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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)
HarbDevLeb, after seeing you package's outside state, do you think ordering with DHL off any other website will cause the same thing?
Johnaudi wroteHarbDevLeb, after seeing you package's outside state, do you think ordering with DHL off any other website will cause the same thing?
No, shipping with DHL should not cause the same thing , as you will be paying more than 30$ just on shipping sometimes a lot more than that (up to hundreds) , but usually from DX you get random numbers , one time it was 13$ , and most the times 50$. But it should greatly reduce the damage the damages on the package.
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
How does that happen? Where to pay? I am considering shipping something from Japan...
By the way anyone ever tried usa2me or myus?
They're both International Mail Forwarding Services, and give you an address in the US for a certain monthly fee starting from 0$. You can use it to buy goods from US online retailers like Amazon or Google Play that doesn't have shipping option to Lebanon.
I was thinking of buying the OnePlus phone. The whole process would cost around 400$ with Bronze Plan from usa2me.

Aly mentioned that Aramex have the same option. Can you provide more information about the service?
5 days later
I paid 53 $ for an item costing 35$ to be shipped on DHL but after the item arrived DHL asked for another 22$ : ( they claimed it's for Lebanese customs , when i checked the billing details see what i found .
FluxBB bbcode test

it looks like DHL is happy with Lebanese customs because they get more money from us for nothing.
so if the item is not urgent don't order using DHL because you will end up paying more than twice the item price.
Good one on "Customs Overtime" and VAT 10% on Customs Overtime...
solo220 wroteI paid 53 $ for an item costing 35$ to be shipped on DHL but after the item arrived DHL asked for another 22$ : ( they claimed it's for Lebanese customs , when i checked the billing details see what i found .
http://i.imgur.com/cAPdGCG.jpg

it looks like DHL is happy with Lebanese customs because they get more money from us for nothing.
so if the item is not urgent don't order using DHL because you will end up paying more than twice the item price.
@solo220, 53-35= 18$ is the shipping fee (per KG, for DHL)
the rest is for the lebanese customs which is insane, sometimes its very low, sometimes its very high (usually high)
once i ordered a backpack for 50$ it costed 100$ (they counted it as 2 KG + customs fees...)
@ironman my problem was that DHL is charging 11.6$ for clearance not the customs , they lied about that the customs taking the 22$, customs duty was 1.76$ only which is reasonable.
the funny thing is that there is vat on whatever you pay , i wonder why they didn't take 10% vat on vat . :-P
solo220 wrote@ironman my problem was that DHL is charging 11.6$ for clearance not the customs , they lied about that the customs taking the 22$, customs duty was 1.76$ only which is reasonable.
the funny thing is that there is vat on whatever you pay , i wonder why they didn't take 10% vat on vat . :-P
yea, you are right, but unfortunately, there is no other way to ship from the US to lebanon...
you know whats worse than that? when i buy from ebay, i pay commission to the paypal guy, shipping from the US to the US, then shipping from the US to lebanon, just crazy.
2 months later
Can anyone share his Billing Address form? I read that it should be your Lebanese address and not your virtual mailbox address. I am curious on how to fill in this address ... Does it work if I fill in anything inside?
themike10452 wroteCan anyone share his Billing Address form? I read that it should be your Lebanese address and not your virtual mailbox address. I am curious on how to fill in this address ... Does it work if I fill in anything inside?
I usually fill it with the same address I filled on my credit card application form.
themike10452 wroteCan anyone share his Billing Address form? I read that it should be your Lebanese address and not your virtual mailbox address. I am curious on how to fill in this address ... Does it work if I fill in anything inside?
Usually I use this form for my billing adress:

[Floor], [Building's Name or No.]
[Street Name], [Area]
[City], [Country]

Example:
2nd Floor, Al Khatir Bld,
Brasil Street, Hamra
Beirut, Lebanon
silverfox wrote
themike10452 wroteCan anyone share his Billing Address form? I read that it should be your Lebanese address and not your virtual mailbox address. I am curious on how to fill in this address ... Does it work if I fill in anything inside?
Usually I use this form for my billing adress:

[Floor], [Building's Name or No.]
[Street Name], [Area]
[City], [Country]

Example:
2nd Floor, Al Khatir Bld,
Brasil Street, Hamra
Beirut, Lebanon
Amazon requests a ZIP Code as well ...
themike10452 wrote
silverfox wrote
themike10452 wroteCan anyone share his Billing Address form? I read that it should be your Lebanese address and not your virtual mailbox address. I am curious on how to fill in this address ... Does it work if I fill in anything inside?
Usually I use this form for my billing adress:

[Floor], [Building's Name or No.]
[Street Name], [Area]
[City], [Country]

Example:
2nd Floor, Al Khatir Bld,
Brasil Street, Hamra
Beirut, Lebanon
Amazon requests a ZIP Code as well ...
The Lebanese standard ZIP Code is 9999 9999.

A tip: Include your phone number in the address, like in the Address line 2: CALL 76 899 ...
5 days later
nuclearcat wroteIt is funny that most of Lebanese people don't know that zip codes exists for their country :)
For example Dawra - 1202.
I grabbed once list from some website and added to my wiki:
https://nuclearcat.com/mediawiki/index.php/Lebanon_postal_codes
There's no point in them, for shipping purposes I always use 9999 9999 including the city's name.
nuclearcat wroteIt is funny that most of Lebanese people don't know that zip codes exists for their country :)
For example Dawra - 1202.
I grabbed once list from some website and added to my wiki:
https://nuclearcat.com/mediawiki/index.php/Lebanon_postal_codes
Except that zip codes in Lebanon are 8 digit codes (first 4 are the region and last 4 which only libanpost knows are the building). I recall @Samer saying that you can call libanpost to get your full postal code. But I don't see a point if other shipping services don't know it.
I recall @Samer saying that you can call libanpost to get your full postal code. But I don't see a point if other shipping services don't know it.
Indeed, I compared my 8 digit postal code (that I got from Liban Post) to the list that nuclearcat posted, it seems it's a different system entirely. I have no idea which one is still actively used. The nice thing though is that usually they assign the same mail man to area, so if you started shipping things often, the guy will recognize you by name. Your goal then is to get the item to the right Liban Post distribution center (the one nearest to your house).
Just FYI. Got today insider info that because people lately buy all commodity stuff on aliexpress - customs going to charge high fees for all packages coming from China. When it will start - i don't know.