# *Warning* Beware of Alibaba.com!



## b2rtch (Jan 20, 2010)

Trusting the vendor's promises and trying to have a good deal I bougth an inverter welder direct from China on a website named Aliexpress.
This website is part of another larger website named Alibaba: http://www.alibaba.com/

This company is not new nor small . 
Their business is twice the size of Amazon and E-bay combined just in main land China!!!
They even have their own bank.

Any way I bought a welder because it looked attractive and the price was 1/2 or a 1/3 of similar welder sold on Amazon and it seems that the customer protection was excellent.
First I had to wait about 6 weeks to received the welder.
When I got it it was some light damaged to the paint but most important the welder was not working.
As soon as I strike an arc, the welder immediately goes on over-load and it shut down.
I immediately sent a message to the vendor who asked me to send a video to prove that the welder is not working.
I have no video equipment and I do not understand how to make a video of a non-working welder.
Anyway after several weeks of back and forth with the vendor I escalated the case and the verdict was in favor of the vendor at my expenses.
I now have paid for a non-working welder and so far I found no one in SLC to repair it if possible.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

Sorry for your experience Bert.
I have seen the Alibaba web site pop up on searches quite often.
Never felt comfortable with the idea of dealing with them however.
A good reason to pay a tiny bit more to get that stuff from a Harbor Freight or a Grizzly type middle man.
Then you let them deal with the non working junk; at least you have someone to go to.


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## redSLED (Mar 21, 2013)

For basic goods like tablecloths, wire brushes or PVC pipes, I could imagine buying stuff that way. But for a serious machine/tool like a welder - that was a long-shot gamble, IMO. A welder is a top-name-brand proposition only - as any welder would have advised you. I believe you fell unknowingly (?) into the lower-tool-price-trap while also making China richer. Not hating on you. Just observing. I hope you will be able to get your money back.


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## b2rtch (Jan 20, 2010)

Look on Ebay, there are many very satisfied customers with is very same welder.
I bought other tools in a similar way in the past without a problem.
I never buy " top-name-brand", never I refuse to pay the price.
Most of the time I "win", this time I did not, for the time being.


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

They should be forced to do the right thing by you in any case this is rotten to the core but I have had to date no bad dealing with the Chinese so hopefully you will get sorted out eventually. Alistair


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## MarkTheFiddler (May 29, 2012)

Man Bert,

That stinks out loud. Consider me warned! I have been tempted in the past. Temptation is erased thanks to you.


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

There was a time when "made in Japan" was a warning…but the Chinese thing is different I think. Too many people that have never had a dime trying to escape that. I know most of our stuff comes from there (I don't know why) but if I don't have a US label/rep to contact, "thanks but no thanks".

And just as an aside, you need to watch how you pay those folks too. A few years ago my wife apparently bought 2 Kirby vac cleaners while her car was parked in the airport somewhere over there…she didn't even know the bridge between NY and China was open!!! Our bank security caught it but it is a real PITA to have to change all those automatic payments/deposits.


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## Blackie_ (Jul 10, 2011)

Thanks Bert, I'll steer clear.


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## tomd (Jan 29, 2008)

I purchased a welder from HF and am very pleased with it. I know the flack I will get from saying that, but if you get a lemon they have a great return policy.


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## AlibabaRep (Oct 10, 2013)

I am sorry that you have had a problem with a supplier on AliExpress. Please understand that AliExpress is a platform that connects buyers and sellers; we are not the supplier of the goods you purchased.
With that said, I'd still like to help. 
AliExpress.com has a customer service team to assist you. There are a couple of different ways to get in touch with them. One is to fill out our online form. It's here: https://login.aliexpress.com/buyer.htm?return_url=http://channel.alibaba.com/complaint/home.htm (you'll need to log in) or send an email with the particulars of your situation to [email protected] 
We can't resolve 100% of customer issues, but I promise that we will try.
Sincerely,
Mark Story
Director, International Corporate Affairs
Alibaba Group


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## MarkTheFiddler (May 29, 2012)

That was the last post I ever expected. Welcome aboard Mark!


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## AlibabaRep (Oct 10, 2013)

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Mark


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## Tigarman (Dec 20, 2011)

I have bought many things through Alibaba… had a couple of issues, but they were resolved. Like the post above, Alibaba spends time and effort to resolve these issues. They consider their reputation to be very important. Which includes searching for negative things on other sites. Take Mark up on his offer and get this resolved. As for video proof, the best way is to just use a cell phone. It sounds like you only need a few seconds of video to prove your case. If you don't have a phone that will do that, recruit a teenager to help you out. It gives you a reason to keep in touch with the younger generation. I did something like that and now have a free worker (er… apprentice) for my shop.


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## b2rtch (Jan 20, 2010)

Mark, 
I notice that you created your account just to reply to my post, amazing.
I am also impressed by the fact the you take the time to answer my post and to offer to help.
That certainly tells me a lot about how much you care not only for your reputation and but also for your customers.
Kudos.
Many years before all this noise in the news about what the NSA does I already knew from reading things like "Wired" and from working with CISCO Systems for several years..
Your message reminds me or more exactly confirm to me that there is not privacy left anywhere and especially on the Internet. I know that this is nothing new but it still makes me very uncomfortable.
I propose that the word "privacy and all related words " be remove from the dictionary as being obsolete
Thank you for offering to help.


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## b2rtch (Jan 20, 2010)

Mark, 
Do you do any woodworking?


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

b2rtch,

You asked for help, and wham! Better than anyone could have imagined a rep shows up and offers help. Mark's stated title is Director, International Corporate Affairs, I am thinking he gets the particulars and makes an email or two, maybe a phone call, and suddenly the right people get interested in resolving the issue. Like many others I have seen the Alibaba Group in searches I have run for odd items so this case can be the litmus test to see how they work. Keep posting your results I look forward to seeing how this plays out.


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## AlibabaRep (Oct 10, 2013)

Hi Bert,

I used to do quite a bit of woodworking, but now travel quite extensively and have not had the opportunity to do so for some time. I loved it when I did it, though.

Mark


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## b2rtch (Jan 20, 2010)

woodbutcherbynight, 
I agree with you, this is pretty amazing. 
Mark also contacted me with PM to get more information to help me. Of course I will keep you posted and I shall be the first one to sing praises to Alibaba when the issue is resolved.

I shall make sure to not only to keep people posted on this post but also when the issue is resolved I shall start a new post for those who do not already read this one. 
To start with my intention never was to badmouth Alibaba and I shall be the first one to encourage others to use their services if I obtain satisfaction, and my satisfaction is only to be treated fairly.

There are a lot of woodworking machines for sale direct from the manufacturers on Alibaba, for ridiculous prices compared for what we have to pay for them here.
My shop is already pretty well equipped but if or when I am going to replace some of them, Alibaba certainly will be one of the places where I shop if this present issue is resolved.


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

b2rtch,

I liked your post, ranting gets results…. of course sometimes not the results we want, (laughing)

Previous to your post I had no idea that you could buy an individual tool / part from them. I had always seen buy minimums of 1000 units and such, i.e. for toggles switches for my kids space shuttle project. Your post made me go look some and as you said the prices are ridiculous compared to what we have here in the states.

Good to see Mark has working knowledge of woodworking, sucks he travels so much he cannot indulge our hobby. I spent 3 years working in Iraq and could only draw diagrams and dream about working in the shop.


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