4 AliExpress Dropshipping Issues And Their Solutions (Bizathon5 Episode4)

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Enjoy the video as we reveal common dropshipping problems & their solutions:

Time to get serious.

Today we’re covering all too common AliExpress Dropshipping issues. 

There are many different problems you can run into.

Don’t stress, because we’ll show you exactly how to navigate each.

Unfortunately, any issues you learn about today, you’re going to experience at some point if you stick with dropshipping via AliExpress long enough.

The good news is that there is always a solution.

Our AliExpress Headache

AliExpress is an awesome resource to utilize for your dropshipping business.

They have more suppliers than any other company, and outstanding prices on a HUGE range of products. 

Everything that’s awesome, usually has its drawbacks.

The biggest drawback with AliExpress is their terrible support.

For starters, you’re dealing Chinese people who do not speak English.

At best, the majority are using a digital translator – poorly.

So communication is significantly impaired.

Not too mention, they’re supporting millions of suppliers, so time between responses is usually a couple of days. 

Storytime…

The following incident occurred in December of last year.

Everything was going well, and we were actively scaling our AliExpress dropshipping business to several hundred dollars per day and – with no problems for the first two months.

Then one day we had ourselves a problem.

Rito went to bed after ensuring all of the daily orders were being shipped…

And when he woke up, our AliExpress account was suspended.

No warning, no heads up, and no explanation.

In fact, for 24 hours we didn’t even know we’d been suspended.

We were able to login, add products to cart and even view our orders.

We just couldn’t checkout. 

All we saw was an error message stating there was a technical issue.

We’d contacted support, but they didn’t respond.

So we had to pause all ads and notify new customers of a shipping delay.

We also had to change the inventory on all of our products to $0.

We Didn’t Give Up

It would have been easy to say, “Screw dropshipping & screw AliExpress!”

But we didn’t. 

We took a deep breath and dove into the problem, cool and collective. 

After 3 days of no response from AliExpress, Rito checked our spam folder…

And there it was.

An email from AliBaba suggesting they noticed some suspicious activity.

There was a link within the email to confirm everything was ok…

Which was supposed to make everything all sunshine and rainbows again.

We clicked the link….

And nothing happened.

The Eventual “Quick” Solution

While their email support is garbage, they actually have a live chat feature.

Believe it or not, there seems to be friendly, competent people on the other end.

To say we were surprised, would be an understatement.

Rito explained to the chat agent, that our account was suspended, we had been placing regular orders for a growing business and we’d like reinstatement as nothing shady was occurring on our end.

We mentioned already providing all documents, and proof of business.

The chat lady confirmed, and said to wait 24 hours before placing orders.

And just like that, we were reinstated. Weird, we know.

Common AliExpress Issues & Solutions

Now let’s cover the AliExpress problems you’re likely to face…

Problem #1. Appeals

When you’re regularly placing orders for AliExpress, you’ll notice some will randomly not go through.

For whatever reason your order goes into payment verification which takes 12-24 hours.

Then the seller is supposed to ship the product.

But sometimes, the orders just don’t go through and you’ll see an appeal within your “My orders” section.

You’ll be required to send a photo of your purchasing card, and bank details. 

Be sure to black out sensitive info like your card and account numbers. They just need to see the name on the card.

If you send your passport, hide certain aspects of your address etc.

Don’t ever send AliExpress sensitive images or account information during appeals as you might magically find your card being used for unauthorized purchases in China.

But do submit your documents as soon as the appeal happens.

Problem #2. Verified By Visa or OTPs

This is for people living abroad.

Canada and US dropshippers won’t need to deal with Visa Verification.

If this happens to you, visit “My Orders” from within your AliExpress account.

Don’t make the payment on the final step of your card details page. 

Instead, select “Other Payment Methods” and proceed from there.

The order’s you place using “Other Payment Methods” will appear under the, “Awaiting Payment” tab from your AliExpress dashboard.

Once you’ve placed 30 orders or so, they’ll appear in the “Awaiting Payment” section, where you can pay for 10 at a time.

Problem #3. Account Suspensions

We covered this problem and the solution, within the story we shared at the beginning of this post.

The best way to handle it is to locate the AliExpress email containing the special link we mentioned, then immediately contact the live support chat.

Just be patient, because it’s a frustrating process.

Problem #4 – Items Not Being Delivered

AliExpress doesn’t like refunds, chargebacks or disputes.

If you’ve been dropshipping for a while, you’re going to run into some sellers who aren’t very good about shipping on time or even honoring your purchase.

Unfortunately this is the nature of the game.

The bigger problem here is that AliExpress punishes you instead of faulty sellers when you open multiple disputes.

When you open disputes against multiple vendors, AliExpress actually suspends you instead of the dishonest seller.

If you encounter a bad vendor, just find a different one and eat the loss.

At least this way your account won’t be suspended and you can continue fulfilling orders. 

While we’re talking about red flags, if you place a bunch of orders suddenly, after not having placed many before, your account will likely be suspended. 

Fraud is big business in China.

These annoying suspensions are unfortunately necessary counter measures for that country.

The last major red flag for AliExpress happens when you have a VA (virtual assistant) working for you and placing orders on your behalf, who is from another country.

They will be using a different IP address and this too will likely result in an automatic account suspension.

You’ll again need to reach out to AliExpress to get your account reinstated.

That’ll do it for Episode 4 – Great work!

If you’ve faced AliExpress issues we haven’t mentioned, please let us know.

We love hearing from you in the comments below!

Success by choice, not by chance,

-David Aston

P.S.

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P.P.S. Click here for Episode 5!