Tip no. 8
12-Jul-2011Tip No 8
Buying on the Internet – a real case of Caveat Emptor
Recently it was discovered that the Chinese police arrested over 36 people after a probe into fraud on the Alibaba website. Those arrested were accused of imitating real vendors, take the money and deliver nothing.
Bluefreight has had a few clients contact us to ship something they have purchased only to find it doesn’t exist. Alibaba said last February it found more than 2300 vendors using their website to defraud buyers. Alibaba and other global web sites will always have their share of fraudsters, and while they are doing everything possible to prevent fraud, it may well be impossible to totally eliminate fraud.
In one case last year, a client contacted us to ship a boat they purchased in Indonesia. We then arranged, at a small cost, to fly a member of our local agent to the town where the boat was meant to be, only to find the address belonged to an empty block of land and no boat to be seen. We have had similar cases in the USA.
If in doubt, contact us. It is better to pay a little more to ensure you are getting what you purchased. In most parts of the world, we can have our representatives inspect the goods prior to shipping. Trained quality control inspectors are also available.
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