More frivolous purchases, stuff you don't need..

[ben5575]

Ooo, I see you can unscrew the pointy end to reveal a 'crown' that is apparently useful for collecting a dna sample from your assailant as you drive it into his neck.

Sadly it's not legal to carry a kubotan in the UK, just ask Darren Day.

[nigelpugh7]

Some more tools, principally ratchets and socket spanners for my upcoming Caterham Build.

Frivolous beacuse i already have multiple sets of both, but a shiny new Caterham kit justified shiny new tools right!

[IanA2]

Du1point8 said:

I do hate Ali for stealing ideas and knocking them out cheap, but a tenth of the price... Damn!!

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali? I ask as I was just about to buy something, assuming they would take paypal, but see they want my CC details. Am I being overly cautious?

[bingybongy]

IanA2 said:

Du1point8 said:

I do hate Ali for stealing ideas and knocking them out cheap, but a tenth of the price... Damn!!

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali? I ask as I was just about to buy something, assuming they would take paypal, but see they want my CC details. Am I being overly cautious?

Try Gearbest, much the same stuff and they do take Paypal.

[n3il123]

nigelpugh7 said:

Some more tools, principally ratchets and socket spanners for my upcoming Caterham Build.

Frivolous beacuse i already have multiple sets of both, but a shiny new Caterham kit justified shiny new tools right!

Mmmmmmmmmmm shiny

[IanA2]

bingybongy said:

IanA2 said:

Du1point8 said:

I do hate Ali for stealing ideas and knocking them out cheap, but a tenth of the price... Damn!!

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali? I ask as I was just about to buy something, assuming they would take paypal, but see they want my CC details. Am I being overly cautious?

Try Gearbest, much the same stuff and they do take Paypal.

Thanks.

[nigelpugh7]

n3il123 said:

Mmmmmmmmmmm shiny

They are indeed, so much so that I am worried about scratching those lovey shiny surfaces on my garage floor, so I now need to sort out the floor tiles to lay before the kit arrives!

Edited by nigelpugh7 on Tuesday 24th November 14:38

[SistersofPercy]

I didn't need a Pebble watch, but at £50 it seemed worth a punt. Really pleased with it actually, I work in an environment where I have to leave my phone in a bag in a locked room so good to see notifications on the watch. Couldn't justify big money on the Apple watch but for £50 it was worth it.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tech...

[Chris Type R]

Chris Type R said:

Delivered this morning:

Turns out my eyes are not young enough to use this to tell the time

EDIT: But it's keeping perfect time, I bet.

[wseed]

IanA2 said:

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali? I ask as I was just about to buy something, assuming they would take paypal, but see they want my CC details. Am I being overly cautious?

Yep I've placed an order from them. I get the impression that they're a bit like Amazon in that the stuff sold is listed by individual companies and Ali are just the market place. The item I bought was missing a part so I raised a complaint with them. The seller failed to respond within a set timeframe and Ali refunded me the full amount. A little unfair to the seller really as I only wanted the missing part not a full refund.

[SirSquidalot]

Bought a model P1 last night (1/12) on a Black Friday deal, got it for £208!

http://www.diecastlegends.com/diecast-brands/trues...

Probably going on ebay seeing what they are fetching!

[djt100]

IanA2 said:

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali? I ask as I was just about to buy something, assuming they would take paypal, but see they want my CC details. Am I being overly cautious?

Bought loads, best bet is to sign up for the Alipay , similar to Paypal but for china. Never had a problem, lots of stuff at silly cheap prices. Touch wood all quite good quality too. Only had one order not arrive and that was refunded without issue.

[IanA2]

djt100 said:

IanA2 said:

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali? I ask as I was just about to buy something, assuming they would take paypal, but see they want my CC details. Am I being overly cautious?

Bought loads, best bet is to sign up for the Alipay , similar to Paypal but for china. Never had a problem, lots of stuff at silly cheap prices. Touch wood all quite good quality too. Only had one order not arrive and that was refunded without issue.

Thanks for the reassurance folks. Off to sign up with Alipay.

[LarryUSA]

OK, so I haven't actually bought it, but I thought this might appeal to those on this thread:

A Clock That Looks Like An Analog Voltmeter

[ben5575]

IanA2 said:

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali?

Oh this is so council but yes and there is no problem with it. You trade through the site rather than direct with the dealer so in the event that something doesn't arrive, you simply open a case and get a full refund pretty much straight away. Much easier (and actually probably safer) than paypal/ebay in that respect. You do get the impression that there are there to protect the consumer. Just remember that you will be buying chinese tat, blind. You may luck out and get something good, but you're equally as likely to get something that'll end up straight in the bin. Spend/risk accordingly.

[IanA2]

ben5575 said:

IanA2 said:

Sorry to hijack, but has anyone bought anything from Ali?

Oh this is so council but yes and there is no problem with it. You trade through the site rather than direct with the dealer so in the event that something doesn't arrive, you simply open a case and get a full refund pretty much straight away. Much easier (and actually probably safer) than paypal/ebay in that respect. You do get the impression that there are there to protect the consumer. Just remember that you will be buying chinese tat, blind. You may luck out and get something good, but you're equally as likely to get something that'll end up straight in the bin. Spend/risk accordingly.

My original question related to the security issues of divulging my CC details to an unknown and difficult to deal with third party.

May I ask how you know the stuff supplied is tat? The settees I have looked at (around £2.5K JL) are listed at around £800 and they look to be identical. Chinese manufacturers manufacture to a spec, when well spec'd the stuff they make can be of excellent quality. Ask Apple!

[jimmyjimjim]

LarryUSA said:

OK, so I haven't actually bought it, but I thought this might appeal to those on this thread:

A Clock That Looks Like An Analog Voltmeter

A kit of that was being sold as the chronulator back in 2011ish.

http://www.sharebrained.com/chronulator/

[Dibble]

Slight panic when I received this e-mail today. I thought my bank account had been hacked, then thought it was just spam. Then I had a bit of a harder think and remembered ordering these last night after having "some wine"... I don't play any games that require dice, and definitely not in the dark.

[ben5575]

IanA2 said:

My original question related to the security issues of divulging my CC details to an unknown and difficult to deal with third party.

May I ask how you know the stuff supplied is tat? The settees I have looked at (around £2.5K JL) are listed at around £800 and they look to be identical. Chinese manufacturers manufacture to a spec, when well spec'd the stuff they make can be of excellent quality. Ask Apple!

Sorry Ian, not sure if that got lost in translation. I'd just been reading the 'council' thread and there I was confessing to buying stuff off Ali, thereby admitting I was 'a bit council'...

But to clarify, I do occasionally shop on Ali, and FWIW I think it perfectly safe to give your cc details to them (I have). As I say, it is like providing your cc cards to ebay (which you kind of already do with paypal in any case), then buying items, finding you have a problem and being refunded direct by ebay rather than having to deal with the sellers directly and/or paypal etc. I find Ali is a lot less hassle than ebay.

Re tat I am merely going by my experience which is that 50% of the stuff I buy gets delivered and is of good/sufficient quality that I am happy. The other 50% never arrives or you throw straight in the bin. So for example, somebody may take the view that if they buy three football kits for their son for £15, if one doesn't turn up then that's not a problem (plus you get an easy/instant refund). Quite whether that attitude applies to something at £800... Particularly if it is the size of a sofa and you need to arrange to post it back to china if you're not happy etc. With Ali it's safe to assume that you are essentially buying 'off the back of a lorry'

[Zoon]

Dibble said:

Slight panic when I received this e-mail today. I thought my bank account had been hacked, then thought it was just spam. Then I had a bit of a harder think and remembered ordering these last night after having "some wine"... I don't play any games that require dice, and definitely not in the dark.

10/10 for frivolity
10/10 for forgetting you'd ordered them.