cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/63264641

Gennadiy Tsygan knows how expensive it is to build a home in the United States. That’s why he imported almost everything for his dream house from China.

Most of his home fixtures were imported directly from over two dozen factories, and Tsygan — an engineer in Baltimore — flew halfway around the world in 2024 to choose some of those products.

  • Raiderkev@lemmy.worldEnglish
    27·
    7 days ago

    Also, anytime there’s some mystery brand on Amazon that looks exactly the same as the other mystery brand, odds are it’s on AliExpress and can be had for pennies on the dollar compared to Amazon.

    • Curious_Canid@piefed.caEnglish
      7·
      6 days ago

      However, if you have a problem, Amazon will almost always take care of it and AliExpress will tell you to go fuck yourself. After the third time I received the wrong item, the vendor lied about it, and AiExpress told me it was my problem, I quit buying from them.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        I’ve definitely only bought stuff that is low dollar amount from there, and have never had a problem. I also go into it knowing that it’s less reliable and acknowledging that I’m taking slightly more risk buying there. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.

        • Curious_Canid@piefed.caEnglish
          2·
          6 days ago

          My main problems with AliExpress have been vendors either sending the wrong item or just not sending anything at all, but claiming they did. I’ve opened a case with them each time and they have ruled against me every time. Also, when I say they sent me the wrong item, I don’t mean I ordered an large t-shirt and received a medium; I mean I ordered a a large t-shirt and they sent me a door latch.

          I expect their stuff to be junk, given the prices, but I get offended when they don’t even send me the right kind of junk.

    • zelahdieliekeis@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      9·
      6 days ago

      I have gotten a couple cheap, good items from Aliexpress, but htf do I work around:

      • absolutely no respect for search terms. All search results are the equivalent of searching for each word in my search alone, mixing the results together, and randomly choosing one to overprioritize. Quotes and minuses ignored.
      • I will click on an item and it will take me to a blank page saying no such item exists or it’s not available or something, I don’t quite remember. But after a couple successful purchases this started happening for every single item before I stopped using it because this was blocking me from buying stuff.
      • Raiderkev@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        6 days ago

        You can reverse image search an Amazon listing and specify AliExpress as the site. That’s really all I’ve got. You kinda have to go into it knowing it’s less convenient and shittier lol, but it’s the chance you take to save a few bucks.

        • zelahdieliekeis@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          2·
          6 days ago

          I have done text searches on search engines with site:aliexpress.com which return all dead listings, but I have not tried the image search method. Could work, thank you.

    • Domino@quokk.auEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      I find with shipping costs ali express stuff comes out the same to Amazon prime. Maybe that’s different in the US or something.