Warning to scam of some DHgate sellers

Hi my name is Lee. I am a gold member of DHgate that means I spend over $10,000 a month with DHgate. (Well, I used to!)

Be warned that the prices on DHgate may not be the price you are charged.

I placed an order for 52 ipods. The order was confirmed and I paid my invoice via PayPal for over $16,000 in total. After 24 hours, the seller on DHgate (Army) told DHgate that he had put the wrong price down for the iPods and I had to pay more money for the goods which I said No!

So DHgate cancelled my order and sent up 4 new orders totaling only 47 iPods not 52. I have now got a refund via PayPal but due to the exchange rates, I have now lost.

How come Salehoo still promote DHgate?

I think its because DHgate has numerous sellers. The website is good and they do post good sellers on the site. Though it is up to all of us to know what we are buying and who we are buying from.

DHgate is pretty much just like eBay. You have good sellers and you have scammers just like any other place. Even though there are some on DHgate that are frauds, there are many that are legit and can offer our members extremely good deals on China sourced items.

Every company has complaints against it, even eBay does. You couldn't believe how many complaints there are on eBay. They have so many complaints on them that they will never hold a BBB reliability membership. .

Check this link out.
[Link no longer available]

eBay is the best place on the planet to find deals. But also a large amount of possible scams and problems too. Just because DHgate has many complaints doesn't mean we should remove it because some of the sellers aren't living up to their word.

The only thing you can do is research, watch the sellers feedback, and make a judgement call. It's just like buying on eBay. You're making a judgement call that the seller will live up to his auction.

Hello,

I have purchased for drop shipping some knock-off drivers. Upon my customers receiving these items they were very disappointed in the quality, tool marks, and crooked shafts. They wanted their money back which I refunded upon receiving the items. I put this in 'Dispute' with DHgate and have been waiting for 2 weeks. I read that disputes are active for 20 days and then DHgate will make a decision. Has anyone ever gotten a refund from DHgate or what's my next step to pursue, can PayPal do anything?

Thanks,
Jim

Jim,

I had a very similar situation. I filed a dispute with DHgate which was useless. I filed a claim with PayPal which they denied immediately because they offer no protection on non-eBay items. If I would have used my credit card, I could have had protection that way but I used the funds in my PayPal account. I got seriously ripped off. Hope it all worked out for you.

Jim,
I had an almost identical situation with Golf Clubs too. I filed claims with paypal, and like you said, that was useless. I did file diputes with dhgate too..plus emailed Link hidden: Login to view on a daily basis until I received replies. It takes them a while to get back to you. Be nice to support-they have the power-as aggravating as it is. They did finally refund my money. It took at least a month but I did get it back. Just keep emailing until you get your money. Im assuming you sent the clubs back to them? It is very important that you have documentation in your email of the tracking. Good luck!
Jen

Screw China. Support American.

So, Salehoo recommend or not this dropshipper, it is still in the directory.

So, Salehoo recomend o not this dropshipper.....He still in his Directory.

If you are referring to DHgate, then what you need to understand is that DHgate is a B2B directory, just like Alibaba, Trade Tang and so on. These sites feature suppliers who list there, they are not the supplier themselves.

When it comes to doing business on any B2B site, especially with a Chinese supplier, you need to research the supplier you are wanting to do business with, not DH Gate or the other B2B sites themselves.

Even if you do decide to go forward with a purchase from a supplier from one of these B2B directory sites, you still need to choose a safe payment option, and the safest of them all is credit card.

If you pay by credit card then you always have the option to file a chargeback on your purchase should you not be satisfied for whatever reason.

More than clear! Thanks

These types of B2B sites do cause a lot of confusion for the most part, people thinking they are actually dealing with the the company who owns the site themselves, when in fact they are dealing with a supplier on the site with no relation to the site owner.

It's always the actually supplier you need to research, as you will find a mix of the good, the bad, and the extremely ugly on all of these types of platforms.

: )

It's always the actually supplier you need to research, as you will find a mix of the good, the bad, and the extremely ugly on all of these types of platforms.

: )

Marc's perfectly right! You have to be able to discern the good ones from the not so good ones. There are good sellers in DHgate and a few of our members have posted their feedback on the forum, here are a couple of threads with various feedback:

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

Also, you might find these guides helpful -

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

Just remember never buy anything branded from any of the suppliers on DHgate!

All the best :)

I bought some genuine PSP games from a seller on DHgate. The seller promised that the goods can be process in 2 weeks time but few days later i found out that the transaction status there saying the item is going to take 90 days to process.

So i had a chat with the seller just now, he suggested that i open a dispute for refund because they ran out of stock. Soon as I opened the dispute for a full refund, the seller just went offline and never came back. I am not saying that he is a scammer, just some unpleasant feeling considering that this is my first trade on DHgate after all. Am I able to get my money back by any chance?

Update: Seller just issued refund to me, no problem at all. Cheers!

Good to hear that all worked out well for you, but just a note for reference on future dealings with suppliers through sites such as DHgate.

Two points, to ensure you are always covered use a safe payment option. This time you were lucky that you were dealing with a reliable supplier, but you will find a lot that aren't.

Use credit card where at all possible for all transactions or at the very least, use PayPal!

Secondly, I don't know where this supplier was from but if you are sourcing genuine products then do not under any circumstances buy from mainland Chinese supplier.

Many will tell you that the products are genuine, but despite the good service they provide, the products they sell won't be genuine at all!

I bought video games from a seller on DHgate and I was too stupid to think they may be bootlegs. When it dawned on me I messaged seller and he messaged back in very broken English not answering my question as to the authenticity of games. They are in transit to me now and I am not sure how to verify authenticity. I find DHgate so hard to communicate with;their Chinese phone # does not seem to work. Any ideas?

I bought video games from a seller on DHgate and I was too stupid to think they may be bootlegs. When it dawned on me I messaged seller and he messaged back in very broken English not answering my question as to the authenticity of games. They are in transit to me now and I am not sure how to verify authenticity. I find DHgate hard to communicate with; their Chinese phone # does not seem to work. Any ideas?

Hi jwpost,

Let's keep our fingers crossed that everything will come in as authentic as they can be. As you may have already read from the previous posts, despite all the negative comments about DHgate, there are also reliable and good suppliers that can be used (Tuebaman2011 got his refund).

If things didn't go well, you can register a complaint with DHgate. Do this by logging in to your DHgate account and then open a dispute. DHgate will help you resolve the issue from there. You can learn more about the dispute process by clicking the link below:
Link hidden: Login to view

Take jbarnhart's advice

I did file diputes with DHgate too..plus emailed Link hidden: Login to view on a daily basis until I received replies. It takes them a while to get back to you. Be nice to support-they have the power-as aggravating as it is. They did finally refund my money. It took at least a month but I did get it back. Just keep emailing until you get your money.

I appreciate the advice. The seller emailed back today and claims the games are authentic. I will wait and hope for the best.

Good to hear that all worked out well for you, but just a note for reference on future dealings with suppliers through sites such as DH Gate.

Two points, to ensure you are always covered use a safe payment option. This time you were lucky that you were dealing with a reliable supplier, but you will find a lot that aren't.

Use Credit Card where at all possible for all transactions or at the very least, use PayPal!

Secondly, I don't know where this supplier was from, but if you are sourcing genuine products then do not under any circumstances buy from MAINLAND Chinese supplier.

Many will tell you that the products are genuine, but despite the good service they provide, the products they sell won't be genuine at all!

Thanks fudjj, the seller is from china and the games that he intended to sell to me are salvaged. I am not 100% sure is it authentic but i did fair abit of research about pirated psp games,apparently it is not easy to make pirated copy due the UMD system that they are using.

I have been scouring DHgate and found a seller that has what I want to buy. The price is right and the seller has 100% positive feedback after around 500 transactions. However product comes from mainland. Any advice?

Good to hear that all worked out well for you, but just a note for reference on future dealings with suppliers through sites such as DHgate.

Two points, to ensure you are always covered use a safe payment option. This time you were lucky that you were dealing with a reliable supplier, but you will find a lot that aren't.

Use Credit Card where at all possible for all transactions or at the very least, use PayPal!

Secondly, I don't know where this supplier was from, but if you are sourcing genuine products then do not under any circumstances buy from MAINLAND Chinese supplier.

Many will tell you that the products are genuine, but despite the good service they provide, the products they sell won't be genuine at all!

I am a new seller and started buying from DHgate this past summer (2011), buying a lot of name "brand items" which I had no clue were knock offs. Well I learned my lesson because now there is a lawsuit pending with one of the real manufacturers. Do not buy "Name Brands" from DHgate period!

Hi hudster80,

Welcome to SaleHoo :) Sorry to read that you learned it the hard way. But it's good to know that now you know better. Buying branded products from any China based supplier will lead you to no good not just on DHgate.

But China in general is still one of the cheapest places to source unbranded or generic items if you are in the market for those. Just be sure to do ample background research on your potential supplier and pay using safe methods only - PayPal or credit card.

Cheers! :)

Hi DHgate or any other china suppliers you need to do your home work as to what you can and can not buy in China. Genuine NEW brand product is available but if the price is cheap beware and even if not do thorough checking. at least 2 major sites offer escrow and the ability to purchase with credit cards. I know for a Fact that the management constantly work to remove non approved items across a large of products. But these sites are just lots of small sellers

So, Salehoo recomend o not this dropshipper.....He still in his Directory.

If you are referring to DHgate, then what you need to understand is that DHgate is a B2B directory, just like Alibaba, Trade Tang and so on. These sites feature suppliers who list there, they are not the supplier themselves.

When it comes to doing business on any B2B site, especially with a Chinese supplier, you need to research the supplier you are wanting to do business with, not DHgate or the other B2B sites themselves.

Even if you do decide to go forward with a purchase from a supplier from one of these B2B directory sites, you still need to choose a safe payment option, and the safest of them all is credit card.

If you pay by credit card then you always have the option to file a chargeback on your purchase should you not be satisfied for whatever reason.

I am new here been doing my research trying to learn about selling and the best place to buy.I have found product on DHgate that I am interested in. But what is the best way to research the seller to make sure I'm dealing with a good one.

Don't buy brand name products from DHgate. Of one hundred sellers you "might" find one selling legit brand name. Maybe!

Use DHgAte to find complimenting products or non branded items which you think might sell well.

Do test runs and don't use wire transfers.

OK -Out-

It's always the actually supplier you need to research, as you will find a mix of the good, the bad, and the extremely ugly on all of these types of platforms.

: )

Marc's perfectly right! You have to be able to discern the good ones from the not so good ones. There are good sellers in DH Gate and a few of our members have posted their feedback on the forum, here are a couple of threads with various feedback:

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

Also, you might find these guides helpful -

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

Just remember never buy anything branded from any of the suppliers on DH Gate!

All the best :)

The article on China suppliers is very good. I use these recommendations always when dealing with China. Another way is to use Skype and if possible have a cam to cam conference with them. Most of them selling electronics and computer based items will have a cam and then you can see that it is a company and not an individual posing as a company. Just be careful when contacting them with any messenger as every time they see you online they will contact you and it becomes time consuming.

Interesting to note that PayPal has pulled the plug on DHgate in the same way that they did on Aliexpress.This of course highlights what is being said: some traders are good and some are really bad. So, it's down to using your credit card now

That's true Ali, it started last August 6th ans was actually discussed on another thread here on the forum.

Some say the rampant sale of counterfeit items may have been a big factor in all this.

Cheers :)

DHgate does not support PayPal any more.

I suggest that you can search the seller's member name on Google.

Choose the seller who has an online store and supports PayPal.