Alibaba.com - has anyone done business with any of their suppliers?


balljoja
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24 Aug 10 11:05:36 pm
Has anyone had bad experience with suppliers in the Alibaba.com Directory
It looks like I found a gold mine, but I need to play it safe. If you've had bad experience, could you give me name of suppliers? Or give me name of good reasonable suppliers, with good prices to be profitable that you've used. Particularly in the electronics area. Thank you! Looking for a response.


Joan/balljoja


irene_salehoo
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25 Aug 10 04:09:25 am
Hi Joan,

This information was shared in a past forum post - Link hidden: Login to view

Here's the tip shared by member jg1969 - "When checking up on Alibaba for a supplier, first click on Gold Suppliers at the bottom. When they come up then put in Paypal in the search bar at the top right and you will have a list of gold suppliers who can accept Paypal."

Alibaba.com is a b2b business directory, with many different suppliers listed. You need to research the particular supplier you want to do business with within the site. It is a mixture of excellent suppliers as well as bad ones and scammers. It's a good step to ask for a supplier recommendation from those who have already purchased.

Just don't look for authentic branded products in the site, no matter what the supplier assures you.

Here are other Alibaba /electronics related posts you may want to read on - Link hidden: Login to view
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Hope this helps. All the best!


Irene

richelle_salehoo1
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25 Aug 10 05:02:56 am
Hi Joan,

Looks like Irene gave you a lot to read..lol :D

I've got just one link to add, Link hidden: Login to view

Also, you must remember that on Alibaba its the sellers that pay to get listed. In short buyers are hardly protected as everyone can access the site to browse and search for suppliers.

Get to know your buyer more before buying anything from them.

All the best!


Richelle

Customer Support Manager
SaleHoo Group Limited

styup
Directory Approved Supplier
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27 Aug 10 11:18:18 am
Has anyone had bad experience with suppliers in the Alibaba.com Directory
It looks like I found a gold mine, but I need to play it safe. If you've had bad experience, could you give me name of suppliers? Or give me name of good reasonable suppliers, with good prices to be profitable that you've used. Particularly in the electronics area. Thank you! Looking for a response.


Joan/balljoja
Alibaba is the largest B2B website in the world. They have thousands of good suppliers listed and you just have to do your homework before buying.


Styup Ltd
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imzune
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31 Aug 10 09:42:16 am
There are many good suppliers from alibaba.com, but remember if you order branded products, they probably are not genuine but fakes


iphoneipodipad accessories and mobile phone accessories

balljoja
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31 Aug 10 09:34:54 pm
I want to thank everyone for their reply to Alibaba.com! Good advice!


balljoja


fudjj
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31 Aug 10 11:36:47 pm
I want to thank everyone for their reply to Alibaba.com! Good advice!


balljoja


The easiest way to deal with a site like Alibaba is to use them as you would Google. If you found a business on Google, you would research that business to ensure they were ticking all the boxes before handing over any money.

The same checks and balances need to be in play when dealing with any b2b directory such as Alibaba.com. Don't worry about Gold Members and Trusted Trading Partners and any of that.

The nice thing about Alibaba is they do have a forum where you can do some research on sellers and get information on them from other buyers who have traded with them in the past.

Their feedback system isn't bad neither, but I would never just rely on that alone. Good service all in all, but they have their bad traders as well as good ones, but you can sort them out by putting the right checks and balances in place.


Mark (fudjj)

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nzaman
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15 Apr 11 11:20:32 am
Hi

Around Jan/Feb time i paid a supplier for "Lego Star Wars 10188/10179" It was a large amount off money.. To make things worse i pre sold items on ebay and aswell as my own savings i sent the money that my customer paid..

I paid for the items, than he tells me i had to pay for VAT and Customs which again i paid him.. He then tells me a need a License to do importing and exporting out off the USA..

So again i paid him grand total must be close to $6000 buy now..

So he emails me all the tracking numbers etc.. Only to read his next email claiming that he had to add more items to bring the shipping cost down i must pay him another $4500!! I was fuming because i had just sent him all my savings and my customers money! Ebay are dealing with that as i am writing this..

Is there any way i can get my money back?? The sad thing is i paid via Western Union :( I hate my self for it looking back at it but at the time i needed them items!

I have all his emails saved and also my receipts from western union..

Today they are still active i have asked for my money back but he claims he can not give me my money back!

I just do not know what to do as i am now in debt because off it!

What direction can i go with it, can i get my money back??

Nadeem



steinar1
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15 Apr 11 05:11:47 pm
Hi

It looks like a fraud when he keeps asking for more money.

You live in usa? If i import something to Norway i have to pay vat and if there are some taxes on a product, to the Norwegian Authorities. Not a chinese company.

Good Luck to get your money back:)

Steinar


fudjj
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15 Apr 11 08:30:53 pm
Hi

Around Jan/Feb time i paid a supplier for "Lego Star Wars 10188/10179" It was a large amount off money.. To make things worse i pre sold items on ebay and aswell as my own savings i sent the money that my customer paid..

I paid for the items, than he tells me i had to pay for VAT and Customs which again i paid him.. He then tells me a need a License to do importing and exporting out off the USA..

So again i paid him grand total must be close to $6000 buy now..

So he emails me all the tracking numbers etc.. Only to read his next email claiming that he had to add more items to bring the shipping cost down i must pay him another $4500!! I was fuming because i had just sent him all my savings and my customers money! Ebay are dealing with that as i am writing this..

Is there any way i can get my money back?? The sad thing is i paid via Western Union :( I hate my self for it looking back at it but at the time i needed them items!

I have all his emails saved and also my receipts from western union..

Today they are still active i have asked for my money back but he claims he can not give me my money back!

I just do not know what to do as i am now in debt because off it!

What direction can i go with it, can i get my money back??

Nadeem




Hi Nadeem,

Before I write any further when you say "they are still active", do you mean the supplier has not yet collected the money from Western Union yet?

I'm guessing that isn't what you mean, but of course if they haven't collected the money from Western Union as yet, you can cancel the transactions through Western Union yourself if you still have all the receipt details.

If that is the case, contact Western Union ASAP and put a stop on collection!

I have seen a lot of victim's of scams over the years, but not much has made me feel sicker than what I have just read in your post. Sadly your trading inexperience has been quite costly.

Alibaba is what is called a B2B directory site, that is it lets suppliers list their products for sale to other business's. There are quite a few sites such as Alibaba on the Internet, and even though the service that Alibaba themselves provides is quite legitimate, these types of sites attract a large amount of scammers.

Absolutely no doubt this has scam written all over it, but in reality even if there were products they were going to send, being a Chinese supplier the products would not even have been authentic, so you still would have found yourself in trouble.

Just to clarify things like taxes, a VAT stands for Value Added Tax. It's a tax system used mostly through Europe. Here in Australia we have a GST. Same tax, ours stands for Goods and Services Tax

These types of taxes are collected by governments, never by a supplier. That said, there is no such tax system currently in place country wide in the US.

Of course you may well realize this now, but Western Union should never be used, never under any circumstances be used to pay for anything from any supplier, no matter how ;long you have been doing business with them, let alone a new supplier.

Always use safe payment methods, credit card is the safest as you are able to file a charge back if you are not satisfied for what ever reason. Scammers will never offer a credit card payment option as of course they know you will always be able to get your money back.

Failing a Credit Card option, PayPal is the safest option. Linking a credit card to your PayPal account is also a good option.


Mark (fudjj)

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nzaman
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16 Apr 11 04:02:19 pm
Hi

Thanks for your feedbacks..

Fudjj what i mean by "still active" is that they are still on alibaba and on my trade manager.. I spoke with him around a week ago on Trade Manager and he is very firm in saying that i can not get my money back the only way forward is to pay the remaining money and get my item..

Yes i know i was very stupid by sending my money over with out knowing who they are..

I just needed to get the items :(

Nadeem


the_john_scott
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20 Apr 11 03:15:47 am
Hi Nadeem,
I had a very similar experience, presold items on ebay and all. I also lost a lot of money and had a lot of heartbreak. Live and learn is the only way. If you are anything like me you will only be far too cautious in the future.
As they say...

"if it seems too good to be true, it probally isn't"

John


nzaman
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20 Apr 11 08:34:56 am
Hi Nadeem,
I had a very similar experience, presold items on ebay and all. I also lost a lot of money and had a lot of heartbreak. Live and learn is the only way. If you are anything like me you will only be far too cautious in the future.
As they say...

"if it seems too good to be true, it probally isn't"

John


Hi John

Thanks for your feedback, yes i have also had a very hard time with my family about it.. They needed that money i had in my bank that i had saved up but i withdraw that to send to the supplier.. Now i am back to square one with a lot more debt and ebay on my case :(

I have started selling items on ebay slowly, rebuilding to pay off all my debts and you are right i am very cautious now with who i deal with and the payment types is the 1st thing i look at.

Nadeem


fudjj
Site Admin
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20 Apr 11 08:38:32 am
Hi

Thanks for your feedbacks..

Fudjj what i mean by "still active" is that they are still on alibaba and on my trade manager.. I spoke with him around a week ago on Trade Manager and he is very firm in saying that i can not get my money back the only way forward is to pay the remaining money and get my item..

Yes i know i was very stupid by sending my money over with out knowing who they are..

I just needed to get the items :(

Nadeem



Sorry Nadeem, I understand clearer now. I thought it would be too good to be true that they hadn't collected the money, but you never know. As TJS has just suggested, about the only thing you can do at this point is learn from it.

Expensive lesson I know, but that money is gone, that's not coming back. Whatever you do, do not let yourself be talked into sending more money to secure the load, there is going to be no load no matter how much money you send them.

I would suggest that you enter the companies name that you did business with in our scams thread, not Alibaba, but the scammer themselves. This will at least alert other members to stay well clear.


Mark (fudjj)

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SaleHoo.com

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k.eshaghi
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3 Sep 15 09:58:48 am
I have very bad experience with Alibaba sellers. It is very difficult to determine whether the sellers are trustworthy, or they have not crap quality. Because Alibaba is like Google, they do not have proper evaluation system and you can not find feedback from the buyers. If you want to shop at Alibaba, order first a sample. Never order more of a sample before you do not know what kind of quality seller has. This is much IMPORTANT if it comes to technology products. I have stopped shopping at Alibaba. I use directories that have goode valuation system with plenty of feedback and historian of the sellers. dhgate.com is one of them.


 

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