Online stores are gaining popularity every day. "Ebay", "Amazon", "Aliexpress" - these are just the largest platforms, and how many more are there that are little-known?

The ordering system on Chinese Aliexpress is very simple: you find the product, add it to the cart, fill out the delivery fields with the necessary information, make the payment, and after confirmation, the purchase begins its journey. But sometimes after payment a message “awaiting delivery” appears (to Aliexpress). What does this mean and why is the product delayed? Let's figure it out.

A little about the stages

The purchase process goes through several stages:

1. The first status that an ordered product receives on the website is “payment awaited”.
2. After the buyer deposits money, the “payment verification” stage begins, that is, the platform itself waits for the money transaction.
3. The third stage is “awaiting dispatch”. This time is given to the seller to pack the goods and send them by post.

How long it takes to ship to Aliexpress depends on the specific seller. Usually in the product description they indicate the period during which the package will be sent. Most often you will have to wait from two to four days from the moment payment is confirmed.

What could be the reasons for the delay?

But there are situations when within a week or two you see “expected delivery” on Aliexpress. How much longer should we wait? Of course, you can immediately complain to the administration about the dishonest seller, but it is better to try to contact the sender and find out the reason for the delay.

Perhaps there are holidays in China now, so the seller simply physically cannot fulfill his obligations under the transaction. In addition, the sender can clarify how long you still have to wait for the shipment.

Thinking about the worst

Why does it take a long time for delivery to Aliexpress? As mentioned just above, perhaps the reasons for the delay do not depend on the seller himself. But there may be another situation: the sender is a fraudster and, in principle, he did not intend to send you the goods. In this case, if you tried to contact the seller, but he does not respond to your messages, you will have to seek cancellation of the order.

How to cancel the order

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to cancel an order without much effort if the status is “awaited shipping” on Aliexpress (we already know what this means). The purchase can be easily canceled before you have paid for it, and then the order is closed only with the consent of the seller. And, most likely, only after a detailed explanation of the reasons for the closure. If you tried to do this, but the seller did not contact you, you will have to enter into a dispute.

It is worth noting that order cancellations have a negative impact on seller ratings. Therefore, when specifying the reason, if you want to more or less peacefully resolve the conflict, select “I don’t need this order” - in this case, the consequences for the seller will be minimal, and he will simply return your money. If other reasons are indicated, especially obviously negative ones, the sender cannot avoid sanctions.

Opening a dispute

So, the message “awaiting delivery” appears on Aliexpress - what is it? Is it really a guaranteed loss of money? In no case. Like any online platform, this site is interested in its customers, so it protects customers first. Opening a dispute and providing screenshots of all attempts to contact sellers, order information and other data confirming that you did everything possible to receive your purchase is almost guaranteed to help you get your money back. The seller will be punished for dishonesty.

Scammers

By the way, speaking about what “awaited delivery” to Aliexpress means, we cannot fail to mention some fraud schemes associated with this status. Sometimes the seller delays the shipment, and after you contact him, he tells you that he himself purchased the product cheaper than planned, or that the cost of delivery, usually included in the price of the product, will be lower than originally planned. In this regard, he will offer you a discount, although in order to receive it, you will have to re-place your order. To do this, the old one will need to be closed, that is, as if to confirm that the goods have arrived to you, and in the meantime the seller will open a new one with a lower price.

Naturally, this is a lie. After you close the order, you will no longer be able to confirm that the goods were not even sent to you. There is practically no chance to prove anything, even if you present all the necessary screenshots.

Therefore, if the seller offers to close the order before the package has been sent, you can safely refuse. And if after some time a package arrives with something you did not order, or nothing arrives at all, you can easily return the money through a dispute.

Extension of deadlines

By the way, as mentioned above, the reasons for delayed shipment are not always related to fraud and do not always depend on the seller. For example, you see “expected shipping” on Aliexpress (you already know what this could mean). And, burning with righteous anger, get ready to take action when the seller comes with an offer to extend the order processing time. Don't be afraid. This happens if the product you ordered is not in stock (for example, after sales, the most popular products are simply not in stock) or the seller, for some technical reason, cannot send the parcel within the time allotted for this by the site.

Typically, in an offer to extend the deadline, the seller explains the reasons for the delay. In such a situation, it is better to agree, because perhaps, as compensation for the wait, the sender will include a discount coupon or other pleasant surprise in the parcel. In addition, if you chose this particular seller from dozens of others, it means that you were attracted by something in his product - and it is far from a fact that if the offer to extend the deadline is rejected, you will be able to find exactly the same product for the same price from another seller .

Conclusion

Like any online store, Aliexpress has its own rules:

• If the goods do not arrive to you for a long time, open a dispute;
• if the same product does not ship from China for a long time, also open a dispute;
• If the goods arrive in poor condition, open a dispute again.

At the same time, sometimes it is necessary to put yourself in the position of another person, take into account holidays, lack of goods in stock and other factors that do not depend on him. Therefore, if your purchase from Aliexpress still does not begin its journey, try to first understand the reasons for the delay, and then move on to extreme measures.

Anyone who has once placed an order on Aliexpress knows how difficult it is shipping route from China to the buyer. Especially if it is an international parcel.

But the reasons for all kinds of delays and problems when moving a parcel with goods can be different. This is an incorrectly specified recipient address, an incorrectly registered track number, as well as delays in the work of delivery and postal services.

I would like to draw your attention to the most common problems that arise when delivering orders from Aliexpress, so that shipping route from China turned out to be not so difficult.

• Firstly, it is important to focus on how to correctly fill out the recipient's address. In your personal account on the Aliexpress website you will find this section with the appropriate fields to fill out.

  The fields are filled in in Latin letters. In strict sequence: first name, last name; country, region; address; city; state, province, district; postcode; recipient's contact phone number.

  Then you need to confirm the entered data by pressing the button. Moreover, the details of the parcel recipient can be edited, deleted, or added an additional postal address at any time. Very simple and convenient.

• Secondly, after placing your order, contact the seller and confirm with him the track number that he indicated to you. Sometimes it happens that the seller, for one reason or another, indicates the wrong tracking number, which results in problems in the future.
• Thirdly, the buyer must take into account the date of placing his order. If it coincides with holidays in China, as well as in Russia, then you need to be prepared that delivery times will be extended in accordance with the number of days off.

The parcel path from China: possible problems

I will list a number of other points that you need to know about when ordering online.

• Delivery service: China post Air Mail, Hongkong Post, Singapore Post (for free shipping); EMS, DHL, Fedex (paid courier delivery) and some other services offered for individual orders - ITELLA, TNT and others.

  Free services, as a rule, deliver parcels later than courier ones (from 1 to 2 months) and always to the post office at your specified place of residence.

  Paid services deliver your package directly to your home address and, depending on the region, the waiting time ranges from 4 to 20 days. When placing an order with free delivery, you will receive a notification at your home address with which you need to come to your post office, not forgetting to take your passport.

  If the parcel is delivered by a courier, you must also present your passport and sign for delivery of the parcel.

• Russian Post deserves special attention. On its official website, you can also use the tracking system in Russia. The system tracks both parcels and small packages up to 2 kg. Despite all the efforts of employees to optimize the internal work of the service, cases of delays of parcels are not uncommon, regardless of the status indicated in the tracking system.
  

  The grandson decided to send his grandfather a 5-year-old cognac to the village, so he bought a 3-year-old one and sent it by Russian Post.

• Customs Service. It is known that imported goods undergo customs clearance differently depending on the category: catalog goods, international shipment, express delivery goods. If you meet the duty-free standard (let me remind you, weighing up to 31 kg per month and an amount not exceeding 1,000 Euros), then there will be no problems.

  To declare, you now need to present: a copy of your passport with registration, an order form and a photo of the product, an original bank account statement indicating the online store as the recipient of the payment, a copy of a bank card.

• Documentation. Each parcel must be accompanied by a waybill indicating the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the sender and recipient, listing the contents and indicating the declared value.
• Return of parcels. Theoretically, there are the following options for your actions if you want to return the parcel: paid (at your expense) shipment with a new tracking number and registration of refusal of the parcel and its return to the specified address of the Chinese sender with the same tracking number.

  In practice, everything is completely individual and is resolved through opening a dispute and negotiating with the seller. Sometimes it is easier to demand partial compensation without sending the goods. The main thing is to open a dispute and correctly indicate the reason, claims, as well as the necessary requirements. After all, the return of the parcel is paid by the buyer, and this cost may exceed the cost of the product itself. You can read about how to open a dispute correctly in my next article.

After sending the goods to Aliexpress, the seller gives the buyer a tracking number by which the movement of the parcel can be tracked. And from this moment on, inexperienced buyers begin the most nervous period of waiting for their purchase. During which many regularly panic. One of the most common causes of concern is when the tracking status of a package is not updated for a long time. And with any minor delays in updating parcel tracking statuses, many panic. They are afraid of losing money, worried that the package will not arrive, and that they may need to do something urgently.

Let's take a closer look at why there are delays in updating tracking statuses, and what delay periods are considered normal. And what to do if the parcel status is not updated for a long time.

Why is my parcel tracking status not updated for a long time?

1. Information about the parcel has not yet entered the database of postal services and track number tracking systems.

If you have received a tracking number, this does not mean that your parcel has already arrived at the post office. On average, it is believed that before it begins to be read. Because first the seller will reserve a tracking number, then the parcel will be picked up by the courier, and it will be sent by courier service to the post office. Next, it takes time until the parcel data is entered into the tracking system. In this case, you don’t need to do anything, just wait two weeks until the parcel information starts to be read.

2. The parcel has started to be tracked, but has not been sent.

It happens that the first tracking status appears in the tracking systems and on the Aliexpress website, indicating that the post office has received information about the parcel. This means that the seller reserved a tracking number, but did not physically send the parcel. It even happens that at this stage everything stops.

3. Your track number is tracked only in China.

When ordering cheap goods, parcels may be sent to you by courier companies or whose Track numbers are, in fact, internal invoice numbers. And they are only tracked within China. After passing the border, your parcel will be assigned a new track number with which it will travel further. You, like tracking systems, will not be able to recognize it. And the latest tracking status will show that the parcel has been sent to the destination country. There will be no further updates to the tracking system. Therefore, all that remains is to patiently wait for the notification that the parcel has arrived at your post office.

4. The parcel is at the import stage.

Basically, the process of importing a parcel is the longest stage. On average it can last two weeks. But there are particularly slow sorting points with old equipment or high loads, where parcels are stuck for a month or even more.

You cannot influence the speed of crossing the border in any way. Since it is not known in which country it may be located. It may be marked as “Shipped”, but in fact it was placed in a container that is awaiting shipment, and then it may lie in a temporary storage warehouse, awaiting its turn for further processing. Therefore, you need to be patient and monitor the terms of buyer protection.

5. The parcel is stuck at customs.

There are situations when the latest status in tracking a parcel means that it has arrived at customs. And the movement does not go further. There may be several reasons for this. Firstly, the customs office may be overloaded and the employees physically do not have time to process incoming parcels quickly. Secondly, the parcel may get lost at customs. If more than 2-3 weeks have passed since the parcel arrived at customs, then you can call the desired department yourself and ask the employees to find out what’s wrong with it.

Please note that the speed of parcel delivery is a seasonal phenomenon. If you made an order during the holidays (especially during), during or after a sale, then due to workload or a large number of weekends, parcels will be sent slowly. Not only may the mail physically not work for some time, but also huge traffic jams will form.

We also cannot influence this fact in any way. You just need to take this into account and calmly wait for the parcel to wait its turn and move.

7. Delays in updating tracking databases of some postal services.

Some mails are famous for the fact that information in databases is updated with huge delays. And the parcel can go far ahead, and the data about it has not yet appeared in the database. Or the buyer has already received the parcel, but in tracking it has not even reached the point of export. For example, this is very typical for Estonian post. And the standard problem with China Post is that their server may be unavailable for a long period of time. Accordingly, status updates will not occur because of this.

8. Physical movements of the parcel.

At the very beginning of the parcel's journey, tracking statuses can be updated frequently. And it seems that your product moves from city to city, quickly passing through various stages. And then, at the next stage, it freezes for a week. And all because she is physically now sailing on a ship. And, sometimes, she needs to cover long distances by shipping. Naturally, this stage takes time and the next status will appear when it arrives at the next intermediate point.

9. The parcel was lost.

And the last, rather rare case, is when your package is lost in transit or stolen. Many buyers are afraid of this very reason, because they believe that the loss of a package means the loss of their money. And what do they need somehow. Actually this is not true.

What to do if the parcel status is not tracked for a long time?

N but in reality everything is simple! There are two options.

First- if there is no information about the tracking number, then in the first 10 days you just need to wait. And only then or.

Second - if information appears in the tracking statuses, then the parcel is considered to have been sent to you. And no matter what happens to it in the future, you will not be able to open a dispute until the delivery guarantee period has passed (blue alarm clock). Therefore, seeing that your track is being read, just watch that your package does not go to another recipient and wait patiently for it. Experienced buyers on Aliexpress advise extending the timer 5 days before the end of the buyer protection period if the parcel is delayed somewhere in your country. Or, a couple of days before the end of the protection period, open a dispute saying that a lot of time has passed, but the parcel is still on the way. This will allow you to get your money back for items not received. And it no longer matters where and for what reason the package got stuck.

Have a question? Write it in the comments or chat

Every year before the New Year holidays, the Russian Post collapses. Parcels from foreign online stores stop moving and can remain in the same status for 3-4 weeks. Many begin to worry about the fate of their purchases; standard questions arise in such cases: “Where is the package?”, “What to do?”, “Who is to blame?”. I will answer all these questions.

Where is the parcel now?

I will consider the most common option - the parcel is sent by China Post. If your parcel is sent by another post office, almost everything will be exactly the same; I will write about some of the nuances of other postal services below.

Parcel statuses with decryption

1. Accepted at the post office: the very first status of any parcel. It means that your order was sent by the online store, and the parcel is now traveling to the country of departure. Usually this status changes to the next one within 1-3 days.

2. Awaiting shipment from China (or other country): the second and often the “longest” status. Despite what Russian Post writes, in fact the parcel has already left the country of departure, arrived in Russia and is gathering dust in the Russian Post warehouse. During the “high season” the parcel may remain in this status for several weeks. The whole point is that Russian Post employees do not have time to process a large number of parcels from other countries.

3. Arrived on the territory of Russia, Arrived at the sorting center, Passed registration: These statuses quickly replace each other and mean that slow postal employees have finally reached your parcel, registered it and sent it to customs.

4. Reception at customs, Released by customs: Most parcels are of no interest to customs and leave it very quickly. However, the status “Released by customs” can hang for a very long time, up to 2-3 weeks. This means that the parcel has safely left customs, but Russian Post employees cannot cope and cannot send it for delivery within Russia.

5. Delivered for delivery throughout Russia: this is a key status, it means that your parcel has successfully overcome all the “circles of hell” of the Russian Post and is on its way to your post office. Depending on your region, this may take 2-10 days (2-3 for Moscow, up to 10 days for, for example, Norilsk).

Who is to blame and what to do?

Russian Post is a state organization and, unfortunately, the authorities are not yet going to restore order there. One manager replaces another, steals, leaves, a new one comes... a vicious circle. The organization of work and the level of wages in this organization does not allow normal people who are ready to work well and efficiently to stay there for a long time. And only those who have nowhere else to go stay and “work.” Those who do not want, cannot or do not know how to work normally.

This situation will only get worse in the coming years and we must take this into account. If you place an order in a foreign online store after November 1 and before the 20th of February, be prepared to wait a very long time.

What else do you need to know?