ComplaintCensus

AliExpress: most-reported complaints

Automated analysis of 1,198 public Trustpilot reviews published 2025-06-24 to 2026-09-27. TrustScore 1.9 from 188,354 total reviews — see the Trustpilot page. Quick answer: is AliExpress legit? Issues below reflect what reviewers reported, not findings of wrongdoing.

Reviewers most often report issues with refund refusals, support unhelpfulness, delivery failures, and faulty products. Refund refusals were cited in 34% of complaints, with a flat trend, while support unhelpfulness also accounted for 34% of complaints but shows a rising trend. Delivery failures represented 28% of complaints with a flat trend, and faulty products made up 21% of complaints with a rising trend.

How to reach AliExpress

These are the contact details AliExpress publishes on its Trustpilot profile, as of our last check on 2026-09-27 — phone (408) 785-5580, address 400 S El Camino Real #400, San Mateo, 94402, US.

Trustpilot lists this business as no longer collecting reviews. New reviews are not currently being gathered for its profile. See the Trustpilot page for the current status.

1,113complaints identified
94%of recent reviews analysed
100%of negative reviews get a company reply, typically within a day

The company claimed its Trustpilot profile on 2016-04-05, uses Trustpilot’s paid features, uses Trustpilot’s AI-assisted replies, and last replied to a negative review on 2026-09-26. We last checked this profile on 2026-09-27 and found 44 new reviews. These are facts Trustpilot publishes about the profile, as of our last harvest.

TrustScore over time

2.0 → 1.9 across 13 census measurements since 2026-08-17. Our own record, independent of Trustpilot’s display.

Reply behaviour over time

Solid: % of negative reviews replied to. Dashed: typical days to reply. Both as reported on this company’s Trustpilot profile, recorded whenever our census re-checked it and a figure had changed — the gaps between points are not equal: 2026-08-20 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-08-23 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-08-26 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-01 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-04 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-07 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-10 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-13 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-16 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-20 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-23 (100%, 0.0d) · 2026-09-27 (100%, 0.0d).

Severity: 42% of this company’s 1113 graded complaints were classified as severe (money lost, an essential service cut off, or a problem unresolved for months). See the harm index.

Reviewers here waited a median of 1.7 days between the experience and publishing their negative review (1172 reviews record both dates).

Measured reply time: across 1162 negative reviews that received a public reply, the median wait was 0.5 days — the company profile reports an average of under a day.

Reply quality: of 1162 company replies to negative reviews analysed, 16% engaged with the specific problem and 73% were generic templates.

What employees say

Employees rate AliExpress 3.8★ overall from 89 reviews on Glassdoor — the inside view, kept separate from customer complaint statistics. Read the reviews there.

Sector benchmark: refund refused makes up 34% of this company’s complaints vs a 14% median across 78 ranked companies in its sector.

Review velocity: 15,555 of this company’s 188,354 Trustpilot reviews (8%) were written in the last 12 months.

What are the most common complaints about AliExpress?

Refund refused

384 reports · 34% of complaintssteady
“now they refuse returns. Refuse to refund or let you return damaged items.”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2026-07-24

The company replied on 2026-07-25: “Dear Customer, Unfortunately, we are unable to process your case as the request information form has not been filled out, and we lack the necessary details to proceed. We apologize for any…”

Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.

9 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“admitting the device is defective, but claiming "the goods still have certain value" to refuse a full refund!”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-19 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-08-20: “Dear Customer. Thank you for contacting us. We apologise for your unpleasant shopping experience. Our agent sent you an email, please check it out. If you have any questions, please feel free to…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

7 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“just expect that you never going to get your money back.”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-08 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-08-08: “Dear Customer, Please accept our deepest apologies for any inconvenience you've faced. We have taken action to investigate the issue you reported. We will respond to you via email and update the…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to escalate.

7 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

Support unhelpful

382 reports · 34% of complaintsrising since 2026-05
“I contacted support and was passed between FIVE agents. Every single one ignored what I said, repeated the same script”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2026-05-28

The company replied on 2026-05-29: “Dear Customer, Due to the lack of completed request information form, we regret to inform you that we are unable to process your case due to insufficient information. Please accept our deepest…”

Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.

11 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“Your staff then specifically responded saying “Your bonus refund will take 3–5 days.””
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-20 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-08-21: “Dear Customer, Thank you for your patience. I have noticed that your dedicated customer service representative is currently handling your case. Due to the complexity of the situation, it may take a…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

10 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“SIX DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS. ONE $10 BONUS.”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-22

The company replied on 2026-08-23: “Dear Customer, Thank you for reaching out, and I truly appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this matter for you. To move forward, I kindly recommend reaching out to your dedicated customer…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

9 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

Delivery failed

310 reports · 28% of complaintssteady
“i have to pay out £350 for a invisible e-bike”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-19 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-08-20: “Dear Customer. Thank you for contacting us. We apologise for your unpleasant shopping experience. Our agent sent you an email, please check it out. If you have any questions, please feel free to…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

5 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“Parcel was lost Evri admitted they had lost it”
3★ Trustpilot review, 2025-12-06 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2025-12-07: “Dear Customer, We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please accept our heartfelt apologies. We have already replied to your email on December 10th. Please review the…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

5 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“Yodel have lost a parcel”
3★ Trustpilot review, 2025-11-11

The company replied on 2025-11-12: “Dear customer, Sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. Our agent has processed a refund for you. The refund is currently under review, and we will notify you by email once the review is…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: refund.

5 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

Faulty product

229 reports · 21% of complaintsrising since 2026-05
“admitting the device is defective, but claiming "the goods still have certain value" to refuse a full refund!”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-19 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-08-20: “Dear Customer. Thank you for contacting us. We apologise for your unpleasant shopping experience. Our agent sent you an email, please check it out. If you have any questions, please feel free to…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to make contact.

7 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“products that repeatedly crashed, froze, or otherwise failed”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2026-07-07 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-07-08: “Dear Customer, Thank you for reaching out, and I truly appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this matter for you. To move forward, I kindly recommend reaching out to your dedicated customer…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

7 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“Sellers sell defective fake products (SSD with 0 kB capacity).”
3★ Trustpilot review, 2026-01-11

The company replied on 2026-01-12: “Dear Customer. Thank you for contacting us. We have processed a reafund for your order, please see our email for details. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused you. If you have any…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: refund.

6 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

Not as described

126 reports · 11% of complaintssteady
“ordered raw cosmetic powder that turned out to be fake.”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2026-02-19

The company replied on 2026-02-20: “Dear Customer, We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Please accept our heartfelt apologies. We have sent an email addressing the issue you encountered on February 24.…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

7 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“they sent the wrong 2 items.”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2025-12-27

The company replied on 2025-12-27: “Dear customer, Sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. Our agent has replied with more detailed information in the email. Please kindly check and reply to our agent. If you have any other…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

5 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“thing are falsely advertised as bigger, better, more colourful yet when they arrive, they are a cheaper and poorly made copy.”
2★ Trustpilot review, 2025-12-14

The company replied on 2025-12-15: “Dear Customer, Unfortunately, we are unable to process your case as the request information form has not been filled out, and we lack the necessary details to proceed. We apologize for any…”

Our classifier read this reply as a deflection.

5 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

Refunds delayed

109 reports · 10% of complaintsfalling
“Your staff then specifically responded saying “Your bonus refund will take 3–5 days.””
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-20 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-08-21: “Dear Customer, Thank you for your patience. I have noticed that your dedicated customer service representative is currently handling your case. Due to the complexity of the situation, it may take a…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

10 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“I've now spent weeks chasing this. I've received excuse after excuse, completely generic copy-and-paste responses”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-08 · classified as a severe complaint

The company replied on 2026-08-09: “Dear Customer, Thank you for your patience. I have noticed that your dedicated customer service representative is currently handling your case. Due to the complexity of the situation, it may take a…”

Our classifier read this reply as a substantive response.

It promised: to escalate.

7 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

“I've now spent over two weeks trying to resolve something that should have taken minutes”
1★ Trustpilot review, 2026-08-05

The company replied on 2026-08-06: “Dear Customer, Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced. We would like to inform you that we are actively looking into…”

Our classifier read this reply as a template response.

6 readers marked this review helpful on Trustpilot.

Method: reviews are classified into a fixed complaint taxonomy by an automated reader; every category shown is backed by at least two verbatim quotes from distinct reviews. Trends are computed from dated review counts only. Negative reviews are deliberately over-sampled for evidence depth; headline percentages use an unbiased recent sample only. Report updated 2026-09-27.