Disappointing first experience ordering through Empire on AliExpress.
Ordered two of the Starlight cameras through them. Passed the Verified by Visa screen. Received a confirmation: "Payment successfully made."
Later received the message: "Your payment was not processed due to security reasons. As a result your order has been cancelled. AliExpress did not accept any payment for this order. However, please note that some banks may hold onto payments for up to 3-15 business days. To avoid order cancellations in the future, please submit a claim to validate this payment information."
Pushed the button to submit a claim: "The system is busy. Please try again later."
I was willing to wait for a vendor that advertised a product even though I couldn't order it because they had no stock. I was willing to order based on advertised 30 day delivery time from Empire (Read, no units actually in stock but we think we'll get them - it doesn't take 30 days for other items to be courier delivered DHL from China. Truly "In stock", DHL (Premium courier service) deliveries from China can be under 7 days).
But I'm not pleased about taking payment which is still actually charged to my credit card, but having the order rejected for no known reason and with a dead link to appeal when another charge I made to AliExpress using the same credit card, delivered to the same address, went through today, is, well, unprofessional.
Not happy when there's no recourse. Buyer beware.