Alibaba - I had a custom guitar made based on a US boutique model, but there's more...
I'm posting about Alibaba for any of those who might not have checked them out or have done business already. Alibaba is NOT a company in the sense the typical consumer thinks of a company like Best Buy or Walmart.
Alibaba is the BANKER for a CONGLOMERATION OF DOZENS OF INDIVIDUAL BUSINESSES. Alibaba takes the order AFTER the details with the ACTUAL company you're doing business with. Alibaba is given a reference order number buy the real seller. They accept the payment method offered and then provide the "go ahead" to the company doing the work or your purchase.
Once the order is filled, Alibaba contacts the buyer by email to let the buyer know what the next step is. Obviously having a custom guitar made takes many steps rather than just buying in bulk something already in stock like a wristwatch or hula hoops. The ACTUAL SELLER takes care of the packing and shipping to the buyer. Once the order arrives.
The buyer inspects the order and then makes contact with Alibaba using the reference number given. If the order is accepted by the buyer, Alibaba gives the money to the actual seller. Any commission between Alibaba and their stable of manufacturers is not anyone's business but theirs, right? Moving on...Alibaba provides the guarantee of customer satisfaction and will NOT pay the actual seller anything UNTIL and ONLY once the buyer is satisfied WITHIN REASON.
When anime follows a link of a product listed as Alibaba, they are actually communicating with the actual seller. So, if Alibaba fails to protect the buyer if the purchase is unacceptable. THAT is when Alibaba should be blamed and blasted for not holding up their end of how business is done in China. On a related bit of info I hope readers will take seriously as I can prove its truth since that custom guitar I had made by one of the company's selling under the Alibaba umbrella.
It took MANY MANY EMAILS of me giving electronic schematics, body and neck wood choices, switch locations, mini toggles instead of standard they usually use. I even came up with a very special color that is called a FADE. The deepest part of the color fades out from center of the body to black gloss at the top edge and solid gloss black on the sides and the back body color I chose was to fade from the sides in black to the real wood of the body's natural color which was a solid piece of tiger maple with a near tan/amber stain color. The point of this was that without my permission once I got through all the efforts of getting them to bring their work UP to MY specs, plus getting my custom paint correct.
It is what is called a double neck guitar. The upper neck is a 12-string guitar I asked to have all chrome hardware. The lower neck is a 6-string that has all black hardware with a custom wraparound bridge/tailpiece. The volume and tone knobs match the hardware color of each neck.
I also had them out an antique white binding around the body. Now, needless to say... trying to explain all these very specific to the mm details to people who do not speak or read English was one heck of a challenge in itself. It took months, but they finally got it right and the guitar has gotten me lots of attention just sitting on a guitar stand at my shows.
Here is what bothers me most about my deal with one of the guitar builders under Alibaba's label. The DAY I approved the guitar BEFORE I even put my hands on the original one built for me....FOUR guitar companies under Alibaba and two other China based businesses that work in a similar fashion as already explained. There was MY custom guitar I partly designed inside and out and especially the paint scheme... being UP FOR SALE as "A Custom, American style, Double Neck guitar with Special Custom Paint.
They even passed around the photos they took of the guitar they finally got right and the photos I approved!! To say I was pissed off is being far too polite. EVERY CHINESE BUSINESS WILL COPY ANYTHING DESIGNED BY ANYONE AND SELL IT WITHOUT THE BRAND NAME FOR PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR. This has been going on LONG before Trump told everyone in this country how China was taking our jobs and business profits.
This is just ONE of the ways they do it. The USA will NOT do anything to stop this copyright infringement and plagiarism of products the Chinese aren't smart ennough to create on their own, but just like coloring by numbers...they CAN make great copies and do it for pennies since they have nearly slave labor and our former president gave away all our rights in what was once Fair Trade.
Thank You for Your Reply! We are processing your message.
Comments
Please avoid publishing any personal information and promotional content