If you are a recurring user of aliexpress, it may be that on occasion you have received something that was not as you expected (hence the famous meme “when you order it on Aliexpress vs when it arrives at home”). In these cases, as in other online businesses, we must open a dispute and try to get our money back.
This simple process in some places like Amazon can get a bit choking in the Chinese e-commerce giant, so a series of tips to win these disputes.
How to open a dispute on Aliexpress
If you want to start a return process on Aliexpress, you will have to first follow a series of steps so that the platform is aware of the non-conformity with the product that we have received for reasons of lower than expected quality, incompatibility, defective product, etc.
In disputes, the buyer asks the seller for a full or partial refund of money once the order has been shipped (whether or not it has been received) and these can only occur during the buyer’s protection period, which will generally be 15 days from the moment you receive the product or the estimated duration time passes shipping.
It is recommended that you first try to communicate with the seller to try to reach an agreement and, if you do not reach one, introduce the platform itself in the form of an “official” dispute.
The first thing you will have to do is log in to your account, find the order that the item in question is in in My orders – All orders. Click “View details” to see the details of the order and then click Contact seller to contact the seller, or Open dispute to request a refund.
you can choose between two options for dispute– Goods return, which means you want to return the item and request a full refund, or “Refund Only”, in cases where the item was not received and you are requesting a full refund or you received the item and want a partial refund (without having to return the item).
Tricks for disputes to be accepted
Once we reach this step of the dispute, after not having previously reached an understanding with the seller, there are a series of recommendations for which the platform intercedes on our behalf and is accepted.
The first one is that provide meaningful evidence to support your arguments. You can add them by clicking the “Upload tests” button. The AliExpress team will give you an answer in a few days and the dispute will be pending until then. If you disagree with AliExpress’s decision, you have the possibility to appeal by clicking on “Request” within the dispute status details. As is evident, the higher the quality and the more descriptive the evidence, the easier it is for them to agree with you.
Try to come to the point: in the event that the item received has more than one defect in manufacturing, materials, operation, incompatibilities, erroneous description, etc.) refer mainly to the most visible or obvious. The more obvious the defect, the easier it is to win the dispute. Don’t focus too much on minutiae.
Make the claim in English whenever possible (This in case you don’t know Chinese). If you do it in Spanish, it can lead to a “lost in translation” that makes it difficult for them to understand the reasons expressed by your arguments for the complaint.
Finally, although we have previously explained what the two options are to open a dispute, always choose the “refund only” option. Returns to China can be very expensive and it does not compensate for the return and it is more profitable for you to keep the product broken, defective or whatever. By not compensating so much for possible procedures, customs or costs, always opt for the most favorable option for you. You are the affected.
