I've had four packages in a row achieved an arrived at local airport status and not subsequently arrive at my address. All refunded, so not a financial problem, but a fifth item is showing in Australia now for two weeks.
Is anyone else striking the same problem?
Does anyone know what may be going on with Australia Post or Border?
Not receiving several of my AliExpress packages prompted me to look into this. I haven't missed a package in the last 3 years since.
Yep that is the same reason I use parcel locker for aliexpress.
Local Courier is emerging as favourite for the cause. My nearest locker is a long way off, but research led me to find you can have them delivered free to a convenient Post Office and they will SMS or email when it arrives.
https://auspost.com.au/receiving/parcel-deliveries/parcel-co…
That might push Ali to use Australia Post for items addressed that way???
@RogerLoger: Its a localised issue.
Deliveries for AliExpress arent standard for all of Australia.
As an ex-Aus post employee, parcel lockers are nice but the loading of them and availability is quite location dependant.
Parcel collect works too, except you cant get it out of the lockers 24/7
@Ironic fear: Thanks. I don't need out of hours access. Parcel collect seems a reasonable option to try first.
I had an AliExpress purchase late last year, delivering through Singapore Post and then passing onto Couriers Please when it came to Australia, which can't be delivered to Parcel Locker. Also couldn't get Couriers Please nor the AliExpress seller to change to my home address, and basically got bounced between AliExpress, Singapore Post and Couriers Express. Finally got the refund 3 months later.
So yeah, parcel locker is not always the answer.
Was there any indication that they were going to use non-auspost? I've never seen it before, but I pretty much exclusively buy choice items.
No indication. I actually bought a different item from the same shop previously that got shipped to parcel locker without any issues.
Absolutely no indication.
Most of my AliExpress deliveries get delivered by some weird local couriers with names like FastHorse or iMile.
I rarely get anything from Ali via Auspost.
90% of my AE deliveries don't get delivered by Auspost. No idea who they are but assumed it's the same mob that does ubereats etc. Having said that i have 100% delivery rate for probably over 40 packages
Did you end up getting the 5700X in the end?
I did. But the existing Wraith Stealth cooler proves to be ineffective, still ended up having to acquire a 3rd party cooler (a Thermalright AK120SE). All good now.
@scotty: Good to know re the Wraith Stealth. So many mixed responses online. At least you got the right cooler - Thermalright are awesome for the price.
No problems here. Residential delivery. Several parcels in the last couple of months. All seem to have been aggregated and delivered locally by UCL.
All my iMile handled deliveries are on time but the last time I got UCL it was a month late after landing in Melbourne.
How long have they been at the local airport? Choice or non choice? I've had a few non-Choice sit there for a week or two before moving a long since the seller used cheap shipping.
There is no progress after arriving at local airport. Ali says time's up, how did it go. I claim refund for non-delivery.
Thanks for clarifying. That's disappointing. Was it Choice? Just curious as they have better guarantees for none delivery.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'Choice'. So far, 100% refund from Ali. Before being fully aware of the non-delivery dispute method. I slugged it out with the first seller, trading messages before seeing the option to have Ali intervene. Now I just go straight to Ali Intervening. The refund comes through in seconds. You'd think they'd realise they have problem after four in a row from one buyer!
@RogerLoger: Products and stores have a yellow banner that says Choice and requires a US$9.99 minimum spend for free shipping. These products are fulfilled by AliExpress, while non-Choice are fulfilled by the seller.
It will sit like that for about 2months but they come eventually. Just sit back and enjoy the refund.
The first one was well back into last year. I ordered it's replacement in December. Neither arrived. Two other shipments are missing from January. Refund is good, but when you want parts for things, it's a PITA.
use as excuse to buy new house (hey lovely wife i think its time to move house lets spend $2mil so i can receive all my $30 gadgets from ali)
Yes I had a small package supposedly sitting at the airport (Sydney) from early Feb to Mid April! Couldn't request refund immediately as "still in transit". Eventually refunded via escalation to Ali.
Some parcels are delivered via ARAMEX Australia and can take a long time to move, track with:
https://www.ordertracker.com/track/
Tracking number starts with MS.
That's a useful resource. It does give a little more than Ali: "13th April… Your package has been in transit for 32 day(s)
Delivery is expected in 1-5 days (based on 1000 similar deliveries)". However, none of that shows what's happened since it (or the mail bag it was in) was scanned into Australia.
If anyone wants to use the link and gets a 404 error, try https://www.ordertracker.com
Maybe it's a competition thing? Perhaps AE are after APosts 'winning' reputation for misplacing borrowing stealing losing our sovereign mail?
There was a large discussion on Whirlpool about it. I have had one sitting at the airport for months. I got a refund from Paypal.
That's a long thread! is it worth reading to find a reason?
You can just read the last two or three pages.
Is anyone else striking the same problem?
Yeah had a few go missing.
Also noticed if you order a few items at the same time from different sellers, they get bundled up into one package somewhere between China and here. I assume locally when they arrive as they get a Auspost label on the bag.
When you open the main bag, you find all the individual bags addresses to you.
So wondering if maybe your item got bundled into someone elses bundle?
Who would know? Despite all the advances in tech, the logistics (mail and online shopping component) industry in Straya is one big giant expensive,unreliable,inconsistent under policed incompetence/irregularity playground.
Serial offenders suffer no real consequences. Postal Ombudsman?>LOL. Look at the pathetic compensation for loss and exorbitant insurance APost rips off customers with.
Reliability and delivery should be a default, (it used to be their DNA) not an expensive addon.
That sounds feasible, but four in a row (soon to be five) seems far too high percentage of errors.
Yeah UCL who does the forwarding in Australia has screwed up multiple times for me - sometimes they put the wrong label on a package so items get swapped. For all intents and purposes they are uncontactable too - just gotta hope the seller helps you out.
A handy trick i sometimes use is to put the tracking number into Cainaio Tracking, as they show the destination suburb/town (possibly only works if they’re the actual Chinese shipper, I’m not sure). I’ve had the odd dodgy seller give me someone else’s AU tracking number.
Haven’t bought from Ali for a few months, but was checking prices for random things and damn they have gone up in price
The Aussie dollar hasn't helped. The Trump factor may push it either way. Logically, manufacturers want to find markets, but Ali sellers (as opposed to the website) seem to be mostly Mum & Dad businesses.
You have to keep checking, prices go up and down sometimes every day.
Yeah mine was purchased March 28, has sat waiting to leave origin country from April 5, then arrived on April 16. Nothing since then. My last few non-choice ones haven't arrived either but a choice one did. I thought my address was wrong or something but that one had arrived.
Did you ever order children toys? I received a random package from aliexpress and it was velcro plastic fruit toys for children. I gave it to my nephew so thank you.
You don't need to thank me. The main problem I am getting is with component parts. The oldest are for specific dimension rubber O-rings for rock splitting wedges that I can't source in Australia. I tried getting those via Ali twice. Until mail delivery is reliable again, I am forced to use unsuitable things from a plumbing seal kit. They are far too thin and stretch, so need to be replaced frequently.
I get about 1 delivery a week for AliExpress crap, and can’t think of the last time anything went missing or didn’t arrive. I get a few “not as described” items though.
Same here. If I ever have delivery issues it's non-Choice and suspiciously lower prices
Sounds like a you problem OP.
Elaborate.
Only appears to be happening to the op.
I've ordered 8 items from AliExpress between December and last week and all of them except one arrived in around a week, 1 package took 3.5 weeks. 7 of the 8 packages were delivered by a 3rd party Courier company and only 1 by Australia Post.
I'm now wondering whether Ali swapped to courier, resulting in my local courier service handling the packets. The courier frequently claim unable to deliver and drop at the local Newsagent. We always have someone at home on weekdays, so the story is total BS. When it happens with Amazon, notification comes through (and I give the courier poor feedback via Amazon for failing to attempt to deliver). Australia Post was always good. Whether they are now or it is a private courier issue is the question.
If Ali changed to courier service, lack of notification could be an issue. It's time to ask the Newsagent if he has a collection of packages and what he does if something remains more than x days.
I'm now wondering whether Ali swapped to courier, resulting in my local courier service handling the packets.
I don't believe any of my recent orders have been delivered by Australia Post, it's typically gone to iMile or Fasthorse for last-mile.
Maybe one will arrive one day and I'll know!
One thing I do know is that Australia Post used to have a reciprocal arrangement with China Post. Section 5 of the following:
https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Response%20to%20Austral…
Guess who comes out worst in that deal!
@RogerLoger: China is still a developing nation, don't you know? It is not just Australia that has been screwed by that.
Aliexpress delivery has improved a lot since few years ago when it took forever to receive a parcel. Their prices have gone up but I stick to buying 'choice' items and usually get it delivered to Sydney in 8-10 calendar days.
I was finding that mid last year. I plan not to be in a hurry for Ali stuff, but receiving nothing but refunds for months is a major deterrent. I haven't tried Temu, but, from reading, expect the experience may use the same delivery system.
do you pick the cheapest option or aliexpress' delivery service? I had problems with cheap postage alternatives, so I switched to "via AliExpress standard shipping" and they have always arrived successfully (delivered by AusPost).
Thanks for what looks to be a good tip to try. How recently have you had a successful AP delivery from Ali?
I've got orders coming every week or 2.
I placed orders from 5 different sellers yesterday and the day before, they combined them at the warehouse into 3 packets. I will let you know when they arrive.
2 of 3 have already arrived
I had an order shipped Dec 14 and I assumed it was lost, but it arrived unexpectedly yesterday more than 4 months later.
I'm wondering if it's to do with the size of the package? Anything that I order which has a decent size to it from AliExpress is fine, but any small components have about a 50/50 chance of getting lost. Just got a refund for some microswitches after being MIA for 2+ months.
That's true, I love ordered a small pack of key rings not realizing they were going to ship via snail mail no tracking, ended up arriving maybe 5 months later haha
I had something stuck in airport for more than a month. It eventually arrived…around the same time the replacement that the seller sent out did.
I wonder what the OP is buying…
Mentioned above. Component parts. Small. For a while I was thinking the packets may be slipping through Australia Post's sorting gear, but it seems highly unlikely that would happen to four packets in a row. Swapping delivery from AP to courier is emerging as a likely cause of the problem.
Most of us would get different contract couriers. Most of those would give good service, but some would be bad. From a few year's experience, I rate mine as bad based on Amazon delivery experience. They often don't try delivering to the door and lie about 'incorrectly addressed', leaving me to collect from the newsagent. To compete with Australia Post's slim margin (point 5 in :https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Response%20to%20Australia%20Post%20Proposed%20Price%20Increases%20-%20Matthew%20Cummins%20-%20Marketing%20Web%20-%20Redacted.pdf) they must be bidding ridiculous prices to win contracts. That's their problem, not an excuse to fail in their contracted obligations. Meanwhile, shopping with Ali seems to be nothing for me other than a waste of my time. I need to find an alternative supply of components I need.
I had something j ordered in December arrive recently. I had already been refunded after it was sitting at "arrived in country" or whatever status for over a month. Non-choice item (plastic bench scrapers).
The alternative courier drop-off location is the local newsagent. He retains for 10 days, then it goes back 'RTS'. He handles a lot of packages and has no access to data once they are returned. I had to wait behind a courier collecting 52 parcels, all processed by barcode. With hat volume and using barcodes instead of names, there's no chance of remembering a name.
The lessons:
Australia Post were reliable. Problems seem to come when and if delivery is via courier.
Many couriers are probably good. Some may be more interested in profit than delivering customers' goods (speculation with no proof).
There are options to use other methods of delivery via Choices and Ali mail (untested by me at this time).
There are options to use Australia Post parcel lockers and Australia Post parcel collect (untested by me at the time).
It's really annoying to have an unreliable local courier. I haven't had any issues with ours, iMile, but I see complaints on the local facebook page pretty frequently. Often the proof of delivery is just a picture of a hand holding a parcel, no identifiable location or place. I think a key thing is to complain, eventually pressure will hit the courier company and they'll realise they need to do more than zero training of what is expected of their drivers if they want to keep the contract. Of course the pay is garbage, the pressure is intense, and turnover is high so it may be a while until the situation improves.
To avoid disappointment, avoid ordering during 11.Nov, Christmas, Chinese New Year.
My last few random bits from AliEx have done this. I have gotten most of them, I think, but over a month plus on the already inflated estimates. Long enough that I usually get refunded but yeah it's annoying when you want to use the thing.
My run in the past was 2-3 weeks.
Hoorah! A packet of O-rings ordered in November last year from Ali Express arrived today. It's status was arrived at local airport last year and I received a did not arrive refund last year.
The original intact Ali seller package was re-packed into another pack that had an Emerites Post label on it. The mystery is why an Emirates label.
Ordered something and it’s coming from iMile. Apparently the driver is out for delivery since past 24 hours from a location which is 40 minutes away from my place. Their customer service is awful too so I am stuck in limbo. Do they deliver after hours too?
I've had items deliver on Sundays and all hours of the day so, yes, after hours is entirely possible.
If they haven't delivered within the timeframe, and you've contacted the seller with no luck, Ali is pretty good at refunds.
Use parcel locker