amkahal wroteGuys, what if the needed product is available on both Aliexpress and DX , and nearly the same price, which is better to buy from ?
Honestly I never tried AliExpress, but it works differently than DX .
AliExpress is basically a showroom for the products, you can also contact the sellers via the website, and most of the time you will open disputes with sellers when order gets delayed, or to cancel order, etc ... (that's what I read
Here on LebGeeks) . Aliexpress is only your portal to these sellers. So if you search enough, you can find the same product from different sellers with different prices, it's like a market basically.
On the other hand, DX has their own storage and warehouses all over the world , primarily being in China . This way you buy things directly from DX. (they have warehouses in USA, Europe and Australia, they call it US-direct or Eu-direct shipment arrives faster this way).
Also DX offers free shipping (with
tracking number if the order is over 15$) on all products while Aliexpress does it only sometimes and not for all the products.
So in my opinion it is safer to use DX.
The only problem is that DX specialises more in tech and electrical stuff ,in opposition to AliExpress that has a bigger and wider variety of stuff you might want to buy .
The only inconvenient with both is the tedious and long times the package takes to arrive.
(Unless you use DHL, but it's a lot more costly this way)
Update 2 years later: (personal experience)
I have nearly entirely switched to Aliexpress, because of the wider and cheaper range of products.
Yes I have had some disputes with sellers when items arrive malfunctioning or when they don't arrive at all.
But I have found some High Quality sellers (such as Ugreen Store, Orico, Blueido) which are a little more expensive than the cheapest items, but you have guaranteed quality and durability.
Most of the time it is free or nearly free (1-2$) shipping.
As for tracking I have come to the conclusion that with items ordered from China you just expect them to arrive 1 or 2 months later.
Sitting home worrying about where it is is just a waste of time, cause tracking is just wrong and weird most of the time on Aliexpress.
I have never paid any custom fees while ordering from Aliexpress or DX.
vegetaleb wroteCustoms are very random but you must consider to pay 20 to 25% of total price of the product + transfer/packaging, customs will check for a ticket price on the package to count the customs if no price are printed on the package then they will open the package to see what is the product and seek a price from local or international shops,that's why if you can convince the seller to print a much lower price it will save you $ on customs
Yes this might work with AliExpress because you can contact the seller,but it's not availble on DX
And Very True , cutoms are very random you cannot predict what will happen .
(unless you order a absurdly big shipment)