Has anyone here evr bought anything from taobao.com?

[ZMC888]

A agree with what's already been said, here's my view.

I've bought and sold thousands of RMB of mountain bike parts and a few hundred in motorcycle parts and other kitchen utensils etc. I have a Chinese friend who is a Taobao buyer and seller and understands motorcycles and mountain bikes.

You could learn to do everything yourself but you'd likely...

1. Need to understand Chinese....fully.
2. Need to start a Taobao bank account.
3. Go through a learning curve before you figure out which sellers are worth dealing with.

A few points, on Taobao you are protected from buying the wrong or damaged products. However as soon as a product has been used it's usually not possible to get a refund. Also there is no warranty unless you can get one through the manufacturer directly.

It was a lifeline recently when I needed a carburetor to air filter pipe for my bike, impossible to order from any local bike shop.

[ulikedat]

thank you all for the info. i really appreciate it.

[Zorge]

OK, there is Taobao, but are there any other Chinese online stores of confidence, with spare parts, tools and other things for motorcycles, with websites in bearable English and worldwide shipping?

[bikerdoc]

Just posting this here since Taobao comes up in the search...

Be careful with Taobao.com came across a scam with a real motorcycle dealer who has been a seller on Taobao since 2008, but just opened a motorcycle shop several months ago (he had a blue diamond too). Negotiated a deal on a (legal) brand new motorcycle for a substantial amount of money (RMB) I'm not talking a 125cc or 250cc bike either.

Everything progressed well, until trying to organise the payment. Because of the sum involved we couldn't use a Chinese issued credit card because the dealer didn't want to have to pay the transaction fee. I offered to reimburse for this (e.g add to the price). With the price we had to go to the bank, to make some amendments to the Alipay linked bank account. Done. Then when I wanted to put the money into Alipay the dealer directed us to www.me.alipay.com - seemed odd.

Checked the site, looked convincing, but something didn't add up. Made calls to both Taobao and Alipay (wangwang) and sure enough me.Alipay is not Alipay, while it does have an affiliation with Alipay (wangwang) it is not the escrow service meaning monies paid into the me.Alipay account go directly into whatever linked account the seller has nominated. So no guarantees.

In this case, the dealer had a Alipay account too, but wanted the funds placed into this other me.Alipay account. When challenged the dealer just said, he needed the funds into the me.alipay account otherwise he couldn't issue the correct tax invoice needed to get the licence plate. BS!

Seems there is a copy of Alipay called "me.Alipay" which looks just like Alipay, but turns out is affiliated. Me.alipay.com is not an escrow type service, meaning funds placed into an me.Alipay.com account go directly into a sellers nominated bank account!!! Once that happens you can't get funds back if there's any dispute between Taobao seller and buyer. The me.Alipay service was put together by Alipay as a direct payment service after the Sichuan earthquake as a means to assist with and handle direct donation appeals, and has been used for other fund-raising efforts since. Seems as though some Taobao sellers have identified this as a means by which to get funds paid directly into their own or a nominated bank account, and once that happens there's no way to get paid monies back.

After a complaint which both Alipay and Taobao are investigating at the moment, the 'dealers' Taobao shop front have been removed from Taobao, although the dealer is still linked with Taobao. Just cannot see any of his bikes or anything he's selling or trying to sell. We have been advised we will be contacted by Taobao and Alipay at the end of the week long investigation.

It's also interesting how this particular dealer was able to leverage his blue diamond seller status in this instance. Likely he'd accrued the necessary feedback since opening a shop selling small less expensive items then supposedly 'opened a new shop' offering or selling motorcycles etc.

You don't have to have completed the purchase on Taobao to make a complaint about a dealer/seller on Taobao.

Just be warned. If you plan to use Alipay for facilitating payment make sure it's Alipay which is tied into Ali-wangwang, and not me.alipay.