Has anyone successfully made purchases from alibaba.com? Or have had a bad experience. If so please tell us. Thanks
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So I haven’t bought from them but I have looked into it. In the end I didn’t feel confident that the payment system would actually protect me probably just paranoia on my part.
For big purchases Made in China will put you directly in contact with actual factory direct shipping it is not simple you have to deal with the import tax aspect but it can save you money.
For small purchases I have found I can usually get a good enough deal through Ebay or Amazon to not make me willing to take the risk of buying direct from China without an American company handling the import issues.
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I have bought from aliexpress and never hab any problems.
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I seen some nice looking deals, though have not yet perchased any goods yet, though i would be sure what ever company i was comunicating with was ligit buy some means. Allso as with ebay i like too buy from a sseprate bank acount when not going through paypal.And put only enough money at a time too buy what your project is. It seems one could resale if bougjt large enough whole sale lots.Good luck with the warrentees , that end of the deal could be more red tape exspences, as far as china quallity i have heard and seen the one good company. Or maybe a junk company, thripple check the wartentee details and get in copy ahead of sale.SWEM BBB.
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I too, have purchased from aliexpress with no problems. Mostly electronic stuff.
From what I see, alibaba is more for business to business dealings.
If you are considering dealing with the Chinese, you might want to check out this lengthy but informative video from Adafruit electronics:
It’s actually a book review about dealing with the Chinese and the Chinese cultural differences. Yes, it is focused on buying electronics but I think it’s well worth the time to get some insights that answer the question: “Why do they do that?”
Pete Stanaitis
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My thoughts are to get some one to be able to purchase there, then we could make a large whole sale purchase, say on nickel/ iron batteries, and divide the costs among several people.
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For NeFi batteries it would make more since to just order direct from the factory. I got a quote about 2 months ago but haven’t been able to order yet due to some family issues which have come up. The factory will ship directly to your house they include all costs except the import tax which if I remember correctly is about 3% or 4% in the USA.
I haven’t done this yet so I don’t know the details of what you have to do but it sounded pretty reasonable. You do have to make an electronic payment in advance to a bank in China that part didn’t sound great but I do understand why.
Anyway here is the contact for the place I got a quote. I would have to double check but I think the price was almost half the price of Iron Edison before they add in their shipping charges.
Henan Hengming Fengyun Power Source Co.,Ltd
No. 8 Xinhui Road ,Xinxiang City, Henan Province,China 453000
[email protected]
Web: www.hmbattery.com
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I have also bought on AliExpress and never have any problems. Also, shipping is very fast
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Oh one note of warning batteries where on the list of items that Trump put a 25% I think it is import tariff on from China. I haven’t found out if that is all batteries or just certain types. But the tariff went into effect already so it is something we will have to keep in mind with NiFe batteries as they are manufactured in China.
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The only thing with Ali express is they don’t have a lot of stuff that Alibaba has. Like NiFe batteries
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I have bought machinery from alibaba , a 22hp pellet mill 4 years back and 3 small generators a couple of years ago , from what i remember the hardest part of bringing anything into Australia was the landing charges at the docks and the customs clearance , and so for that reason i would 100% recommend you first find a shipping agent , they will take care of all the landing costs and dutys for you , plus they will even have a depo in china that will go and look at items before loading on board .
Dave
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Thanks Dave, now how do you know who to buy from to keep from being ripped off?
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Hi Al , what happened to us was , first we found the type of machine we wanted , we then agreed on a F.OB price for the machine , we then contacted a local shipping agent , who in turn sent to there china office details of what we were buying and they did a site visit to make sure all was as described ,and from memory , no money was sent by us until the machine was landed and delivered to our door , the agent has a fee , but was well worth it to take the pain and agony out of buying from over sea’s . like i said this was over 4 years ago so i could be a little out on when we did send the shipping agent the money , but i think it was at the time customs wanted there cut .
Dave
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I think the Chinese are quite legit in the transaction and shipping aspects. I’ve had good experience. Often times things ship duty free, and free shipping to Canada.
Do the research on product quality, otherwise it is about as good as dealing with Amazon.
Wouldn’t you know it— Right after I wrote that Aliexpress works for me, I went there to order something and all I got was a warning message that there had been some unauthorized activity on my “account” and they had locked it. After about 2 frustrating hours, I was still unable to fiix it by following their instructions. Seems that a major (to me, at least) issue is that they ask you for a phone number. You give them the phone number and THEN they tell you that they have texted a code to that “mobile phone”, Well, i haven’t got one. Game over. No more Aliexpress for me, I guess!
Pete Stanaitis
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I used alibaba to purchase $5000 worth of buckets for Rwanda. Alibaba held the money until the supplier delivered. Very nerve wracking process, but it worked. Using a shipping agent sounds like a good idea.
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How, and where do you find a shipping agent?
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I just googled shipping agents into Australia, and phoned around , picked the first one that bothered to get back in touch and was very lucky that they were fantastic and once details were handed over that was it , nothing else to do other than pay the bill ,
I did read up on what most of these importer companies offer and a lot of them offer a chinese agent to go and inspect your goods , its well worth the small extra for piece of mind .
As mentioned by Bruce for sure Aliexpress do hold onto funds till your goods arrive , but i am not sure about alibaba as the companys selling large items on there almost always get paid once the goods are loaded onto the ship i know thats the way with F.O.B free on board goods.
Dave
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Maybe you can figure out how to dial a USA phone number form China and do it again with the full international codes on the number. I know I had to use some extra numbers to call back when I was in Taiwan
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I tried to get some bio-gas bags from Alibaba. Couldn’t work it out. Not sure I can tell you why really either. Part of it was it seemed shady, but I have no real hard evidence to back that up, just had a hard time getting responses. At least twice the prices on the website didn’t end up matching the prices on the email contact, etc…So I guess I got scared off and went another route. …So my answer is “No” I haven’t bought anything with them.
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