I should have known better than order from AliExpress, as I've had a $200 package probably stolen. It was delivered to the floor of the lobby in a building that has 300+ apartments, a Friday evening, and I couldn't get home until Monday. There are secure lockers but they were not used. So yeah, no package and AliExpress is like "but it was delivered so it's your problem".
Also, winter is coming here and I hate it, so I'm trying to plan a short trip in the Carribean in a few weeks, and maybe a longer one in January. It's probably going to be St-Martin for now. Hopefully, the planning and the trip itself will help me take my mind off all the recent shitty news.
I should have known better than order from AliExpress...
There are secure lockers but they were not used.
I fail to see how this is in any way, shape, or form AliExpress' failure. I mean aside from the knee-jerk "CHYNA BADD!" shit that Americans always spew.
It's not their fault per se but more in the way their delivery system is setup. I live in a building with over 300 apartments. A place where ordering anything that will be left on the floor of the lobby for more than a few hours is going to be stolen.
If I order from eBay, they use the local post and my stuff is either left in my mailbox, or I have to go get it at the post office. It's never left on the floor.
If I order from Amazon, they will usually (not always) put my packages in the secure lockers. And if I'm waiting for something rather pricey, their estimate is good enough that I can stay home that day.
But ordering from AliExpress is a huge gamble for me. I don't live in a house, don't have a door giving on the outside, and their courriers are not consistent. Sometimes they call me on my phone and they (apparently) want me to open the downstairs door, but I can't do it this way because they have to ring my apt # on the doorbell. So they lose patience, hang up and I can't find where the package was left. I have never had a delivery that went smoothly with them. I tried with cheap items first and delivery was always spotty. That's why I should have known better. Ordering from them and have packages delivered where I live is a taking a risk. Their delivery estimates is also all over the place. The package was supposed to arrive yesterday but it arrived on a Friday evening while I was out of town for three days. I just can't stay home for two to three weeks waiting for the AliExpress courrier to leave my package on the floor of my apartment's lobby.
It would probably be much better if I lived in a house and they simply left the package in front of it. Like, if I ever order from them again, it will be at my parents' house. But because I live in a tower with a lobby, they just dump the packages on the floor of the entrance, mark it as "delivered", and I usually never find them. I would really really prefer if they used the local post instead of weird random inconsistent courrier companies.
Doesn't really matter. In the end, I should know that ordering from AliExpress where I live just ends up as packages being "delivered" and me not finding most of them.