Forum

Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Found a good niche. I mean the item seemed to be selling hour cakes. Searched them on alibaba and found a nunnery of listing priced at a profitable price. OH JOY! SPENT HOURS messaging all the companies with a his price. Then my heart sinks as all the prices I'm quoted are I've DOUBLE what their ad said.

I actually have in and bought from one of conmen only to cancel a day later. I didn't like being taken advantage of. Now I'm hoping I can get my money back. He won't approve the refund so alibaba will have to step in, hopefully I get my money back.

Have you guys ran into this problem

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Hmm, sounds frustrating.

I find have my own eCommerce website and being established I never have to look for suppliers myself.. they always come to me.. offering me deals on items.. I have them compete against each other for the best price too.

Now with Alibaba.. it's the other way around. INteresting.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

You have to take anything in an Alibaba ad with a grain of salt. Because either they flat out lie to you, thinking they can convince you to spend more per item, or the lowest price you see is for a much larger quantity of items than you would want to purchase.

I don't know if Alibaba will side with you, in this particular case. From what I am reading, you contacted a supplier, they quoted you a price you did not like and then placed an order with them anyway. Then, a day later, you wanted to back out of the deal.

The fact is, you never should have placed the order in the first place. Yes, the supplier is wrong for advertising a price they had no intention of honoring, if that is indeed the case. I say that, not because I think you are dishonest, but because you might have seen that price advertised, but it may have been based on a minimum order quantity that you would not have been able to handle, volume wise. Alibaba is there mostly to introduce buyers to sellers who deal in large volumes. They have a sister site called AliExpress that has much clearer pricing and caters to lower volume buyers. DHGate is also another good site for this. If you are ordering in lower quantities, these are the sites where you will find what you want. When I say that, I only mean suppliers that provide services to those who buy in lower quantity. I have no idea if you will find the pricing that you want. This is because the fact is, the more you buy, the cheaper everything becomes.

If I want to buy hot dogs for dinner tonight for the family, I can go to my local store and pick up a couple of packages of higher quality Vienna Beef franks for maybe $6 each for 8 hot dogs. If my family REALLY, REALLY liked hot dogs, I could go to a warehouse club and get a box of 50 hot dogs for $30 or so. If I owned a hot dog restaurant, I could call the Vienna Beef factory and they would hook me up with a representative that could sell me hot dogs by the thousands for a much cheaper price.

This reality is why Walmart can sell a DVD player cheaper than you can buy one for wholesale. Because Walmart is ordering 50,000 of them at a time. Your wholesale supplier is likely ordering a fraction of that. That is just how retail works and is the reason that major corporations can dominate the marketplace.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Ima long way away from having suppliers fight for my business. Though that is something to look forward to someday. As far as alibaba goes in all confused as to what products you can reasonably buy on there. Obviously not I pads or apple products or any large brand name products. But even some of these private labeled products are a no no for me and accessory products related to large products aren't profitable if you arent talking about 2.00$ accessories or lower, anyhow above that price point and it's probably going to be an army of scammer in your way.

So what is Alibaba good for?

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Alibaba vendors are going to advertise the lowest rice at the maximum MOQ.

You can not get the same pricing for 500 pieces as someone will get buy container loads. Alibaba is a great place to mind manufacturers but like anything else it is going to take a lot of work and time.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Listen I know that they offer the lowest price with highest moq. That isn't what happened. Literally they changed their price for the lowest moq to twice what was listed in the ad after I messaged them. Same moq, overt double the price. Supplier after supplier. I complained about this after I bought it from my supplier, and he said everybody is doing it, then sent me a screen shot of a listing from another supplier that had the product listed at 3$ lowest moq (its a 100$ product) and he was like see. Then sent me another that was priced similar to his ad and said "I garauntee that that's not the price." He's right everyone I contacted was doing it.

The reason I backed out is because not only did he lie and low ball me in like a used car salesmen but he also promised to add an accessory then later reniged and said it would not clear customs.

I realized that without the accessory I couldn't compete because it was an already high priced item. On top of that the guy said he already sent the item and later he told me he hadn't and will be sending it out Monday. Another LIE! We agreed to cancel, but then he didn't refund me.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Again, Im not talking about wanting the price people are getting when you order the largest amounts. Everyone knows that is cheaper when you order more. I was taking about the moq price being doubled once you message them

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Swizzle, I didn't mean to set you off. I was not implying that you were being dishonest ion any way. But we get a lot of newbies here on the forum who do not understand how business works. So, I was thinking of every possibility.

I would have walked away from that order, at least initially. I would have gotten his price and then told him I needed time to think about it, because the whole pricing game left a bad taste in my mouth and that I do not normally do business that way adn was leaning heavily against moving forward, but that I would give it some though so as not to make a snap decision. I would have then crunched the numbers to see if it still made sense at his price point and to see what his competitors had to offer. Assuming it was the same all around, I WOULD have gone back to him, but after 7 days and probably more like 10 days. Then I would have told him I decided to go ahead with it, but only if he would provide the accessory that made the deal worthwhile. I just think that by being so quick to give them the order, you signaled to them that you were desperate to get a deal done and then they took advantage of that fact. Business-people everywhere are sharks. Not all of them, of course, but many of them. You have to constantly have your guard up. When you find a good supplier you can trust, you hold on to them, you don't go with the new guy who calls you and offers you the item 18 cents cheaper. Because he will eventually screw you over. You want to go with the guy you know you can trust - always! It is worth a slightly higher price for the peace of mind.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

I would not take this one experience and say all sellers on alibaba are bad. It is like any other platform or brick and mortar store as in, every vendor is going to be different.

Just because you might find one scammy or challenging ebay seller does not mean all are bad.

If you contacted many sellers and had similar experiences, I would consider looking at different type of items.

Wish you luck resolving the issue.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

I love Ali. HOWEVER, I highly recommend having an in depth conversation with any potential suppliers from there on skype/whatsapp before placing any orders. Lots of the "factories" on there are just trading companies..

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

I know a man who has been doing this for almost 40 years, he has been importing from China and his customers are smaller retail stores. Walgreens is also a client of his for some items. He goes to China 3 times a year, as he feels that it is worth it to maintain the supplier relationships and to meet new suppliers. He warned me that any company can look big on the internet and then when you go there, it is a mail drop and they want to meet you outside, in a park, because "it is a nice day". He says the only way for him to be successful is to find the ACTUAL manufacturer of items, or at least their authorized representative. Because all the trading companies do is add a layer of expense and provide very little actual value. Then he told me there are exceptions to every rule. He has offered to let me go with him on one of his trips and I have thought more and more about taking him up on it. It would be a dream trip and interesting at a very minimum, so I might just go for it.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

Swizz,
I'm confused as to why you paid him after he reneged on your deal?
Generally I just move on to the next supplier or try to get them to come down more on skype.
If you quoted me something I didn't like, if it was close to the price I would try to talk him /her down but if it was not even close I just move on.

Have you done alot of business with Alibaba before? They would probably be more likely to help you if you are a larger customer. If you have never done business with them, they probably won't do too much.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

As soon as I get the "bait and switch" I am outta the deal... Take the numbers they give you and use it as a starting point with his competitors.... So on and so on until you find a mutual deal you both can live with... Also, if this is a high demand product they wont deal down too much. However there are always some more desperate then last one...

This is all part of "research" and the "game" as I like to call them...

Btw: If you work with US wholesalers you don't get too much of this... But expect the high cost offered from the start....

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

its just like buying from wallmart and another store. you gotta do your due research before buying something

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

To be honest, I think it is safer to have all the conversation on Alibaba, everything will be documented, and if needed pulled up if anything goes wrong. Once you have traded with that supplier and have a bonded trust, then it's safer to talk outside of Ali.

Re: Sources on Alibaba Lying about their Price
 

talk more,know more. small orders firstly and then bigger slowly