tanivula:

 

Have bought 4 Xiaomi phones from Aliexpress (Mi2a/Mi A1/Redmi Note 7/Mi 9SE).  All phones arrived ok, the network bands of the Note 7 wasn't in line with the listing (missing b28). 

 

Be careful of Global ROM's vs Global versions - global ROM means the seller has installed a different ROM to give you the play store etc.  As long as it's a genuine device, you can manually flash official sofware more often than not. I would always recommend Xiaomi.eu roms anyway. 

 

Think I used goldway for 2 of those phone purchases and the Mi Global Store for the other 2. 

 

Also got a Redmi Note 7 from Goldway that said it had Band 28 but didn't. Was a bit annoying but at the same time not that bothered as I use very little data anyway. Good phone apart from that.

Did have a phone go missing. Just had to wait till the expected delivery window expired then got money back no problem. NZ Post said it came in a bag of stuff that had half the stuff missing.

Would get an expensive phone locally, not that I'd get an expensive phone anyway. Daughters phone cost over $1000 and they still break just the same if you drop them on a corner...