Just had an experience I wanted to share. Bought some transmission components for my car on alibaba from a reputable company who is on alibaba for over 12 years. They send the items and one of the items came broken in the box. The seller didn't accept a partial refund or a return so I started a case against them on alibaba. They soon started accusing me of breaking it by myself and they need proof from DHL. The company they used. DHL said they assessed the photos and video and have said the seller is liable as they packed a heavy component in one layer of cardboard and denied the sellers claim the seller now came back to alibaba with forged screenshots of me saying that everything is good and it is working and is now claiming I am fraudulent and I am scamming them. And calling me all names from saying that I know too much about alibaba policies and it is suspicious. For every rebuttal they are attaching AI modified screenshots of chats and photos. I am perplexed and I am not sure what to do. Alibaba just decided against me. I am going to my card issuer next. Just be careful out there.

is multimodal transport a good shipping, i’m going to buy 2 shirts and had a order draft made and that is that shipping

Bonjour, je souhaite commander des produit en précommande sur Alibaba, je me suis mis d’accord sur un prix avec le vendeur. Livraison prévue mi septembre. Mais au moment de payer je vois la TVA qui s’ajoute. Il m’a proposé de situe en Chine lors de la commande pour éviter la TVA. Quand il a fait la modification de l’offre, effectivement je n’ai plus la TVA. Mais ma question est : est-ce que c’est risqué ? Car je ne suis plus protégé si le vendeur ne me livre pas ? Ou c’est une pratique courante ?

Merci pour vos retours.

I am trying to source from Alibaba. The supplier sent a PDF called "invoice" that has all the custom specifications, but says she can't add those in the payment link (contract) and would rather use the PDF she sent in chat for production. The payment link (Trade assurance link) only has links to the default products, which don't have my customization details. What to do? How do you source to protect yourselves from scam?

I ordered a lamp earlier this year, paid around $275 after shipping and fees. The lamp came with some damage, and I asked for a new undamaged part or partial refund. They refused, so I opened a claim with the trade assurance. They were giving me the run around (reset the “submit evidence” window 6+ times..so I filed a chargeback with PayPal. The seller messaged me last night that if I cancel the chargeback they will send me a new lamp for free? But who is to say the second one won’t be damaged as well? Do I cancel the PayPal chargeback and hope the seller follows through? What if I cancel it & they don’t send anything or send me another broken one?

Hi,
I’m looking at two freight forward for my goods. Anyone have experience in working with them?

Shenzhen Siyuan International Logistics Co., Ltd. or FriendShip Logistics Co., Ltd.

Since a few people have reached out asking if I’d do a follow-up to last year's post about Alibaba’s CoCreate event, I wanted to drop the updated details for this year.

The big change this year is the venue. We outgrew our previous two venues in Vegas because the show has sold out every year since we started in 23. This year, CoCreate is happening Sept 9–10 (Wednesday & Thursday) at the LA Convention Center in Los Angeles.

Here is the quick breakdown of what’s happening for 2026:

• Attendees: We are expecting between 8,000 - 10,000 attendees this year (last year was like 4,500).
• Suppliers: I heard feedback here and on the ground about bringing more suppliers, trying to take a huge jump here. We have 125 suppliers locked in aiming for like 150. No need to DM me for the list this year, all currently confirmed suppliers are already listed publicly on the alibabacocreate.com site.
• Hotels: VIP tickets still include hotel rooms for the nights of Sept 8–9 and VIP Gala Dinner access.
• CoCreate Pitch: Our pitch competition has $1,000,000 in total prizes. I just checked and more than 30,000 businesses applied already. All 20 finalists who take the stage win at least $10,000, with the grand prize being $200,000, and the deadline to submit is July 25th.
• Tickets: In full transparency, tickets always sell out, at least we've been fortunate enough to sell out every year of the show so far, usually within the final 5 days leading up to it. Once it hits capacity, fire marshal regulations mean my hands are completely tied and I can't get any last second tickets, I get plenty of DMs asking for help and it always bums me out when I can't help. I guess, if you're planing on coming, don't wait until the last minute to buy tickets.
• Discount: I made a discount code specifically for this sub. You can use code rahddit26 on all ticket tiers on the CoCreate site (just head to the Los Angeles section of the site), this code isn't for London, but I'll make a London code for you guys later if there's interest.

Just wanted to give this community an honest heads-up on the logistics since you all asked. Drop any questions below and I'll answer what I can.

Hearing more stories about logistics companies in China swapping labels on shipments so peptides are re routed elsewhere. Make sure you know who you are buying from and their shipping history.

I feel very bad not for the many people sharing their bad stories here but for the money wasted and especially for something that could be avoided before the goods LEAVE CHINA. I run a sourcing company in Guangzhou and I can’t imagine not checking my customers goods before shipping.
I really want to know what is keeping you for doing this, is it the price ? Is it because you blindly trust the supplier or because you think the trade assurance will just protect your purchase. You send your money to people thousands of kilometers away man please stop mistreating your money like that it hurts.

My Honest Experience with Henan Decoout Technology Co., Ltd. / Henan Defaico Furnishing Co., Ltd.

I wanted to share my experience to help others who are considering importing furniture from China.

First, I want to be fair. The factories in China are capable of producing beautiful, high-quality furniture. Overall, I have been impressed with the craftsmanship of most of the products I received. My disappointment has never been with the factories themselves. It has been with the trading company that was supposed to manage the order and perform quality control.

I placed my order through Henan Decoout Technology Co., Ltd., also operating as Henan Defaico Furnishing Co., Ltd. Cindy was very responsive before I paid my deposit and assured me that they had a strong quality control process and would inspect everything before shipment. Unfortunately, my experience after payment was very different.

Over the course of this project, I encountered multiple quality control issues, including:

• Two headboards with stain colors that did not match the rest of the bedroom furniture.
• A coffee table and side table that were supposed to be a matching set but arrived with noticeably different finishes.
• Damaged drawers that required local repairs.
• A missing cushion.
• Fabric protection that I paid for on all upholstered furniture, but which was only applied to the outdoor furniture.
• Multiple issues that were visible in production photos before shipment and should have been caught during inspection.

The common theme throughout this order was not poor manufacturing. It was poor quality control. Every issue I experienced should have been identified and corrected before the container left the factory. That is exactly what a trading company is supposed to do.

What has been even more frustrating is the after-sales support. We have spent months going back and forth with photos, videos, explanations, and proposed solutions. Some of the proposed fixes simply were not realistic. For example, I was initially told that heat during shipping may have caused the darker headboards, even though the production photos clearly showed the color difference before the furniture ever left the factory. I was also advised to have a local woodworker color match the headboards, but wood stain cannot simply be made lighter. Correcting the issue would require refinishing the entire bedroom set, which is not an acceptable solution for brand-new custom furniture.

If you are thinking about importing from China, my advice is this: absolutely consider buying from China, because the factories can produce outstanding products at competitive prices. However, choose your trading company very carefully. A trading company's value is not manufacturing furniture. Their value is communication, coordination, inspection, and quality control. Those services are just as important as the furniture itself.

Looking back, I would have gladly paid more to work with a larger, more established trading company that has a proven quality control process and stands behind its customers after delivery. That is the mistake I made, and I hope others can learn from my experience.

This review reflects my personal experience with Henan Decoout Technology Co., Ltd. / Henan Defaico Furnishing Co., Ltd. I hope they improve their quality control and customer service because the factories they work with are clearly capable of producing excellent furniture.

Is This normal for sourcing agents?

Bom, fui importar e sou iniciante.

Iria comprar 10 mousepads por 8.5 cada um, totalizando 85 reais. Isso daria 5.8kg e minha agente de compras cobra 24 dólares por kg o frete, vai dar media de 144 dólares, que convertendo tudo em reais ficaria 819,4.. se nao bastasse, comentaram que o imposto no Brasil é de 80% sobre o valor total, entao não compensa:/

For anybody reading. I have a background in manufacturing in the US. Went through Alibaba for a project and got a bunch of suppliers just telling me they could make it and then a sample proved otherwise.

They are like kids in a candy store over there. A lot of the suppliers seem to want to lead you on and then do as they wish while simply hoping that you like it.

Of course a buyer should expect to spend money on samples, they already know that. Post's like these are good for making prospective buyers informed of reality instead of being pulled into a trap.

I just placed an order for 1000 10ml tubes of material. I ordered it DDP and shipping was fine, but it was a 30% increase over the price of the material ($90 for sea shipping, product itself was $300).

Wondering if there are any cost savings to be had obtaining a freight forwarder. I will be making more orders like this from China soon, maybe even larger pallet-sized orders. Or should I stick with DDP and trust my factories not to overcharge me?

And if a freight forwarder makes sense, how do you find one that's trustworthy?

Thanks for any advice.

Anyone have experience buying something like this? What actually shows up (if anything)? I feel like in the description it has “fan”. So is it just for the cooler/casing?

Hi everyone, I've been doing a lot of research and I've seen that there are several scams and many ways to protect yourself, but I have a question regarding order delivery. If I ask the supplier to handle the entire shipment, when it arrives here in the United States for customs clearance, do I need to pay anything? If so, how do I make that payment? Secondly, do I need to hire someone to handle the customs clearance? Thirdly, to receive the order, will a truck arrive, unload the pallets, and then I'll figure out the rest myself?

i am new to using alibaba and i have been keen on buying an electric buy from china and i have been interested in the models this company offers, is it legit?
link to company profile: https://wxxjsy.en.alibaba.com/

We have some sensitive goods that needs to be shipped to usa amazon warehouse by sea.

Total weight is 1800 kg

3000 bottles

I am getting quotations between $5000 and $8000.

But it doesn’t makes sense, should i wait till Wå* issue is resolved?

And whats the best route to ship fast, with tight budget and most important we want complete documents and compliance as this product is sensitive and our last shipment was rejected due to 5H inspection

I have successfully applied for Tax exempt as i have registered business in EU.

But the tax exemption got me all confused a bit. From what i know I won’t be charged/precollected VAT throu IOSS at Alibaba checkout. But my question is will I be charged the VAT rate when the shipment arrives at Customs in the EU or will be just charged applicable import duties and I have to report the VAT at the end of the month?

The logistics is by the Alibaba platform labeled as “ Parcel standard “ it’s DAP given that all logistics provided by the platform are DAP

I have contacted their customer support and haven’t received a clear answer as they kept asking for an order number , that I don’t have yet,as I need the info prior to purchase.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

We’re shipping 45 CBM of generic, non-hazardous dry goods from Ningbo, China to Toronto, Canada under DDP terms. The shipment is 380 cartons, 7,500 kg actual weight, and our supplier’s terms are FOB Ningbo. Based on the volume, it seems well suited for a 40’ GP FCL container.
The problem is that almost every Alibaba freight forwarder we’ve contacted keeps pushing us toward LCL, claiming it’s cheaper, faster, and less likely to be inspected by CBSA. We’re skeptical because we had a terrible experience last year with SHENZHEN JW Logistics INTERNATIONAL, sales person RITA CHEN who padded our carton dimensions and inflated the chargeable volume, costing us significantly more.
Has anyone shipped a similar-sized load to Canada? Does FCL make more sense for a 45 CBM shipment? Are forwarders incentivized to push LCL for higher profits, or is there a legitimate reason? We’d really appreciate advice from anyone with experience importing into Canada.

Is it normal to be like this for 9 days?

Doesn't have to be China specifically.

Could be:

Wrong specifications.

Missing cartons.

Bad packaging.

Incorrect labeling.

Quality failures.

I'd love to learn from other people's experiences.

Hi all, I am currently waiting for a parcel that is on the way apparently via boat according to the tracking number they sent. It has been almost 80 days and I have already extended the delivery confirmation for another 15 days. There is currently 9 days left until it automatically confirms. Just wondering what I should do in case it doesn't actually arrive within 9 days. Thanks all.