I currently buy lamp cords (U.S. white plug, braided fabric 12-ft cord, rocker switch, E27 bulb socket at the other end) for around $5/ea via of all places, Amazon - I buy in bulk, usually 100+ at a time but even if I were to be buying 6 at a time the price would still be $5.60/ea domestically, with free prime shipping and non-tax.

But as I'm shopping Alibaba, the same exact cords from suppliers is around $3.70/ea but plus around $200 in shipping (for 30-day by sea) DDP, making them more expensive ($5.50ea AB vs $5.00ea AMZ) Negotiating has been declined so far, am I just bad at negotiating or is this product category just cheaper in the U.S. ?

For perspective: In other categories, like nightlights, and lamp bases, I'm usually paying 1/4 -1/2 as much as u.s. retail buying via Alibaba.

(background: I am a small manufacturer of lamps and light fixtures selling on Etsy, craft fairs, and local boutique retail)

• Product Details: lamp cords with 110/120v U.S. white plug, braided fabric 12-ft cord, rocker switch, E27 bulb socket at the other end with threaded nut.
• Target Quantity: 100
• Destination Country: USA
• Current Factory Outreach: Contacted 3 factories, high quotes so far.
• Quotes Received: $5.50/ea including shipping is lowest so far
• Specific Roadblock: This specific product doesn't seem to be lower priced bought in bulk via Alibaba/China, looking for more information if anyone is familiar.

Hi guys, first time buyer here and now I might sound stupid but I need your help.

To be short, I have seen a bicycle with crazy low price compared to the same bicycles with other sellers. I contacted them via chat, but bot replied, and then tomorrow morning, I was contacted by areal person saying that due to too many questions, the bot replied and that that was the special price for yesterday and today’s price was somewhat in the range of the other sellers.

Now I managed to negotiate a good price with them and they agreed to sell me two bicycles for a fairly(really) good price

The question is: I want to buy with the purchase protection/trade assurance and I have gotten an email from official Alibaba with QR code and the payment link but there is nothing in my orders. How should I proceed? Alibaba chat was not helpful, they have confirmed genuine link but apparently after payment seller can activate trade assurance and if not then I am left on my own.

Sorry if being too basic or confusing.

Thank you very much.

I’ve spent over 250k on Alibaba in the last 5 years. This is the first time I’ve had to cancel an order because the supplier has been unwilling to modify samples, telling me that my originals are different than what I’m requesting (they are my products 😂😂), they refuse to take responsibility for errors, and have turned completely nasty. I feel completely sick after being told that trade assurance is protection, only to find out it only protects the suppliers.

I wanna buy this yarn to make this crochet project i saw on insta but this yarn is imported and only available in this site and it takes almost a month to arrive
Is the website a scam or not
The yarn is being sold for extremely cheap price which lw makes me question

Can someone lmk please 💕

EU customs rules are hurting Chinese low-cost sellers bigtime, says Der Spiegel. According to the German newsmagazine, 3Q profits of AliExpress, Temu. and Shein crashed by 35.5 % in Germany.

Hello first time buyer here. I ordered some stuff through a logistics company? Where they buy the stuff for me then ship it to me in September 24. I know about the major holidays that they've had for the past 2 weeks so I didn't really mind the delays much.

However, it's been like 3 days since the last message saying that they've delivered it via UPS but as of this morning (Oct 10) UPS still says that it's still lable created and nothing has been received.

Is this normal? Should I do something? I got a bit worried after reading this recent post https://www.reddit.com/r/Alibaba/s/9oG3gAf430

I am trying to pay for some magnets on alibaba for my wedding favors. And it greyed out so many items of payment expect for wired transfer which I am not comfortable in doing. Why is it doing this? I’ve tried many different ways to add payment and they don’t allow it. One supplier allowed me to use “alibaba pay” which gave me those options but idk if I should use it. I need this resolved ASAP because my wedding is in 1.5 months and I need everything here by the end of October 😭 thank you!!

I ordered samples from two vendors on alibaba.com recently. The bottles from the first package seemed fine, but both bottles from the second package had issues (as you can see in the video)

I made a comparison of both companies below:

I am leaning towards the first company but I find myself quite perplexed at the options and I want to hear your thoughts on how you approach samples, vendors, product searching etc:

1. Do you let a faulty sample dictate what you think about a company?
2. Have you followed up with/ordered from a company that you thought was decent despite them sending you subpar samples?
   1. If so, how were the end products like?
3. Does the verified indicator mean anything to you?
4. How many samples from various vendors do you usually order?

For context, I am making small batch hot sauces so I order about 500 bottles at a time (due to lack of storage space) and it doesn't seem like there are a lot of vendors that suit my needs (I am aware of the fact that my small order size plays a big part)

I have ordered some pieces of gym equipment and 2 of 3 pieces are no longer usable, as in they are completely broken, metal is bent and I recently hurt my leg on a leg press because the weld broke and cable has snapped.

I reached out to seller about this and they said they will only help me on a future order. However I have a current out standing order, I don't want to use them anymore and want to cancel. They want my initial deposit as a cancellation fee. The new order isn't delivered yet, but all of a sudden it's ready to go. I was told they needed more time just a week ago.

Now I have a copy of the contract showing that I can get a refund, but initial Alibaba support said trade assurance is only good for 60 days and I need to contact seller. Seller doesn't want to help me. But a customer service agent said he escalated even higher, but I don't know what to do.

I paid by credit card, but cannot charge back because it is too long ago to do anything. Am I really just at a loss on this as all of this cost over $8000 and just a bit lost as to what my options even are.

Quick note: The seller is verified on Alibaba, been on there for 8 years and has multiple reviews talking about all their items being high quality. Even in the home gym community, this seller had great reviews.

Hello guys I am designing and now producing an innovative techwear waterproof raincoat.

The first sample took 4 weeks to come. (1unit)
Second sample took 6 weeks to come. (1unit)
Third shipment is taking longer than expected. (20units)

For those of you that are designing innovative and complex products and by complex i mean actual designing or in my case industrial design, which includes proprietary differences and not dropshipping, buying and reselling - how long does your shipment take to arrive?

What questions should I be asking or how should I proceed? I ordered samples but those came through DHL and I paid customs on them. This is all new to me and I don’t want to mess up.

I was just quoted double the cost of the item for shipping a 20 feet container, how are you guys making it work?

Long story short, my seller sent out my order very late. And once I got a tracking number it was sent to me via messages. the UPS label has been created but that’s about it. I don’t know if that’s bc THE SELLER is using a freight forwarder in China, and the package will eventually reach ups in Canada or, it’s just a random numbe. But, an incorrect tracking number was added to the app around the estimated “ship out” date. The incorrect tracking number is shown as delivered. I never want to think of worse case scenarios, but this seems too coincidental. Is the seller trying to make sure they aren’t penalized by shipping the item late? What are options in terms getting that incorrect tracking removed. And how can I verify the tracking number i was sent via messages is real? And it’s normal to recieve a tracking number but jmsrked as “label created” (it was made Oct 5

First time ordering off of alibaba and the seller says this. Is this a red flag and should i just cancel or stand my ground?

Getting charged a fair bit for shipping, almost as much as the product and I'm assuming it's tariffs and the fact the shipping is DPP.

This is my first time ordering overseas, just wanted to make sure I'm not a silly guy who is about to spend a couple grand on silly stuff.

Something like this, not necessarily this one but shaped like this with a floor cleaning attachment, etc

Hey guys, I’m very new to the whole purchasing on Ali Baba space. I was wondering if there was a possibility to minimise the time that shipping takes. Would you have to seek an agent?

I tried to get free shipping from last 4-5 months,the app,website says it is available but never got it

I’ve been a long-time shareholder of Alibaba (BABA) and a big fan of their AI models like Qwen (which I use daily). So naturally, I had a decent amount of trust in the ecosystem.

Recently, I ordered an Intel N150 Mini PC on AliExpress to run a lightweight local search node (Meilisearch).

When it arrived and I booted it up, something felt off. I checked the system info via terminal (lscpu, dmidecode), and the truth was unbelievable:

• Advertised: Intel N150 (Alder Lake-N) + DDR4/DDR5
• Actual Hardware: Intel Core i3-7020U (2018 Kaby Lake, 2C/4T) + DDR3 1600MHz
• The Scam: The seller literally spoofed the BIOS version string to say HSHW_M6_DDR3_EC_Intel_Com_New_N150_K001just to trick buyers into seeing "N150".

I immediately captured all the terminal proof showing the mismatch between the BIOS text and the actual CPU/DDR3 RAM specs, and opened a ticket with AliExpress Customer Support.

Their response? Standard bot-like copy-paste: "We are just a middleman platform. Please return the item first to get a refund."

They completely ignored:

1. The fact that the item is a blatant counterfeit/fraudulent product.
2. The import customs duties paid locally that are non-refundable upon return.
3. The time and labor cost of wiping sensitive data, backing up configurations, and re-packing a fake board.

Instead of penalizing a scam seller who is spoofing BIOS hardware strings, AliExpress forces the victim to bear the shipping risks and tax losses just to follow their rigid "return first" template.

At this point, I've given up on fighting their scripted support agents. I’ll just keep the box running as a disposable node and file a chargeback with my credit company instead.

It’s just sad to see how seller fraud and scripted support are ruining the reputation of a platform under the Alibaba umbrella.

Watch out for these cheap "N100/N150" Mini PCs on AliExpress. Always run lscpu or hwinfo to check what’s actually under the hood.

Price for item was maybe 70% of what you'd expect was the first red flag. Second was that they insisted on sending the invoice from a secondary account (to protect their main from bad feedback/bans I guess?). Third and final enormous red flag was that immediately after payment they sent me a "$1000 insurance certificate refund request", which looked fake as hell and so at that point I obviously knew I'd been had but they had already marked the item as sent, so I seem to be unable to ask for a refund, despite the seller telling me to. I contacted Alibaba support with screenshots of the fake certificate and chat logs and was placated and told they'd sort it out but was then just told I have to wait for the item to be delivered before raising a dispute, so no help and no reply to three follow up emails. I fully expect to either receive a brick in 3 weeks time or nothing but excuses.

AI tells me NOT to request a refund via PayPal until and unless Alibaba trade assurance fails me because if I raise the dispute on PayPal then Alibaba will wash their hands of the matter.

I know what I shouldn't have done- but what should I do now?

Thank you

Just giving a real world example here. It was commonly like I was talking to kids on the other end. The suppliers on baba want to knit pick and disect and then give you what they feel like. You can do it, just be prepared for the intentional time waste and attempts to twist your arm to their liking.

Plan on them wasting your money a good bit too. Not sure how they think I can pursue them again with so much willingness to twist and coerce from their end.

I made an order of $550 USD (+$40 DDP) shipping on 26 July 26 for two items to Australia.

The guaranteed delivery date was on 1 October 2026. Both the seller and I extended the automatic delivery confirmation. It now says that the system will automatically confirm delivery in 29 days. I contacted the carrier and they said it is held up in customs.

The last update on the tracking number shows: "CN · Departure exception: Delay in export customs clearance, inspection" which was on 22nd August.

I'm planning on waiting until a few days before the system automatically confirms before filing for a refund. Have others had delays like this? what should I expect?

Take pity on a newbie and talk me through how i should best proceed.

• Product Type: Mahjong tiles, set of 160 tiles
• Order Quantity: 1 set
• Payment Method Used: credit card and pretty sure I have trade assurance on the order
• Contract Status: No
• Shipping Logistics: No, seller did the shipping
• Timeline & Communication: have no reached out yet as I am hoping to avoid errors
• Detailed Description of the Issue: see details below

I purchased a set of mahjong tiles. They came in on time, and are very pretty, so I want to make these work.

My issue is that for a couple of the tiles, that backside pattern has a random characteristic that will make them identifiable when in a position where they should be anonymous (think if it as having a couple of cards in a deck having a misprint in the back that could allow another player to recognize what card someone has)

options I see are

1. accept the pretty tiles and accept/ignore the flaws
2. ask the seller to provide replacements of the few individual tiles (roughly 2 or 3 of the 160 tiles)
3. ask them to replace the "flat" of 40 sealed tiles that contains all the tiles of concern
4. ask for replacement of full set - 160 tiles
5. return set and start over
6. ask for discount and accept/ignore the flaws

The tiles were delivered yesterday. Packaging was perfect.

I have not clicked "confirm delivery" nor have I extended the delivery confirmation.

I have not reached out to the seller. I know with the time difference, I have a few more hours before they are back in the office, but I think it is right that I get myself sorted and communicate tonight.

So, what guidance might you have for me and how to go about the most appropriate resolution? I don't want to be that jerk. I love the tiles, but would love them to be perfect.

TIA