I want to share a warning based on my recent experience with the "OpenWrt One" device, purchased in January 2025 through the Bipai Product Store on AliExpress. I found the link through the official page related to OpenWrt One, so I trusted the source.
At the time of purchase, the product lacked the necessary CE certification required for customs clearance. I contacted the seller multiple times requesting the CE documentation, but received no helpful response. Only after I posted on the OpenWrt forum for help, I finally received the certificate on February 7th — over a week later. but the delay resulted in extra fees from customs and the shipping company.
Due to this issue and the overall poor handling, I refused the package, and it was returned.
Despite the product being listed as "Free Returns" and "Refund Guaranteed", the refund process was anything but smooth. I had to submit multiple documents, file appeals, and deal with numerous unhelpful support agents. In the end, AliExpress only promised a partial refund, which is completely unacceptable given the false advertising involved and the financial loss I’ve incurred — including shipping costs.
I feel tricked into buying a misrepresented product. Neither the seller, AliExpress, nor OpenWrt (whose site linked to the seller) has taken proper responsibility for this situation.
This post is a warning to others: be extremely cautious if you’re considering buying "OpenWrt One", especially through AliExpress or the Bipai Product Store.
If any moderators or members here can help escalate this issue or assist in securing a full refund, I would greatly appreciate it.
I have no experience with the Bipai store, but I have some comments based on general experience with international mail order via Ali Express and eBay. In my opinion, your expectations seem to be way off and unfair to the shop.
I understand that this problem was unexpected and annoying. But import fees and risk is normally the buyer's responsibility regardless. You could probably still have negotiated something with the seller based on the argument that they should have provided the document before shipping to Europe.
This is however never OK, with any seller, for any reason.
The result is most likely additional shipping fees and unnecessarily expensive return shipping. It could also cause issues with the handing of the returned goods. And most importantly: The fees and return shipping must be paid by the seller, which I am pretty sure never was part of the deal.
"Free return" of non-defective goods does not include return shipping. There will also be a specific return procedure ensuring as efficient and inexpensive return handling as possible. You are only entitled to a refund if you follow this procedure
All shops offering free returns will demand that you
accept the package,
pay any import fees,
do all the export paperwork, and
pay for return shipping
to qualify for a refund.
Sounds like this seller or AliExpress have been extraordinary nice if they still offered you a refund. And if they held back some of the unnecessary cost you caused, then that's more than fair.
Who did you expect to pay for your refusal to accept the package you ordered? The next customer?
I did not expect to be misled into purchasing a product with false claims, resulting in a frustrating and unpleasant experience.
I’ve already waited over a month for the router, which is completely unacceptable. Reaching out to the seller has been pointless, offering no real solution. I refuse to continue with this dead-end situation.
Picking up this package requires me to pay additional and unfair charges — charges that are a direct result of the misleading claims about the router. I should not be held responsible for this.
I’ve made a public post to warn others about this issue. If someone experiences a problem with an order from AliExpress or this store, they might not receive a full refund and could even be forced to pay extra fees. Your response only reinforces this, and you even describe it as “expected” — so let others expect this kind of poor resolution too.
All I hoped for was help in getting a full refund.
Then buy nice gear in local store not in far far far away land. Bam problem solved. it You will still be buying things from china then there will be more products from China than from local market.
The way AE's dispute process works, you can only ever be refunded of whatever you paid to the platform excluding shipping. Any extra costs are never included. In this case, he's in the EU and the product costs ~110euro including free shipping so he's below the threshold where the buyer would have to fill import paperwork and pay tariffs and taxes himself. That is, the seller's responsible for the paperwork, the platform collects VAT and pays it directly to the EU and there's no custom fee since the total is < 150euro.
Responsibility falls on the seller for failing to provide necessary documents. Since it resulted in what's technically a fine, the only option would have been to pay the fine and contact the seller for refund. Obviously, the seller could just brush him off and if the issue escalated to AE's support, they would side with the seller against the buyer citing "import fees are buyer's responsibility". So, at the end of the day, it's all about deciding what costs more: paying the fine (probably between 60 and 75euro from my experience) and getting the device or sending the device back to get a partial refund and have nothing in hand. The whole process is biased against the buyer/importer so there's not much you can do when things go wrong.
I received a refund for the product itself, though the process was far from smooth, but I was not refunded the shipping fees I had paid.
I believe I should be refunded the full amount, as if I had never purchased this falsely advertised router.
When I placed my order in January 2025, there was no CE Declaration of Conformity available. It was only provided later (link), after I had already reached out on this forum.
You might not run into the same issue now that the CE documentation is available, but if something does go wrong, as it did in my case, be prepared for a frustrating experience.
The router needs to be given to proper distributors in regions so this does not happen. For the One it's not much of a problem I guess but this should be looked at for the eventual Two release.
I do consider online purchases a valid option, but it's disappointing that OpenWrt overlooked the lack of CE certification before endorsing the router. They should be more thorough and responsible when promoting a product under their name.
Mmmh, so the moment that blogic got involved (IMHO the main developer behind the One effort) he made things happen regarding the CE certification, so maybe cut everybody a bit of slack, this being the first effort at openwrt branded hardware.
Yes, it is unfortunate that things did not work well with your order, and you have my empathy. Not sure though, whether the situation is as dire as you seem to feel.
Sounds like it kind of sorted... but ultimately a paperwork issue...
CE is like UL (in the US) or CSA (in Canada) - key diff is that CE, the OEM does the paperwork, usually with an accredited Lab - anyone that has done CE work knows this is a major pain in the keister...
UL is optional actually, but the CE mark is a bit more if you want to sell your stuff in the EU (and UK to some degree post-brexit)
the other challenge with bringing things in - EU-RED (Radio Equipment Directive) which is similar to FCC, but EU-RED has their own requirements, so it's not a rubber stamp back and forth between the two domains.
If you're not authorized to sell gear in another country and don't have the proper docs, don't ¢^$&#$ sell in that country and make a headache for the buyer until you do.
Buyers enjoy some very special privileges in this regard and are more than happy to €°£# the user over it. I don't care if you're happy to expect to get $#-¢€°, you can continue to bend over all you want if that's what you feel okay accepting: I don't, and I won't buy from this seller.
