Subscriber Discussion

Experience With Alibaba?

KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jul 01, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Alibab seems to have an enourmas selection of surveillance equipment on the site. I am curious have any of you made purchases from Alibaba? If so what was your purchase and experience like? We would like to purchase a product from a company on the site but are a little hesitant ($9,000 item) that something might go sour. I am sure there is probably apprehension on the sellers end as well. My concern may be unnecessary however any information is greatly appreciated.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 01, 2015
IPVM

We've bought some equipment for testing basic Chinese cameras (of the $10 to $100 variety). I don't think we had any issues but a $9,000 item, yeah that would concern me.

When I buy large ticket items over the Internet from people with unknown reputations, I try to use PayPal. PayPal is very pro-buyer and it is very hard for sellers to screw someone and get away with it. If it was me, I'd ask / require them to take PayPal for the payment.

(1)
KL
Keefe Lovgren
Jul 01, 2015
IPVMU Certified

John,

Thank you for that information that is very helpful. I will verify that before we move forward with anything.

JH
John Honovich
Jul 01, 2015
IPVM

Sure. Let us know how it goes.

And if they don't take PayPal, that's a yellow flag, since we've seen quite a number of legit overseas businesses accept it. Worse, if they require a wire transfer, no way, just don't do it.

Avatar
Brian Rhodes
Jul 01, 2015
IPVMU Certified

My wife buys products off alibaba express for her home business all the time. Of twenty plus transactions, she's never had problems. Long shipping times, but that's expected.

One time the seller made an error, and instead of 25 pieces of nail clipper kits, they sent 25 gross nail clipper kits. We ended up with 3600 kits over 6 crates for like $55. We contacted the seller, and they essentially told us it would cost more to ship back that it was worth and to keep them.

After three Christmases and birthday seasons, we still have like 3575 kits.

(4)
MI
Matt Ion
Jul 02, 2015

Print off a bunch of IPVM logos and stick them on... give them away to members as promotional items :)

U
Undisclosed #1
Jul 02, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Excellent idea!

I have some really gross nails. ;)

Avatar
Gert Molkens
Jul 06, 2015
IPVMU Certified

I've had no issues with Alibaba (so far :-) ) but also for items that go 100 - 200$ max. I can only agree with John on PayPal.

Last stuff we bought were SIP door phones, audio only. These are rare to find, most of the time they have video to which makes them expensive. I bought three Niteray units, 128$/pce, and to my suprise they worked just perfect. I set them up in minutes in combination with a hosted PBX. Sound is christal clear.

On the other hand: no useable manual, a few things that could have been better (such as a reset pin hole on the front panel...) and some pictures on the web site were fake: it's supposed to be IP67 and to demonstrate that they hold it under a running water tap on the site. At first it looks sealed, there's even a gasket in between the fron panel and the back housing BUT the RJ45 network cable is just plugged in through a hole in the back of the unit....

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