I wanted to shop in taobao, but when checking out I encountered a problem. They don't use Paypal but another payment method called Alipay. I can't create an account and I can't understand most of it. What do you think about the method? Is it a reliable company? How do you create an account?
Alipay has been around since 2004 and is owned by Alibaba. So, obviously, Alipay is as reliable and as trustworthy as Paypal. In some ways it's even better than Paypal: According to this Wikipedia article: Alipay provides an escrow service, in which consumers can verify whether they are happy with goods they have bought before releasing money to the seller. This service was offered for what the company says are China's weak consumer protection laws And what makes it attractive for online retailers is their low transaction fees. If I was an online retailer I suppose I'd be drawn in by that.I didn't. But I'm certain you'll find the article linked to below helpful: Log In
Thanks Denis! I will read the article and try to sign in. I hope foreigners (as people not from an Asian country) can create accounts, because I really wanted to buy some cute shirts!
I like the idea of having a stable payment method other than PayPal, just in case, although I'm not concerned about issues with PayPal, since I've been using them for years, but you never know these days. It seems some companies go under quickly. The policy of holding money can be good from a customer's perspective, but there have been many issues and complaints in the past from sellers when PayPal/eBay did that, and there's actually a class action suit going on related to that practice.
Personally I dislike any payment gateway that involve escrow or escrow-like services because such extra layer of security tend to add too much delay in transactions that could go otherwise faster through payment gateways like Paypal, not to mention what @Diane Lane already noted. Escrow is not necessarily a hassle-free solution, in fact many times worst than dealing with a Paypal-associated issue, complaint or refund process.
There are two ways you can shopping on Taobao. 1. Register a Alipay account with your credit card, currently Alipay support people in most countries to register and it is far more better than Paypal; 2. Find a reliable taobao agent, pay them with paypal, but they will charge around 5% extra fee as paypal charge each transaction of their paypal account and they need to pay extra money when they exchange USD into RMB.
