Ali express-good or bad?

[Rob_benton]

Hiya Fred,clearly you’ve had your fingers burnt and I appreciate your comments.
Although yours was a negative experience,there must be people on the forum with a positive experience.
They can’t all be fakers,it’s a similar situation for us using EBay-i use it a lot and have had my pants pulled down on a number of occasions,but mostly i’ve had no problems.
Rob,have you seen the kits i’m looking at from China on EBay or were they 2nd hand?
I wonder where companies like ‘KUFATEC’ scource their items from,they probably deal with Chinese companies,buy cheaper and then hike up the price.
Who knows at the end of the day,it’s a gamble-but if they are legit and you like modding/upgrading your car,you could save a lot of money. Quick look and there was one for £200 on Facebook

It’s the speaker in the spare wheel I’ve seen on eBay. Also seen people selling them on the mk7 gti Facebook page. It’s certainly an easier fitting.

[Finglonga]

Had all my LED bulbs from them and a couple from Wish for both our cars and over 4 years ago. One bulb has failed out of all of them and they replaced it FOC, even sent a pair out so I have a spare bulb just in case.

[My other womans a vw.]

I was starting to seriously doubt dealing with ‘Mr Car Store’ after communication difficulties.
They were replying to my questions,but the answers made no sense-obviously a translation problem.
After a while they just kept sending a photo of the full kit each time I asked a question,as though sick of me asking things.
However i’ve seen a car I might be interested in (without dynaudio) and remembered them asking me to send a photo of the touch screen/head unit,so I did.
The reply asked me to go into the settings and find out which MIB version it was,to see if the kit was compatible.
I couldn’t,cause the car isn’t mine,but I thought why would a faker ask that?
You would think they would just say ‘yes its compatible’ and take your money.
Or are they trying to make it appear more convincing,to lure me in-hmmmmm.

[SRGTD]

I was starting to seriously doubt dealing with ‘Mr Car Store’ after communication difficulties.
They were replying to my questions,but the answers made no sense-obviously a translation problem.
After a while they just kept sending a photo of the full kit each time I asked a question,as though sick of me asking things.
However i’ve seen a car I might be interested in (without dynaudio) and remembered them asking me to send a photo of the touch screen/head unit,so I did.
The reply asked me to go into the settings and find out which MIB version it was,to see if the kit was compatible.
I couldn’t,cause the car isn’t mine,but I thought why would a faker ask that?
You would think they would just say ‘yes its compatible’ and take your money.
Or are they trying to make it appear more convincing,to lure me in-hmmmmm.

If you know when the car you’re interested in was built, the MIB version in the car should be;


MIB 1; fitted to cars built up to the end of build week 21 in 2015
MIB 2; fitted to cars from the start of 2016 model year production (build week 22 in 2015)
MIB 3; fitted to mk7.5 models.

[My other womans a vw.]

It’s a 2019-thanks for that info.

[Lordie]

If they're struggling to even communicate before purchase then imagine after purchase if you did have a problem, it would be a nightmare

[My other womans a vw.]

Yeah that’s true,I have asked for part numbers and more photos,which they have sent-eventually.Checked their feedback and it’s good-but not perfect.
You can also pay using PayPal,which gives you some protection.
I’ve been looking into how to spot fake parts,didn’t realise how massive a problem it is.

[My other womans a vw.]

Think i’ve just had the answer to my original question.
Went ahead and ordered the full dynaudio kit from Aliexpress on the 12th April.
At first things seemed ok,then just before the processing time ran out I got a message saying the shipping company wouldn’t take the item and did I have friends in China,or could I arrange a private courier.
Like a pillock,I extended the processing time,to give the seller more time to ship-trying to be reasonable due to the impact covid has had on worldwide logistics.
That was the last I heard from the seller,despite almost daily attempts for an update.
Heard some absolute horror stories regarding refunds and feared the worst.
However,cancelled the order yesterday and the money was back in my account today.
Gutted really,cause I wanted the kit,but the complete and total lack of communication,made me pull the plug.
Should have listened to the lads on here,I honestly don’t think i’ll buy anything off there again,I took a gamble that could of cost me a fortune.
‘Aliexpress-good or bad?’
Ans-BAD!!!

[fredgroves]

At least you didn't get some piece of crap sent to you. Possibly best outcome really.

[SRGTD]

@My other womans a vw.; I’ve not re-read the discussion thread but seem to remember you wanted to keep the upgrade as OEM as possible. Would this fit the bill?

https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/accessories/000051419B/plug-and-play-sound-system-for-spare-wheel-bay

I think you‘d have to sacrifice losing the spare wheel with the Helix plug and play system though as unlike the Dynaudio sub, the Helix unit is too large to fit inside the spare wheel.