AliExpress shopping advice?

[tamada]

I am interested to hear the online shopping experiences from any members who have purchased from AliExpress. Payments, conversion rates, delivery times, etc..

Looking at a particular Nokia smartphone that's not available in Thailand. It is on the UK market but has a lower spec.

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tam

[jackspratt]

I have bought phones from AliExpress without any problems. That goes for 99% of the other purchases I have made from them.

Prices are good, I pay with my Oz credit card so have to accept that exchange rate. For smaller purchases, I pay COD with Thai Baht.

Delivery is generally good (3 - 10 days), except during peak sale times, including the fast approaching Black Friday sales, and also New Year and Chinese New Year sales. For a phone, you may or may not cop 7% VAT here - the luck of the draw.

However, you need to vet your seller(s) very carefully. My mate down south bought what he thought was a great value brand name phone, literally 1000s (Baht) under the going price. Specs were fantastic, but all (very cleverly disguised) bullshite.

He got a refund from AliE.

Also compare specs very carefully, as Chinese versions may have different operating systems, cutting out of full Android apps (Play Store etc). You need to look for International/Global version ROMs before you proceed, unless you are confident enough to flash your own ROM after getting the phone.

As a final issue, can can almost kiss goodbye any thought of warranty, unless you get it from a highly rated vendor eg Nokia Official store itself.

[tamada]

Cheers js, loads of very relevant info there. The price quoted is the same as if I waited for it to show up on the UK market in Q2 next year so it's not a "too good to be true" offer. I'll double-check on the network specs though. At first glance it's the same as my current Nokia, bought in UK, works here and the countries I visit regularly. Nokia has two factories in China and a third in Korea so these will probably be export models (shows all the language modules available). But I'll ask about the play store thing. It comes with a 1-year warranty.

[tamada]

Thanks js.