I'm really low on money and need a tv whatever , is it ok to order from Alibaba ??? Will I receive anything near which will atleast on like a tv and show something ??? Any Alibaba users ?
Hey everyone,
I'm based in Portugal and run a small jewelry brand, sourcing 925 silver pieces from China. Trying to figure out the safest way to import a larger shipment.
Some context: one supplier has shipped me several orders via FedEx Express without declaring "925 silver", no issues. Same supplier also shipped DDP once, went fine. A different supplier shipped 925 silver via FedEx Express, declared correctly as silver, and customs held it, saying it needed assay/certification (in Portugal, "Contrastaria") to confirm metal content. The shipment ended up going back to the sender. It was a whole stress, and I'd rather avoid having to hire an assay office just to clear a shipment.
Now I'm looking at using a freight forwarder instead of direct express. Talking to JWLogistics (China based, 4.9 stars, close to a thousand reviews). Their process ships to a European hub first, clears customs there, then comes to Portugal by truck, so it wouldn't go through Portuguese customs directly. Declared under a "fashion accessories" HS code.
Shipment would be around 300 velvet pouches and 140 silver rings. (~2kgs, 2k USD)
Want to do this properly and avoid legal or customs issues. This is a meaningful order for my business and I don't want it stuck again.
Questions:
Is declaring silver jewelry under "fashion accessories" legitimate, or a red flag?
Does clearing at an EU hub actually avoid the assay/certification issue, or could it still come up once it's in Portugal (or in transit within the EU)?
Anything I should specifically ask the freight forwarder before committing to a shipment this size?
Other pitfalls importing precious metal jewelry into the EU I should know about?
Thanks in advance, trying to get this right rather than cut corners.
Hi everyone,
I'm planning to place my first bulk order with Asian Beauty Wholesale, and I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience importing from them.
Here are my details:
I'm trying to understand what happens when the shipment arrives in Pakistan.
I'd also love to hear from people outside Pakistan who have imported from Asian Beauty Wholesale. How did customs work in your country? Did the supplier ship DDP (duties paid), or did you have to pay import charges yourself?
Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I’m looking to buy products in senior/elderly care space from China/Vietnam and am looking to connect with manufacturers/suppliers or experienced sourcing professionals in this space.
The products I’m currently looking for include:
Adult diapers & incontinence products
Anti-slip bathroom mats
Grab bars & bathroom safety accessories
Walking canes / walkers
Pill organizers
Mobility aids
Small home medical devices (BP monitors, pulse oximeters, nebulizers, etc.)
Daily living assistive products for elderly users
I’m specifically looking for OEMs/ODMs or manufacturers with experience supplying private labels or established brands.
I’ve already identified a few suppliers through some other Chinese websites but I’m hoping to connect with people who’ve actually worked with reliable manufacturers and can recommend companies with good quality, reasonable MOQs, and consistent production standards.
Any introductions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. (Open to suppliers from Vietnam as well)
Hi everyone, first time ordering from Alibaba.
I will buy shortly around $4,000 worth of packaging material, having a gross weight of 900kg and a volume of 4.4 CBM. Is $1,680 a good DDP price from China to New York? What is the average price normally? Any suggestion on precautions to take to avoid bad surprises?
Thank you for your help
Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone has been through something similar and can offer some advice.
I booked a DDP sea freight shipment through Alibaba. We agreed a fixed price in writing around a month before collection. After my goods (worth around USD 40,000) were collected from my manufacturer, the freight forwarder suddenly demanded an additional USD 10,000, claiming the original quote could no longer be honoured.
Since then, the amounts have kept changing. They reduced it to USD 5,000, then when I arranged for my manufacturer to collect the goods using another freight forwarder, they started demanding warehouse and “return” fees before releasing the shipment.
I’ve opened a dispute with Alibaba, but the freight forwarder has now stopped replying to my messages. I even asked what documentation they could provide if I accepted the revised price (insurance, booking confirmation, guarantee of no further charges, etc.), but they’ve ignored me for several days.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? Did Alibaba help? Would you continue with the freight forwarder, or insist on having the goods released to another company?
Any advice would be hugely appreciated as this is a significant investment for our small business.
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Hey guys,
What are the actual chances of a package getting seized by US customs if it's shipped from China via sea DDP grey channels? I'm trying to weigh the risk vs. reward here.
I want to import motorcycle spare parts with a high variety of SKUs but only 1-2 pieces per SKU (max 1 CBM total).
From what I know, doing this 100% legally isn't viable because classifying that many tariff codes would be a nightmare.
Right now, this seems like my only alternative. In your experience, how risky is it?
Thanks!
I just bought a Whoop strap from Alibaba
My first time ordering from this app will i need to pay customs ? Or should i cancel
Hi, I currently wanna build a small business, the product I wanna to sell is toys(like the stress ball and things like that) but I’m straggling:
I think that’s all what make me feel stuck, should I learn more?(where should I learn?)
Maybe there’s a people who success with this kinda business, please give me an advice 🙏🏼
I appreciate the knowledge that you share, thank you!
I was sourcing a new product recently and had narrowed it down to four suppliers. I did everything I was supposed to do. Compared prices, checked certifications, looked at lead times, and asked everyone the exact same questions so I could compare them fairly. On paper, it should've been an easy decision.
One supplier had the best price. Another had the shortest lead time. Another had better certifications and a longer export history. Then there was this one supplier who wasn't actually the best at anything.
They were just... really nice.
Every reply was detailed. Instead of answering one question at a time, they'd explain why they recommended certain materials, proactively answered questions I hadn't even asked yet, and followed up if I went quiet. I caught myself making excuses for them every time another supplier came back with a better quote.
Out of curiosity, I connected my Alibaba account to the Accio Work sourcing toolkit and asked it to compare all four suppliers. I expected it to recommend the cheapest supplier. It didn't.. It actually recommended the same supplier I liked because it factored in things like how proactive they were, how complete their responses were, and how likely they were to save me time during the rest of the sourcing process.
How much weight do you guys actually put on communication when choosing suppliers? Or is it always cheapest wins?
There were no prohibited items and it had passed through the initial customs check.
Has anyone faced this? Please let me know how long it took for yours to get released? This is so terrifying.
I requested an RFQ and I received a response via the seller's whatsapp channel. I made a payment to the seller via alipay. The seller has not shipped the order or refunded me.
I am ordering popcorn machines from Alibaba and the supplier keeps changing the cost of shipping constantly. I increase the quantity and instead of less shipping cost they are quoting me higher for shipping.
Has anyone ever ordered scrapbooks materials from Ali Express? The prices are way too good to be true.
hi everyone, I am very very new to Alibaba. I want to order about 5-10 items from India and I am not sure if I will have to pay tariffs on them, the cost will be less than $300. also what are your experiences with sellers who don't wanna go through Alibaba and ask to do the transaction through what's app?
thanks for nay advice!
Hi everyone,
I’m posting this because I’m honestly at a loss and I’m hoping someone here has been through something similar or can point me in the right direction.
I purchased a body kit bumper through Alibaba under Trade Assurance that was advertised as being compatible with my 2016 Audi RS3.
I paid to have the bumper professionally painted before installation because I had no reason to believe it wouldn’t fit. When the panel shop attempted to install it, they found it was not compatible with my vehicle. The mounting points, shape and overall fitment were incorrect. It simply could not be installed.
This left me hundreds to thousands of dollars out of pocket, not just for the bumper itself but also for paint and labour costs that were wasted because the product was not as advertised.
I opened a Trade Assurance dispute and supplied everything I could think of:
Photos of the fitment issues.
Photos comparing the bumper to the genuine RS3 bumper.
Professional evidence showing the bumper would not fit.
A detailed explanation of the financial losses I suffered.
Multiple written responses explaining why the product was incompatible.
Throughout the dispute I repeatedly asked the seller to provide one simple thing:
Technical evidence proving the bumper actually fits a 2016 Audi RS3.
For example:
Manufacturer specifications.
Engineering drawings.
Fitment documentation.
Installation instructions.
Previous successful installations.
Any official compatibility data.
To my knowledge, none of this was ever provided.
Instead, the seller simply continued insisting the bumper fit and even suggested my vehicle had crash damage, despite providing no evidence that this was the case.
What frustrates me most is that Alibaba eventually closed the dispute without explaining:
What evidence the seller relied on.
Why my evidence was rejected.
Why the seller wasn’t required to prove the compatibility they advertised.
I’ve also contacted Alibaba Live Chat many times. Every single time I’m told my case will be escalated, prioritised or reviewed by a senior specialist. Every time I’m promised someone will contact me.
That never happens.
It feels like I’m just being told what I want to hear to end the chat rather than actually receiving assistance.
I genuinely believed Trade Assurance was there to protect buyers when products were not as described. Instead, I feel like I spent weeks gathering evidence only for the case to be closed without any meaningful explanation.
I’m not writing this simply because I lost a dispute. I’m writing it because I feel the process lacked transparency. If the seller had genuine technical evidence proving compatibility and Alibaba explained why that evidence outweighed mine, I could at least understand the reasoning.
Instead, I was left with a closed case and no real explanation.
Has anyone else experienced something similar with Alibaba or Trade Assurance?
Were you able to reopen a closed dispute?
Did anyone successfully escalate beyond Live Chat?
Has anyone had success through a chargeback or other consumer protection process after Trade Assurance failed?
I’d really appreciate any advice because at this point I honestly don’t know where to go next.
Hopefully this post also encourages other buyers to be extremely careful with vehicle parts on Alibaba. If you’re buying something advertised to fit your specific car, make sure you ask for detailed fitment documentation before spending money on painting or installation. I don’t want someone else ending up in the same position I have.
It is incredibly difficult speaking and dealing with suppliers on Alibaba. Sometimes I get so fed up I just close the platform out completely. I want people to be aware of the scammers that are the Shenzhen Smart International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. I have shipped an item to them; they currently have it. I told them the dimensions and weight of my item as my supplier told me, and I asked them for pricing and if everything is fine, they said yes, and then as soon as my product got to them, they provided completely different dimensions than what my item actually is and then quoted me almost double the initial amount. Now they have my product and are requiring that I pay a "storage fee," which I was not expecting to pay because they never once mentioned it, nor was I expecting my product would be there a few days due to this unexpected pricing. In the beginning they were very helpful and attentive, and now since they got my package, I am lucky to even get a sentence. This person's name is Mrs. Grace Chan. I wanted to see if I could possibly pay the storage fee and get another shipper, but they have basically made that impossible because they have given a different bank account than what is on their profile, refused to create a trade assurance order, and do not give sufficient info for a bank transfer to be completed even when requested. And as you know, the support is basically unhelpful, so I am stuck between a rock and a hard place and have no idea what to do.
For crafters out there who buy craft items from Alibaba, do not buy from Chengdu Wudongqi Commerce And Trade Co., Lt. After much negotiations, they agreed on a price and when I went to pay, the price was different. They assured me that it would be revised on their end. Yes, I know, my fault for believing them. They did not revise and I cancelled my order but Alibaba still charged me a service fee. It is minimal but I wasted so much time and they refused to refund me the service fee. I even contacted Paypal and opened a claim but it was closed as they sided the vendor.
anyone has a perfect supplier message? cuz everytime I message a large but organised chunk of information I need from them, they only answer one?? of the questions. I'll ask for MOQ, sample price, certifications, payment terms, lead time...
Then they'll reply: MOQ: 500 pcs 😊 ...that's it.
So I ask about lead time. They answer lead time. Then I ask about certifications. They answer certifications.
5 messages later I'm still trying to piece together information that could've been answered in one reply... I've been automating the supplier conversations using the Accio Work Sourcing Toolkit. I let the plugin handle the repetitive back-and-forth and keep following up until all my questions are answered. Once it's done, it gives me a summary of each supplier with all the key info in one place, so I don't have to dig through 20 chat messages trying to figure out who said what.
Is this just how sourcing works, or has anyone else started using AI to handle supplier conversations?
I have contacted a few chinese suppliers on aliexpress selling a certain technology product, I have asked them about product branding and asked for a sample,and one supplier took 13 days to answer a question that would've taken 30 seconds.another supplier just read my message and didn’t reply. if communication is already this slow before ordering, i’m worried about samples, shipping, and after-sales support. so i dont only compare price. i also look at reply speed, sample rule, branding support, and if they answer the actual question or just send copy paste message.some point I realized sourcing feels less like negotiating and i’m thinking about using accio sourcing toolkit to filter suppliers by response speed, moq, sample policy, and basic supplier notes before wasting more time.i need it keep these supplier notes in one place, like who reply fast, who can do branding, who can send sample, and who is probably not worth follow uphow do you usually deal with suppliers like this?