Online shopping has many pitfalls and one cannot help but have a critical eye. For instance you could order an item under a popular brand name from another country taking advantage of a sale or a sizeable discount. Since you are not on the ground to verify and worse you are not familiar with the salient features of genuine versions, you end up buying a fake version of the same. These sorts of items look very similar to the original but with compromised functionality and durability. The only difference is that they come cheap and this can be passed off as a discount.
To avoid buying fakes one should buy nothing from sites like Alibaba where you'll most likely buy counterfeit items. The best way to avoid such scams is by buying anything you need ONLY FROM reputable sites that will never stock fakes.
I think even if you are buying from a reputable site, you may have some individual sellers on there who will market whatever they think they can sell. The thing is though sites like Amazon usually stand behind the products they sell and allow returns, if the item was sold on their site. I have been pretty lucky with getting decent products, but I have had to return some items that were less than stellar.
I know it's very easy to get taken in when you go shopping online. But I'm very cautious and choose where I shop very carefully. I need to be sure that the online store I'm buying is reputable and fairly well known. So where I want to shop with a retailer I'm not familiar with, I always do extensive research and scour the net for reviews from different sites. I'm also very particular about what part of the world I buy from. I got taken for a mug once, NEVER again LOL
I would avoid buying anything from China or something that's suspiciously cheap, and I will only buy from reputable stores or even offline stores in the mall. Now if you buy it in the mall in a legit boutique then you can be assured that you are getting an original item and not a knock-off.
I get what you mean, @Ke Gordon....but being duped is one, knowingly buying said stuff is quite another. I once bought what I led to believe were authentic Mac makeup brushes on eBay, which turned out to be fake. I was only alerted of this by eBay and the guy was subsequently banned. I would never knowingly buy contraband, it's just not my cup of tea.
Once, I have also ordered something from aliexpress for which the money has been deducted from my account but I have not received the product till date, and due to that reason I quit purchasing from any Chinese or non-trusted websites.
Incidentally, @sidney...some people in Botswana have somehow found some fantastic sellers in China. But they're just not for sharing, they're keeping schtum LOL !!! They buy some gorgeous human hair products that we African ladies like So they basically get the stuff for good prices, and then charge us extortionate prices the greedy lot. I need to find me a Chinese supplier I can trust, because I can't keep this up LOL
@Lushlala, Well it is business after all, so that kind of behavior is expected. Why don't you try Ebay again? With their 180-day dispute timeframe, you can be assured that you won't be scammed if the item is defective or it doesn't arrive.
@sidney..For hair products such as lace front and u-part wigs, I've already had a look on eBay and Amazon and although there's an abundance of these products, it's such a shame because the best ones don't always ship to Botswana! I don't really know what the big deal is there because a lot of them will ship to neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe! I just find it weird. I may take a casual look again because the last time I did was ages ago.
I always just buy from ebay because sellers there are pressured to at least state whether their items are originals or knockoffs. I'm not totally against copies but I just prefer knowing what I am buying so I don't get ripped off. The best thing about ebay is that whenever a seller tries to pass off an item for more than what it actually is you have recourse of returning the item and or leaving a bad feedback which then would warn other buyers of the risks. Often I just check the sellers' feedback as well to know if I'm at any risk at all.
There was this problem where the Chinese Government sanctioned online shopping giant Ali Baba for allegedly allowing some sites that were supplying knockoffs into its online portfolio. Many persons have been deceived on a daily basis where they are shipped counterfeit items instead of the real thing because they don't have much expert knowledge of the product.
Also, Made in America labels are often deceptive.Log In is a good place for more information on this. Also, did you know olive oilLog In? In a world of discounts, you have to be super careful.
There have been many times that I bought from Chinese sellers on ebay and the items got to me in time, but there were a few rotten apples who just kept my money and din't send a thing. Luckily I was able to get refunded and ebay sided with me over the seller.
Oh ebay is the worst. There was a guy years ago selling counterfeit car parts in the United States that were down right dangerous. They were selling airbags that when deployed had debris and shards of metal/glass in them. It is terrifying how some of this stuff is.
I have heard of so many stories about online stores where the customer had bought a bogus item supposed to be original. Take this garden hose which I have been posting from time to time. The cost of the original blue garden hose is 2,000 pesos (roughly $50) and the cost of the bogus is 300 pesos. But the bogus would last for only a month or 2 before it breaks. We already had purchased 4 of those bogus so we're still ahead since it is already 2 years that we are using it. But generally, it is not good to buy an imitation.
That's because you are totally shopping the wrong way, Alibaba has many websites Aliexpress B2B, 1688 B2B, Alibaba B2B, those are for wholesale, Taobao C2C, Tmall B2C, Juhuasuan B2C. Those for retails. If you are buying brand product, you need to choose Tmall, it has more than 20,000 famous brand stores worldwide. The brand products there aren't fake products. For another thing, we need to bear in mind the price, the brand price online are nearly the same with stores, unless there are online promotions it won't offer any discounts. If the price is too cheap and you are tempted, there are 100% you will buy fake products.
Only because is made from a chinese company, doesn't necessarily mean is counterfeit. Alibaba Taobao is the chinese equivalent of amazon.com, thus you will find a lot of stuff there, and not everything is scammy and counterfeit goods.
