Recent Experiences with Aliexpress

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MatthewD

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#272108 9-Jun-2020 21:34

Over the years I have ordered many small items from aliexpress, mostly small electronics components that are hard to find locally. I have had mostly good experiences with the occasional fake tracking number and lost item.

But I just though I would let you guys know that recently, with the Covid 19 thing it has escalated from the occasional item being lost, to everything being missing.

Now I don't really care about the delays... and I am not complaining as such because of obvious reasons, but what does strike me as odd is that all four items landed in the country on the 21st or 22 April and NZ Post claims they don't know anything about them and said that the tracking numbers indicate that they won't be delivered by NZ Post.

This is strange because every item I have ever ordered from Aliexpress has been delivered by NZ Post.

Does anyone know how you can find out which carrier is delivering these packages? I have asked the sellers but I am waiting to hear back (I doubt they would know).

What is also strange is that all of the tracking numbers from the missing items have a similar format, previous packages which have arrived have started with LE and finished with CN.

Here are the missing items tracking numbers in case anyone is interested...

LP00169936399264

LP00166213946313

LP00169868662651

LP00167746634248

I would like to offer a bit of advice to new Aliexpress users, if you check the tracking and it says it arrived in the country one of two things will happen... it will arrive within about a week, or it won't arrive at all and you will be stuck with a message saying "accepted by last mile carrier".

Now, something else that is interesting is when you call NZ Post, there is a recorded message that says that new items should be delivered in 3 days, but they are still working through a backlog of items from the lock down. Which raises some questions to say the least...

I find this interesting because shouldn't all mail be delivered on an oldest item first basis?

Perhaps these items are sitting in a huge warehouse somewhere at the bottom of a pile that nobody bothered to scan?

Any thoughts are welcome :)

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446 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2501744 9-Jun-2020 21:42

I have had a few items delayed significantly, in fact I recently got refunds for two of them. Then out of the blue one of them got delivered by NZ post yesterday. I think that there are a lot of items sitting with a freight forwarder in Auckland.

MightyApe

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MatthewD

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2501746 9-Jun-2020 21:44

Thanks for the reply... I figured I wasn't the only one (to say the least) :)

Oblivian

6659 posts

Uber Geek

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#2501753 9-Jun-2020 21:59

Track17 and https://chinapost-track.com/ is primo for this

Yanwen post - chinapost shows you the round the world trip it has taken. (Czech post!)

https://t.17track.net/en#nums=LP00166213946313

That doesn't even look like they have been accepted into AKL. While the other has lots of transfer tickets.

Like UY144505464CZ - https://global.cainiao.com/detail.htm?mailNoList=UY144505464CZ&spm=a3708.7860688.0.d01

(CN - origin port, china - start prefix = carrier specific normally)

Might give you something to go on if it has translated

Nate001

529 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2501756 9-Jun-2020 22:06

MatthewD:

I find this interesting because shouldn't all mail be delivered on an oldest item first basis?

Perhaps these items are sitting in a huge warehouse somewhere at the bottom of a pile that nobody bothered to scan?

My take on NZ Post's logic - "If its already 4 weeks late, whats another 2 weeks extra? If that means new parcels entering the system today are delivered on time."

I've had items with the LP format you have randomly show up after I was convinced they were lost, months after they shipped.

Batman

Mad Scientist
28002 posts

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#2501775 9-Jun-2020 22:34

tracking number means nothing

- for example can be a number of a random parcel (not your parcel)

no goods get refund

Involuntary autocorrect in operation on mobile device. Apologies in advance.

Bung

4619 posts

Uber Geek

#2501776 9-Jun-2020 22:39

MatthewD:

Now I don't really care about the delays... and I am not complaining as such because of obvious reasons, but what does strike me as odd is that all four items landed in the country on the 21st or 22 April and NZ Post claims they don't know anything about them and said that the tracking numbers indicate that they won't be delivered by NZ Post.

On May 21st NZ Post were saying that after nothing arrriving during L4 they got swamped. I don't know how aliexpress traders make any money sending so many small packages.

"It received over 3.5 million parcels in the first two weeks of level 3. More than 3.2 million have been delivered but they couldn't all be sent in one go, they say.

Items ordered online from now on won't be held with the backlog and will move through the network as normal, meaning these could arrive before something you ordered weeks ago. It says deliveries to Auckland and the Waikato could take up to 10 days, but nationally it is delivering most items within four days. "

lucky015

732 posts

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#2501780 9-Jun-2020 23:19

Made a bunch of orders in the evening of 29/05, One arrived today with most of the others having just reached NZ also.

I've always found Aliexpress Standard Shipping to be far quicker than any of the other cheapo shipping methods but it certainly seems to apply now more than ever.

davidcole

5535 posts

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#2501796 10-Jun-2020 06:31

I’ve had one refendunded that expired purchase protection. Most are listed as left country of origin. One accepted by last mile. But that was two weeks ago.

I’m expecting I’ll need refunds from all.

Not sure when it will sort itself if ever.

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SirHumphreyAppleby

1987 posts

Uber Geek

#2501798 10-Jun-2020 07:02

This thread really isn't about AliExpress, it's about Yanwen freight. They are one of the cheapest options, and at the best of times are very slow. I believe the items are handed to NZ Post.

My orders using AliExpress Standard Shipping have been arriving in around 10 days via NZ Post, but I've had previous orders turn up via Post Haste IIRC. China Post varies, but larger items have been coming in at around two weeks, again via NZ Post. Small packages are taking a long time. One item from January is now supposedly with NZ Post and I've extended Purchase Protection on another item by 14 days based on NZ Post's claim to have cleared their backlog.

I wouldn't trust a word NZ Post tells you quite frankly. I've had mail delayed in excess of a week and they consider that perfectly acceptable, despite their three day claims on their site, and mail delivery certainly doesn't occur reliably in my area.

LostBoyNZ

503 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2501805 10-Jun-2020 08:05

Batman:

tracking number means nothing

- for example can be a number of a random parcel (not your parcel)

no goods get refund

Absolutely agree. I've had numerous experiences where the tracking number was for someone else's order, in NZ but not even the same city.

Renting Virtual Reality gear New Zealand wide since 2013 - https://www.virtualrealityrental.co.nz/

davidcole

5535 posts

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#2501807 10-Jun-2020 08:12

I mean I'm looking at one now from 22 March.....

Another from 14 April

All just lost to the ether. They're just starting to come up for ending buyer protection

richms

25269 posts

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#2501814 10-Jun-2020 08:24

Last mile carrier is the consolodator that puts them into bags to go to various countries, its not NZ post. The consolodator will put a new label on it with a return address by the airport in NZ, send the whole lot to NZ and then dump it into NZ posts stream somewhat presorted for them to deliver. When there is no cheap planes to NZ right now, their sacks of parcels sit in China waiting for one. Eventually they leave but all that time the tracking will say last mile carrier because its been passed to them from the shipping agent in Shenzhen or wherever.

China freight is weird to get the low prices. If you just walk into a freight office over there to send something, it will cost the same as it does to go from here to the US or similar. Its only thru the consolidators and similar agents that they get the good prices to offer free shipping here. And with no planes coming with space on them, they're not able to get that anymore, so many things I have bought they have asked the difference to take it up to one of the faster shipping methods or they would just cancel the sale.

Richard rich.ms

MatthewD

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2502398 10-Jun-2020 17:00

Well thanks for all of the replies.

The two most important things I have learnt is to avoid the cheapo shipping and go with aliexpress standard or better, and that "accepted by last mile carrier" doesn't mean its even in the country!

It's also nice to know who the carrier is (Yanwen). I found a comment on another site that says "Ignore all Yanwen tracking, it's pretty much worthless. It will not be tracked once it enters the postal system"

So perhaps the most important thing is that Chinese tracking, much like Chinese politics is 100% corruption.

Cheers,
Matt.

Journeyman

914 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#2502434 10-Jun-2020 18:12

Another problem with tracking is that often the parcel doesn't get scanned by NZ Post when it arrives in NZ. So it'll just turn up in your box one day out of the blue. I'm not sure that's strictly related to Yanwen though, it seems to happen with a variety of their shippers.

ger0in

39 posts

Geek

#2515931 1-Jul-2020 22:41

@MatthewD

LP00169936399264
LP00166213946313
LP00169868662651
LP00167746634248

These appears to be Cainiao tracking numbers.
Have same shipping career chosen, none of the packages ordered in early March arrived.
Although there was one from China post and it was delivered in April.
Wonder if anyone in NZ received items from cainiao.

Have you received your packages?

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