Alibaba, Alibaba Express?

Anyone buy items thru Alibaba?

I'm curious about items that are larger than usual.

Scooters, carts, kayaks or boats.

The prices are stupid cheap, but all the import and shipping fees worry me.

Tell me your stories.

 

Alibaba is basically Chinese ebay.

The guy on the other side reads *everything* you say through baidu translate (baidu is a chinese knockoff of google), and doesn't actually know anything at all about the product they're selling, and doesn't know anything about the customs process in YOUR country, and can't understand instructions, no matter what language you explain it in.

Whether any particular shipment makes it through customs is up to the seller/shipper, not alibaba, and subject to the issues I've already mentioned.

I'd stick with things that are small and cheap, that you aren't going to get overly upset about if it doesn't make it through and you never get a refund.

Also note that there is a significant difference in the quality of mass produced junk from China and mainstream western or Japanese products.

 

I’ve ordered 3 separate shipments of lights from there. 1/3 actually arrived. The other 2 had China tracking status of ‘delivered’ a week plus after the expected delivery date, but they never were delivered. I tried contacting the seller and it was clear that it was hopeless and they couldn’t even communicate on a basic level or just didn’t respond. As mentioned most the stuff on there is junk, whatever you buy consider the possibility it will never show up, so I wouldn’t buy anything significant.

 

Seems like a scam IMO.

 

What does? Alibaba? Or the vendors selected by @crashnburn80 ?

I don't consider Alibaba itself to be a scam, but there are *definitely* scammers who sell stuff via that platform. A LOT, in fact, and its virtually impossible to distinguish between them.

 

scam vendors. Im leary of sites outside of the US like that...might find something cheap but also cheap quality. At least with EBAY you can get your money back.

 

You can lose your money with ebay as well. If the vendor LIES to paypal, then paypal usually sides with the vendor and closes the claim prior to allowing you the option to supply supporting evidence. A handful of times, I've had to have payments for ebay crap reversed by my credit card company, but they don't like to do that, since the credit card payment was a legit payment **to paypal**.

Now *Amazon* on the other hand... they'll always side with the customer.

 

I've yet to lose any money on ebay. Ive had a few vendors not send me my items. and theres a wait for contesting the transaction but for the most part Ive had good luck.