Alibaba Extra Inquiries Package for Suppliers from Alibaba is a hoax! China Internet

EXTRA INQUIRIES PACKAGE FOR GOLD SUPPLIERS ON ALIBABA.COM - DO NOT BUY!

Although Alibaba.com is a great platform for suppliers, I have been highly disappointed with their Extra Inquiries package offered as an option for their Gold Supplier Membership.

The Extra Inquiries Package costs a decent sum of US$500 in addition to the cost to buy the Basic Gold Supplier package.

When trying to decide on whether or not to buy the Extra Inquiries package for my small business, I noticed that it said that a small fee will be deducted for every Extra inquiry, but there were no details on what will be considered an "Extra" inquiry or what the fee per inquiry will be!

The problem is, Alibaba does not provide detailed information on how the package works! This information CANNOT be found anywhere on the internet nor will their customer service associates disclose the details when asked on chat or phone.

So I decided to take a blind shot and try it out.

For one month, I did not see any "Extra" inquiry. After a month, I noticed that some inquiries had "Extra Inquiry" written next to them.

Upon opening the Inquiry and even before Replying to it, it said that a fee of US$4.00 had already been deducted from the $500 I had in my account!

Alibaba had clearly stated that a fee will be deducted only if I "choose" to reply to an inquiry. This apparently is not the case and a fee will be deducted even if you choose NOT to respond to the inquiry.

Now the funny part, there was one company that had sent multiple inquiries on the different products I had displayed on Alibaba.

Alibaba charged me $4.00 for every inquiry sent from the same person, making me short by $36 for multiple inquiries sent by the same person within a span of 5 minutes!

I have since canceled my account with Alibaba and have chosen to go with a different online marketplace.

I felt I had to provide this information online for first time buyers of Alibaba's Gold Package. Please buy only the Basic Gold Package if you have to, but stay away from their Extra Inquiries Pacakage which is a complete Rip Off!