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Aliexpress vs. eBay

I sometimes order the same item from multiple vendors. eBay insists on showing me search result items in US dollars that are actually listed in Canadian dollars (that are actually being shipped from Asia). These two things cause me problems in tracking the items being received.

With eBay I almost never get anything like a packing list. When I receive an item the envelope has a tracking number on it that matches the tracking number I find on the eBay shipping info for that item. The tracking number lets me match up the items ordered with received, no problem. For some reason, the tracking numbers in Aliexpress do not match the numbers on the envelopes. So if the parts are not unique, I have no way of knowing which items were received and which haven't. WTF!!!???

I used to not order in any foreign currency at all because my old credit card had a fixed fee plus percentage for currency conversions and it could easily raise the cost 30%. With a newer credit card the fee is strictly a 3% fee which is very easy to factor in and now I can order without having to wade through a bunch of lowest priced Canadian items before finding the listings in US dollars, not to mention getting a lower price. But... I discovered while the fee is minimal, the transaction is not always at the same price as eBay lists (they are billing me in Canadian so their exchange rate is just an approximation). This is still not a big factor in the actual price, but I have no way of knowing just what I am going to be charged and so can't match up items on the credit card statement with the items I've ordered.

On top of this, there are a number of items ordered from Aliexpress that all get billed together! I think that was because I placed them in the cart together when I paid with the credit card. Now, the Aliexpress site shows no indication of the lumped billing. If I need to dispute any one of the charges through the credit card, I have to dispute the entire amount! In the future I will pay each item separately.

Sometimes Digikey is just so much easier, not to mention faster!

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman
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Use eBay.ca if you want $CAD. Should work.

Yes, aside from the risks of counterfeits the paperwork that comes from vendors selling on eBay leaves much to be desired.

Use a PayPal CAD account?

Safer too. Parts are as described (little risk of bad quality) and you get them the next day. Don't forget Mouser, Element 13, etc.

John :-#)#

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Reply to
John Robertson

I *don't* want $CAD. But they keep showing up in my search results regardless. But like I said, I found that my new credit card doesn't have a fixed fee per transaction, so the costs aren't so much anymore.

The fake issue is no worse than with Trump. I find it is easy to get my money back with eBay as long as I deal with it in the appropriate time frame. The credit card is a fall back.

That doesn't change anything really and I don't use a paypal account really. I just use a credit card through them because all eBay vendors only take paypal payments (pretty much).

But much more expensive for some items. I don't think I've ever tried to return items to Digikey, maybe once I bought some push buttons that just didn't work well. I think I got a refund with no issue and didn't have to send the parts back.

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman

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