I speak from personal experience when I say DO NOT BUY FROM ALIEXPRESS OR ANY OTHER COUNTRY.
I placed an order off Aliexpress in October 2018, and according to the International tracking information, the order arrived in South Africa on 28 December 2018.
Everything that is imported apparently goes through the South African Postal Services at customs and from there it gets collected by the major courier services. I followed up with SAPO (SA post office) tracking website using my tracking number, and it shows that there is no record of my parcel. I tried calling SAPO every day, but get an automated answering service. “ All our agtents are currently busy, Your call is important to us. We will attend to your call as soon as an agent becomes available”
This is the recording I get every day wben I call them. I eventually gave up on SAPO. I managed to lodge a complaint with Aliexpress beginning of February 2019. They extended the buyers protection warranty and asked me to wait 30 more days. The 30 days had come and gone…and the SAPO tracking website still shows no record of my order. So I gave up.
On Monday 11 March 2019, I saw the same items on EBAY and purchaed and paid for it. The next morning I received an email from Ebay that the seller has processed a refund on the items purchased one day ago. I emailed Ebay to enquire as to why… They said the seller will not sell and ship to any buyers in South Africa due to parcels being stolen. So some sellers will no longer ship to South Africa due to ongoing theft at SAPO?
That is what the rest of the world think of South Africa. I felt so ashamed and replied to Ebay saying I completely understand, Thank you.
So please do not order especially if its from China or tee UK, no matter how tempting tbeir prices are. They will not ship to South Africa. And if by chance they do, continue reading.
I lost my money because the International Tracking can proof that my parcel reached its destination on 28 December 2018. Aliexpress now wants me to fight it out with SAPO, because they can prove that the parcel has arrived in SA. . I am in Cape Town and the SAPO Main Depot where all shipped items are ware-housed, is in JHB. The items that I purchased was around 15.5 USD. I have to write it off. Someone at the SAPO warehouse probably pockets all the small packets as mine were a set of spare keys for my vehicle. And they are not available in SA.
So to answer your question, be warned. You will pay for your order but chances that you will receive it is zero to none.
