My experience with AliExpress has been positive—fast shipping and very good updates, much better than USPS. There was only one time when my shipment didn’t arrive as indicated in the update. And guess what: USPS, the last-mile carrier, messed it up by delivering the package to a neighbor a few doors down. She happened to be away on a business trip, but as soon as she got home, she personally delivered the package to me. Yep, USPS was the culprit again.
In the past year, for some reason, USPS lost my international mail, lost an express, registered mail at my workplace that caused major turmoil, and delayed our local mail several times by sending it 2-300 miles away before routing it back to town. You name it. The decline in service quality might stem from untrained temporary workers, poor logistics planning/design, and so on. A big shame.