Why Canadian buyer is so mad at Alibaba and made-in-China.com
Debora in Canada writes:
Please help to refer me and my associate to legitimate suppliers for USB flash drives. We have used other suppliers before but they closed down and the last each of our company used (2 different suppliers) both scammed us. And we were diligent too! Checked the Blacklist, Googled, talked on the phone etc.. So both our companies are out money and product and we have one month to go before we have to leave for our tradeshow!!!
We will also be repeat business to the supplier and will be referring the supplier to our clients and associates. (We use the USB’s are for promotional use.)
ALSO I WOULD LIKE TO LEAVE A COMMENT:
I think the reason so many of us are being scammed for these items is because we are relying on www.alibaba.com and www.made-in-china.com etc. for their “VALIDATED” suppliers, not realizing that ALIBABA does not check their suppliers to see which ones are scammers. We effectively are trusting these companies and the wolves are there waiting for us! I think ALIBABA and other sites like it should be held accountable for the companies they give the gold ratings to! And apparently, the companies can buy the ratings. What is THAT all about?
In the interim, we thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide and look forward to hearing back from you.
supplier verification
What check list is used to verify these bad suppliers?
Per your request, I’ll be happy to add your comments about supplier directories like Alibaba and so-called verified suppliers to my blog in near future. In the meantime, you should expose those bad suppliers and mention the truth about “verification” over at www.SupplierBlackList.com, this will help out other buyers to learn from your experience.
You asked about SD cards, here are some resources:
This is a link to a white paper I did. It’s a bit outdated, but some of the suppliers listed in the report are still be active: May 2013 CSIC White Paper. Behind the scenes: buying SD cards & flash/ thumb drives direct from China
The Global Sources.com trade show in HK is going on right now. I saw some SD card suppliers there. As they paid a lot of money to be a the show, they are not likely to be scam/fake companies. The list of exhibitors is searchable at GlobalSources.com in case you can’t make it to the show in person.
Speaking of directories, check out Tradesparq.com which is a directory of suppliers with feedback from other buyers like yourself. Kind of like yelp.com but for China sourcing!
If after exploring those 3 resources, you still need help, please keep this link in mind if you want to explore having an agent look after things for you: http://chinasourcinginfo.org/2014/05/13/options-for-support-with-sourcing-and-supply-chain-management/
Glad to help!
Let me know how things work out.