7 ms·

I've only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disap

I've only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disappointment' which has led me to being reluctant to buy anything larger/more expensive. When I was in Marrakech a couple of years ago, the guy who owned the riad we stayed in referred to many things in the souks as being "China quality", and I guess that's the problem. I don't expect something for nothing, but it's so hard to tell if you're going to get something that's going to be as I would expect (i.e. functional, accurately manufaturered), or as I've experienced (borderline functional, poorly manufactured or badly designed). The best purchase was a secondhand (rare) motherboard for a client's laptop, sadly! It's a real pity as I'm sure if there was a way of really knowing the quality of what you were getting (other than getting samples, which I've done and had issues with several of them) then it would be a great place to buy either for personal consumption or for a business opportunity. At times like today I spend a while browsing and see things I would be interested in if I wasn't concerned they would be 'China quality'. Am I missing something here? Is there a better way of sorting the wheat from the chaff? Or is it just a case of a lot of hit and miss and hopefully building a relationship with a decent supplier at some point?

Thorncorona 9y ago
Of course if you're buying the cheapest stuff manufacturers are going to cut corners. When you buy more expensive stuff that is well made, like Apple products which are also manufactured in China but much more expensive, of course you're going to get something that's good. Your problem is to not go for the lowest denominator and generalize.
nullnilvoid 9y ago
I have had some experience on Taobao and Tmall. Taobao is for C2C (customers to customers) while Tmall is b2c (business to customers). Tmall has better quality in general (the brands sell directly to customers). For Taobao, the quality varies greatly. For me, I always read the ratings and reviews, in particular negative reviews very carefully. If the percentage of negative reviews is high, I would avoid that product. So far, I have had good experience. I bought some really high quality goods at very low prices. Similar goods would cost a lot more on Amazon.
- jscholes 9y ago
  Is it possible to buy from Tmall via an English-language website?
  - voltagex_ 9y ago
    You're looking for an agent service (can't think of the proper name right now). They exist for Taobao.
    - cerealbad 9y ago
      superbuy
tluyben2 9y ago
What kind of things have you ordered? I order there often and had consistently solid products. I order mostly electronics and I order from companies that shipped over 1000 items with good reviews (which are fake but with over a 1000 it seems ok). Might have gotten Lucky but I order often And when something is wrong later on I have gotten a replacement no questions asked. A good friend of me who used to be a manager of the repair department of a big computer manufacturer always told to switch a device on (laptop for instance) and have it run a something heavy (like a benchmark) for 24 hours to rule out factory issues. I never had any from Alibaba: I did have one from lightinabox who sent a laptop which caught fire during the test. They said I should not have done the benchmark and refused to refund so never bought anything there again. To be honest I had more issues with Amazon (seller) products, but those also were quickly refunded or replaced. Anecdotal ofcourse. Might be totally different when my next order arrives.
rorykoehler 9y ago
China quality is fairly meaningless considering iphones etc are also manufactured in China. Overall I've never been disappointed with what I have purchased from China. Always does what it says on the tin.
- pwneror 9y ago
  The stuff you order from sites like aliexpress has no quality control.
  - duckwheat 9y ago
    It is a ridiculous and overly broad statement to say that of the tens or hundreds of thousands of companies selling on these sites, none have a QC process in place.
    - code_duck 9y ago
      I think the intent is to say that there are no site-wide quality standards.
      - dmoy 9y ago
        Sure but then by that measure neither does Amazon. I bought a metal plant off of Amazon stand that literally had half the nuts and bolts with no threading. There's no way that passes any kind of QC.
        disiplus 9y ago
        that not true, i ordered a tv box that is clearly not as described ( i provided a prof ) , the only thing that is saving me is paypal from geekbuying. they are offering only part of the refund and shipping it back is to expensive for them. on amazon if something is not described ( i ordered anker dongle for my macbook that did not work on the 2016 model) i get a refund right away and the shipping covered.
kimjongman 9y ago
You don't know how to shop from China.
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  Please enlighten us - it's often a whole different world if you're used to Amazon.
  - PakG1 9y ago
    I don't think it's worth shopping from China unless you're in China or reselling stuff made in China and have deals directly with the suppliers. A lot of products are cheaper buying from retailers outside of China if you're also outside of China. The cost isn't worth it to ship to individuals outside of China unless you're willing to pay the shipping fee, and that erases the cost benefit that most people would hope to get? edit: sp, silly auto-correct :)
    - geomark 9y ago
      If you are talking about retailers like the merchants on Aliexpress, many of them offer free shipping. So the prices are lower and the shipping is free. It's crazy that I sometimes buy an item that costs less than US$1 that comes with free shipping. I read somewhere that the Chinese postal system subsidizes a lot of it - not sure if true.
    - ivm 9y ago
      Shipping via regular post from AliExpress is often free or very cheap while the same items on Amazon cost 3-5 times more and shipping to my country is $10-15. The downside is 1-2 months waiting times vs. a week from Amazon but I can wait.
      - anilakar 9y ago
        You're paying your saved shipping fees in taxes. It still costs the postal services the same amount to deliver the package from the import warehouse to your door but they cannot charge you nor the seller according to international agreements.
geomark 9y ago
Probably depends a lot on what you are buying. I've been buying electronic components, Arduino compatible boards and sensors, that kind of stuff for a while. Quality has been pretty solid with all of it, about 100 orders so far across a bunch of different merchants. I've heard that clothing can be really hit and miss.
- Scoundreller 9y ago
  Yes, clothing is problematic. Quality isn't great, and you need to order at least 2-3 sizes up. Even then, the sleeves might still be short: XXXL just means you're getting the overweight size, not the long-limbed size.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    It just means its made for asian heights and bodies. Same is true in the US though: American L translates to XL on shirts and XXL on boxers and the like in my country.
  - dragonwriter 9y ago
    XL, XXL, etc. are overweight but not particularly long-limbed sizes in the US, too, the long-limbed (and long-torsoed) versions are XLT, XXLT, etc. Put, yes, different countries have different sizing standards and you can't blindly assume US sizing when buying from elsewhere.
PakG1 9y ago
Most of these Singles Day sales are likely brandname products, not no-name products. For example, I've purchased several Singles Day items this week. A breadmaker by Panasonic, a noodlemaker by Philips, a vacuum by Midea (a Chinese brand), and some glass food containers by Lock & Lock. If you buy no-name stuff, you're taking a risk. But even for the no-name stuff, I've done OK when purchasing stuff that has a lot of good reviews. I think just need to be careful when browsing.
jaxn 9y ago
We buys tons of stuff off AliExpress. Mostly jewelry and cellphone accessories for retail, but I’ve also bought car parts and electronics. Watch the shipping prices and times to be sure you know what to expect. But we have never had any issues with quality or reliability.
olegkikin 9y ago
You need to realize that pretty much all electronics is manufactured in China / Hong Kong these days. You can get quality things, you can get cheap crap.
- tryingagainbro 9y ago
  The iPhone is also manufactured there, but AAPL engineers are assuring that no corners are cut With other, no brand stuff you can expect to get what you pay for. As always.
- 0xfeba 9y ago
  But how do you discern ahead of time which is quality and which is crap?
  - coldtea 9y ago
    You read the onsite and offsite reviews, just like with every other store?
neves 9y ago
Nowadays everything is made in China. A lot of things we buy are just repackaged stuff that sells for 3x the original price. I've bought decent stuff like a manual coffe grinder, or glass bottles, usb cables, or cheap gopro accessories. You are just cutting the middle man.
- code_duck 9y ago
  The quality can still vary a great deal. There are many tiers for merchandise. For many items, there are very low quality versions that have the flaws described in the gp, that you might never see depending on where you shop or live. For example, butane torches. You can go to Bed Bath and Beyond and buy a chinese made creme brûlée torch for $30 that lights well, smells clean, feels tight, doesn't leak butane and has a lifeime guatantee. Or you can go down the street to 'smoke shop' and pay $30 for a chinese made torch that leaks butane, has problems with the venturi lever, smells like vinegar, and lights on 3 out of 5 attempts. The difference is that the second one is sold at the manufacturer level for a much lower price and has gone through more distributors and markup. When you order a random product online it's hard to know what tier you are receiving.
- lobster_johnson 9y ago
  Given the number of not-up-to-spec cables on Amazon (there's that Google guy who reviews them and found a lot of them to be faulty), I would be extremely wary of buying anything USB on Alibaba.
  - Milner08 9y ago
    Wasn't it only USB C he was finding issues with?
    - dmoy 9y ago
      Benson was focusing his efforts on usbc, presumably cus it's got a higher propensity for damage, what with the higher voltage and all. I wouldn't be surprised if he could find issues with non usbc stuff too though.
jordache 9y ago
lol the laptop you type on is likely made in laptop as is the phone you reach in your pocket. You keep typing "China Quality" Like it's a novel concept.. china is the world's manufacture. Your anecdote is just that...
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Foreign outsourced production to China SEZs (and therefore aren’t even considered domestic for tariff reasons) is hardly indicative of Chinese domestic goods quality.
- Pxtl 9y ago
  Yes, but in this case there's a big name company putting their name and reputation on the line. AliExpress primarily sells no-name Chinese stuff where reputation is disposable. I've purchased things from AliExpress that were useful products, but everything was fragile or had substantial bugs I had to work around. Always was happy for the price, but would rather find something in between the AliExpress price and the western price if I could get non-brittle plastic.
userbinator 9y ago
The sellers are often negotiable and will give you discounts and photos of the actual product if you ask nicely.
leke 9y ago
I've been buying from there since 2012. Early on, I would agree with you and say the quality of a lot of the products was pretty poor, but in the last few years, I've been really happy with all my purchases. As well as getting really cheap stuff, AE is really handy for getting hard to find things. Especially if you live in a small town as I do.
coldtea 9y ago
>'ve only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disappointment' which has led me to being reluctant to buy anything larger/more expensive. When I was in Marrakech a couple of years ago, the guy who owned the riad we stayed in referred to many things in the souks as being "China quality", and I guess that's the problem. Which doesn't mean much ("China quality" that is) since iPhones are also made in China -- as are expensive clothes for the likes of Armani and co and tons of other high-end stuff. And of course lots of Chinese designed and made products that are of high quality. Of course tons of cheap stuff is made there too -- almost all the world's manufacturing of cheapo stuff. Heck, almost anything you can get on a place like Walmart is probably made in China too, but sold for 2-5 times as much as in Chinese sites. If someone buys some $80 "laptop" off of Alibaba, or some "leather jacket" for $30, or some no-brand el-cheapo "camera drone", of course they're gonna get subpar quality. If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably ain't, and if there are no reviews (on third party sites) or nobody knows the brand name, well, those things don't point to getting a good buying experience.

Thorncorona 9y ago

Of course if you're buying the cheapest stuff manufacturers are going to cut corners. When you buy more expensive stuff that is well made, like Apple products which are also manufactured in China but much more expensive, of course you're going to get something that's good. Your problem is to not go for the lowest denominator and generalize.

nullnilvoid 9y ago

I have had some experience on Taobao and Tmall. Taobao is for C2C (customers to customers) while Tmall is b2c (business to customers). Tmall has better quality in general (the brands sell directly to customers). For Taobao, the quality varies greatly. For me, I always read the ratings and reviews, in particular negative reviews very carefully. If the percentage of negative reviews is high, I would avoid that product. So far, I have had good experience. I bought some really high quality goods at very low prices. Similar goods would cost a lot more on Amazon.

jscholes 9y ago
Is it possible to buy from Tmall via an English-language website?
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  You're looking for an agent service (can't think of the proper name right now). They exist for Taobao.
  - cerealbad 9y ago
    superbuy

tluyben2 9y ago

What kind of things have you ordered? I order there often and had consistently solid products. I order mostly electronics and I order from companies that shipped over 1000 items with good reviews (which are fake but with over a 1000 it seems ok). Might have gotten Lucky but I order often And when something is wrong later on I have gotten a replacement no questions asked. A good friend of me who used to be a manager of the repair department of a big computer manufacturer always told to switch a device on (laptop for instance) and have it run a something heavy (like a benchmark) for 24 hours to rule out factory issues. I never had any from Alibaba: I did have one from lightinabox who sent a laptop which caught fire during the test. They said I should not have done the benchmark and refused to refund so never bought anything there again. To be honest I had more issues with Amazon (seller) products, but those also were quickly refunded or replaced. Anecdotal ofcourse. Might be totally different when my next order arrives.

rorykoehler 9y ago

China quality is fairly meaningless considering iphones etc are also manufactured in China. Overall I've never been disappointed with what I have purchased from China. Always does what it says on the tin.

pwneror 9y ago
The stuff you order from sites like aliexpress has no quality control.
- duckwheat 9y ago
  It is a ridiculous and overly broad statement to say that of the tens or hundreds of thousands of companies selling on these sites, none have a QC process in place.
  - code_duck 9y ago
    I think the intent is to say that there are no site-wide quality standards.
    - dmoy 9y ago
      Sure but then by that measure neither does Amazon. I bought a metal plant off of Amazon stand that literally had half the nuts and bolts with no threading. There's no way that passes any kind of QC.
      - disiplus 9y ago
        that not true, i ordered a tv box that is clearly not as described ( i provided a prof ) , the only thing that is saving me is paypal from geekbuying. they are offering only part of the refund and shipping it back is to expensive for them. on amazon if something is not described ( i ordered anker dongle for my macbook that did not work on the 2016 model) i get a refund right away and the shipping covered.

kimjongman 9y ago

You don't know how to shop from China.

voltagex_ 9y ago
Please enlighten us - it's often a whole different world if you're used to Amazon.
- PakG1 9y ago
  I don't think it's worth shopping from China unless you're in China or reselling stuff made in China and have deals directly with the suppliers. A lot of products are cheaper buying from retailers outside of China if you're also outside of China. The cost isn't worth it to ship to individuals outside of China unless you're willing to pay the shipping fee, and that erases the cost benefit that most people would hope to get? edit: sp, silly auto-correct :)
  - geomark 9y ago
    If you are talking about retailers like the merchants on Aliexpress, many of them offer free shipping. So the prices are lower and the shipping is free. It's crazy that I sometimes buy an item that costs less than US$1 that comes with free shipping. I read somewhere that the Chinese postal system subsidizes a lot of it - not sure if true.
  - ivm 9y ago
    Shipping via regular post from AliExpress is often free or very cheap while the same items on Amazon cost 3-5 times more and shipping to my country is $10-15. The downside is 1-2 months waiting times vs. a week from Amazon but I can wait.
    - anilakar 9y ago
      You're paying your saved shipping fees in taxes. It still costs the postal services the same amount to deliver the package from the import warehouse to your door but they cannot charge you nor the seller according to international agreements.

geomark 9y ago

Probably depends a lot on what you are buying. I've been buying electronic components, Arduino compatible boards and sensors, that kind of stuff for a while. Quality has been pretty solid with all of it, about 100 orders so far across a bunch of different merchants. I've heard that clothing can be really hit and miss.

Scoundreller 9y ago
Yes, clothing is problematic. Quality isn't great, and you need to order at least 2-3 sizes up. Even then, the sleeves might still be short: XXXL just means you're getting the overweight size, not the long-limbed size.
- coldtea 9y ago
  It just means its made for asian heights and bodies. Same is true in the US though: American L translates to XL on shirts and XXL on boxers and the like in my country.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  XL, XXL, etc. are overweight but not particularly long-limbed sizes in the US, too, the long-limbed (and long-torsoed) versions are XLT, XXLT, etc. Put, yes, different countries have different sizing standards and you can't blindly assume US sizing when buying from elsewhere.

PakG1 9y ago

Most of these Singles Day sales are likely brandname products, not no-name products. For example, I've purchased several Singles Day items this week. A breadmaker by Panasonic, a noodlemaker by Philips, a vacuum by Midea (a Chinese brand), and some glass food containers by Lock & Lock. If you buy no-name stuff, you're taking a risk. But even for the no-name stuff, I've done OK when purchasing stuff that has a lot of good reviews. I think just need to be careful when browsing.

jaxn 9y ago

We buys tons of stuff off AliExpress. Mostly jewelry and cellphone accessories for retail, but I’ve also bought car parts and electronics. Watch the shipping prices and times to be sure you know what to expect. But we have never had any issues with quality or reliability.

olegkikin 9y ago

You need to realize that pretty much all electronics is manufactured in China / Hong Kong these days. You can get quality things, you can get cheap crap.

tryingagainbro 9y ago
The iPhone is also manufactured there, but AAPL engineers are assuring that no corners are cut With other, no brand stuff you can expect to get what you pay for. As always.
0xfeba 9y ago
But how do you discern ahead of time which is quality and which is crap?
- coldtea 9y ago
  You read the onsite and offsite reviews, just like with every other store?

neves 9y ago

Nowadays everything is made in China. A lot of things we buy are just repackaged stuff that sells for 3x the original price. I've bought decent stuff like a manual coffe grinder, or glass bottles, usb cables, or cheap gopro accessories. You are just cutting the middle man.

code_duck 9y ago
The quality can still vary a great deal. There are many tiers for merchandise. For many items, there are very low quality versions that have the flaws described in the gp, that you might never see depending on where you shop or live. For example, butane torches. You can go to Bed Bath and Beyond and buy a chinese made creme brûlée torch for $30 that lights well, smells clean, feels tight, doesn't leak butane and has a lifeime guatantee. Or you can go down the street to 'smoke shop' and pay $30 for a chinese made torch that leaks butane, has problems with the venturi lever, smells like vinegar, and lights on 3 out of 5 attempts. The difference is that the second one is sold at the manufacturer level for a much lower price and has gone through more distributors and markup. When you order a random product online it's hard to know what tier you are receiving.
lobster_johnson 9y ago
Given the number of not-up-to-spec cables on Amazon (there's that Google guy who reviews them and found a lot of them to be faulty), I would be extremely wary of buying anything USB on Alibaba.
- Milner08 9y ago
  Wasn't it only USB C he was finding issues with?
  - dmoy 9y ago
    Benson was focusing his efforts on usbc, presumably cus it's got a higher propensity for damage, what with the higher voltage and all. I wouldn't be surprised if he could find issues with non usbc stuff too though.

jordache 9y ago

lol the laptop you type on is likely made in laptop as is the phone you reach in your pocket. You keep typing "China Quality" Like it's a novel concept.. china is the world's manufacture. Your anecdote is just that...

seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Foreign outsourced production to China SEZs (and therefore aren’t even considered domestic for tariff reasons) is hardly indicative of Chinese domestic goods quality.
Pxtl 9y ago
Yes, but in this case there's a big name company putting their name and reputation on the line. AliExpress primarily sells no-name Chinese stuff where reputation is disposable. I've purchased things from AliExpress that were useful products, but everything was fragile or had substantial bugs I had to work around. Always was happy for the price, but would rather find something in between the AliExpress price and the western price if I could get non-brittle plastic.

userbinator 9y ago

The sellers are often negotiable and will give you discounts and photos of the actual product if you ask nicely.

leke 9y ago

I've been buying from there since 2012. Early on, I would agree with you and say the quality of a lot of the products was pretty poor, but in the last few years, I've been really happy with all my purchases. As well as getting really cheap stuff, AE is really handy for getting hard to find things. Especially if you live in a small town as I do.

coldtea 9y ago

>'ve only bought a few things from Alibaba over the years, but most of them have turned out to be either faulty or a typical case of 'chinese manufacturer disappointment' which has led me to being reluctant to buy anything larger/more expensive. When I was in Marrakech a couple of years ago, the guy who owned the riad we stayed in referred to many things in the souks as being "China quality", and I guess that's the problem. Which doesn't mean much ("China quality" that is) since iPhones are also made in China -- as are expensive clothes for the likes of Armani and co and tons of other high-end stuff. And of course lots of Chinese designed and made products that are of high quality. Of course tons of cheap stuff is made there too -- almost all the world's manufacturing of cheapo stuff. Heck, almost anything you can get on a place like Walmart is probably made in China too, but sold for 2-5 times as much as in Chinese sites. If someone buys some $80 "laptop" off of Alibaba, or some "leather jacket" for $30, or some no-brand el-cheapo "camera drone", of course they're gonna get subpar quality. If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably ain't, and if there are no reviews (on third party sites) or nobody knows the brand name, well, those things don't point to getting a good buying experience.