AliExpress stopped displaying green combined delivery label. Is this THE END?! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: dusan
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2023, 03:37:16 pm
content: Month ago I was adding some items on the list to buy in February and I always carefully select only items with green combined delivery label, so that I receive all in one package instead of 20 separate packages but when I checked these items today, all the green labels were gone. I had list of 30 URLs all with combined delivery green label and now all the green labels are gone? What does this mean? Is combined delivery no longer a thing? How to check if item is combined delivery?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2023, 04:47:39 pm
content: Yes, this implicitly combined thing was mostly for Europe and it was applied to items that are located in local warehouses.In the US I just get items automatically combined depending on their logistics. You get a lot of tracking numbers, but all items are shipped to a local place in China, where they are packaged and shipped as one item with a new tracking number. They may be doing something similar for the EU.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2023, 07:44:03 pm
content: They often combine packages opportunistically even if there was no guarantee that they will do it. It happened to me several times. They even combine "AE saver shipping" packages with "AE standard shipping" and deliver them faster.I don't know what happened to the "guaranteed combined delivery" offers, but I never really cared about it.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2023, 08:40:50 pm
content: Alibaba Group has their own shipping logistics companies and the chinese are smart enough to aggregate and use their own network for shipments.Cainiao is part of them, bottom cost but not so great. Part of the success of Aliexpress is the low cost shipping. It's like their own mini FedEx or something- they have a package center, containers arrive etc. in your city. The handoff to local carriers seems to be the funny part, as far as adding cost. One step away from making their own post lol.Combining shipping costs of multiple items from one store is not possible despite what people say. I've never, ever had it work.I would add to that complaint about Aliexpress that you can't sort by price including shipping, and the ripoff where an item is $0.01 with $12.99 shipping is so annoying.Lately I'm seeing orders take a long time about 10 days to get fulfilled and shipped - Covid has greatly affected things over there.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2023, 08:47:32 pm
content: Yeah, this is done automatically for shipping over here as well.I have mixed feelings about it: while it obviously makes sense from a cost and efficiency POV, putting unrelated items in the same package can cause issues - obviously that becomes a single point of failure if there is any problem with the package - all your items will be gone. And it's not like it never happens... Not a big problem with cheap stuff, but could be for more expensive items. Not allowing the consumer (at least in my case, and I guess in some other countries as well) to choose what is going to be combined is a problem. Obviously the workaround is to order items a few days apart if you want them shipped separately, but that's kind of a hack and not even a guarantee unless you wait for up to 2 weeks in some cases. Just my 2 cents.

author: Jackster
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2023, 08:50:33 pm
content: It is not something they offer all the time.Only get it about once a month for a week or so in the UK.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2023, 02:08:38 am
content: I've seen no issue with slow shipping recently, apart from the normal delays in the past couple weeks due to lunar NY.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2023, 11:41:04 pm
content: Highly depends on what country you are in.Here I am still seeing the green label/offer to combine.Quote from: floobydust on January 29, 2023, 08:40:50 pmWorks fine, just depends on the seller. Seems like less are offering it now, maybe they got bit in the past by people buying multiple heavy items.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2023, 02:09:54 am
content: After placing the order, My Orders shows no breakout of shipping costs or what method is being used, this is hidden.Clicking on Order Details will only show a total shipping cost for all the items, with no breakdown and I don't see any combining happening.The website software has always been poor.Message Center - Chats - "We have launched the all-new Messages!" This has been displayed for a year or two.Clicking on a message: "Unknown message type, please check it on App."After you've clicked through all messages it shows "NaN" for the number of unread messages.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2023, 07:57:44 am
content: Quote from: floobydust on January 31, 2023, 02:09:54 amYes, they fucked it up in a recent "modern" website redesign.One day I will become Stalin 2.0 and execute every web developer alive today.Quote from: floobydust on January 31, 2023, 02:09:54 amIt was never visible there. But if you go to order tracking, you will see that there is a new tracking number common for several orders.Quote from: floobydust on January 31, 2023, 02:09:54 amYes, their software quality has always been shit, even by the usual standards of "web 2.0". They constantly have random transient failures, like something doesn't work for a few hours, or I get switched to the Israeli site on every click, or search results are completely random and disappear if I change sorting order, or whatever the fuck else.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2023, 07:12:32 pm
content: Quote from: magic on January 31, 2023, 07:57:44 amThat could include every software developer alive, if you were really angry.

author: HumbleDeer
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 27, 2024, 10:31:59 pm
content: Regarding the disappearance of the combined delivery label: it had to do with Chinese New Year. Similar badges and special features seem to undergo pausing during major Chinese events and festivities as well.I'm posting in this older topic as it's strangely what pops up in Google for a search I made, and hasn't been answered.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2024, 06:42:48 am
content: TBH I don't remember seeing "combined delivery" offers anywhere in 2023. I think this marking has been retired permanently.Packages ordered at similar time with AliExpress Standard or Saver Shipping are still typically being combined. It simply saves AliExpress money, now that they actually need to pay their last mile carriers. I don't know the exact rules, but I have made a few orders from multiple sellers in 2023 and all of them were combined. They even combine orders from different baskets, if they are close enough in time.AliExpress also introduced "Choice" offers. Items with "Choice" label always use combined delivery, you pay a flat rate for shipping regardless of which seller or sellers you order from and shipping is free on orders above $10. Supposedly this works by participating sellers storing their stock of "Choice" items in AliExpress' own warehouse together with others, which means that you will most likely see this option offered on popular, high volume products.

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2024, 07:33:31 am
content: Quote from: magic on March 28, 2024, 06:42:48 amThis did not happen for my last orders. I try to order everything I want from the choice section and combine to go over the 10 dollar for free shipping and faster delivery. Unfortunately for sure the fore last order I placed did not got combined. Two of the seven items came in the same package, then a separate item came and I'm still waiting for the other four. Maybe these are in a single package, but they are overdue while still waiting to be delivered from the local sorting facility.Have to see how my latest orders fare. They should arrive before the 10th of April to be on time.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2024, 09:11:27 am
content: Hmm, interesting. At $1+taxes shipping rate they should be damn bloody motivated to optimize the hell out of it. Choice offers are sometimes more expensive than others which could explain the unusually low shipping fee, but it's not the case that they always are.Maybe it's not true that this stuff is warehoused by AE, after all? I got such impression from reading the fine print about Choice on AE website a while ago, but reading it again I frankly only see a claim that Choice items are "shipped by AE", which could mean anything I guess - maybe they "ship" your items in batches as they arrive from various sellers by domestic couriers.I have only used Choice once so far, and only bought from two sellers.

author: pcprogrammer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 28, 2024, 09:34:01 am
content: I have no clue on what they do and when they do it. Lately I noticed that after placing a bunch of orders some directly got marked "picked up by courier" while others are marked "to ship". (I use Dutch on Ali and the texts are "opgehaald door koerier" and "verzenden") When it is actually shipped it states "awaiting delivery". ("in afwachting van levering")On the orders I'm still waiting for, one of them had the "picked up by courier" for maybe 9 of the 13 days delivery and was delivered to my mailbox on day 12. The others got "awaiting delivery" maybe on day 2 or 3 and the first two got here on day 8 or so. The last four have in their tracking that they arrived in the local sorting office on March the 13th, and should have been delivered by March the 18th. It is now the 28th.The orders I made before that set, did arrive in one package and on time, except for one item, that was delivered late in a separate package.Why, only employees of Aliexpress might know.