replied to one and told this story. The site removed it (but not the original complainer's story), and said if I posted a negative story about Lazada again, my account would be terminated. I told blog site to please terminate my account immediately. I will have to hire a lawyer now. Win or lose, I am very, very close to leaving SE Asia. I had a problem similar to this about a year ago with Alibaba. Three balloon sellers took my money but never sent the balloons. Three of them did this. When I asked for refunds, all three declined to refund. I cancelled my Alibaba account. Who owns Lazada? Alibaba. I'm thinking this part of the world is simply too backward to live in.

 

To date Lazada has never replied. This is what Lazada has become. Lazada was nearly worthless before the Alibaba takeoever. Now Lazada is close to being a criminal enterprize. I have returned to the USA because I refuse to live in a society that is mostly criminals, shysters, con-artists, scammers and thieves. This is posted on an American server, from within the USA, where our First Amendment is healthy and strong. In SE Asia, you are prevented from saying ANYTHING negative about any one or any business. Yes, of course, that is utterly insane -- how can people know who to avoid? But in the USA we can still tell the truth and disseminate our opinions. God thank you for that.