Alipay (alipay.com) has a 1.4 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 80 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Money & Insurance and its reputation is poor. 86% of reviews are 1 star, a relatively high share; The business has not yet replied to negative reviews; 18 of them were added in the last 12 months. Last updated 2026-10-24.
I have been registered with AliExpress for the last 2 months. The experience had been both good & bad. The Cardinal rule is never devulge your bank accoumt. I make all my payments using PayPal and not my personal bank account. This company AliExpress is based in mainland China. The number one country for hacking. As such any purchase is going to be through PayPal or other third party account and NOT your personal account.
Goods purchased are normally sent via ordinary post and it can take anywhere between 3 and 12 weeks. As such look at the approximate delivery time. Don't get carried away. Things may look cheap but sometimes on the paying page, you will notice exorbitant shipping cost. They charge UK VAT, but when you get the item, the price of the value is somewhat reduced. I believe this is to evade UK full tax.
You will have to be sure what you are purchasing as returns can be a nightmare. Since I am quite well acquainted with returns, I got my returns into my PayPal account within 8 days. Yes your read it right. Handle your returns professionally. It must be damaged. In Chinese language it classified as "Broken" Take photographs of the damaged item and paste in their complaint page and they will definitely get back. Take Notice that Aliexpress is like ebay. Don't write long essay of complaints as they are Not very proficient in English. Keep it short like, Broken or damaged goods or not working and that's it.
You must understand that there is no Consumer Statutory rights, like the one practiced by Ebay & Amazon.
Chinese rules are "Buyer be Aware". Ha Ha.
However before buying on AliExpress, check on ebay or Amazon for the same item and maybe the item may a pound or two more. You don't have to wait too long unless necessary.
In a nutshell Don't use your personal bank account and be 100% positive and read before you hit the PAY BUTTON.
Overall I give them 3/5 cos AliExpress website is too confusing and very tedious to search on the complaint page. AliExpress need to simplify their Web page. Downloading of pages can be a nightmare.
Good Luck
Scam.
They took payment but never sent any email confirmation etc. Item didn't arrive. No way to contact.
Contacted bank who luckily managed to claim my money back.
This morning I woke up to fraudulent activity on my bank account. I have (9) transactions totaling $1049 from Alipayusinc. I have never used or heard of this company. Now I have to make a claim and wait to get my money back. I am unemployed and not receiving benefits so they took all my money. They stole all my money.
Beware when using Alipay on Aliexpress.
I added 40 euros to my account and now Alipay just comes up with excuses to prevent me from using the money.
I am just accepting that the money is lost and moved to open a dispute through the European Online dispute center.
Could be better if we can actually use Alipay as a foreigner
First its not easy to verify identity on Alipay, second even if you verify you still can't use the Tour Pass if you are from Pakistan (I came to know there are many other countries that aren't on the list in app). Chinese apps do not welcome google pay/playstore in-app purchases, alipay is the only way that could work but they decided to exclude many countries.
Would give negative stars if possible. I downloaded it, put in my phone number, and it instantly said my account was locked and I had to call to unlock it.
Called them, they said it would take 3 working days to unlock. I haven't even made an account and you've already locked it?
They wouldn't explain why this occurred. Will not be trusting them with my money when they can't handle something as simple as setting up an account.
As other buyers have stated earlier Alipay is processing credit card transactions as unauthorized "cash advance" payment. I try to be extra careful online and try to use an extra layer of protection when possible. In this case, I used Paypal with my Credit Card as primary payment. I made a single payment and no additional charges were informed or mentioned. I was not aware at the time that Ali was processing as Unauthorized Cash Advances and even the extra layer of protection with Paypal regardless still allowed processing of my credit card payment as a "Cash Advance" payment with $10 transaction fee plus Daily Interest. They seem to be trying to use a loophole in the system to scam customers into paying fees they would otherwise incur if they set up a proper Credit Card Charge system. Fraud!!!
I should have learned when I had a bad experience in 2013 with AliExpress; the wrong item was received and my dispute was never resolved.
Avoid the "ALI" corporation like the plague.
Terrible interface, after 12 good hours of trying to create account. Mutliple messages that shows you can't access this feature because not from mainland china, really racistic behaviour. Website is so confusing...
Processed credit card transaction as an unauthorized "cash advance"
Made two small purchases on Ali Express which uses Alipay for payment. They processed my credit card payment as a "Cash Advance" so each purchase incurred a $10 transaction fee when it reached my credit card company. Terrible experience trying to straighten this out. Could not get anyone to help at AliPay or Ali Express. No more purchases for me using anything that starts with "Ali".
WARNING ALIPAY money transfer is a complete FRAUD.
Two weeks ago my wife used Alipay to international transfer money to my commbank account. The money was not credited to my account; but, it has been taken from her account.
terrible user interface, no easy way of adding/removing cards, resetting your password when adding new card? No way to contact support, terrible terrible terrible
Alipay is a scam. There are many articles created out there by their trooper to make sure foreigner who stay outside of China able to use Alipay, however in actual fact without verify your account using a require Bank card from a bank incorporated in Mainland China.( it has to be a bank presence physically in MAINLAND China) any fund which they didn’t stop other transfer to your Alipay will stay frozen in that account forever(it mean stay with Alipay forever). There is no way you can get the fund, when you can’t even get yourself verify especially foreigner who are not able to open a bank account in MAINLAND China without being a residence in CHINA. It is one big scam of cheating foreigner money. All those articles owned by China will not allow you to post any bad comment, they filter it and make sure other foreigner get scam and end up money flow into Alipay and get forfeit by Alipay. When you try to call their customer service, the phone number does not work, when you try chat with customer service , the AI will keep telling you I don’t understand your question.
I've orderd products with Alipay on Alibaba thinking that they stick to their promise and refund my shipment if anything is wrong.
After having mayor issues with my shipment Alipay did nothing.
They eventually closed the case after dodging the argument 4 times coming with this closing statement:
''Based on your current evidence, we cannot learn the root cause of the problem. It may be caused by many factors like improper operation or transportation. We have tried hard to contact seller to negotiate solution many times, however, seller refused to refund as buyer's request. ''
The product i bought has a single way of operation and i've provided multiple video's and photo's with one of the products even smoking after use.
Please use paypal or creditcard and never trust in Alipay.
Alipay sucks
Why would Alipay take credit card information and then decline it as international card when it starts with international card on Didi?
Didi is in the same boat. They have international card option but when you put in the card its declined.
How is one supposed to work in this country and build a business relationship with factories when everything is stacked against you doing so.
No credit cards, no maps, taxi drivers that want to rip you off all the time and no way to find your way back on your own.
China is doing great except making things easier for people who are making things happen for it.
If you have a UK number you can't use alipay !
At registration they have every dialling code for all countries except the UK (+44). This has caused quite an issue as I can't travel around china and pay for things, without completing registration by verifying my phone number.
Although loads of articles say it accepts foreigners and UK people this isn't the case at all!
Disappointing.
Non chinese can’t acces their money outside of china. Different treatment for chinese and non chinese. Racist treatment and withholding of money. Poor customer service.
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