Question for fellow Americans: have you ever ordered a product from Alibaba, and if so, how was your experience? Any tips?
Discussion
Prepare to wait 6-8 weeks, but beside that my experience was fine. It was in good shape and worked.
European here, second that. Only used AliExpress though. Expect "China shipping times" but other than that it's fine.
Be sure the store you buy from has at least a few years in business and a good reputation over 90%. Be sure the product itself has good feedback from users and is confirmed to be what the description is. All that being said, Ali's guarantee is usually pretty solid and when I had a problem they refunded the full amount. Good luck! 👀
I ordered 8 car sized batteries
from mainland China using Alibaba. Once I figured out the payment system, everything went smoothly.
Yes. I've ordered custom VFDs (variable frequency drives), an oddball 4 axis digital readout, and decent enough tooling for a job.
No issues if you can wade through the worst to find a company that cares though to actually communicate.
Alibaba or aliexpress?
Alibaba because it’s kind of a hotel-ish purchase. I’m slowly setting up a nature-retreat-center type situation, and so I’m looking at an outdoor sauna like a hotel might get.
Gotcha. Alibaba is more for bulk, but some suppliers do offer 1 off or samples.
Beware though the priced shown likely will not be accurate. You need to talk to the suppliers.
nostr:npub17f66kd7kfa47qdu6sh89wdsxpctykym2prrlreudaf3n4wkcf0lq9u92kc orders stuff from there all the time.
I do!
You can ask me anything
I’m going to try a small(ish) purchase first: an infrared sauna. I expect it’ll show up flat packed and I’ll have to assemble it, which is fine. I’ve already placed an inquiry and they are designing a quote, but my questions are: Does the client usually arrange the port-to-home part of the shipment or does the seller handle that? (The seller does say on their FAQ that they ship to port or to front-door.) And has it been your experience that assembly instructions are friendly? 😅
My experience is that everything is made in China, the instructions are all in Chinese, and the sellers are not very helpful in English. However, it’s generally the same product that you would buy from a US seller, under a different brand name or different packaging.
You will be able to find instructions in a language you understand online.
It generally takes about three weeks to a month to arrive although sometimes sooner.
On another note, you can combine cash back from satsback.com and Lolli, so that’s about 7% cashback, in addition to whatever credit card to use.