Consumeractive
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Why won’t AliExpress accept evidence of faulty watch?
Q I bought a watch from AliExpress (www.aliexpress. com, pictured), which arrived within two weeks. When I noticed that the GMT hand doesn’t work, I contacted AliExpress for help. They asked me to send photos and videos, which I did, but they’ve told me this isn’t sufficient evidence. I thought you could return faulty goods for a full refund with or without evidence, or doesn’t this apply to AliExpress?
Darren Arbon
A Darren’s suspicions are right – the UK’s 30-day deadline to ask for a full refund doesn’t apply to AliExpress. This is because, like Amazon Marketplace and eBay, it’s a global selling platform, mainly for Chinese retailers to sell internationally. That means responsibility for getting a refund lies with the retailer (not AliExpress), and most of those will be based in China.
However, AliExpress does have a Buyer Protection scheme (www.snipca. com/55280) that seems fair and reasonable and abides by UK consumer law – though the 15 days it offers is roughly half of what Amazon and eBay offer. AliExpress’s parent company, the Alibaba Group, has a registered office in London, but it hasn’t responded to our requests to help Darren.