You are right, Aliababa's escrow service does help reduce scammers but it does not eliminate them. Dubious suppliers know all the many loopholes and they use them if they are unscrupulous. The most common way for them to avoid having their money withheld is to procrastinate while appearing to be willing to cooperate. Once the time limit has passed, they refuse to refund and sometimes won't even answer.The best thing about the escrow service is that it helps reduce scammers. You can still get scammed but far less likely and a lot harder. Plus with aliexpress you can pay with your credit card so you are covered by your credit card too.
There are other ways they manage to keep your money even if you have paid by credit card or PayPal. I describe one common one in my answer to Q 12 in my AMA.
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