Alibaba has a useful Help Centre where you can search a particular issue and ways to resolve it. This may cover concerns such as purchasing a counterfeit product or identifying a fake shop. You can view the help centre here. Alibaba’s Trade Assurance program protects the buyer should there be an issue with the agreed shipping time or the quality of goods. Buyers can apply for a refund within 30 days. However not all sellers are covered by the Trade Assurance program so it is important to check this.

As with most sites it is always recommended to try and resolve your issue with the supplier directly and negotiate returning items, and what is involved with shipping costs and methods.

How do I get a refund from Alibaba?

1. Sign into your account
2. Go to “Access the dispute function”
3. Click on the relevant order
4. On the bottom right, click on “apply for refund”

* This only applies if your order has been placed using the free Alibaba Service “Trade Assurance”.

How do I report a suspicious listing on Alibaba?

1. Login to your Alibaba account
2. On the product page click ‘report suspicious activity’ which appears on the right hand side of the product overview box.
3. Choose the appropriate violation you wish to report.

Alibaba Safe Shopping Tip

Make sure you purchase from gold status suppliers. This will help ensure you choose a reliable, established supplier with a good history on Alibaba.

To check this, click on the product link and on the right-hand side of the page there will be a box displaying the Gold Supplier logo (pictured below)

It indicates the number of years the supplier has been trading on Alibaba and a transaction level score which is displayed as a row of diamonds. The bigger the number of diamonds being a good sign.