Guys, a question about the advertisers in the Marketplace section of this forum. But before I do please know that I'm not trying to cause a stir, or offend anyone, so please take the question at face value as it is meant.

Q: Are the advertisers on this forum legit, trustworthy types?

The reason I ask is firstly I'm a trader newbie, , and secondly I read within the suppliers section of so many scam stories and he's no good she's no good threads that I start to question whether there are any gooduns out there.

For all of the advertisers here who are and have proven to be legit good guys, sorry for the question. I truly mean no offence and I hope none has been taken. But I hope you all understand why I ask.

On a positive note, I took yesterday my first small shipment of wholesale RC toys from Wicked Imports. Ordered 2pm, dispatched FOC and arrived around 11am next day. All present and correct. No problems. Thanks Wicked!

And thanks guys for this forum.

Tony

Yes the advertisers on here are legit, however still make all the correct steps when dealing with somebody new first. Make sample orders, check their deatils etc etc etc.

Just because this website has a good reputation, it does not mean scammers won't target you as some will slip through the net, as with anywhere

Hey Tony,

I can't speak for everyone on this forum - i know we're legit - we're more than happy for any of our retail or wholesale buyers to visit us at our offices, have a cup of tea, witness the madness that is our staff, and discuss their requirements! That's just us, however - i'm sure many suppliers on here have similar relationships with their customers.

As the King says, there may be one or two, they do slip through the net - but it's a tight community on here, so a potential scammer won't last long.

The best advice i can give you is to read through some of the threads, post a few times, get to know your target suppliers and watch their activity. Many advertisers on her have been here quite some time, and have 1,000's of posts stacked up at the side of their name, and 100's of happy customers. If you are unsure about anyone, just post a thread in the 'supplier discussion' asking for everyones experiences with them, you'll get plenty of responses!

Gail

Thanks for your replies, appreciate it. And good advice too.

thnaks guys and gals :niceone:

Tony

Hey Tony,

No probs - however, remember that you should trade with care, no matter who you are buying from.

Last year, for example, we almost got caught out when we placed an order with a huge, reputable DVD wholesaler. The order value was just short of 6k, so not a huge order, but enough to knock a small business on it's head if anything went wrong. Little did we know that the company was directly affiliated with both Woolworths & Zavvi who were struggling to keep afloat, and literally minutes after transferring the payment, it was announced that Woolworths had gone into administration, and as a direct result, so had our supplier!

It was a very tense couple of weeks whilst we constantly harrassed the administrators to be allowed either the stock or a refund, emailing & phoning them up to 30 times a day for updates and eventually they allowed us to send a company to pick our stock up, on the basis that our payment had hit AFTER the administrators took over, so couldn't be taken into account with the existing company assets - It was probably because they were sick of hearing from us, but we weren't losing our cash without a damned good fight!! On the day we had our stock picked up, our driver drove out of their warehouse at 1.48pm - and at 3pm the doors of the warehouse were closed for good, and everything inside it was offered for auction. I'm fairly certain that others in our position weren't quite so fortunate & persistent - we were very lucky!

It just goes to show, research is very important when choosing suppliers - had we been aware of the extend of their association with Woolworths, we may have been slightly more cautious, however christmas sales were coming in thick & fast, and we were buying from everywhere we could, just to replace our stock. Won't be as careless this year!!

Greetings and welcome to the forum. I am fairly new here myself ( 3 months ) and have had nothing but good times dealing with members of the forum. As others have said before me you still need to do as you would normally to protect yourself but that should allways be the case anyway. We have a wide range of advertisers here from dropshipers to traders to big distribution companys and importers so im sure you will find what you need and hopefully build a strong business relationship.

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Ben Asher - CnM - Tel:02920 713718 (9:30 - 6pm mon-Fri)

All forum advertisers are vetted by the forum admin team but its always best to carry out some of your own research before buying.

The forum also has a feedback system called iTrader which works in a similar way to eBay feedback and will give you a good idea on the reputation of the member.

Failing that simply start a thread in the supplier section about the advertiser you are thinking of dealing with and other members can give you feedback on them there.

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Every Supplier on thewholesaleforums site is screened before they are allowed to sell. The rate of safety of doing business with them is very high and I would only be worried about ordering from brand new sellers. There have been a couple issues in orders with some sellers in the past and I do believe their was one seller that stole some money from customers as well.
Itrader is a good way to see if the seller is trustworthy as it is just like eBay feedback. If the seller is brand new then you may want to go through the verification process with them, especially if all they have is an email and 1 photo of their product. On a good note though, it's much safer to order from sellers on this forum compared to other B2B sites such as alibaba.

Remises posted a fabulous article on screening suppliers a couple years ago that is now a sticky. If you haven't looked at it yet then you definitely should. These screening methods should be used for any new seller you deal with. (note you dont necessarily need to investigate a compaby if they have a good itrader or if they are well known in the B2B marketplace)

http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/forum/supplier-discussion/7738-5-step-method-verify-your-wholesale-supplier.html