I had an interesting phone call this morning from Alibaba. Having used AliExpress a couple of times recently it appears that they are surveying new customers on their experience and expectations for trading on AliExpress.
They wanted to know about price expectations, how long I’d expect the manufacturing time for a custom item to take, what parts of the listing were important (description, price, seller reputation, safe trading), and if there were any difficulties in placing an order.
The one issue that I had experienced was that unlike eBay or Amazon on AliExpress you’re buying a custom item. There’s no facility for editing an order once placed, although messaging sellers is pretty comprehensive including live chat. I found it easier simply to leave an order unpaid and create a new order when I forgot to add all the information I needed in notes to the seller, but it would have been better to either have the ability to cancel the order or to edit prior to payment.
What are your experiences from purchasing on Alibaba or AliExpress? Would you buy again either on the site or from the same seller and do you use Alibaba regularly either for personal purchases or for business?
One Response
I’ve recently had a huge learning experience from using Alibaba. I contacted a supplier for a product and got loads of replies from my chosen supplier as well as many others suppliers. Anyway, I chose a supplier from all the replies I received and after a numbers of emails back and forth over many days I placed an order.
The mistake I made was not double checking that the supplier I chose was actually a supplier listed on Alibaba.
Needless to say I did not receive the products I ordered, I only received less than half, and now the supplier will not communicate with me.
Luckily I did not spend too much money and can still break even when I sell what I did receive. I certainly will be more careful next time.
Alibaba is a fabulous place to contact with manufacturers and suppliers but there are still people on there looking to rip you off.