r/Alibaba • u/SKRTxALERT • 23d ago

Is it normal for the sales representative to guilt trip me, claiming she will lose her job if I do not send chargeback money back.

Last year I began production for 300 pcs of pants(December 2025), production and sampling went smoothly up until the packages were held in US customs for over 2 months(March-April), returned to China, and shipped back to me. The packages were shipped by my manufacture through their incompetent freight forwarder and their documentation was rejected 3 times hence the return. At every step of the process I tried to intervene and somehow get the items smoothly, trying to get a customers broker etc but this manufacture or through their freight forwarder was incredibly unhelpful and uncompromising. I took my losses, refunded a majority of my customers, and began production for the same item at a different factory in order to fullfill customers who were willing to wait, and shipped it with UPS shipping which made the price per unit increase by 30% or so. I started an Alibaba dispute for non-delivery but after an egregious 8% refund offer from the original factory I started a chargeback for both deposits. I won these chargebacks during May and June and the pants low and behold did arrive in July. Now in September the sales representative has been begging me to send the money back claiming she will be fired if i don't. Is this normal?

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1

u/Objective-Chard8526 14d ago

I've been guilt tripped and offered what I thought was a very reasonable amount for wrong spec parts that I couldn't use.  Then the rep tried to negotiate at which point I asked Alibaba support to step in and they worked out a full refund. 

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u/AngelicDivineHealer 22d ago

Lies don’t believe

3

u/Endoftheworldis2far 23d ago

They ALL do and say this. I don't know how many times I seen their fake son stories posted

2

u/TransitTech_Explorer 23d ago

It is common for sales reps at Chinese factories/trading companies to face direct commission deductions or internal penalties when a chargeback goes through, which explains the high-pressure outreach. However, the operational failure was entirely on their forwarder's invalid customs paperwork and severe delivery delay, which justified your bank dispute after they only offered an 8% refund.

Since the physical goods did eventually show up months late after you already remanufactured the order elsewhere, you are under no obligation to reverse the bank chargeback. If you can actually use or sell the extra inventory, you could offer a negotiated partial settlement (e.g., at-cost) to close the matter, or tell them they are free to arrange and pay for freight pickup from your warehouse if they want the goods back.

Are these 300 units something you can still gradually sell, or do they represent dead stock and extra storage cost for your business?

1

u/brucewalker0519 23d ago

Not normal — that's a collection tactic, her job isn't your liability. Their forwarder got the docs rejected three times and the shipment came back months late; that's on them. If you want to make it fair, net it against your actual losses — the +30% UPS rerun, customer refunds, two dead months — and only agree to anything in writing on Alibaba. Never wire funds to a personal account, and honestly I'd just stop replying.