I ask this question because something happened to me last year on Alibaba and I was reminded of it when I read this post:


Re: How do scammers flourish? How do we stop them?
Replying to [merrycat]:
Dear Joao Mesquita,

Thank you for submitting your Trade Lead registration for "Buy Refurbished Laptops" at Alibaba.com. Unfortunately, we cannot publish your Trade Lead information at this time because the product appears to be of a category prohibited by Alibaba.com. Products such as control drugs,replicas of products protected under a third party's patent, trademark or copyright, dangerous materials, guns, weapons, precious metals and stones, pornographic products, and currency are not permitted. Related Policy terms can be found at
http://*******
For full details regarding prohibited products, please review our User Agreement.

If you believe your product does not fall into one of these categories, please respond to this email with reasons in support of your position. If you have any further questions you can visit our online Help Center, or you can contact our Customer Service Team directly at **********

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Sincerely,

Alibaba Editing Team


I found that letter to be strange. Here's why.

About a year ago I was attempting to post two trade leads for branded products. One for which I was authorized to sell, the other...and this part is funny...We're the marketing company who was hired and created the brand in America and gives authorization to foreign countries to sell! hahaha

In any event, in both occasions I sent back my supporting documents. Both times I heard nothing back.

Then I see that post and I wonder. Why If I type in Nike, PS3, Gucci, etc into the search field I see GOLD!...Suppliers that is. All protected brands, and clearly a violation (according to them) of Alibabas TOS. 50 Points given to the best answer/reasoning for this phenomenon!

regards,
James
WDC Intl Inc

it has happened to me also, i trade in original branded electronics, and i am not allowed to post any branded goods like Sony, Nokia, Ps3s etc. They need an authorized letter. Whereas you see loads of these items offered by Gold members. i am 100% sure that these Gold members dont have any authorized letters. So i have decided not to renew my membership with Alibaba.

You can trade in Branded Electronics, it is just that Alibaba is not suitable for doing Branded Electronic business. It just makes me laugh when people in these forums say that you cannot import Branded Electronics other than from your own authorized Distributor.
No matter what there will always be parallel imports going around. Even the distributors feel the pressure sometimes, they need to offload stocks when business is no good.

There are other b2b sites catering specially for Mobile phones and Electronics And i will just stick to them.

Replying to [Obiwill]:

That's probably your best bet. It just strikes me as odd that they seem to have this 'selective' enforcement of brands. It's teh main reason why I never even joined.

regards,
James
WDC Intl Inc

Replying to [Obiwill]: Yup.... it seems to be true.
Only gold suppliers have that gentle way to make all kind of business they want, to post all kind posts they want as to claim alibaba as their own commercial house.
Why Obiwill?
Thats a good question, and dont expect to have an answer from a moderator or a high value forum member... since i'm not one of them, i'll try to give you a straight and clean answer, as i allways try to do.
6000 usd its more that 600 usd. The first value its what a gold pays, the second was what i've paid for trustp *.
Perhaps its not that, but i dont see anyone here saying that is not, so....

Best regards

Replying to [Obiwill]:I enter Nike in the search box, but I cannot see any Gold suppliers there....Strange.

First, please be advised that " Refurbished Laptops" are prohibited products on Alibaba, therefore they cannot be listed on Alibaba according to Alibaba Product Listing Policy.

Second, for brand name products, such as Nike, Ipod, since we received the formal authorization letter from the brand owners that their brands cannot be listed on our site without being authorized by them. If your posting is approved without any authorization, both your company and our company will bear the great risk of being sued.

So if our members want to mention these brand names in their postings, you need to provide us with written verification (such as a certified letter or certificate) that you are an authorized licensee of the product before publishing your postings online. Both free members or paid members need to present us such documents. But not all brands need these kinds of authorized letters.

Please review Product Listing Policy at:
http://www.alibaba.com/trade/servlet/page/help/rules_and_policies/products_listing_policy.

Your understanding on this matter will be highly appreciated!

Quoting from [Obiwill]:



I ask this question because something happened to me last year on Alibaba and I was reminded of it when I read this post:



Re: How do scammers flourish? How do we stop them?

Replying to [merrycat]:

Dear Joao Mesquita,


Thank you for submitting your Trade Lead registration for "Buy Refurbished Laptops" at Alibaba.com. Unfortunately, we cannot publish your Trade Lead information at this time because the product appears to be of a category prohibited by Alibaba.com. Products such as control drugs,replicas of products protected under a third party's patent, trademark or copyright, dangerous materials, guns, weapons, precious metals and stones, pornographic products, and currency are not permitted. Related Policy terms can be found at

http://*******

For full details regarding prohibited products, please review our User Agreement.


If you believe your product does not fall into one of these categories, please respond to this email with reasons in support of your position. If you have any further questions you can visit our online Help Center, or you can contact our Customer Service Team directly at **********


We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.


Sincerely,


Alibaba Editing Team



I found that letter to be strange. Here's why.


About a year ago I was attempting to post two trade leads for branded products. One for which I was authorized to sell, the other...and this part is funny...We're the marketing company who was hired and created the brand in America and gives authorization to foreign countries to sell! hahaha


In any event, in both occasions I sent back my supporting documents. Both times I heard nothing back.


Then I see that post and I wonder. Why If I type in Nike, PS3, Gucci, etc into the search field I see GOLD!...Suppliers that is. All protected brands, and clearly a violation (according to them) of Alibabas TOS. 50 Points given to the best answer/reasoning for this phenomenon!


regards,

James

WDC Intl Inc

sure .china is a biggest contry can produce many products and you will get what you pay by me if interested let me .

Replying to [Stone]:
Hi again. About this question, i dont think that you are seeing the same website as us, just because if you type "refurbished laptops", searching for selling leads, you'll find that available, or you are going to tell me that you dont?
I really dont care anymore about that kind of products, but telling that its prohibited and seeing that beeing published its not quite a question of me beeing crazy, its more a question of seeing that we all are not equal in this website, we dont have the same opportunities and this is no dreamland.
Perhaps its the word that matters, because they use "used laptops, monitors...." to sell the same i tried to buy...i dont know.
As for the brand question, search for Motorola. I believe you will have questions to make to yourself, in fact theres a question that you could make to yourself: what the * am i trying to defend?!?!
So my dear moderator, Stone, quit using that... Theres a fog in your mind i think.

Replying to [Obiwill]:
No its not like that to get rid of people getting cout with the scammers Alibaba trys users to provide there full details first & then Offer Selling Leads.

Its simple Complete your details first & then Publish anything you like

Stone,

I have to get in on this one.

QUOTING:
Replica and Counterfeit Items
Listing of counterfeits, non-licensed replicas, or unauthorized items, such as counterfeit designer garment, watches, handbags, sungl , or other accessories, is strictly prohibited on the Alibaba website.

If the products sold bear the name or logo of a company, but did not originate from or were not endorsed by that company, such products are prohibited from the Alibaba website.

Postings of luxury brand products are permitted if a certificate of authorization has been issued by the luxury brand owner.

Postings offering to sell or purchase replicas, counterfeits or other unauthorized items shall be subject to termination by Alibaba. Repeated violations of Alibaba's Replica and Counterfeit Items Policy shall result in the immediate suspension of your membership.

Examples:
Blue jeans with an Evisu label but that were not produced or licensed by Evisu.
Watches marketed as Rolexes but that were not manufactured or authorized by Rolex.

This begs the question of making buyers wonder if this is an Alibaba endorsement of all the branded products for sale Stone.

We both know that there are scammers on the site. Reading that statement from Alibaba and then being able to go find a gazillion postings for Nike and Apple etc etc etc in the leads makes me wonder what exactly Jack is allowing now. Since the listings are there and Alibaba says they need certification to be able to post those leads doesn't that imply that Alibaba HAS certification from all those companies/people?

Either Alibaba needs to publish those certifications (by making the company post the certs in their profile) or you need to get more people crushing the scammers.

I for one am getting tired of explaining to new members why they keep getting ripped off when they post in the forums.

Can we PLEASE get better control from Alibaba on the scam postings Stone? This is a great site being screwed by a small number of people. Surely its worth a few extra bucks to get the scammers out of here?
Peter

Replying to [Obiwill]: Dear Obiwill

I know people that report named brands being exploited on Alibaba on a regular basis but as usual it gets sent to a division no one has heard of and the post remains.

I think you will find there is favourtism amongst the Chinese and they allow posting from Chinese companies that have been approved with a Gold Badge. In any other country this would be deemed as racism.

Strangely enough you can only be a Gold member if your based in China or now HK which is still China which gets you to the top of all the product searched but you can't be a gold member if your foreign.

Gold members are apparently vetted by Dunn & Bradstreet's chinese entity yet I have shown them clear examples where companies are merely traders and not manufacturers as listed in Alibaba, funnily enough alibaba made claim they had even visited the factory, until I sent them a picture of the proposed factory. They soon backed down then.

Its clear if your company is Chinese you can get away with anything, if you foreign then tough luck.

Bring on the WTO and lets all boycott their Olympics, should be fun watching all the topless chinese men spitting whilst squatting on the floor around the stadiums on international TV