WARNING: Alibaba/Aliexpress frauds

[LivresInOz]

[Not sure if this is the exact place to post, but i guess bargain-hunters are the most likely to use this site]

Be very careful buying expensive (eg. electronic) goods from AliExpress/AliBaba.

Even though they claim to offer buyer protection through Escrow, the harsh reality is:

1. I have informed them of an obvious fraud, and they have ignored it. Meanwhile another user on this site was ripped off on Alibaba/Express in a similar way (see below).

2. Their mediation process is very slow - taking 10 days to even start. Then they seem rather blase about the whole thing (see point 1) and biased towards the vendor

3. If you return the item, YOU will probably have to pay for tracked postage, which can be alot.

4. Even then, the vendor can claim that they received a used, damaged or different object. Tracking cannot prove otherwise. So you lose your money and all leverage.

_____________________________________
My experience + probably one other user

I bought what I thought would be a Boox from there, and got this instead:
http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/7...d-writing.html

It looks like the same thing happened to another user on here, Lexy:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...boox+australia

"MJ" and "LV" on Aliexpress are the same person, and have one of the cheapest ads for "Boox" on the site - but the person admitted to me they don't actually have them.

The most they would offer me is half a refund. They refused to pay for postage back unless I posted the item first.

I no longer believed a word they said (see point 4 above) and got a successful credit card chargeback from my bank.

************************************************** **
More importantly, I sent extensive evidence to AliExpress showing:
- I had received a completely unrelated item
- the vendor admitted they don't actually stock boox
- and all the other details
and warned them that the vendor was STILL advertising a product they didn't have.
They completely ignored this. Instead they continued meandering back and forth between me and the vendor with their standard, moronic (it has to be said) "mediation" process.

Now at least one other person on this forum has been ripped off, probably by the same vendor.

************************************************** **
THE NEW BAIT & SWITCH SCAM

This whole thing is clearly a "bait and switch" fraud - which I have discovered is now not uncommon amongst the millions of traders in China.

Traders who can't compete by getting popular products at an affordable price will instead claim to have a popular product.
They will send you a vaguley similar product worth much less than what you paid (eg. a cheap clone product. In my case, they sent a completely different CLASS of product - a MID instead of an ebook. This is like ordering a racehorse and getting a mixed-breed COW!)

Knowing that many people can't be bothered wasting more time - or even money - to send it back, they often accept it, delivering a healthy profit to the vendor.

(This is what they tried in my case: their first tactic was to say: "It's nearly the same, why don't you just accept that one!?" UNBELIEVABLE!)

In my case, I would have lost $US 150 to these people.
Instead, the good old Commonwealth Bank of Australia (a formerly government owned bank that still has a scerrick of customer service left*), got me a chargeback - and the vendor and the fools at AliBaba are still going through the mediation process lol!

_______________________________________________
This whole post is an act of contrition on my part, because I mentioned the Alibaba site on this forum, which may have contributed to other people like Lexy using the site.

(My only previous experience with them had been positive. I bought a beautifully made, very affordable 15-minute hourglass from a Chinese vendor on there, which arrived promptly and well-packed..but electronics, never again!)
_______________________________________________
* To all you partisans who scream 'socialism!' the minute the government gets involved with anything lol

[LivresInOz]

I can now confirm that the same vendor on Alibaba has ripped off at least two members of this forum, sending them a completely different product after they ordered a boox.

the vendor goes under two names:
Linda Van
Michael Jordan (yes, I know!)

it's one of the cheapest supposed boox on alibaba, but you will not GET a boox, you will get this cheap piece of junk (and I can confirm, it IS junk) that is not even an e-reader of any kind:

http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/7...d-writing.html

then the vendor will refuse to refund your money, offering only a useless partial refund.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

[LivresInOz]

NOTE: This vendor is STILL trading on AliBaba, even though the site has been informed that two people have been defrauded in exactly the same way.

Their full name is obviously:

AliBaba and the 40,000 Thieves !

[jerome]

there is a plus and minus for a place like alibaba. looking at the price they offer for the products, it's unbelievable and very tempting. i chatted online with some of their operators working at wee hours and they do all sort of scam tricks to get you bank your money into their account. but there are some precautions people can always take.

check this link:
http://www.antharjalaya.com/how-to-n...e-wholesalers/

if i ever go to alibaba again, this is the 1st requirement. No PAYPAL, no deal.

[LivresInOz]

I have now tried to tell the AliExpress person I was getting "mediation" from TWICE that the same vendor has ripped off two customers in exactly the same way.

I sent extensive documentation in my own case, and sent some non-identifying but convincing details of the second case.

Their replies are in good english - but they have completely ignored what I have told them.

These people are either wilfully obstructive or, as we say in Australia, as thick as two planks.

I will never buy anything over $20 from this site again.

They are the WORST!

They make USPS look good lol.

[AMG]

Hi Guys,
just joined and have to let everybody know about my dealing with Aliexpress, my purchase was a 7in PC at a good price but what i received was a piece "Dangerous Junk"
first thing i noticed was no manual and the wrong charger, then when i tried to charge it it started to smell of burning and started to smoke from the rear!
I opened a dispute with the seller and its going on for weeks now until today Aliexpress decided to release the money to the seller.
Just as well i opened a dispute with paypal also so i might still have a chance of getting my money back i hope.
The seller in question is a gold seller and his ID is X SHOW TECHNOLOGY LTD
stay away far away from him as he a total con!

[crich70]

I've never heard of them, but thanks for the warning. I guess it goes to prove the old saying,"if it seems too good to be true it probably is."

[Shopaholic]

Um...please forgive me for being rude, but really, you guys didn't know until it happened to you that China is the knockoff capital of the planet? This genuinely surprises you? Wow!

I've said for years to never buy stuff from China on eBay let alone directly from a Chinese trading site like Alibaba. You will never get what was advertised, you only get a knockoff of whatever product you're looking for. And women that buy makeup from there *shudders*. Lord only knows what horrid chemical they're putting on their eyes, lips and face.

Don't be fooled that because a product is made in China that everything from China will be a legit, good quality product. Far from it.

Standard Operating Procedure when buying online is the buyer pays to ship the goods back - with tracking!! Tracking to China + low cost of crappy product = not worth sending it back. It'll cost you more to ship it back than it did to get it in the first place. You won't win a PayPal claim without tracking and the Chinese scammer continues on his merry way to scam the next poor sap thinking they've found a great deal.

[carpetmojo]

[QUOTE=Shopaholic;1637073]Um...please forgive me for being rude, but really, you guys didn't know until it happened to you that China is the knockoff capital of the planet? This genuinely surprises you? Wow! "

I think that was really the point of the post - no, they didn't know, and are helpfully warning others who might be tempted, as you have also done now. Has this siuation been known for some time ? It would seem so, going by your post....

Is it clear that goods/site is Chinese ?


So, caveat emptor, added to chrich70's timeless advice .......

1) If it's sounds too ...... yes it is !

2) Let the buyer beware.

[Shopaholic]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Is it clear that goods/site is Chinese ?

Alibaba.com??? Absolutely! It's as clear as your reflection in a sparkling clean mirror.

[AMG]

Just another update, i have send back the item and i am waiting for an update from paypal.
I was glad to come across forum with regard to Aliexpress and i also should state that i have used them in the past with no problems whatsoever i have no idea why its gone so bad.
As for China being a knock-off capital everybody knows that anyway but the PC i purchased was a non branded item plus on the site he was a gold member with lots of positive feedback for these items so i chanced buying one which was a big mistake.
To sum it up anybody thinking of buying from Aliexpress should be very very careful indeed!

[pphilipp]

About 15 months ago I started buying cheap tablets from various China vendors. Luckily I never had a real bad experience, but even the best was only mediocre... with the potential of becoming a disaster. The worst for me was waiting three months for an item promised within one month. But, by buying these Shanghai electronics, I became a regular in all the Android forums and learned that bad experiences were the norm, somewhat. (shocking example... Christmas gift which arrived broken and not adequately resolved even by April.)

I have been lucky that prices paid have been so low that each device was resold at a profit.

But another blight stemming from these Chinese merchants is that western resellers are selling imports at much higher prices and quoting the same false facts and figures. (example... Chinese ads love to state phrase "better than an iPad" to tablets which aren't in the same league as an iPad in any form or fashion. Imagine the horror recipients must garner upon trying their new toy!)

[AMG]

Thank you for adding that great advice makes my problem seem very small indeed and i take it then most if not all these sellers are supplying rubbish.
I am sorry to hear about all the problems you had with these Tablet PC's and thanks again for letting us all know

[tblet]

Originally Posted by pphilipp

But another blight stemming from these Chinese merchants is that western resellers are selling imports at much higher prices and quoting the same false facts and figures. (example... Chinese ads love to state phrase "better than an iPad" to tablets which aren't in the same league as an iPad in any form or fashion. Imagine the horror recipients must garner upon trying their new toy!)

The tablets I purchased (Android 2.3 Cortex 1Ghz or higher CPU Capacitive screen) are much better than ipad because they have HDMI, USB Host to connect 3g modem, MicroSD slot and are able to play H264/MPEG4 1080p 6-8mbps online streams fluently and I am able to download applications outside of market without unofficial hacking and Flash is working fine. All of this can not be done on my ipad. Oh, Not to mention that their cost is below $200.

Things like 3D Games (Racing etc) are working fluently as well and especially nice to connect to my big screen tv via HDMI and play.

The service from aliexpress suppliers I dealed with was really good. Even the Android 2.2 tablets I purchased they sent me a firmware upgrade to 2.3. I have had some problems with the firmware (Internal storage was not recognized and couldn't connect usb 3g after upgrade), I have told the supplier about this problem and few days later they sent me a new 2.3 firmware which fixed all the problems and this firmware is very stable and fast.

I don't know how their buyer protection works because I never needed to use it.
I am using the tablets myself and very happy with them.
I am a local seller, Not selling online and all my clients were very happy with the tablets.

One tablet even fell many times and still working fine.

There are a lot of reliable suppliers on aliexpress so it is very sad to see messages like "99% of suppliers are scammers".

I have been scammed once by some seller from the US on eBay (The item was not as described and the seller never responded me) but I am not saying that all the US sellers are scammers.

[crich70]

I have been scammed once by some seller from the US on eBay (The item was not as described and the seller never responded me) but I am not saying that all the US sellers are scammers.

I think it is a given that scammers know no boundaries. They can be anywhere in the world. It's the job of the shopper to be smart and see that something is almost too good to be true. Sometimes though the scammer does manage to work his/her magic.