Seller:
Shandong Xinjude Metal Material Co Ltd
Seller Website:
www.sdxjd.en.alibaba.com/?spm=a2700.12243863.0.0.38403e5fm4SbsZ
Seller Address:
Liaocheng, Shandong, A-1115, China
Initial contact with the supplier:
Online Supplier Directory
Type of product(s) being purchased:
Aluminium Plates
Value of the Purchase Order when the incident occurred:
3,001 to 6,000 USD
Destination market of order in question:
China
Type of Complaint(s):
Scams & Other Unethical Activities
Stage of relationship with the supplier at the time of the incident:
Initial Order
User Experience:
As our company produces from Aluminium, and aluminium prices went up by 150% in 3 past years, we decided to find a supplier in china (Alibaba). We made a lot of orders on Alibaba during past 5 years on various things such as electronics, motors, fastening material, machining tools etc. We had almost no bad experience so far. But those orders weren’t that expensive.
We made an inquiry on Alibaba for 1 ton of 5083 Aluminium plate. We received about 12 offers. About 8 companies had price per ton of 3,000-3,500$. Two others had price between 4,000-5,000$ and the remaining ones were 5,500$+. We didn’t find it suspicious, so we chose one of the cheap sellers. The story is very long, but in a short version:
After sample testing, which wasn’t the best but we eventually found the right alloy, we paid the money via bank transfer. After about two weeks seller wanted to pay 50% extra money because Aluminium prices went up. We didn’t pay anything and at this point we were already super concerned about this trade. However, because we already paid the money and seller didn’t want to pay it back and cancel order, we still wanted to complete it, because we had nothing to lose at this point. We agreed on 700kg Aluminium instead of 1 ton with the same price.
After some time, the shipment was ready to pick up in Chinese port (FOB), so we ordered a courier company to pick up the box and waited till it arrives to Europe.
When it arrived, we opened it and saw what you can see on the picture. I think there is nothing left to say.
User Recommendations:
Be careful with trading on Alibaba, especially the suspiciously cheap offers.
