AliExpress log in

I had problems a couple of days ago logging into an account.

Part of the login required a "postal district" to be entered. It rejected my first two attempts with no clue to which field was incorrect. In the end I discovered that the full postcode was the problem - the site only wanted the first part of the postcode.

That was always so, but varies from seller to seller. You can actually specify 'free delivery' (which of course actually means delivery included in price) when you search for things.

Not always, plenty don't have that.

And few, if any, of my orders have ever reached the delivery cost of one lightest/smallest parcel sent without tracking within the UK by Royal Mail. Many are less than a pound and the tracking is, sometimes, phenomenally good. (Sometimes not.)

The Chinese government sees fit to make postage for small items for overseas export, free, or nearly so.

It's a form of social security - people can make pin money exporting stuff that is made in zillions in China. So they get subsidised *if they do something to help the Chinese economy*.