Taobao - www.taobaofocus.com

If you do not know it yet, Taobao is the China(PRC) version of Aliexpress. They are all under the giant company, Alibaba Group of China(PRC).

I did not use their service very often. But for several times, I felt what Alibaba did was appalling. If things go wrong, TAOBAO WILL SHUT DOWN YOUR ACCOUNT AND TAKE YOUR MONEY, ‘to protect you from threats.’

If you buy very cheap things through that website, things are likely to be fine, but not always. Beware, if you buy anything costing more than £100, you are almost guaranteed to become victimized.

The Chinese(PRC) follow many hidden rules, Alibaba is no exception. I will tell you a few.

1. Do not complain about counterfeiting (OR TAOBAO WILL SHUT DOWN YOUR ACCOUNT, DESTROYING EVIDENCE AND SAY NOTHING IS WRONG)

I bought a cheap machine at a price just a bit lower than the official price. It stopped working very soon. I contacted the seller for repair service. They refused to do this. Then I asked them again and again, there was no more response. Then, I consulted the manufacturer, who said the item was counterfeit, so official warranty was not applicable. Counterfeit products are usually sold at cheap prices nothing near that of the genuine ones. So I felt surprised to be cheated. Then I turned to Taobao for help. At first, Taobao said evidence was needed. Then when I gave them what they asked for, my account was closed. I asked for it to be reopened, Taobao explained that the account had been hacked, in order to ‘protect my interest’, it cannot be used forever. Taobao promised to look into the counterfeit matter. Some time later, I contacted Taobao again, the response was that serious investigation had shown that nothing was wrong. The money involved was small, so I decided to let it go. The reason for all this is: Birds of a feather flock together.

2. After paying, all guarantees expire (IF YOU ASK FOR PROMISED AFTER-SALE SERVICES, TAOBAO WILL FREEZE YOUR ACCOUNT AND MONEY, FOREVER)

This time, they are more 'civilized'. I opened a new account to buy another machine because it was not available from a local retailer. This time, I bought it directly on Taobao, from the Chinese(PRC) manufacturer to be sure that it is genuine. This time, the product stopped working after a few months. I sent the machine back for fixing. They requested money for spare parts involved, despite it does not obey what the warranty terms say. This time, I asked Taobao, instead of complaining, to avoid any crazy acts from Taobao. I stated he warranty terms Taobao’s website state. Taobao suddenly began to respond like they did not understand my langauge. Soon, my account got frozen, but not shut down. This time, the reason is ‘abnormal activities’, when I asked what it means, they said that it was based on the conclusion of factors. I asked what the factors were, they said they could not tell me.

3. If Taobao takes your money by mistake, you need help from elsewhere (WHEN THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO, THEY WILL TALK LIKE MENTALLY DISABLED AND THEN DO NOTHING)

This is a resolved matter that happened before I figured how dirty Taobao actually was. I bought a voucher from a shop. But upon redeeming it on Taobao's website, Taobao’s website said an unexpected error occurred so it could not be used. I asked for help from Taobao, they gave some wrong instructions. I enquired several times. Each time, it was handled by a different person, and the answers were different, but all useless. Then I went back to where I bought the voucher for help. That shop kept me waiting for a refund for about a month, saying they were still waiting for Taobao’s response on how to recover the value of the voucher. At last, the shop called me, saying Taobao had no response on that matter yet, but agreed to refund in full to me, saying they will sort out the rest themselves with Taobao. This time, I did not find Taobao too suspicious, but only thought that Taobao’s people were simply inefficient, so I continued to use their service. If I had figured out the disgusting facts behind this at that moment, the stories in "1" and hence "2" would have never happened.

P.S.

Please forgive me on this:I still have ‘frozen’ deposits in the account and fighting to get it back, so I do not show what the products are exactly called in case they find it out and destroy all my depositing and transaction records forever.)