Aliexpress Reviews 

Extremely dangerous site.
Extremely dangerous site.
If you don't receive your order, you will NOT get a refund.

I have spend over 20 hours trying to get my money back, talking with AliExpress staff.
Their staff will just end the chat if it is too difficult.

I strongly advise against buying from this retailer. You may not get what you ordered, eg. a tablet with a charging plug that is not suitable for the EU, instead of a 16GB/1TB memory, one with 8GB/128GB is supplied. The contentious dispute with the dealer is characterized by lack of understanding and flippantness. Instead of disclosing the retailer's address in France, from where the part was delivered, insists on sending it back to China, well aware of the difficulties that one unfortunately has to accept, including the associated high costs. An agreement on a price reduction because of the defects mentioned fails due to the stubbornness of the retailer. So better stay away from this dealer if you want to order stress-free!
The bad experiences refer to the dealer Anna Tablet Electronics Store No.1100365386
In the end, Aliexpress is on the side of the retailer
It remains correct, this dealer is dubious !!
He did not keep an agreement with the dealer about a discount, the conclusion remains dubious

Bought a Blue Light Screen Filter and received it in very damaged condition. The vendor, i-Technology Life, claimed damage was from violent shipping, but the type and amount of damage and the condition of the shippers package proved this false. Opened a dispute and accepted Ali Express proposal for a refund ($47.86). i-technology repeated violent shipping as cause of damage, offered a $3.96 discount, wanted dispute cancelled. I informed i-technology returning the product by registered courier to shippers warehouse address ($28.52), no response. Received email one month later from Ali Express stating, "Dispute Concluded, Seller agreed to your proposal," but the seller insisted I return the item to China at twice the purchase price at my expense. Despite evidence the product was shipped damaged, Ali Express backed this up as a condition of the refund, which makes Ali Express Refund Policy a fraud. I would avoid both itechnology Life and Ali Express. If you do buy from Ali Express buy small items under $20 and pay for them using PayPal. BE WARNED!

I ordered some smaller electronics parts and was happy with AliExpress. Now I ordered something more expensive and want to return it due to quality issues:
1. The item was shipped from Spain. Now the return is only offered to China.
2. I have to pay the return myself even though the item has severe quality issues.
3. The Aliexpress customer service is unreachable. The only option is a chat. The chat is answered by a bot, that does not work at all. No other contact option is available.
4. I now found a way to get past the bot by writing: "the bot can not help me". The employees are very friendly but cannot help. In addition, things are being promised that are not true. If someone tells you: "you can file XY once the dispute time is up" or "don't worry once the time for XY has passed refunds will be processed automatically" do not believe them. These are all lies.

Bottom line: It is impossible to get the money back. The only option now is to pay ~150 € to chip an 400 € item to China and hope to get some money back.
I highly advise not to buy anything worth more than a couple of euros on AliExpress. There is no customer service on Aliexpress. If anything does not work you must hope the seller is helping you in good faith. In addition I would highly recommend to pay everything via paypal.

Avoid if possible. If Aliexpress fails to deliver, you will not receive your refund.

In my case, DHL once did not find my address (???? why), the recent case is that DHL did not even notified me that I should pick up my order from the local DHL branch. Despite I took time to upload all the evidence and Aliexpress saw that the goods were sent back, I was rejected the refund. You will acutally save money if you order localy, since you will not have to deal with this frustrating experiences.

"To serve as your evidence, please provide a proof from your local post office showing that your order was not delivered to your address and make sure that your proof as document has their sealed signature and official logo on it to make it as official evidence from your post office. You can also provide a screenshot if your seller promised to refund or resend the order. Once you have this kind of evidence, please report to us and submit it so that we can proceed this kind of action. Your cooperation and understanding on this matter is highly appreciated."
No post office will provide such document. AliExpress is passing the limits of the reasonability.

i switched from ebay to aliexpress a few months ago since its cheaper+faster because its possible to select shipping method and also get shipping cost rebates when more than 1 item is bought (unlike ebay where its always "free" (full shipping fee included in every single item!)). Its not for total internet noobs but when you mastered ebay you need little time to understand the new system. I saved ~33% and this is huge since i buy every single week (i spend 200-800eur per month). When you come from amazon, watch first some tutorials on youtube.