Travis F.

I had the worst experience ever using Alibaba. The product I received was poor quality. I disputed the item through Alibaba's Trade Assurance service and met all the requirements to dispute the item I received. The quality was so poor that I could not use it because the power of the machine was very low. The seller refused to work with me. I then escalated the dispute and provided sufficient evidence that clearly showed evidence that both the seller and I submitted. The item I received was not as described in the businesses description, and they actually violated what their warranty terms said on their website by not honoring it. The evidence I submitted using pictures and videos clearly shows a huge discrepancy between the machine I received and the video the seller took of the machine before shipping the item out. I don't believe they sent the exact same machine as the one in their video, and if it was, the machine did not perform nearly as well as in the video the seller submitted to Alibaba Trade Assurance. I even got the seller to admit that the machine has low power. I submitted my claim within 24 hours of receiving the item and paid by credit card through Alibaba. Alibaba's mediation representative ruled that there is not sufficient evidence to support my claim. They then said I need to pay at least another $300 USD to have one of their third party inspectors test the machine and then determine whether the quality is poor. This would also require me to pay for the $215 shipping on top of that to have it shipped to China. After I filed a dispute with Alibaba, I began reading a lot of reviews of customers saying that Alibaba's Trade Assurance service is a scam. I was hopeful that these reviews are isolated cases, but I was wrong. I can attest to this that Alibaba's Trade Assurance is in fact fraudulent. Alibaba also made a decision to have me either work with the seller or pay the $300 or more plus shipping to send the item back to China to have it inspected by one of Alibaba's third party inspectors. They made this decision within one hour of the expiration of being able to upload more evidence. They could not have read through and watched all the videos of what was submitted in less than two hours. They did not even take a fair and impartial view on all this or even look at the overwhelming evidence. As much as I would like to proceed with paying an additional $500 to have my case reviewed by one of Alibaba's inspectors, I have no faith that the decision will be made objectively because of their initial decision and the fact that there are many reviews saying the same thing. In reference to this additional charge, this option violates Alibaba's Trade Assurance policy. Their web page can be found at https://tradeassurance.alibaba.com/ At the bottom of the page in the FAQ section, their policy states: "Trade Assurance protects the buyer in the event that the supplier fails to ship on time or the product quality varies from what has been agreed upon. While Alibaba.com charges transaction fees on certain payment methods to offset our operational expense in payment processing, we do not charge any additional fees for Trade Assurance... If supplier fails to ship on time or the product quality varies from what has been agreed upon, you may apply for refund on Alibaba.com within 30 days of delivery. We will investigate, mediate, and resolve your claim with an aim to achieving a satisfactory outcome, including refunding the purchase if necessary." To say that they do not charge any additional fees beyond the credit card transaction fee is evidence of their egregious business practices. I also reached out to the seller and said that I would take a $900 reduction in the refund that I originally requested as long as I ship back the item. They denied my proposal. Alibaba's Trade Assurance service is vested in only supporting Chinese businesses. I do not understand these business practices that are led by Alibaba's CEO, Daniel Zhang. I will never buy from Alibaba again. I am now out $2800 USD and will only use Amazon and Ebay in the future. I have since filed a dispute with the credit card I used to make the purchase.
They will make a decision as to whether I get my money back after both parties submit their evidence. For anyone planning on making a big purchase on Alibaba, I would not recommend it.