Open Disputes, AliExpress

Open Disputes for AliExpress stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

Metrics type: Key Metrics • Category: Marketplace

At a glance

Open Disputes counts the AliExpress Dispute Centre cases that are live against your store right now and waiting on you. Under AliExpress buyer protection, a case that you leave unanswered past the platform response window can auto-resolve in the buyer’s favour, so this is not a passive scoreboard but a countdown you have to beat. For an owner, operations lead, or finance lead it is one of the most time-sensitive cards on the board, because a timely response or an early close-and-refund inside the window almost always costs less than a judgment against you. It pairs naturally with aex_dispute_rate for the store-level trend and with aex_disputes_judged_for_buyer_30d to see how many recent cases were already lost.

What it counts	The number of AliExpress Dispute Centre cases currently open against the store, with unresponded cases flagged by how long they have been waiting.
Sample type	Backend API data from AliExpress, refreshed in real time as cases are opened, responded to, escalated, or closed.
Why it matters	An unanswered case can auto-resolve for the buyer once the response window passes, costing the order value and dragging down your dispute and account-health standing.
Reading the value	Treat this as a worklist, not a trend. Any case unresponded for several days is an urgent task; the goal at every check is zero unresponded cases.
Currency	Count of disputes.
Time window	RT
Alert trigger	>0 unresponded for >3d
Sentiment key	aex_open_disputes
Roles	owner, operations, finance

Calculation

Vortex IQ reads the live state of every Dispute Centre case for the store, counts those still open, and tracks how long each has gone without a seller response against the AliExpress window. Cases that sit unresponded beyond the configured number of days are surfaced as alert rows. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

Worked example

A representative reading of Open Disputes for a typical mid-volume cross-border AliExpress store. On 13 Mar 26 the card shows 5 open disputes, and 2 of them have been waiting on a seller response for more than 3 days, tripping the alert. The operations lead opens the list, sees both ageing cases are buyer claims of non-delivery on parcels that did in fact scan, uploads the Cainiao tracking as evidence inside the window, and resolves a third low-value case with an early partial refund to avoid escalation. By the next check no case is unresponded. For deeper investigation, use Vortex Mind to trace upstream causes; for natural-language exploration, ask Ask Viq.

Sibling cards merchants should reference together

Card	Why merchants reach for it
aex_dispute_rate	Turns the live case count into the store-level rate that feeds account health.
aex_disputes_judged_for_buyer_30d	Shows how many recent cases were already decided against you.
aex_late_shipments	Surfaces the late dispatches that are a leading cause of non-delivery disputes.
aex_return_rate	Connects disputes to the broader refund and return pressure on the store.
aex_buyer_messages_unread	Unanswered messages often precede a dispute, so clearing them prevents cases.

Reconciling against AliExpress Seller Center

Where to look in AliExpress Seller Center:

Open the Dispute Centre or Buyer Protection area where AliExpress lists active cases, their stage, and the response deadline for each, then match those against the card’s worklist.

Why the Vortex IQ value may legitimately differ:

Reason	Direction	What to do
Stage transitions. A case can move from negotiation to escalation between syncs, briefly changing whether it counts as open.	Variable	Refresh both views before treating a one-case gap as an error.
Time-zone framing. Response deadlines are shown in the Seller Center zone, while ageing is measured against your profile zone.	Marginal	Confirm both use the same reference zone when judging the 3-day flag.
Recently closed cases. A case you just resolved may linger in one view for a sync before clearing.	Variable	Allow a short settle period after closing a case.

Cross-connector reconciliation: If the order originated on a connected BigCommerce or Shopify store, cross-check the fulfilment record to support your dispute evidence. For divergence investigations, use Vortex Mind.

Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Q: How often does Open Disputes update? It refreshes in real time, re-reading case states continuously so a dispute you respond to or close clears from the worklist at the next sync.

Q: Why does my AliExpress Seller Center show a different number? Seller Center reflects the live case list too, but stage transitions, time-zone framing of deadlines, and the lag on a just-closed case can leave the two views briefly out of step.

Q: How does Open Disputes relate to other fulfilment metrics? It is the live, case-level front of a chain that rolls up into aex_dispute_rate and aex_disputes_judged_for_buyer_30d, and it is often driven upstream by aex_late_shipments.

Q: Can I customise the alert threshold? Yes, alert thresholds are configurable per profile in the Alert Rules tab. Adjust to match your business baseline rather than relying on the generic default.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Open Disputes is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across AliExpress and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

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