Alibaba refund dispute

ethereal

Hello savers! Please can you give me some advice?
How biased are Alibaba when it comes to raising a dispute with one of their suppliers? We have received an absolutely dreadful order from a manufacturer we have previously been happy with, but our appeal for a refund is just going on and on and on, with Alibaba keep on giving us both 3 days to upload evidence. We are just going round in circles, each of us saying the same things. We have sent evdience of everything that is wrong with the order but the supplier is saying we are lying and have sabotaged them ourselves just to get the refund. It's over $4k so it's not money our small business can just write off.
Is there anything else we can do? It really looks like Alibaba are ignoring everything we say. They have offered us $100 maximum refund or to remake 10-20 pieces out of a 500 unit order. That is our only option unless we supply further evidence. I don't know what else to do.
Any advice please?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Sorry to hear of your troubles OP but it's a business transaction so no consumer rights and both the seller and marketplace are outside the UK so hard to enforce any terms they may have any way.

Might get a bit more help if this was moved to the eBay board:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/ebay-auctions-car-boot-jumble-sales

pinkshoes

ethereal said:

Hello savers! Please can you give me some advice?
How biased are Alibaba when it comes to raising a dispute with one of their suppliers? We have received an absolutely dreadful order from a manufacturer we have previously been happy with, but our appeal for a refund is just going on and on and on, with Alibaba keep on giving us both 3 days to upload evidence. We are just going round in circles, each of us saying the same things. We have sent evdience of everything that is wrong with the order but the supplier is saying we are lying and have sabotaged them ourselves just to get the refund. It's over $4k so it's not money our small business can just write off.
Is there anything else we can do? It really looks like Alibaba are ignoring everything we say. They have offered us $100 maximum refund or to remake 10-20 pieces out of a 500 unit order. That is our only option unless we supply further evidence. I don't know what else to do.
Any advice please?

Alibaba are a Chinese company so you are bound by Chinese law and their own rules when goods are faulty. Most people I know who buy from Alibaba only spend money they are prepared to lose.

Are all 500 pieces faulty? Are they not fixable?

How did you pay?

ethereal

We ordered 1,000 pieces in two colours. 500 of one colour have holes in and are scratched. 500 are rusty! (Meant to be stainless steel). They are saying we have damaged them all ourselves just to get our money back, in spite of numerous videos and photos we have uploaded, Alibaba are saying they do not have enough evidence from us. It is a Trade Assured order, so we imagined this would guarantee a product that would reach a certain standard. The supplier is offering us $100 or to fix 10-20 pieces only.

JJ_Egan

Are they not just another part of Alibaba group .Yet again a non UK company .

ssparks2003

ethereal said:

500 are rusty! (Meant to be stainless steel). 

Not all stainless steel are rust resistant it will depend on the grade of stainless used. I once ordered some stainless clips for an project and when they turned up there was a bag of rust, yes they were right and they were stainless, just not a rust resistant stainless 

born_again

>>it's not money our small business can just write off.<<

It's not a consumer issue. B2B.

pinkshoes

ethereal said:

We ordered 1,000 pieces in two colours. 500 of one colour have holes in and are scratched. 500 are rusty! (Meant to be stainless steel). They are saying we have damaged them all ourselves just to get our money back, in spite of numerous videos and photos we have uploaded, Alibaba are saying they do not have enough evidence from us. It is a Trade Assured order, so we imagined this would guarantee a product that would reach a certain standard. The supplier is offering us $100 or to fix 10-20 pieces only.

But this is what happens when you use non-UK companies and something goes wrong. You have to write it into your business model and suck up the costs.

You will need to look at mitigating your losses or risk the Chinese courts. Can the holes be fixed? Can the scratches be sanded out? Can the rust be removed?

If you have ordered before, I'm assuming you saved a fortune compared to buying the same from a UK supplier? This time the gamble did not pay off...

mattyprice4004

Bought from China - probably money down the drain.
No consumer rights either as you're not a consumer - unfortunately this is just a cost of doing business, sometimes a supplier will bend you over (and don't I know it!) 

Sorry, but sometimes you have to cut suppliers out because they turn out to be crooks and just have to kiss the money goodbye. I have a feeling this is one of those times.

ethereal

Thank you all for you rcomments. I do unfortunately feel that we will not get our money back. We were hoping as the supplier is listed as Trade Assured under the Alibaba badge, we might have seen some justice, but it does appear that even the appeal process is biased towards their suppliers and not the customer at all.

oldagetraveller1

https://www.bedtimeshortstories.com/ali-baba-and-the-forty-thieves-story

Sorry, couldn't resist.