Prefer DDP(Customs paid when ordering) over DAP(Customs paid at delivery) because DAP can be as high as 40%
Ask seller to send product via Alibaba Shipping only and not be oversmart and send from his own shipping. That will for sure add extra custom charges on top of high shipping charges.INDIA MAJOR UPDATE: All orders now require custom clearance/document verification so you will have to pay extra non-refundable customs fee
Update: Will update if this actually happens with all upcoming order or did that seller just was just a scammer and tried to get more money via the shipping route instead of using Alibaba Shipping. The seller has now been added to not-recommended list.
The reason I say that is because the next headphone I got, I didn't had to pay any extra money. However there is a big package of 10 USB HUBs and a Game Stick coming and that will clear things up quite a bit.
Hindi Reel where I talked about this.
As of March 2026, India did another fucking stupid thing where now they are adding extra custom charges willy-nilly on even small items in small quantities.
You HAVE TO USE YOUR DOCUMENT'S ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER for delivery and be ready to pay Custom Charges at the time of delivery which you will not know before hand(Unless seller sends it via DDP which itself is very expensive).
This means that if you got something that is broken and even if you get full refund on it, you will not get a refund on the custom clearance as it's a separate payment.
This was not the case with small orders that individuals were ordering earlier but now any order above Rs.1000 or merely $10 which all will be due to shipping charges will be subject to that.
In short if you're in India, buy from a reseller in India instead of ordering from Alibaba, although expect them to also increase prices soon also.
Aliexpress was already shut down around 2019.
DO NOT REVIEW THE PRODUCT OR THE SELLER AT ALL unless I greelight the seller..
Update: There are a few exceptoin sellers who are truly great and won't increase prices or remove their products based on the genuine review provided. I will update the list of the sellers once I do find them. Until then, skip this entirely.
In no case give any positive review to the product or the seller. Completely ignore them after you get your product and something is fine with it. They increase prices as soon as they get good reviews or completely remove the product and make a new listing when they get a negative review.
I know it's not the morally right thing to do but that's where I come in. I will review stuff myself on my websites and you guys can order it yourself thereby giving the seller money instead of a review he might abuse later.
No one hates it more than me because people need to know about good seller but if they do the following practices, I won't allow it.
Look at this listing(if still available).
As soon as I made a video review the seller took that video and put it in the video description of the product which is all well and fine but then it went ahead and increased the price of the product. Why? Because it has a good review. I made this mistake, you should not do this.
There are no thin beatiful asian sellers on Alibaba. They are all fat dudes with an AI generated profile picture.
Don't go easy on the sellers just because they have a cute picture of a girl as their icon. That picture is 100% fake and AI generated and all there is, is a fat dude using an AI to play with your hearts hoping you won't realize what you have got is a fake product.
Alibaba and safety
As long as you make a video of the shipping product, Alibaba will always go into your favour, all you have to be careful of is that they try to put in a message like "COuld you give this and that" but secretly change the refund amount to 0 and if you just accept it as a normal message, you lose your money. THat's the only thing you have to be careful of:
1. Always record complete unboxing and testing the device withoout any cuts int he video.
2. Careful what you select when a dispute does happen.
3. Don't order if you can't risk losing all your money especially for bigger orders. Check this
Note: I think Chinese government willing allows it's people to scam people from other countries so you have to be extra careful when ordering something from China
.
Alibaba and Customs
DAP❌ vs. DDP✅
An example of DAP vs DDP on the same product(Note: I asked seller for the Gamepad with Dongle and that's the prices here are slightly high than the link) This is very very important if you're not ordering directly but asking the seller to create an order for you as the sellers can just ignore this custom extra charges on your end.
DAP means you will pay all custom duty and DDP means the seller will pay it before hand. If your order doesn't say DDP under "Incoterms and duties" then you should be ready to pay customs.
AVOID DAP if you can. DAP is horrible if the product you recieve turns out to be faulty as you will only get the refund on the amount you paid to Alibaba/Seller not what you paid to customs. This means the custom amount you will loose in case something goes wrong which is a common occurance.
And the customs in many countries like India love to take all the money for themselves.
Also when you see the actual cost of something with DDP instead of DAP you can decide if you want to get that product or not. This will be a more accurate cost of the product if you plan to sell it to someone.
Later, of course you can try agents and all that which I haven't yet.
But you won't find many sellers willing to give you a quote on DDP at all so it's completely understandable that you have to take te risk, or, just buy from some resellers instead like even I do.
[TODO] Ordering via agent instead of direct from Alibaba/Seller
The main reason I have avoided this in the past is becuase on smaller order the cost of sending the prodcut to the China Warehouse turns out to be the same as the cost of getting it delivered in India.
Alibaba and India
Update: Since alibaba is now delivering packets via courier so there is little chance oof missing packets or lost packets or even unnecessary late deliveyr.
Delivery Time Estimates: Last Packaged Delivered in 21 Days
Note: If Customs are not mentioned it means no Customs were paid.
Express: Electronics Parcels (Standard) 25 days Apr 1 to Apr 25: IndiaPost Delivered it.
Newest R36S PLUS WIFI Handheld Game Console with 4-INCH Screen VS R36S MAX PRO→ Link removed from Alibaba because I added a negative review and it was the only review.
Since Aliexpress can't deliver products you are left with Alibaba if you want to order something from China. The problem happens when you start seeign the shipping cost which often is too mcuh and for cheaper items it can cross product price itself.
Hence, it is recommended you get yourself some coupons espeically on a new account and which you keep getting from time to time and use that to the fullest.
That is not to say that it's worthless to order from Alibaba. Even something like R36 Game console at the base price is still a lot cheaper than buying it froom someoone in India and also to ensure that you get the genuine product not the clones.
Alibaba Sellers to avoid
List of sellers I find not worth recommending for some reasons:
1) Claims expert in projector but the one I got from him was filled with mis-information about the "Android" specs on it like RAM/ROM being much lower, but more than that instead of sending the product via Alibaba where the custom would not be needed to be paid, he arranged his own courier and I had to pay 50% of the product cost as custom thereby ruining the whole plan to sell them.
Update: The customs were to be paid anyways which I wasn't aware of for a "sample," however, the seller didn't bother letting me know that he had another option which all have called DDP in which the customs paid won't be as high as 40% of the total order.
2) Instead of using Alibaba shipping which was already paid for, used their own shipping which incurred extra charges which I suspecte might actually not be customs but just shipping(which I already paid to Alibaba) which isn't a reason for refund. So I can't get a refund on this and I paid shipping twice on this piece of garbage. Completely avoid this seller.
Stil avoid even though I might not have concrete evidence
Shenzhen Qbuy Technology Co., Ltd.→ Sent defective R36S Pro and tried to gaslight the customer instead of accepting that the product he sent was defective. I don't know how these people get so many positive reviews but looks like just like Amazon, Alibaba also might have a lot of fake reviewers.
Note: The seller had also sent R36S whose display stopped working either when I dropped it OR by itself. I simply don't remember.
Note: Recommended Sellers are recommended for now and might be not recommended later. For them just check the products I am ordering from them by going through the site and what you actually want.
Videos
India/Hindi Videos
This should no longer be ture in India as they are now using Ekart instead:
Archived
Click to view old stuff
1. Summary / Important Points
First order should be of something of low value as your first order to confirm if the seller is sending you package with all duties/custom paid so that you don't incur extra charges.
Prefer DDP, if not then DAP, DDU will certainly occur a lot of charge to you. Also, confirm about DDP/DAP from the seller before ordering.stea
It's a lot about finding seller which are reputed and genuine just like any other platform. I will adding a list of seller I found to be pretty good here:
Check the Coupons links on the Coupons page. You might get some discount or free shipping coupons.
Before you place your order, send this message and confirm if they can do this. (This steps needs validation which should take to up to about July 2025):
Hello! I am ordering from India. Packages here are sometimes opened during customs clearance and delivery, and items can go missing.
Can you please pack the item inside an inner box or bubble wrap, and seal that inner package using tamper-proof tape or a sticker?
This way, even if the outer box is opened during inspection, the item inside will still be protected.
Customs in India are allowed to open packages if needed, so it won’t be a problem — this is just an extra safety step for delivery.
Thank you for your help and careful packaging!
2. Videos: Hindi & English
English Video here → English Comments only.
Hindi Video here → Hindi and English Comments here.
3. Detailed Information
3.1. DDP vs. DDU vs. DAP
"The difference between DDP and delivered duty unpaid (DDU) is that DDU requires the end consumer or person receiving or importing the package to pay the duties incurred once the package enters the destination country.
With DDU, customs will contact the customer once their package arrives, and the customer may even have to go to the local post office to pick it up. Too often, the customer doesn’t realize their order was DDU and will contact the merchant’s customer support line, cancel the order, or refuse to get it and return it to the sender.
DDP is considered the better customer experience, as it is a cross-border option that takes all fees into consideration upfront, allowing the merchant to still choose whether they pass those fees to the customer by increasing the product pricing or simply eat those costs.
.
