Originally Posted by
mrdelurk
The (unassembled) bike is coming from the bike factory with ocean shipping. I live in Hawaii. The bike will arrive to the port - then what?
Alibaba's draft sales order says, "You’ll have 90 days from shipping and 15 days from customs clearance to confirm the quality of your order". So there is some sort of customs clearance procedure ahead too, I reckon. This is why I asked if anyone knows on this forum how the whole process goes.
With AliExpress, the payments go into an escrow account. After the parts arrive, one has a couple of weeks to leave feedback. If one ignores the feedback, it is assumed to be OK, and the vendor is paid. Or, if one leaves positive feedback, again the vendor is paid.
If one opens a dispute, as apparently
2_i did, then one should be able to get a refund or remediation.
So far my Chinese purchases (E-Bay and AliExpress) have been good enough. I suppose never anything spectacular, nor spectacularly bad. Quality can be all over the board.
I had a thorn up my side a while ago to order some Titanium nipples from Alibaba. I ended up not ordering them. In part because I got responses all over the board. Some wanted to sell me titanium spokes when I had asked for nipples. Based on photos I was sent, some nipples were clearly machined, and probably titanium. Some photos appeared to be cast, and were likely brass (at least in the photos they sent me). Price quotes were all over the place, and not necessarily what was posted on the Alibaba page. Anyway, I ended putting the project on hold.