looks like the ali seller did a dirty ?

original listing showed a unit with a 220v label.

what arrived was a 110v unit.

i have probably bought about 100 items through aliexpress. several arrived damaged and the sellers have refunded costs upon me posting a photo of the damage. 1 didn't want to so i lodged a dispute. ali knocked that back as not enough evidence - how do you show that something that is meant to stick, doesn't? the seller was very concerned about negative feedback and refunded US$5 of a cost of $12 and gave an option which ended up working and cost me $3. the other transaction was the one with your US seller which because of exchange rates cost me a few dollars.
overall it has been significantly in my favour and i have no hesitation buying.
the shipping tracker is a joke!
but as with all things it is the responsibility of the buyer to do their due diligence.

as an aside - 3yrs ago i went to a wedding in northland and left my straw hat behind. it was going to cost $9 to post it back to me with no guarantees re the condition it would arrive in. i bought 2 on aliexpress and with shipping from china the cost was US$5! crazy!

Jun 23, 2017 17:29:12 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

I'm not that clear on the voltage matter....
Was the listing description unclear?
Or was communications with seller difficult or unclear?

The 2nd matter is the seller asking for more postage $$.

1.  The listing showed photographs of the US cleaner, one of which clearly showed the spec label stating it was for 220V 50Hz
2.  The description was not unclear to me, and while the specifications listed stated the device worked on either 220 or 110V, I relied on the photo, and also assumed (my bad again) that an experienced exporter - the listing stated seller had been with AliExpress 6 years - would know (or would ask) that different countries used different voltages.  A simple Google check by the seller would,have supplied the correct info.
3.  Being new to AliExpress I did not know how the messaging set up worked.  I did message the seller before bidding, believing it would work like the TradeMe set up, but instead got a reply asking what item I was referring to and asked for a link to the listing.  I did not at that time know how to post a link from an iPad (since found out), so took a punt and clicked on buy.

I have since found that some sellers listings have boxes to click on to select voltage and plug type - the seller I was dealing with did not have that option on their listing.  In hindsight, I should have messaged after hitting buy to make sure and not relied on the photograph.

Since the deal went sour, the seller changed their listing, and it is now clear they are selling 110V devices only, and have deleted the photo showing 220V.

I raised  a dispute on the basis the item was not as described. Some useful information from that process.  I had assumed (always bad) that AliExpress people would look at everything to do with the transaction, but they do not.  They specifically said they do not look at messages between buyer and seller.
Fortunately a screen shot of the original listing is retained under "My Orders", but is up to the buyer to prove the issue, and not rely on messages between parties,

Still waiting for AliExpress to rule on that dispute.

The first attempt at buying happened to be with the same seller Citroen and rocl dealt with, and the seller asked for more money for shipping.  I had found info on the AliExpress website that said sellers must not seek payment direct and that all payments must be made through AE.  So I challenged that seller and he replied implying they knew it was wrong and would send the item anyway.  Days went by with no indication of shipping, I asked what was happening and they replied they would ship by sea freight as it was cheaper!  I asked for more information, they did not reply, so I asked the deal be cancelled, which they did but I had to raise a dispute to expedite the refund.

Finally AliExpress have ruled on the dispute. They agree the complaint was valid and offered two solutions. -

1. Return the item at my expense and get full refund;
2. Keep item and get 50% refund.

It would cost me $143 to ship back to China via EMS/NZPost, and as item cost $216 ($161US$) that solution lost me more money! So, just over $80US is on its way to me.

Now, either I keep the item and buy a step down transformer, or list e.g. on eBay to sell to North America. I think keeping it may be more cost effective!

Or, sell on ebay to an American buyer & buy 240v version.

Make postage attractive to USA buyer & price overall to recover close to what you paid hopefully.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Jun 30, 2017 23:35:10 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

Or, sell on ebay to an American buyer & buy 240v version.

Make postage attractive to USA buyer & price overall to recover close to what you paid hopefully.

Will cost $171.15 to send to USA, and to recover costs will need to sell for close to $300 all up, and USA buyers can get them cheaper than that from AliExpress!

Plus there is the hassle of registering with eBay and PayPal, which is something I am reluctant to engage in!

Will get a step down transformer and sell them together locally - putting up notices on our local notice boards and in the local paper.

And/or on DarkLantern!

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Jul 1, 2017 11:21:35 GMT 12 Owen Y said:

And/or on DarkLantern!

Ok, will list here in due course, but will wait for refund to arrive  so I can set a price to cover my outlay.

In meantime have ordered and paid for  a Model PS30, identical to the PS30A except it has knobs instead of push buttons, with timer and heater controlled mechanically rather than digitally - less to go wrong!  This seller had boxes to check to select voltage and plug type!  Obviously I selected 220V and an Aus/NZ plug.

Cost $182US shipped, which came to $255.80 on my Visa a/c.

Wow, just used the BNZ foreign exchange rate calculator - 182US = 235NZ, so the bank must charge a fee of $20 to convert my payment to US $!

Neither Visa nor Paypal will give you a top exch rate - you'd get only around US$0.71, no way anyone will get 0.774 right now.
So that's about right.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

Does the cleaner not work properly with a step down transformer?

Jul 1, 2017 18:11:28 GMT 12 Citroen said:

Does the cleaner not work properly with a step down transformer?

I am told the problem is the frequency.  A SDT converts voltage but not frequency, thus the device will see 110V at 50Hz rather than 60.  Apparently that means the device will not operate at full efficiency, i.e. the transducers will not reach their maximum of 40KHz, and that the electrics in device will operate at slightly elevated temperatures. 

How detrimental that that would be, I do not know.  Haven't tried it as I do not have a SDT.

Any one here experienced at dealing with AliExpress? Since making my purchase of the US cleaner, I am being plagued by AliExpress ads popping up on various web sites I visit - e.g. the Daily Mail, and even the AudioEnz website when I had a look yesterday after reading the StereoNet news here.

Do I just ignore the ads or is there a way of stopping them?

nasty...

check your computer and browser for any unwanted add-ons

use an ad blocker

I use an iPad, so went exploring in Settings. Found Privacy settings in Safari, read that Apple follow things I look at frequently and send ads my way depending on my browsing habits! Nasty! I clicked on Disable, but didn't seem to work, so downloaded an ad blocker named Crystal - that didn't seem to work either. Then penny dropped that I use Google as my search engine. Asked a question about blocking ads in Google, and was given an answer that seems to have worked - it seems there is a small x top right on the ad, click on that and confirm I no longer want to see those ads, and it seems to have worked!

Have also been receiving Kogan ads, not as frequently, so have to wait and see if they are blocked as well.

Edit:  had to disable the ad blocker as it interfered with browsing TradeMe!  I couldn't enlarge photos, use the sort button, nor look at bid history.  Probably other things as well.