Sellers even drop ship from AliExpress and similar sites. Basically every time the shipping is quoted longer than a week it’s probably drop shipped from one of the Chinese sites. They add $5-$10 to the price and take their cut without ever touching the product.
dangblingus@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Amazon is literally aliexpress but with a more sophisticated UI.
Nothing but absolute shit chinese knock off products. No longer can you get the same kind of savings like you could in the past. You’re basically paying full retail now, plus prime or shipping.
tacosplease@lemmy.world 1 year ago
SamHandwich@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
I canceled my prime membership and stopped using Amazon entirely after I ordered something that turned out to be drop shipped straight from Walmart. But online shopping in general is a nightmare these days.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Prime AND shipping half the time these days.
llama@midwest.social 1 year ago
More than full retail most of the time! They’re not even bothering to compete with Walmart or Target anymore on the same products.
thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
Ali has good stuff depending on what you’re buying. Amazon usually has the exact same stuff for like 50% more
tacosplease@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I used to shop exclusively on Banggood. At the time AliExpress was sketchy.
A few years ago they flip flopped. Now Banggood is hot garbage, and AliExpress isn’t bad.
Gearbest, Temu, and Wish were always bad in my experience.
Krauerking@lemy.lol 1 year ago
Temu is weird. They really are willing to sell stuff at a lost to garner market share and I’m sure there are some legitimately astounding deals if done right but also I’m just as likely to spend several days hunting and planning it out how to do so and still get shit on by a scam product anyways… so I avoid it but I know I’m losing out a chance to get a mini win.
LukeMedia@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yeah, unless I need something ASAP, I usually only buy name brands, but not expensive items on Amazon. Other stuff I go to Ali for and just wait a little longer. Expensive stuff I buy in person or directly from the manufacturer when possible. Recently I’ve been trying to supplement Amazon purchases with small businesses where possible.
thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
Exactly. My hobby is making my own smart devices, and I can get 10x of one sensor from Ali for the cost of 1x from Amazon.
jaybone@lemmy.world 1 year ago
But ali takes like 2 months to ship.
thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com 1 year ago
No it doesn’t. It usually takes 10 days for me. Sitting in US customs is like 5-6 days of that time, too.
ikidd@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Not sure what you buy off Ali, but nearly everything I used to buy for electronic/robotic projects has gotten to the price that I might as well buy off NA suppliers.