Pray you never need AliExpress Customer Service. It's total ****!

In April, I was advised to pay R593 in customs fees, which was approximately the expected amount to pay for my order.

Soon thereafter, I was advised that Customs had withheld the parcel. Apparently, the value of the parcel was underdeclared, for which they levied a penalty of R1,000. Needless to say that I refused to take responsibility for this and referred the matter to the seller. They insisted it was not their problem either. This disagreement eventuated in the parcel being abandoned and forfeited to the state, from what I am told. This was my first such experience (ordeal perhaps) after many years of online purchasing.

Customer service is virtually nonexistent on AliExpress. The platform owner seems to go out of their way to ensure that they are inaccessible to customers who have problems with sellers on their platform. They frustrate all attempts to get customer service.

So when you deal with AliExpress, pray you never need their Customer Service, because it is practically nonexistent. I may need to come to terms with losing my R2K. Thankfully, Meile, which was handling the logistics side of things, has acted incredibly professionally and assisted with their part, including securing the refund for the R590 Customs duty I had paid.