“Is DHgate.com a scam website?”, “Is DHgate legit?”, “Is DHgate a trusted site?” — I noticed that some people were asking the same questions on the Internet. As always, safety is the biggest concern for online shopping, especially for cross-border online transactions. I hope my illustration below can help clear your doubts—if you are one of those who asked the question.
1. As an officially registered wholesale company based in Beijing, DHgate has been serving global buyers and sellers worldwide since 2004. A scam company can’t have been existing for such a long time.
2. By far, the page rank of DHgate’s website has grown to 6. As we know, Google will never credit an illegal website with such a high page rank. Also, when you search for “wholesale” or “China wholesale” in Google, you will see DHgate ranks top on the first search result page. This means Google has recognized the huge traffic and authenticity of DHgate—Google tends to place the most-matching websites with the search terms at the top of all related search results.
3. DHgate used to be the PayPal’s largest client in the Asia-Pacific region. Unfortunately, they terminated the cooperation with Paypal in 2012. Anyway, the site provides a wide range of payment options for customers from different countries or regions. Besides, they have developed a payment system of their own called DHpay, just like the famous Chinese online payment solution provider Alipay. In particular, we encourage you to consider credit card to make the payment there to best protect your interest.
4. As a transaction platform, DHgate has an Escrow buyer protection system. All payments made by buyers are not sent directly to individual sellers’ accounts. Instead, DHgate holds the payments until buyers confirm that they have received the orders and are happy with them. So you when buy items on DHgate, you can be confident that your money will not be taken without getting the order you place. Also, if you are not happy with the order received and you open a dispute against the transaction, DHgate will not release the payment to the seller until the dispute is solved between you and the seller.
5. I myself worked for DHgate as soon as I graduated with my M.A degree. My working experience there was really amazing and I met lots of friendly and hard-working people there. Even though I quit the company two years ago for personal reasons, I am always willing to tell the true stories about them for those who are interested in using the site for shopping but concerned about issues like safety. Even now I am still keeping close touch with some old colleges who are still working there. I can tell you that this company is definitely not a scammer and I would be more than happy to share every detail about them as long as it is not beyond my experience or knowledge. Nevertheless, when you decide to shop at DHgate.com, do remember to do some research on the sellers. That way you can avoid dishonest sellers or scammers and find the best suppliers to cooperate with in the long run. Checking the feedback profiles of the sellers is one of the key approaches, just to remind you.
Actually, a close look into the complaints about DHgate on the Internet shows that, the most “DHgate scam” comments came out simply because of misunderstandings. Below is a very typical example I’ve found from the discussions about DHgate:
Many buyers mistake DHgate as a seller who sells and ships purchase orders to buyers. Some complained that DHgate sent items in wrong sizes, colors or styles. It was a huge mistake. DHgate is a transaction platform, aChina wholesale site for small and medium sized merchants, bridging millions of global buyers and Chinese sellers or manufacturers. They do not send orders to buyers themselves. Instead, they provide information and transaction service to both buyers and sellers. That also explains why you are able to get the lowest prices for the items you want—when you buy a certain item, you can find the lowest price from the perfusion of sellers.
I believe that, as a rising e-commerce star in China, DHgate.com should value its credibility very much. Their services may need improvements in some aspects, but they can’t be scammers. Here I should remind you that, when you shop on DHgate, you need to check carefully the credibility of the seller from the seller’s feedback profile. Also, always remember to contact the seller to make sure the item has all the specifications or functions as described. These two actions will greatly reduce your risk shopping there.
There may be a better way of dealing with sites like DHGate. Only buy brand name items from sellers with a good reputation (check to see if the comments are written by native English speakers otherwise don’t trust them). Many brands are made in China so if they are willing to sell direct (they probably aren’t and very well may be a copy though!) you might save some money.
I’d be curious if any of you have been successful in buying name brands from them and if they seemed legitimate.
I’m very curious about the comments here. Almost every single one is written very much like it was machine translated. Or are 99% of North Americans now failing all their English classes in secondary school? Are they written by DHGate competitors? I’ve never bought anything on the site but after a few seconds there its obvious they sell typical garbage from China that will break after a few hours of use. Will China never learn? Will consumers never learn? Think of this: They’ve been making stuff for decades that we’ve been buying. Besides cell phones I challenge you to name ONE SINGLE COMPANY FROM CHINA. Can you? There are no name brands! That means 9999/10000 companies that start there fold after a few years after their bad reputation catches up with them – then they start a new company – a fresh start with an unsullied reputation. Its the classic pump and dump business motto. The people from China are generally very sharp but lack wisdom in this area. Its probably from working a 7 day work week where your brain gets clouded from no reflection on your own life.
a lot of scammers in dh gate? it should be closed and take down since they victimize the public….complaints should be filed for its closure it jeopardizes the public sine it is a platform where scammers fester and the innocent public are lured..t
DHgates is a BIG scam the sellers stills your money and will not send out your order
I’m sad to read all the negative comments. I’ve spent a lot of money. I read most of the reviews on DHGate before I bought and all seemed okay is the reason why I went a head. I’m currently waiting for 10 orders. Five have so called tracking numbers that don’t seem to work yet. It’s been several days and the other 5 show they have not shipped yet. I’m very concerned that I’m going to lose my money on this website. I will get back here later to let everyone know how it went. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed after reading these comments. I should have known better since I majored in business in college. “Caveat emptor” means “Buyer Beware.” This is true with any purchase, so the onus is always on the buyer to check out their prospective sellers before they procure. I didn’t do this because I had a friend that said it was legit. Wish I would have not followed my gut after reading all of this.
It says up there somewhere,
“Actually, a close look into the complaints about DHgate on the Internet shows that, the most “DHgate scam” comments came out simply because of misunderstandings.”
lololololololololol hahahahaha Yeah! Because DHgate Customer Service staff doesn’t UNDERSTAND anything! And they cause all the misunderstandings! ……. and then disrespect you over it.
And I don’t even trust this site! Read that explanation of why they are so trustworthy. That is not an independent 3rd party named ‘Dan’ writing that. It is DHgate writing about themselves. Read # 3 it says “we encourage you” … to use this method. That is not ‘Dan’.
Also, most sellers are actually DHgate themselves, that’s why poblems with those sellers are ignored.
Also, this may sound paranoid but it’s not. In fact, it is true – Their is a national agenda in China to win against the west, most Chinese look down on us, have little respect for westerners. It’s all about getting our money because we are dumb and they can outsmart us. DON’T BE DUMB. Try to buy and sell local, look for manufacturing spaces in need and start local manufacturing. Support artist’s and service businesses and let DHgate keep all it’s JUNK.
They pissed off the wrong person!
Just adding my vote. I’m a higher level buyer, been trying DHgate for around 18 months now. I am veraciously seeking other options. This company does not deserve your time. I like the way Bonita said it, just look at their responses here. They select who to answer and who not to answer and then when they do, they are clueless and robotic. But they treat people terribly, while acting polite and caring, it’s so obnoxious, immature and brain numbing.
I do disagree with her guess at why she has had less trouble thogh. Finding apparent good sellers does not help! As they try to confirm in their response. In fact my experience makes a grwat example….. I contacted them with a problem about a purchase, that’s exactly what they told me, “oh, next time try to choose seller’s with good ratings and ‘verified’ or ‘dh star seller’ or whatever. LMAO First, why? what are you saying? Most of your sellers are no good and can’t be trusted? lol joke…. But that’s not even the worst part; the seller in question was 99.8% with every logo possible showing DHgate support, lol. (1. how did we get through this and YOU DON’T KNOW THAT! omg, and (2. it obviously means nothing since I did that and I’m here with a problem! … Nothing more to say, tx for shopping at DHgate, goodbye. lmao please DHgate, GET HELP!!!! Like from a doctor kind of help!
Hi Guy’s,
I am very happy that I read this site before I purchased my stuff from dhgate.
Thank you all for saving me from money lost and most important the frasturation !!!!!
Olga
After I made a few small transactions with the credit card, they blocked my card for no reason.
To unblock the card, they are asked photograph of my credit card from both sides!!!
Plus personal information !!
unbelievable.
I do not know if they want to steal MY credit card information or the details of MY identity, or both.
MY CARD IS GOOD AND VALID.
IT took 2 months of constant request and fighting lies and excuses to get refunded for something that never worked. It has now been more than 90 days since both the seller and alleged mediator promised in writing multiple times to pay the $271AUD return postage. All requests are ignored in every instance and they never ever reply to any emails. If they contact you it’s always days after they promise and never acknowledge anything you have said. All questions are ignored. They also use an app that goes through google contacts to see who you contact and how often to determine whether they can rip you off. The app is not verified by google and there is no other way to contact them. Scum. Absolute scum. If the $271AUD is not returned this week it will go to every possible outlet ( the emails and chats promising payment ) This is the most dishonest company i have ever dealt with. DO NOT BUY FROM THESE SCAMMERS…. they initially even told me I live too far away and of course the product would fall apart and break by the time it got to Australia. I must know a lot about how to fix it. Then it caught on fire after just a few hours of use.
Hi Alesha,
We understand that you are upset, please send us the order number and contact our live chat service through this link for real time assistance: http://www.dhgate.com/contact/contactUs.do
The delivery time of the package will depend on the processing time given to the seller to prepare the items after the payment is confirmed as well as the shipping time of the courier you’ve selected.
Please do not hesitate to contact us through the following link if you have any questions.
Regards,
Sil
DHgate Customer Service Center
Hi B,
Please tell us more about your concern and send us the order number so that we can check the order details for us to see how we can assist you in getting a resolution. We are committed to giving a refund as long as our refund process is followed.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate in chatting with us by clicking on ‘Online Chat’ from our Customer Service page: http://www.dhgate.com/contact/contactUs.do
Sincerely,
Sil
DHgate Customer Service