Alibaba allows scammers on their platform — seller faked shipping, lied, cursed me out

I wanted to share my experience with Alibaba customer service and a seller on their platform, because it honestly shocked me.

I ordered a flashlight from an Alibaba seller because this specific model wasn’t available anywhere else. A few days after ordering, the seller marked it as shipped and provided tracking. Over the next week or two, the tracking showed normal shipping updates — until it suddenly said “Delivered” at 8:00 PM.

No package ever arrived.

I checked my door, waited several more days, and reviewed my security camera footage. No delivery ever happened at that time (or any time). So I contacted the seller — and only then did I notice he had previously messaged me saying the item was out of stock.

So naturally I asked:
If it’s out of stock, why is there tracking showing it was delivered?

The seller then admitted that nothing was actually shipped and that the tracking was fake. He offered to “reship” even though he had already said he had no stock. At that point, I asked for a refund.

Here’s where it gets worse.

The seller told me that to get a refund, I had to select a buyer-fault reason (like “changed my mind” or “item not to my liking”) instead of the real reason — that the seller never shipped the item. He said this was “their regulation” and that I must choose these reasons to follow guidelines (total gargabe).

I refused, because:

1. They never shipped anything
2. I wasn’t going to lie so a scammer could avoid consequences

The seller then yelled at me, cursed me out, and told me to shut up in Alibaba messages.

I escalated the case to Alibaba support. After about a week and a half of back-and-forth, Alibaba finally sided with me and issued a full refund.

So yes — I got my money back.

But here’s the real problem:
The seller is still active. The item is still listed. I can add it to my cart right now.

Even after:

• Fake tracking
• Admitting the item was never shipped
• Abusive messages
• Alibaba ruling in my favor

Nothing happened to the seller.

This tells me Alibaba does not seriously enforce their own rules. They allow scammers to stay on the platform as long as money keeps flowing. Getting a refund doesn’t mean the problem is fixed — it just means the next buyer becomes the next victim.

If you’re thinking about ordering from Alibaba:

• Be extremely cautious
• Assume tracking can be fake
• Document everything
• Don’t expect Alibaba to remove bad actors

At least I got my money back, but the experience showed me that Alibaba is perfectly okay hosting scammers.