Complaint Review: Aliexpress.com - Internet

We all know buying from china means better profits for us.  And there are plent of sites out there to use.  However my first 3 experiences with aliexpress.com were just outrageous.

I plaved an order by adding items to my card with a seller, then confirming I wanted to buy.  I sent payment with my debit card.   $600.   The next day, I received a notice saying the site canceled my payment for security reasons (basically an accusation that I, a stay at home mom in the suburbs, was a threat to their security).  They then proceeded to cancel the order, however my money was no where to be seen.  I was asked to send in a photo id, picture of my credit card and a copy of my cc statement.  I refused.  What store asks for that just to make a purchase?  Copy of my credit card statement?  Unexceptable!  That is MY private information.

Taking a leap of faith, I added the items to the cart again, and paid with a bank credit card instead.  Next day, order canceled, money "refunded" due to my purchase being a securit threat.  I was asked again to send in the 3 documents.  This time I sent in photo of ID and credit card, but not my statement.  Again, that's private and none of their d**n business.  Checking both cards, I now had $1200 out there in "canceled" orders.

I contacted the seller, she said she had never seen this before.   Uh huh, sure.  She was all to happy to have me  pay with paypal, which was outside of the website, therefore she didn't have to pay fees.  But I was desperate, so I paid with paypal.  Now, $1800 out of pocket.  My order still showing on the site, as it does on ebay, when you buy it, it shows up even if you haven' paid yet.

2 days later, (5 in all) I see that finally the first two $600 amounts were credited back to me.  BUT, they DELTED M ORDER from the site.  I had sent paypal payment for this order and they deleted any and all recored that this order ever existed.  They also took it upon themselves to delete the message from the seller to me in my account, giving me my tracking number.  Interesting how they can just alter sales in this way.

During this whole process I contacted chat support twice.  It was a total joke, as they are all trained to say "I aplogize, I am unable to help you directly on this matter since the concern is out of my level of support as I am a customer service representative of Alibaba.com."    Each time I went on their for help, this is what I was told.

So I emailed the customer service email and all I got back each time was a same generic email telling me that my payment didn't pass their "verification process".  Bull, it's a national bank card matching my shipping address.  This generic emai proceeded to supply me with no more information but continued to ask for the three documents that I had already sent in two of.  I received this email several times.

I did not received any reply to having sent in my documents.

Here I am at this point, awaiting delivery of my order that they deleted from the site so I have NO proof, only the hope that paypal buyer protection (which is a joke) will protect me.  The seller seems OK so far....its only the site that refused to assit me.  Their support chat agents won't talk to me.  The emails go unanswered by a human.  And they have yet to explain why a compeltely legit individual with multiple forms of credit cards from international banks, a matching shipping address etc is a security risk.

We shall see what happens...but so far....I'd keep your distance.  Something is fishy here.....shady!