Has Anybody Ordered From Alibaba.com? How Does It Work?

[PercyPierce]

I ordered an Electric Bander from Alibaba.com. And now 4 days later, it says "delivered" I made sure to put my address, but my product is not in my house. I wasn't expecting it to arrive at my door 4 days later because it's supposed to be shipping from china. What do I have to do or see once my package says delivered on the order tracking?

 

 

 

 

And please don't say "refund" because I'll do that after about 2 weeks.

[Buenchico]

AliBaba.com (or, more accurately, *Ad which shall not be named*.com, which is the retail arm of the group) operates as a marketplace, rather than as a seller.  i.e. many thousands of different vendors use the site to advertise their wares, with your order actually coming from one of those vendors, rather than being sold by AliBaba/*Ad which shall not be named*.

Assuming that the tracking info you're looking at is on the AliBaba/*Ad which shall not be named* site, rather than on a third party site, it will have been provided to them by the particular vendor in question.  It's not particularly uncommon for vendors to notify AliBaba/*Ad which shall not be named* that an order has been fully completed (including delivery) before it actually has.  So all you can do at this stage is to sit back and wait.

It's also worth noting though that an order might be shown as 'delivered' if it's actually with Parcelforce Worldwide, who act as agents for HMRC in regard of goods imported by mail, who're currently calculating any charges that you might have to pay them (such as Import Duty and VAT) before the item can be delivered to you.

[gingejbee]

Yes, those bargain prices come at a cost...waiting for delivery, uncertainty about where items actually are, all the additional costs that may be incurred etc.

 

[Tuvok]

There are some items that may be ordered via AliE, with seller in China, but stock available from other countries.

I've only shopped once with them, with no problems.