AlibabaReviews 13,849

I'm a web platform developer, owning several running companies online. I came across this site today, and after reading so many unsatisfactory comments, I've decided to write an honest review.

First of all, Alibaba is the world's largest b2b sourcing for china based products.

With regards to all the complaints against the company, 1 really essential thing is missing here. But the solution was all along there with Alibaba.

Fyi, Alibaba owns taobao.com, and so far the quality of goods being supplied by the vendors have been satisfactory. I know this first hand because my wife have been sourcing for goods day-in-day-out there.

I discovered after thoroughly going through the site components, and found out that there are there no components to enter reviews on a specific vendor. What is the factor that prevented them to do so? With that filter alone, you can entirely absolve the product specs filtration and vendor status filtration.

I compare this site with the taobao chinese platform, where in taobao.com, there have been diamond ratings, crown ratings, etc such to avoid such problem, all along their solution is there. You need like x amount of likes to get 1 icon, build 10 icon, you get to exchange 10 icon to 1 new icon on the next level.

Taobao had effectively employed a multi-level unique rating system that enable vendor rate based on end users opinion and ratings and experience, not because of their money paid to alibaba to get a one off payment to trade statuses.

While there may be cases of forgery where such ratings can be obtained by paying more, like what companies offering to sell facebook likes, this multi-layered rating is far more expensive to get full rating. It is much viable to force vendor to invest a lot so they would not tarnish their reputation goals. So it's a win-win situation for all, end user, alibaba, and vendor.

An extreme example is tmall.com, you need to hundreds of thousands in deposit to be able to start to vend in that site. Do you think the supplier would act otherwise to get bad ratings?

Since, custom tickets for complaints is both ineffective, tedious for end users AND it's an expensive solution. I hope they would employ such ratings in Alibaba that's fundamentally missing and would almost reduce most of the complaints from end users from all around the world.

I ordered for my goods which took forever to come and i was charged double the price she displays in Alibaba claiming that nobody posts the correct price. I let that slide because i liked what i saw. Little did i know that this woman was going to mess me up. She sent me PLASTIC BEDS which i didn't order for and claims that PLASTIC IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN WOOD AND PLASTIC TOGETHER and charged me for the plastic and wooden bed. And now she has refused to communicate back to us claiming that she sent us something that is more expensive than what we ordered for. I know for a fact that plastic is cheaper than wood anywhere in the world. BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK!

As a kid I liked to watch Westerns. There was something about the adventure of going to unexplored lands where you never knew what would happen next. Alibaba is like that. I've found some of the most incredible deals on quantities of electronics that I could never have gotten in the US any other way. There are lots of dud suppliers but there are legit ones too. Just do as much homework as you can and understand there is always risk. Trade Assurance can also be helpful if you can find a supplier that qualifies.

I love on line shopping. I use Ebay on a regular basis and have been reasonably satisfied with them,. If a seller scams you they come to the rescue.

By contrast if I was asked to describe Alibaba I'd personally call it the wild West of e commerce. Theres no meaningful communication from either the seller or the so called customer reps on the site when there is a problem. I have a dispute under way and doubt very much I'll ever see my hard earned money again. My advice, stay away.

An update on my experience with Albaba. I was offered the option of a 20% refund or returning the goods for a full refund. Sounds good right? WRONG. Upon selecting the respond link in the email sent to me I was directed to a page with a picture of a lock telling me I could take no ACTION! So much for Alibaba's assurances! So I'm back at square one paying in full for an item that has a 50/50% chance of being counterfeit!

An update on my update. Managed to find a way of reaching the customer services rep. Took the 20% refund as I was not sure even if returned the goods the assurance would be honoured. Now the product has stopped working properly. Hardly a good outcome.

I have made a few orders on Alibaba now. My first order for a scooter did not work out at all (from Merlot Commerce and Dogebos Ltd). The item came in a crushed box and would not function. The seller would not replace any of the broken parts and offered the only recourse of shipping the unit back at my cost. Ridiculous.
Fortunately for me, I placed a small order first. I chose a different supplier for my next order, (Shenzen E-Fire Technology has been excellent so far) and I have placed several orders with them since.
I will continue purchasing through Alibaba. If you are going to use these folks, I recommend taking your time and ordering small first. Develop trust. China is going through a recession and some of their sellers are likely going out of business.

If you're really really careful Alibaba can be a tremendous resource for an American business who is looking for new suppliers and vendors in China. My company used to pay consultants and other middle men a lot of money to find us reliable folks in Asia. I still work with some of them but now Alibaba can help me do part of the work.

WARNING: Do not use Alibaba for anything other than getting quotes.
I received an order of horrible products from a supplier that looked nothing like the product we agreed to. Now I am out $1800 US and found out I do not qualify for Trade Assurance (even though I had it in my contract).
Not only that, the site is terribly glitchy, and poorly constructed. I cannot tell you how ignorant and unhelpful every single customer service rep was that I dealt with. Plus they make it impossible to speak to a manager.
STAY AWAY OR YOU WILL BE BURNT!

Ordered 28,500 resin xmas decorations before ordering was sent perfect samples, perfect size and quality from Yuexi QuanYuanSheng Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd. which convinced me to order decorations, I stated in contract that decoratins needed to be similar to samples previously sent before order took place and needed to be 9-10cm in size. As i was quite Worried about size I asked them to send me one of each decoration before sending mass production. The sizes were completely wrong all different sizes, much smaller than stated. I took this to trade assurance and disputed this, Yuexi QuanYuanSheng Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd. admitted to the error and stated I accepted smaller size and price drop even though I did not accept this as I did not change contract! Now i'm having to pay an extra $200 dollars to an inspection company. Even though the company has accepted liability for size! Complete scam. NOT FOR THE BUYER ONLY FOR THEMSELVES!

I saw something on sale 50% off on alibaba and decided to purchase it.
I got an automatic email from them saying that the payment will be processed in 24 hours. The sale by that time was over and they charged me the full price!... not only that! Its been almost 2 months and I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED My product.
I emailed the seller a few times and she said they forgot to ship it! Even though I got an email saying that it was shipped!.

I WILL NEVER RECOMEND THIS ALIBABA TO ANYONE.

Alibaba is completely stand on their country and people which is no assurance or insurance to trade or buy anything from them. When you use their assurance is no help, Alibaba still stand on their people side, they are not helping you at all. You still don't get your refund or only partial refund with huge fee from their trade assurance. It is totally opposite from PAYPAL. The bottom line is NO BUSINESS with them, pay little more to buy in USA for less headache, safety product, better quality. Let short their stock BABA

My name is Cristian and 10 months ago I bought an 50 ton log splitter from QDHONSUN Company. I have to mention that I work in Dublin and the machine went to my home country wich is Romania. Last month I went in holiday very happy to use my log splitter. After I put toghether the machine according with the manual instructions I found out that machine have so many bad designe issues. Finnaly I correct all the issues and when I start the machine the, after 2 min of work the cilynder explode wich is not safe. Eventually I find out that the welding was not too strong (did again proper welding). After that I found out that the Honda engine does not comply with European regulations ( if engine broke I can't repair anywhere in Europe). Nobody aware me about the engine. Finnaly trying to contact the sales manager Mr Michael Damm and send him loads of photos that can clearly confirm the issues he decide to not compensate me.
I am asking help from the whole suppliers to stop this kind of sellers who try to lie and cheat honest costumers like me. This kind of sellers put in a bad light the Alibaba.com website.

HI I ordered some products and after 2 months they had still not arrived, Jamshaid Ahmed made every excuse not to send, I complained to Ali baba and they exuse was that and 3rd party account was "hijacked" which was a complete lie, I would have been out of pocket but my bank agreed to give me the money back, as PAK DENT MAX from Pakistan was fraudulent, please buyers beware do NOT part with your money even via PayPal or any other method. There are probably thousands of legitimate companies that operate on Ali baba but it's unfortunate that the fraudulent companies let the others down, Ali baba was utterly useless when I come so buyers please beware and DO NOT buy from PAK DENT MAX thanks