I am ready to spend good money on products from a source on alibaba but I think I will pass because as of now I do not know of any way to verify the authenticity of the seller that is communicating with me. Honest business persons and manufactures should welcome a way to clear out the rip-offs and scammer by allowing customers to relate their experiences with them. If a few shady scammers have to run for cover like cockroaches so much the better. The honest vendors will make more money when trade increases from the exposure of both the good and the bad. If ranger can’t stand the light and his middling gig is blown as a scam o well

 

What to ask from the supplier when doing business:

- If they sell popular name brands you would ask them for distributor license of the name brand.

- I would do a thorough Google search to make sure the address listed on Alibaba matches the address they list on their "actual" company website (if they have one).

- See how genuine their company website looks. If the contact person's information is a free email account like Yahoo and Hotmail, be very careful. Also observe the products, ask yourself if it is possible to produce all the items in one factory.

- If their company name shows up next to any words like "scam" for "fraud" on Google, read the article, learn what happened, and protect yourself.

- 2nd year and above Gold Suppliers are much more trustworthy. It shows they have been with Alibaba for a year with no major complaints.

- I would STRONGLY AVOID Western Union payable to an individual's name.

- One payment solution is to ask Seller to list the items for sale on ALIEXPRESS.COM. Even though there will be a 2-3% transaction fee (who pays can be negotiated), you, the buyer, will be protected by ESCROW service provided through the Aliepxress.com platform.

Hope this helps.

DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM ALIBABA.COM OR ALIEXPRESS.COM YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED AND THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY. NOTHING LEGITIMATE COMES FROM CHINA. I WAS SCREWED SO BE CAREFUL. CROOKS CROOKS CROOKS CROOKS

I agree wholeheartedly.

Both Alibaba and made-in-china.com suffer the same syndrome. There are too many people listing their "companies" as either manufacturers or wholesalers.

ALMOST NONE OF THEM ARE EITHER.

You request a product catalogue and pricelist and you get prices that exceed the retail prices offered by local retailers in your own country. Pathetic.

Then you get the real wonder-jobs who only accept Western Union for payment - i.e. no protection = no insurance = no recourse for you, the buyer. Another con.

Overall, I am at giving-up point with both websites. As far as I'm concerned their integrity has been debased and I have spent far too many hours and e-mails on both websites trying to find legitimate, REAL wholesale suppliers.

I find the experience with both Alibaba and made-in-china.com to be extremely disappointing and unrewarding considering the hours I have spent trying to source REAL genuine suppliers.

There seems to be an endless chasm of 'businesses' who pretend to be manufacturers or wholesalers when in fact they are neither. The so-called 'wholesale' prices I have been quoted far exceed retail prices provided by retailers in your local country. Then there are the gems who want payment via Western Union - i.e. no security, no insurance, no recourse for the buyer. Just wonderful.

It's been a fruitless search so far and I'm not constructing any substantial hope that I will achieve what I set out to when I initially commenced using these sites.

i agree with u dean... but i wonder if that happens, suppliers on alibaba can reduce %90..
 then it cant be profitable for alibaba too.
i wish we could write a message about trades on company pages

I have been looking for 4 months and have yet to find 1 honest supplier. Every single supplier is a scam. I can't believe that the owners of this site have no legal recourse. This is one of the biggest scams on the internet and is probable run by Mob

I have been looking for 4 months and have yet to find 1 honest supplier. Every single supplier is a scam. I can't believe that the owners of this site have no legal recourse. This is one of the biggest scams on the internet and is probable run by Mob

I wish there was a rating system for Alibaba. The system is over-weighted towards vendors... so customers cannot quickly get a sense of the reputation of a supplier.