Buying with Alibaba?

[paolow]

Has anyone got any first hand experience?

I am after a load of personalised usb keys as a gimmick and dont want to pay too much for them. I know sites like alibaba and the like have thousands of listings but I also know that these sites have very mixed reviews with people getting ripped off all over the shop. I know also that if I place an order with a company and they fail to deliver/deliver a load of crap there is no chance of a comeback whatsoever.
Notwithstanding the savings are attractive - will I get my fingers burned though?

[Hendry]

I used it for pricing information on GPS receivers some time back and what I got back took ages -- people are not very pro-active -- and not very competitively priced. So I didn't take it further.

I would not look upon it as your only method of sourcing if you are looking to get your hands on anything soon.

IH

[Golfman]

You will be contacting traders, not the actual manufacturers. Your success will only be as good as the person helping you in the middle. Chinese whispers are very real!

We setup our own small base in China to avoid this very problem. It’s a good tool for window shopping though.