Originally Posted by Pete

You are mixing apples and oranges.

They are vying for the trust of retail customers and they are making a profit on each and every sale. That has absolutely nothing to do with what happens here and other wholesale directories.

It is not that I am against anything. All I am saying is that they are impractical in application, would require much more staff and still would not offer but so much protection.

The real problem is that many newbies, used to the consumer protection of the retail world stumble into wholesale and think it's retail with a discount.

This is not ebay, amazon or paypal and Anthony is not raking in a percentage of each and every transaction that results from visiting this forum. Should he be involved for a profit per sale than maybe he should be expected to guarantee the transaction. But that is not the case, this is just a directory which happens to do more than most to verify sellers.

Try as you might, you will never get retail protections for wholesale transactions.

I'm not saying I'm against them, I'm just being practical, speaking from decades of wholesale experience. I've had my share of transactions I wish I could reverse, deals I wish I could go crying to Momma over so she could kiss it and make it well, but wholesale is not that way. Nothing a relative handful of folks on a forum can do is going to change that.

If you want verified sources, there are a number of companies that offer that service. If you want to know that a certain size thread is used in your garments from Thailand, there are companies that will represent you at the factory (and accept payoffs to lie to you). If you want to know that genuine Sony chips are used in your product made in China there are companies that will monitor the assembly line.

That is their business. Investigating and verifying companies, monitoring production, etc. Anthony has his BUSINESS of supplying and maintaining this forum and sources directory. Keep in mind that as Hardware Heros reminds us, it is The Friendly Forum, but it is also Anthony's source of income and he cannot keep it free and guarantee every deal that it inspires.

There is no consumer protection for wholesalers.

No I don't think I am mixing apples with oranges. This is not a wholesale directory, it is a trading platform where deals are done.

I totally appreciate that this is Anthonys source of income, and as a source of income it needs to have both buyers and sellers. To have buyers it needs to have trust. Currently I think trust levels are good, and deservedly so. However I still think that as the marketplace grows it may need more robust verification services.


Gloablsources is also a wholesale marketplace and if you buy something from a verified source on Globalsources you pretty much know you won't be scammed, especially if they have 3 or 4 stars. In fact I would bet my house on any globalsources 4 star supplier not ripping you off. Sure quality may be poor, delivery may be slow or whatever but you WILL get your goods from them. this is because their verification systems are extremely robust and everyone knows what is done. I use globalsources more than any other place to find my suppliers.... why? because of the trust I place in their systems.

Originally Posted by studio1one

Gloablsources is also a wholesale marketplace and if you buy something from a verified source on Globalsources you pretty much know you won't be scammed, especially if they have 3 or 4 stars. In fact I would bet my house on any globalsources 4 star supplier not ripping you off. Sure quality may be poor, delivery may be slow or whatever but you WILL get your goods from them. this is because their verification systems are extremely robust and everyone knows what is done. I use globalsources more than any other place to find my suppliers.... why? because of the trust I place in their systems.

With all due respect, I think you are mixing apples with oranges to a certain extent. Global Sources are a multi-million pound company with over 2,500 employees located across 69 offices around the world, they have also been in business since 1971. It is their business to verify suppliers, they guarantee it and are a market leader in global trade. They have earned that right. They have perfected their verification systems over the best part of 40 years and spend millions on their verification services each and every year. The amount they spend is justified by their trade community, currently standing at over 195,000 suppliers and over 800,000 buyers.

I totally appreciate the point you are making (in terms of entrusting the marketplace) but to compare our service with a market leader, backed with huge economies of scale is not only unrealistic but also a little unfair. You cannot compare one service with another and expect your point to be totally valid. The same is true with PayPal and eBay who have come up in this conversation, the difference between those companies and this business is vast. This goes back to the point I made earlier in this thread about suggestions being viable. Ultimately the amount of available investment and resources to this business cannot be compared to those multi-million (or billion in the case of eBay/PayPal) companies who spend serious money on perfecting their models.

The bottom line here is that we need a way of analysing trading history for our advertisers and to build better transparency with prospective buyers. On the outset, we can do this by introducing a profile for each and every advertiser where by their information is collected to form a sort of risk assessment. If this profile could then be made public to enable buyers to make more informed decisions over trading, that would go along way to solving our transparency issues. Buyers can then see who they are trading with and make their own judgements/verifications on top of the basic checks that we do prior to letting them loose on the marketplace.

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Last edited by Anthony; 08-06-2009 at 09:39 AM.

Anthony, perhaps I should have been clearer, I wasn't trying to compare you to Globalsources, merely hold thenm up as an example to Pete that Wholesale platforms can use systems to generate trust.

I fully realise you cannot implement the systems of Globalsources, I wasn't trying to intimate you should. I was merely trying to show that you can build trust on wholesale platforms and it doesn't have to be as Pete suggests, you pay your money you makes your choice.

As you say they are a huge market leader and they couldn't have reached that level without scaling the verification they have with the growth of their business.


I do think though that the marketplace is clearly growing fast and you need to scale your systems with it. I am in no way trying to criticise you here because I know you take it very seriously and the % of bum deals that go on is testament to that. I also know from other conversations between a few people that you understand and are open to moving forwards and change.

Originally Posted by rerasta

I have had same problems wth vitaldropship. :mad:

First shipment was great with good service.
Second order is terrible.
I ask for the tracking number without reply.
After 10 days reply to my thousand emails saying that the shipment has been lost by post !?!
He send me another parcel (without tracking number again) but 15 days are passed and nothing received
All lies
I will open a Paypal dispute today.

Just for info
Today Vitaldropship have refund my paypal payment

Still no response from Vital....

I hope these instance are far and few between but as a newbie I can't comment. It is true that you can get ripped off from anyone (in 10 years trading i've seen it all) but due diligence is imperative even if it means searching the forum for feedback on a supplier. When I apply for advertiser status I can provide VAT reg details, Bank reference if required, certificate of incorporation etc. etc. Whilst it might be over the top it at least establishes a basic level of credibility. Can I still rip someone off? Course I can but any other sensible potential buyers would steer well clear of me in the future if such actions were made public.

Cheers

These instances are certainly very few and far between on here GSM

Hi Guys,

I have not read all the posts so do not know if this suggestion has been made but, and I know this may annoy some advertisers, how about a deposit of some kind made to TWF for all new community advertiser?

If a problem arose, a dispute could be raised and looked into my TWF and should it be warranted, they could refundthe customer via the deposit. It is just an idea and I am soon to be advertising on here and I would go for it.

Im sure there will be a lot of negatives with the system as well as positives but I guess thats with a lot of things.

Just my 2pence.

Amar

I don't think this is feasible, it's a good idea but could you see advertisers giving a couple of thousand to TWF as a security bond?
No point just giving £100 either as most deals done are way over this amount and the instances you are talking about with some advertisers is that they have ripped off quite a few members for possibly a few hundred pounds each, maybe more.

point taken