Alli Express

detec52

Pedelecer
Jan 14, 2011
43
4
Has anyone purchased from the said shop, seems very cheap for batteries ect I take it this place is in China? So would there be tax ect to add. Anyone?
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,451
16,916
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
Taxes are added at the checkout stage.
 

thelarkbox

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 23, 2023
1,252
385
oxon
Yeah, caution and skepticism are best practiced when shopping via aliexpress. you will get charged vat etc but its unlikely to find its way into hmrc hands. but you can save a few quid .
The sellers can be in china, russia, and other places you may not want to send money too.
And if its priced like a fake it IS A FAKE, and dont trust batteries from there even rechargable cycle lights will probably run out of juice half way down the rd, mine do.. tho the £2.31 pannier bags are still going strong not even a zip failure (yet)
for example if an aliexpress ad for a kt controller fails to state its a sine wave controller you can virtually guarantee its a cheaper square wave controller while more local suppliers may not even stock the square wave variety
 
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Az.

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 27, 2022
2,092
932
Plymouth
False economy.

Battery I bought was dead on arrival. I bought from seller based in UK and it was replaced at no extra cost. Good luck with that if you buy directly from China.

I don't think AliExpress is a shop. It looks to me more like Amazon Marketplace.
 
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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,981
8,565
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West Sx RH
Aliexpress is a giant market place , it is the retail site of the Alibaba group.
Post a link to any battery one is considering to get the low down and views from the forum.
 

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
7,005
3,241
Telford
Generally, it's OK and a good source of cheap stuff. I buy loads of things from there. The listing says if taxes are included if they are, which is now many of the items. If it says shipped from China and no mention of taxes, then you might get a bill when it arrives in the UK, but generally only if you paid something like more than £100. Small items, like controllers never get taxed. batteries often do, but not always.

Use Aliexpress if you can't get the item from Ebay. Often the Ebay price is the same, but taxes are already paid, so no hassle.
 

Peter.Bridge

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 19, 2023
1,328
609
Bought a few things off AliExpress - battery mount, hydraulic brakes, tools, Bafang rear hub kit (came from Poland but was significantly cheaper than ebay)- all been fine so far - no duty to pay so far. Try to use trusted retailers, topbikekit, greenergy etc where I can
 

guerney

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 7, 2021
11,531
3,277
75% of my AliExpress purchases arrived not as described :mad:

This is 12-24V, not 12-80V. I failed to get refunded by Paypal.



Instead of leather earpads, I received velour. No response from the seller.



They sent me the wrong switch:



This is ok.



I'm awaiting two more items, ordered because they're unavailable on ebay. With it's 75% failure rate thus far, I will probably never buy something as important as a battery from AliExpress.
 
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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,981
8,565
61
West Sx RH
One can get some quite good prices on Ali Exp, though one may have to hunt for them amongst the many 10's of sellers.
I was after an eyepiece for my telescope , the UK price was £89 from most of the usual optical sellers. I procurred a new one for £57 delivered via Ali Exp.
 

portals

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 15, 2022
675
188
AliExpress is OK for some things IMHO, for example I have bought quite a few spares for my CR6-SE 3D printer, most recently full hotend spares for £25, crazy cheap (bought two), at least 50% cheaper than most other sources.



55142
 

portals

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 15, 2022
675
188
Like I said AliExpress is OK for some things.

I would buy a hub kit after researching but never a battery.