Hi everyone!

There’s a collectible figure I want to buy on AliExpress. The figure was officially released in July, and I found a seller offering it for a pretty good price.

The seller seems relatively trustworthy:

• The figure has been ordered 140+ times
• There are already reviews from buyers, but without photos
• The store has been open since 2021
• The store has a 97.2% positive rating

However, there’s one thing that makes me hesitant: the listing is still marked as a pre-order, even though the figure has already been released.

The listing currently says the release date is August 31. So I'm also confused about what exactly that means. If I order it now, does that mean August 31 is when the seller will ship the figure, or is it supposed to arrive at my address on August 31?

And if the figure was already released in July, why is this particular listing still being treated as a pre-order?

Is this normal on AliExpress? Is there any additional risk with buying a collectible this way? And how exactly do AliExpress pre-orders work in terms of buyer protection, shipping deadlines, refunds, etc.?

I'm considering buying it, but I don't want to end up in a situation where the seller keeps delaying the shipment or my buyer protection expires before I actually receive the figure.

If anyone has experience buying collectible figures through AliExpress pre-orders, I'd really appreciate some advice!

Thanks!

Ordered a pretty expensive Topton mini PC back in early July. Long story short, the logistics were an absolute nightmare. The parcel sat in a transit hub container in the Netherlands (PostNL, who are shocking btw) for an entire month without moving, completely blowing past the standard delivery estimates.

​When it hit 30+ days with zero delivery, I opened an Item Not Received dispute through PayPal Credit. This is where the standard dispute runaround started.

​Every time the resolution target date approached, PayPal's automated system pushed the decision date back to give the seller more time. The target date got moved five separate times (from the 4th, to the 8th, 16th, 22nd and eventually all the way to the 28th).

​Meanwhile, the seller and Ali Express support was completely unresponsive and refused to provide any useful updates.

​Instead of waiting for automated timers to keep resetting indefinitely, I escalated directly over the heads of frontline support. I sent a formal notice directly to PayPal’s Executive Escalations and UK complaints desk, outlining:

​The merchant breached the statutory 30-day delivery limit under UK consumer law (Section 28, Consumer Rights Act 2015).

​Joint liability under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

​An immediate demand for a final deadlock letter to take the case straight to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

​The Result:

Within hours, a caseworker from the Global Customer Complaints & Advocacy team took over the case, bypassed the standard dispute countdown, and issued a full refund. Formal final response deadlock letters were issued, and the case was permanently closed in my favour.

​To top it all off, the tracking finally updated, the parcel only just cleared customs at the international hub after 47 days in transit, right after the refund landed.

​Key Takeaways if you're stuck in dispute limbo:

​Always use PayPal / Credit protection: Never use direct debit or raw card details if you can avoid it.

​Track the statutory delivery window: In the UK, sellers legally have 30 days to deliver unless agreed otherwise. Once that passes, the purchase contract is legally breached.

​Don't let platform timers roll forever: If support keeps kicking the can down the road with rolling resolution dates, bypass front-line chat and hit executive complaints / regulatory escalation channels.

I ordered a Spider-man BND blokee from AliExpress on July 31. Payment went thru, of course, and they sent updates in transit, but since Aug 4 it’s stuck in customs.

Has this been the norm for anyone else ordering off that site? They’ve since sent a coupon lol but u can’t get a refund until Aug 31.

This has been my second try in getting this figure, after I bought it off Nerdzoic and it was in limbo I got a partial refund.

After the EU 3EUR tax was introduced a lot of the items that I previously purchased before July are currently shown as "item's currently unavailable in your location" and I cannot find AliExpress stores that are selling them. Any idea why's that? Is it somehow related to the new tax or it's just bad luck with items that have gone out of stock?

I have never had any of my orders held in custom inspection for so long as all of them have generally been pretty quick to deliver. However, my recent model kit order was slower than usual, and now I have a doll blind box stuck in customs. I was really excited for this one, and wanted to kms when I saw the customs delayed longer than usual notification for the FIRST TIME.

Since the sellers and AliExpress generally just tell you to wait until the timeframe is up for a refund, I did my own research and found that there are new custom rules for toys and dolls triggering automatic holds? (In Australia, for reference).

Does anyone have a collectible stuck in customs right now, or has anybody had the same experience? How long did it take?

Today, my bank finally approved a chargeback for a return where AliExpress claimed I never sent the item back.

I promised myself that once all my cases were closed, I’d share my story and a few hard-earned tips. Whether you’re a total newbie or a seasoned shopper, I hope this saves you time, money, and sanity.

Disclaimer: Everything here is strictly my personal opinion based on my recent experience, though judging by this subreddit, I’m far from the only one going through this.

Background

Four months ago, I started a few DIY projects. Within two months, I bought around 200 items on AliExpress and ended up opening 8 return/refund requests. My account had been registered back in 2023, but I barely used it before this recent buying spree.

Here is what I learned the hard way: AliExpress does not protect buyers. Their strategy is to ensure you accept what they consider a "tolerable" percentage of defective items. When arbitrating disputes, they will often ignore your evidence entirely to protect Chinese sellers.

The Good, the Bad, and the Absurd

1. The Easy Cases

- Local Return: My first return request was for a $20 item that didn't match the technical specs. AE gave me a local return address in my country, and the refund went through smoothly.

- Cheap Items: Two other refunds were granted without requiring a return because the items were around $3 each.

- Partial Refund: I accepted a partial refund for a microscope. The stand was flimsy, but the scope itself worked fine, so we called it a day.

2. The Fake SD Cards

Guided by common sense, I ordered two 32GB SD cards, expecting decent budget cards. Tests showed their actual capacity was only 4GB. AE initially tried to reject my claim for "lack of evidence." I uploaded a continuous video showing me unboxing the package and running a capacity test from start to finish. They finally refunded my $16.

3. The Return Evidence Black Hole

This is where the nightmare started. AE asked me to return a defective item to an address in Hong Kong. AE’s internal tracking never updated and showed as if I had never shipped it—even though third-party services like 17track and ParcelApp tracked it all the way to destination.

When it arrived, both AE and Seller support assured me: "Yes, dear customer, we received your package, please just wait for inspection." Imagine my outrage when the deadline passed, and AE closed the dispute, claiming I "failed to provide sufficient proof of return."

Notice they didn't say the package wasn't delivered—they claimed I lacked proof. So, I requested official confirmation from my national postal service. Thanks to great support from Hong Kong Post, they provided official proof of delivery, including a photo and the recipient's signature.

I uploaded it all. AE Support’s response? They claimed it was still insufficient and demanded an obscure document that no postal service would ever issue to a consumer.

At first, I considered reporting the recipient for theft to the Hong Kong Police. But realizing how impractical that was, I went straight to my bank to initiate a chargeback. My bank issued a temporary credit and launched a Visa dispute. Today, Visa officially ruled in my favor.

4. The Partial Refund Trap

On my next return request, AE only offered a full return—a nightmare scenario given my previous experience. I contacted the seller directly, and they offered a $5 partial refund on a $20 item. I accepted, but the seller started asking for my PayPal email.

Knowing the risks of off-platform payments, I refused, reopened the dispute on AE, and attached a screenshot of the seller's $5 offer. AE approved the resolution and started the countdown.

Then came the spam. The seller messaged me daily, begging me to close the dispute and promising a direct refund through AE if I did. Foolishly, I closed it. The moment I closed the dispute, the seller sent me a discount coupon for my next purchase instead of money.

Lesson learned.

My Buyer Tips for AliExpress

Avoid bottom-of-the-barrel prices.

Every product has a base cost (manufacturing, commissions, margins, logistics). If a standard item costs $20 everywhere, but one seller lists it for $15, you are almost guaranteed to receive a defective or wrong item.

Exception: Official stores of established brands (like Ugreen, Alientek, FNIRSI) often run genuine deep-discount sales.

Be careful with massive seller coupons (non-Choice orders).

In one instance, after applying a large coupon, the seller suddenly claimed the item was "out of stock" (despite showing stock prior to purchase).

In another, I received a cheaper ESP32 board without an external antenna connector instead of the model I paid for. AE closed the dispute citing "insufficient evidence." It felt less like a fulfillment mistake and more like the seller offsetting the deep discount.

Don't buy overly complex electronics without technical tools.

Before buying, think like an engineer. What are the failure points? Is that price realistic?

Do you actually have the equipment to test the claims? If you buy a "120W" phone charger, do you have a USB power meter to verify it? If not, you won't be able to prove a scam to support.

Check local marketplaces first.

You might be surprised to find the exact same items sold locally with fast shipping and real consumer protection for nearly the same price (or even cheaper).

Conclusion & Future Alternatives

The platform's implicit strategy is simple: let sellers unload a certain volume of low-quality or fake stock, betting that buyers will get exhausted after arguing with customer support for two months over a few dollars.

My alternative for future tech purchases?

I’m switching to forwarding agents / buying agents in China.

- They offer warehouse inspection and photo verification before items leave China.

- They allow purchasing directly from domestic Chinese marketplaces (like Taobao or 1688) at lower base prices.

- Consolidating multiple orders into a single shipment offsets shipping costs while taking the headache out of dispute handling.

So i bought a SSD for 21 dollars, 1TB, i shown up tonight and its barely reaching 12mb when copying files. They said if you want the full refund i have to send it back, sigh, so i got half the refund, 9.98. Never again.