Buying From TaoBao or TMall; Avoid being Cheated

23 October 2018

The Taobao’s stuff are cheap;  cheaper than AliExpress.  But one would have to manage the expectation especially for overseas residents.  Dishonest sellers will not only sell us imitated goods but also sell us broken or damaged goods.   This article intends to provide some information about  how to avoid being cheated.

How Do they Do it?

One common trick the dishonest sellers might  do when they know you are an overseas buyer is to sell damaged goods which are rejected or returned by the local residents.   The other ways they might do is to pretend that they never heard you properly and sell you out of date products or keep the free gifts for themselves.    They would appear to be very helpful promising everything under the sun and pretended to comply to your instructions which they might never honor.  

When the goods finally arrived,  you might find out that it not to the requirement,  they will tell you to return the goods for a refund,  fully knowing very well you would never do so because

1.  By the time you receive the goods,  the "7 days not question asked refunding period’  would have lapsed and insurance would have expired;

2.  The delivery fees for the return of goods will be so exorbitant high that they would never promise that you will get the delivery fees refunded.

They might engage with you the conversation about a resolution or refund  that you have proposed but they might never agree.   At the end,  they would insist that you return the goods to get the refund.

What could have been done to avoid?

1.  Never ever reveal where you are from

This is sometimes not possible because you will have to give them the local address of the container warehouse for the goods to be delivered.  The smarter and experienced ones will immediately spot you out;

2.   Check the reputation rating

This helps but not always because the rating of those nasty sellers can be surprisingly good;  some even have been rated above average;

3.   Check the reviews in their site

This again can be misleading although it is no harm checking through especially those remarks given by overseas buyers;   avoid those having little or no reviews.

4.  Check for complaints in public domain

This is by far the better way to judge the reputation of the shops in Taobao.  If there are complaints written on the shop;  avoid by all means

5.   Others

Some buyers recommended 

1   To check the advertising materials in the Webpages;   usually,  the good ones will not "pirate" the materials

2.  To check the accumulated reviews and orders of the goods sold.    Usually,  the goods ones will have a lot of orders and reviews;   look for those repeated orders

3.  To avoid buying during peak period or during cheap sale period.  Orders can be easily mis-handled or missed out;

4.  Good things are not cheap and cheap things are not necessary good

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