m3chris Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 We are sorry, but due to legal restrictions, AliExpress is unable to provide escrow services to residents located in Washington State.Anyone else get a message like this? It will not let me order. I sent Ray a message.Chris
77doran Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 Why not use Paypal, instead of Ali Escrow? You would save yourself some coin using Paypal.
m3chris Posted August 30, 2013 Author Posted August 30, 2013 I was just trying to checkout. Didn't even get to payment options yet. Looks like WA state is the problem.
77doran Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 Usually when I order from Ray, I send him a email asking for a quote that includes shipping for the products I want. I saved myself quite a bit, doing it this way. Rather than going through Ali Express. BTW, if you do order this way. Get a quote using DHL for shipping. My last order, from pick up to my door, was under 48 hours. I was amazed!
m3chris Posted August 30, 2013 Author Posted August 30, 2013 Ok thanks, has anyone done high dollar orders off the site with him? I hear mostly great things.
spomalley Posted August 30, 2013 Posted August 30, 2013 Ok thanks, has anyone done high dollar orders off the site with him? I hear mostly great things. Plenty of people have done pretty high dollar orders with Ray and there have been very few problems (if any!) that I've heard of.
LightsinMaine Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 Always order from Ray direct, don't go through Ali. My last order was $1000 and no issues. And know of many who have done larger. Keep in mind his lead times are getting larger due to a lot of people waiting till now to place orders...
robo Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 I always try to buy localin the states. I usually get my orders in 2 days. Plenty of great vendors with competitive pricing and great customer service.Examples Holidaycoro, seasonal entertainment, and diyledexpress.com Just sayin....
plasmadrive Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 (edited) Plenty of people have done pretty high dollar orders with Ray and there have been very few problems (if any!) that I've heard of.I have ordered from Ray several times over the last two years.. Up until this year he has been very reliable. This year has been very hit and miss. He has never once taken my money without sending product. Ray's honesty has never been in question. Communication however is a problem, at least with me and most of this year. He has taken to only answering emails or parts of email that he wants to answer and when he wants to answer. I still order from him but I am starting to get a bit miffed at the lack of responses and the slowness of shipments. May start paying the premium to order state side.. still thinking about it. Edited August 31, 2013 by plasmadrive
David Rise Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 Always best to order the beginning of the year, especially if you have special requests. After June/July he gets swamped and communication is last of his priorities. I wouldn't worry about him not communicating, the orders always come through. It used to be that he had a few big orders each year, and ordering direct was somewhat of a secret. But his secret is out and I think he's got more this year than he could have imagined.
viennaxmas Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 Placed a pretty large order of 100 special length Technicolor pixel strings with him today - communication has been great, we got through the entire discussion about the specifics in two days and about 5 e-mails. Dealing directly with him saved almost $500 in shipping costs compared to Ali Express and the special length will save me countless hours of soldering.... I am very happy with him and his responses and never had issues with stuff I had ordered previously through Ali Express. Still takes some faith to transfer 2/3 of my total budget for this year with the click of a button... But I do believe in him...
plasmadrive Posted August 31, 2013 Posted August 31, 2013 I don't worry about him coming thru.. he always does.. the problem is that it has been very slow for shippments and responses to questions. The big thing is that I could move forward with a few answers.. but without those I have to stop and wait for things to physically get here, and they have been late... all year this year. Time is getting pretty tight and a few answers to questions would go a long way to help me prepare. BTW, I am talking technical questions about the products, not pricing or stock. He has been slow on those too but I can live with most of that..
deonb Posted October 8, 2013 Posted October 8, 2013 How do you send mail directly to Ray? I've tried to contact him on the AliExpress messaging site. That worked well initially, and he proceeded all the way of creating an order for me, but as soon as I wanted to pay, and he found out I was in WA state (which gives the error message above), he stopped communicating. I wonder if AliExpress has a restriction on using their messaging system to talk about an off-site order? (Kind'a like Ebay does).
plasmadrive Posted October 8, 2013 Posted October 8, 2013 They have been on holiday over there for a week. I am still waiting answers for some items as well. They are back now but I would imagine his inbox is pretty full.
Dave H1 Posted October 8, 2013 Posted October 8, 2013 Placed a pretty large order of 100 special length Technicolor pixel strings with him today - communication has been great, we got through the entire discussion about the specifics in two days and about 5 e-mails. Dealing directly with him saved almost $500 in shipping costs compared to Ali Express and the special length will save me countless hours of soldering.... I am very happy with him and his responses and never had issues with stuff I had ordered previously through Ali Express. Still takes some faith to transfer 2/3 of my total budget for this year with the click of a button... But I do believe in him...Vienna Can you share as to how your order deviated from the standard string. When I spoke to Ray a couple of months ago I sensed a lack of willingness to modify anything on these strings. I have since seen invoices showing white wire in lieu of black.
viennaxmas Posted October 8, 2013 Posted October 8, 2013 Sure - the strings have 35 pixels and 20 cm lead / tails. 35 is exactly the amount from my roof ridge to the gutter and I save having to solder or cut. Initially I had planned on using 50 count pixel strings I had purchased early this year before the technicolor came out. With the custom ones I will save a lot of time and the technicolor Pixels are supposed to be more resilient in outdoor use. Only drawback so far is that they have not yet shipped so it will be crunch time... Hope this helps.
Dave H1 Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 Vienna, What is the spacing between pixels?standard wire gauge?
viennaxmas Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 Everything else was standard - 4 inch spacing and the regular AWG 20 cable @ 12 Volt.
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