Who's taken the AliExpress ukulele gamble?

mikelz777

mikelz777

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I was wondering who here has taken a gamble and purchased a uke or ukes from AliExpress?

Was your experience positive? negative? neutral?

Was it playable upon receipt? Did it require adjustments? If so were they major or minor adjustments?

How do you feel about your purchase after the fact? happy? never again?

I'd like to hear about your experience!
 
I've purchased ukes and a number of other items from AliExpress over the last 7 years playing ukulele. In most all cases it's been a good experience. The ukes and bass ukes I bought have been fine, some needed a setup, some didn't. I've even had to return a couple of items, but they said don't return it, and gave me a refund anyway. It took a little longer to ship, which I fully expected, but it's taking even longer now with COVID. For the time being I'm holding off purchases from AliExpress.

This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
I purchased many things through AliExpress and the vast majority of my experiences have been positive. I did get refunds on a few things for non-receipt or them sending the wrong thing.

I was just curious about ukulele related experiences specifically. Getting a fragile instrument sent from China must be a bit nerve wracking and who knows what you're going to get when you are likely getting something that doesn't have a name brand or reputation behind it. (hence the gamble)
 
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COVID has shaken things up, but up until then, I think I ordered and bought 3 ukuleles from Aliexpress.

The last one disappeared, and showed up a week ago. Five months later. The money was long-refunded.

The ukulele that I loved, the Aiersi Pineapple, now includes a $15 shipping charge, I think to guarantee delivery (I don't think they're sending via China Post any longer). That's too bad, because I wanted to buy a bunch of them and have them on hand to give away or to sell cheaply to others wanting a ukulele. That makes an amazing $25 ukulele into a $40 ukulele, which isn't bad...but it makes it that much more expensive to order a bunch of them.
 
I have ordered a Kmise from Aliexpress for my nephew. It arrived on time and was decent enough for 43 USD. Only the plastic capo that came with it broke on first use.

I have also ordered a bunch of other stuff from Aliexpress, mostly things that aren't available here. All of them were exactly as described and surprisingly well made. Two out of about 15 never showed up, then you can file a claim. I wouldn't want to take a gamble on something that costs more than 50 bucks, but all in all, I am amazed by their selection and service.
 
mikelz777 said:
...I was just curious about ukulele related experiences specifically. Getting a fragile instrument sent from China must be a bit nerve wracking and who knows what you're going to get when you are likely getting something that doesn't have a name brand or reputation behind it. (hence the gamble)
Click to expand...

Every uke I bought was packed very well and had no damage on arrival.
 
I've bought at least five ukes through AliExpress, four sopranos, one tenor. Long shipping times, but always arrived when expected. All of them were unbroken, despite the (sometimes) scant, flimsy packing. They were all playable and sounded good, or acceptably not bad. Most would benefit from a bit of work on the nut. The strings are not the best, but I was given a whole lot of Aquila Nylguts, some years ago, so that was no problem.

All the ones I bought have had HPL bodies. HPL is a most suitable material for cheap ukes - very tough, consistent and looks just like the wood it represents.

I've bought a dozen or more other items with AliExpress. A couple didn't turn up but my payment (Paypal) was refunded immediately and without question.

John Colter
 
mikelz777 said:
I was wondering who here has taken a gamble and purchased a uke or ukes from AliExpress?

Was your experience positive? negative? neutral?

Was it playable upon receipt? Did it require adjustments? If so were they major or minor adjustments?

How do you feel about your purchase after the fact? happy? never again?

I'd like to hear about your experience!
Click to expand...

I have, and I didn't consider it a gamble. AliExpress is a huge company, selling world-wide. A friend's son bought him a cute little uke while he was in China, and I found it on AliExpress. No problems.
 
I've bought lots of stuff from AliExpress, but in ukulele terms I've only bought an Aiersi Pineapple which is nearly flawless.

It was different from the one shown (12 frets vs 15 frets, no frets side markers) and the tuners were a bit loose (just had to get a small philips screwdriver and give a gentle turn) but other than that, it was an absolutely flawless uke.
Intonation perfect up to the 12th fret and now it stays in tune properly.

I got it from a warehouse in Spain so the shipment was very fast, I think it took 5 days.
 
I'm glad to hear so many positive experiences with ordering a uke from AliExpress. I just ordered one from them for the first time so I hope my experience is equally positive. Just watching some of the unboxing videos of ukes from them I see that some of the boxes look pretty banged-up and man-handled so I'm hoping for the best. It looks like they send them in the single layer cardboard box alone!! The total investment was $51 and change so I'm not overly concerned and I'm pretty confident in the guarantee if it arrives damaged. I recently ordered two other non-uke related items from AliExpress and they both took just over 3 weeks so we'll see how it goes! Fingers crossed for its safe arrival!!
 
As you say, Mikelz777, sometimes they come swaddled in bubble wrap and placed in just the standard, tapered cardboard box, with lots of packing tape to hold it all together. The box often looks very beaten up but they have all survived, somehow.

John Colter
 
I've ordered two from them and they were fine. Not particularly interesting, but they were playable. Just sanded down the saddle height on both and filed the fret ends on one (not that they were that sharp). Changed strings too. I still have one of them as it's a "stick uke" for quiet playing / travelling and fills a niche.
 
I have purchased Ukulele, electric violin, small guitar and many things from Lazada (same owner of AliExpress), all good condition and value for money.
 
At what point would you contact the seller to inquire on shipping?

My AliExpress uke was ordered on 8/24 and payment was taken on 8/25. As of today, 9/5, it's been 11 days and the uke hasn't shipped yet - they've only generated a tracking number. I ordered 4 other AliExpress items on the same date and they've all been handed over to the airlines or departed the country already. The estimated delivery time is 9/29 so there's still plenty of time but I'm left wondering why there appears to be no action at all on the uke order. I've ordered a lot of things through AliExpress so my expectations are that things are going to move slow but I almost always see some kind of action by now.
 
Yeah, I had something like that with one of the ukes I ordered from AliExpress. I made an inquiry and the response was something along the lines of, "Don't worry - bear with us and you'll get it."

And I did.

John Colter
 
ukantor said:
Yeah, I had something like that with one of the ukes I ordered from AliExpress. I made an inquiry and the response was something along the lines of, "Don't worry - bear with us and you'll get it."

And I did.

John Colter
Click to expand...

I figured that would be the likely response if I were to inquire now. Maybe the delays are an effect of COVID. It's been 11 days and tracking information isn't available at all on 3 of the 5 items on the AliExpress site. The only way I know that there has been activity on two of those items is by looking up the tracking numbers on "Postal Ninja".
 
I've been getting most of my orders past the 90 day window this year. I end up asking for a refund after 90 days without delivery as I don't see an option to extend my purchase protection window. So I've got a few free items lately. No ukuleles though, just cheap things.

Still, can't hurt to click the contact seller button just to remind them. I had an item recently which tracking said was "returned to sender" so I had to get them to resend it. No idea how that happened.
 
glennerd said:
I've been getting most of my orders past the 90 day window this year. I end up asking for a refund after 90 days without delivery as I don't see an option to extend my purchase protection window. So I've got a few free items lately. No ukuleles though, just cheap things.

Still, can't hurt to click the contact seller button just to remind them. I had an item recently which tracking said was "returned to sender" so I had to get them to resend it. No idea how that happened.
Click to expand...

That happened to me as well with one of the most recent ordered items, it was returned to the seller. I contacted them and they immediately
re-shipped. I hope it makes it through the second time around.

I ordered two other things from AliE a few weeks ago and they took 3-3.5 weeks so I was pretty optimistic that I'd get everything within a month.
 
I ordered something from Aliexpress in June, and it hasn't arrived yet. Depending on the outcome, this might the be last thing I order from Aliexpress. I've bought over $1k of stuff on Aliexpress, and this is the first no-delivery issue.
 
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