Seeker Development Ltd - Advice please....

This will be my first wholesale purchase. Have sourced a product that im happy with and had lots of email conversations with 'someone' at seeker development ltd. They have satisfied my queries and been very helpful (almost too accommodating - which is niggling in my mind). Am still nervous after all I have read about chinese wholesalers/manufacturers. I found them through Alibaba (which I have read bad things about). They accept CC and Paypal so planned to use those. Also will accept a single unit order for a start so I can see quality. It is an electronic item and I have checked all the specifications etc. I have done a Whois query... but to be honest Im not sure how to read this and what to look for. The URL is seekerdev.com. As they are not on the salehoo database Im interested to hear tips/advice from other more experiened buyers. Many thanks....

What is the product you are buying?

Alilbaba has a forum that you may wish to post this question on as well, may well find some buyers there that have dealt with this company.

Hi Fudjj,
I want to purchase ceramic hair straightening irons. Cheers.

Hi SparklesJax,

Were you able to get any feedback from the forum in Alibaba?

The supplier's site was created just this year. I'm not exactly an expert with the whois search but one of the first things I look out for is the date the site was created.

Domain Name: SEEKERDEV.COM
Registrar: XIN NET TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Whois Server: whois.paycenter.com.cn
Referral URL: Link hidden: Login to view
Name Server: NS1.CNSPEED.COM
Name Server: NS2.CNSPEED.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 18-may-2009
Creation Date: 18-may-2009
Expiration Date: 18-may-2010

Another thing would be the email address of the registrant, just like with the contact email address provided on the site it should NOT be an email address from a free account but rather a domain-based email address.

Here's a thread in the forum, that has a few tips you can use when dealing with suppliers found outside SaleHoo, please have a read:

Link hidden: Login to view

We wish you all the best with your planned purchase. Cheers :)

I have to tell you to watch out for this one, the alarm bells aren't ringing all over the place, but the big one is that it's a new site, only created in May this year and registered for one year only.

That alone is enough to cause me concern!

At least it has a genuine email account and as you said, appears to offer good payment options, but is loaded with fakes. that of course is just par for the course, nothing strange about a Chinese site offering fakes for sale.

The payment option of Credit Card would be my choice of payment if you do go ahead, I wouldn't be going with PayPal on this one.

Don't let yourself get sucked in by a sample purchase either, yes it's always smart to look at one product, but to be honest you can't put much credibility on one product.

I think some people get a little carried away with sample products, they get a good one and then put the house on a load. In reality it doesn't take too much to make sure you get a good one for a sample, and a good scammer will do that in an effort top lure you into a larger order to set the sting!

That's bread and butter stuff for a good scammer, so getting a sample is always smart, just keep it in perspective when moving forward.

I would actually contact Alibaba customer support to see if any reports have been filed with them regarding these guys. Support staff here will tell you that it is risky to deal with any business that has been around for less than a year, and the less time they have been trading, the more risk is involved.

Combine that with the fact that it is a Chinese company you are dealing with and the risk is off the chart!

Shop your product around to other suppliers there, find one that offers all the things you require, but one that has stood the test of time and is still trading. That really is a safer way of ensuring you will keep your cash and save any headaches.

The only way I would proceed with these guys is if someone I trusted personally vouched for them, and even then I would ask if they were absolutely sure lol

By the way, we do have SaleHoo suppliers of ceramic iron, if you are interested kindly visit the following links:

Link hidden: Login to view
Link hidden: Login to view

Hope this helps... Cheers! :)

I cant tell you how helpful this feedback is to me... thank you soooo much. I have found oodles of suppliers that have the product I want, seem to have all the right answers (yes, I am communicating with a large number of them), have answered the telephone (although not good english)... but im still not sure. As I said this is my first purchase and I dont want to get stung... but I also dont want to procrastinate forever lol. I am VERY keen to get selling hehe. The best think I have read on salehoo was 'above all... trust your instinct'. I hope you dont mind if I continue to seek your expert advice as I build up my knowledge and confidence. Thanks again... sure to 'talk' again soon.... off to scan the net (again) lol.

No problems Sparkles, always happy to help out where we can : )