Buy from China

[Martin007]

Hi

I want to ask if there is a trusted Chinese site to buy computer components like Amazon ?

 

[ir_cow]

AliExpress (jk)

 

[Wirko]

AliExpress (jk)

You order and pay what you see advertised, then they send it to you. In that regard, they are reliable. For those who really want WD-lookalike, or "1080 Pro" SSDs...

 

[Bill_Bright]

I want to ask if there is a trusted Chinese site to buy computer components like Amazon ?

I have ordered small, under $10 items from AliExpress a couple times and got exactly what I expected. The parts clearly were shipped on a "slow boat from China" (pun intended), but I did eventually get them.

But would I trust them for computer components? No. I am not saying Amazon is totally trustworthy either. But at least with Amazon - in my experience anyway - I have always been able to return the item if not as expected. In fact, more than once, I was just told to keep the item and I still got a refund - so I cannot complain about that.

Personally, I think the company, AliExpress is legitimate. But they sell millions of products, impossible to vet them all for legitimacy. And like Amazon and NewEgg, they have "partner" sellers - retailers who use the AliExpress platform to sell millions more products. And those products (and perhaps companies too) are even harder to vet for legitimacy.

If you are buying from any foreign country, I would check with your credit card issuer to see what protection they provide if you buy with their card. And I would keep very careful watch on the activity on that card.

And of course, "caveat emptor".

 

[Onasi]

You order and pay what you see advertised, then they send it to you. In that regard, they are reliable. For those who really want WD-lookalike, or "1080 Pro" SSDs...

To be completely fair, AliExpress is a big freaking marketplace and it has actual official stores on it for pretty reputable brands like Colorful or Yeston (if we talk hardware) and Moondrop, Fiio or MechKeys (audio and peripherals). Those are just some examples. Buying from those is about as safe as Amazon, I would imagine. I, at least, had no issues when sticking to this rule.

 

[TheLostSwede]

JD.com maybe, but they don't ship abroad.

 

[Vayra86]

AliExpress (jk)

The one time I ordered with them, (nice colored dice... lots of them) I was waiting for a few months only to get exactly nothing.

That really just evaporated the tiny sliver of faith I had in them. I don't mind ordering from abroad, but that store just screams avoid in every possible way. I must add that Amazon is looking much the same and are probably more ratty, as I have always explicitly refused that 'free Prime' offer they keep plastering over the site everywhere and on buying, and yet found myself having to cancel the subscription two weeks ago. That kind of also placed Amazon in my nono-box of companies.

These mistakes don't just happen, you choose to keep wading through them, I pass on that shit. Its like walking across a field of grass, you just know dog shit will at some point attach itself to your shoe. Its a matter of when not if.

Also for the EU import customs have made these imports not quite as cheap as they should be.

 

[Regeneration]

Amazon is the best place to buy stuff from these days. Maybe some stuff is expensive but their world class customer service is unmatched.

 

[Sithaer]

To be completely fair, AliExpress is a big freaking marketplace and it has actual official stores on it for pretty reputable brands like Colorful or Yeston (if we talk hardware) and Moondrop, Fiio or MechKeys (audio and peripherals). Those are just some examples. Buying from those is about as safe as Amazon, I would imagine. I, at least, had no issues when sticking to this rule.

True, Ali does sell legit branded hardware its just that the warranty would be very questionable or not worth bothering with I guess.
Bryan/TechYesCity on youtube bought a bunch of hardware in the past years from there mainly motherboards/some GPUs and CPUs and they were alright and worked.

For the record my family uses Aliexpress often and done so for years, my brother actually has his entire water cooling loop/setup from Ali 'bykski or barrow can't remember' and it works just fine.
I've also ordered 10 smaller cheap non tech items recently and got all of them with no issues and they are exactly what I ordered. 'got everything in less than 2 weeks with free shipping'

So imo Ali is fine but gotta be careful with it and do some research before buying/picking stuff there.

 

[dgianstefani]

Amazon is the best place to buy stuff from these days. Maybe some stuff is expensive but their world class customer service is unmatched.

Many brands won't sell on Amazon because they automatically side with buyer, even if they bought wrong part, installed it wrong, break it, then return the item, where seller has to pay for original item, two shipping fees and often a free replacement. This is fine for cheapo stuff that costs pennies to manufacture, hence the abundance of stock that fits that description, but actual good quality items can have significant costs if they're broken/damaged constantly by brainless customers.

Louis Rossman did some videos on this which were great. Basically a lot of technical stuff on Amazon these days is imitation rubbish with fake reviews. If you're sure you're getting a branded item where you trust the brand, it's fine, but even then there are often issues. For example, I bought a 7950X3D BNIB dispatched and sold by Amazon, box arrived empty. Replacement was fine, but the free game AMD was marketing at the time, code had already been used for that CPU. Lots of stuff like that.

It's still worth using Amazon for PC parts, but there are caveats, and often it's possible to buy directly from the manufacturer for a similar price (cheaper sometimes).

 

[Onasi]

Amazon is the best place to buy stuff from these days. Maybe some stuff is expensive but their world class customer service is unmatched.

Should be mentioned that there are countries where Amazon does not operate, so making a blanket “it’s the best” statement is not that useful if a user is from one of said countries. Not everyone is a first-worlder.

 

[PLAfiller]

Depends what you are looking for, but I've been buying from Aliexpress for a decade now probably. Been a Platinum member in my account. Some things do the job great, some not so much. Also the logic is this: Aliexpress retails to single customers like me and you, Alibaba is a wholesaler for people that want to do business and the source is 1688.com, but you need AliPay and Chinese citizenships to get access to that (but there are agents). So let's say a pen is $2 at Aliexpress, the same pen is $1 at Alibaba for a box of 50 and the same pen is $0.20 when you check it at 1688.com (where it is straight out of factory).

EDIT: with drop shipping you are still buying from China, but ordering from Amazon has you covered. Funny thing is the Chinese shops DO encourage you to place your order through Amazon compared to their own Shopify or Aliexpress shops.

 

[dgianstefani]

Should be mentioned that there are countries where Amazon does not operate, so making a blanket “it’s the best” statement is not that useful if a user is from one of said countries. Not everyone is a first-worlder.

Yeah, this is true. Or places where amazon is just the marketplace and you're still buying direct from some reseller. Sold and dispatched by Amazon gets you better customer service if there's issues.

 

[Regeneration]

Many brands won't sell on Amazon because they automatically side with buyer, even if they bought wrong part, installed it wrong, break it, then return the item, where seller has to pay for original item, two shipping fees and often a free replacement. This is fine for cheapo stuff that costs pennies to manufacture, hence the abundance of stock that fits that description, but actual good quality items can have significant costs if they're broken/damaged constantly by brainless customers.

Louis Rossman did some videos on this which were great. Basically a lot of technical stuff on Amazon these days is imitation rubbish with fake reviews. If you're sure you're getting a branded item where you trust the brand, it's fine, but even then there are often issues. For example, I bought a 7950X3D BNIB dispatched and sold by Amazon, box arrived empty. Replacement was fine, but the free game AMD was marketing at the time, code had already been used for that CPU. Lots of stuff like that.

Thats why I shop ONLY on Amazon. Just 10-20% of my orders go wrong and I don't like to be fussed around when it happens.

I always get gift cards and promotional credits just for complaning about stuff and late shipping.

Sometimes I got a refund from the seller without even asking (while keeping the item) just because I left a negative review.

 

[Veseleil]

There's no such thing like trusted site anywhere in the world man, there is only difference between smart and stupid customers. Although there are some advantages living in the 1st world obviously. Customer support, and buyer's protection are nice things to have. A-Z refund guarantee for example. Always buy from a reputable sellers and you're golden.

 

[xtreemchaos]

ive used Aliexpress for years and upto date have had no problems "touch wood" but i have over the last few years seen prices climbing up to near local pricing and some times ebay is cheeper.

 

[Bill_Bright]

there is only difference between smart and stupid customers.

To suggest smart buyers cannot get ripped off is total nonsense.

Always buy from a reputable sellers and you're golden.

Good advice, for sure. But that only minimizes your risks. There still is no guarantee you cannot get ripped off.

 

[Martin007]

You guys reminded me with couple of terrible experience with amazon.co.uk and newegg .

I ordered a monitor from amazon.co.uk and they shipped the wrong model when I contacted customer support they told me once they receive the monitor they will refund monitor + shipping cost + customs so I did this but surprise surprise: they refused to give complete refund saying we can only refund up to $xxx so I showed them the email that another agent promised to give complete refund they replied that customer agent dont know the rules !!! lol

newegg package was detained in customs so I contacted them that I can not receive the gpu they replay that not their problem and hanged up the chat on my face twice lol . They did not accept return until I contacted a lawyer

 

[Veseleil]

To suggest smart buyers cannot get ripped off is total nonsense.


Good advice, for sure. But that only minimizes your risks. There still is no guarantee you cannot get ripped off.

And your point is? Haven't I just said that?
Smart buyer takes time to research, to read pages and pages of reviews all around the internet, various discussions on reddit, dig out that required info from the piles of BS. Smart buyer knows where to get the needed stuff with the least risk possible.
Now realize that and how I know what I'm talking about, because I always struggle to earn enough to support any kind of my interests in life. I live in a 3rd world country, and I can't afford to buy cheap stuff. I do my research. For some of you 1st worlders that's something you'll never be able to understand. And it's not my fault.

 

[bug]

Hi

I want to ask if there is a trusted Chinese site to buy computer components like Amazon ?

Many are reliable for getting the goods into your hands. Should you ever need the goods serviced, that's another story.

 

[Bill_Bright]

And your point is? Haven't I just said that?

No. You didn't say that.

You said,

there is only difference between smart and stupid customers.

That is a binary statement that in effect says, stupid customers get ripped off, smart customers do not. That leaves no room for the smart but inexperienced and naïve - which pretty much describes everyone at some point in their lives. Sadly, many seem to forget they were newbies once too.

Plus, while there are some pretty stupid bad guys, there are plenty of highly intelligent, very experienced bad guys too. For example, just a couple years ago, it was easy (for the experienced) to spot a scam because there would be misspellings, simple grammar errors, or "lost in translations" errors. Or the scam may say "Dear Customer" instead of using your real name. Or there would be telltale signs when hovering over links, etc.

But in many cases today, the bad guys have wised up and these scams look genuine. And thanks to countless data breaches, these bad guys may already know our true names and other personal information to make the scam appear even more genuine. So the only way to avoid falling for them is "DON'T BE CLICK HAPPY". If you get an email from your bank, for example, don't click on any link in that email. Immediately delete the email, then visit your bank's site as you normally would when you initiate the contact.

Smart buyer knows where to get the needed stuff with the least risk possible.

That's not a smart buyer. That's an experienced buyer. Big difference.

I do my research.

Now that's being smart.

 

[Hardcore Games]

Fleabay and Newegg seem to be my favorites

 

[我叫折衣]

JD.com maybe, but they don't ship abroad.

Yes, we Chinese buy digital products from JD.com.

 

[Noci]

I used Aliexpress for the majority of my watercooling components (Bykski), as they actually do have products within the range of reasonable to excellent quality.
But like already mentioned in this thread since the EU import fees are included, the prices are almost at the level of the corresponding local (European/American) products.

Some of their connected webshops are legit, some are clearly scammers, rule of tumb: "If it looks to good to be true, it's most likely not true. Do your resarch before ordering.

Buyer protection from Aliexpress is a farce, just marketing, they won't do anything for you (from my expereience). At Amazon I at least got a full refund when I was scammed with a NVM-e SSD (was never delivered).

Bottom line, anything you buy online is a gamble, just make sure you use a marketplace with good customer support/buyer protection. For actual hardware components, I would think twice and prefer local trusted webshops.

 

[Solaris17]

ive used Aliexpress for years and upto date have had no problems "touch wood" but i have over the last few years seen prices climbing up to near local pricing and some times ebay is cheeper.

Same I don’t mind Ali at all. I buy a lot of micro electronics from them, diodes, switches ICs etc never any issues. As for people that get burned. Well if gotten burned on Amazon and eBay. Too good to be true is the same all over the world.