Online Shopping Reviews

Founded in November 2011, FTCline.com is very young in the business of selling fashion products internationally. Yet with a diverse selection of fashionable stuff offered at competitive prices, the company is gaining attention from global buyers quickly. This post is a summary of the findings from my own personal research on the site. Hope it helps those who want to confirm the legitimacy of the store or to learn about their pros and cons.

 

What do they offer?

Like Milanoo.com, FTCline.com is an online fashion retailer based in China. Wedding & events, special occasion dresses, women’s shoes, cosplay & costumes, sexy lingerie, swimsuits and anime pillows (for adults) are their major fields. In particular, the vast array of anime pillows they carry deserve a good look.

 

How about their prices?

I compared the prices between FCTline and similar sites like Lightinthebox.com, Milanoo.com, Dinodirect.com or Aliexpress.com. Honestly, I didn’t find any evident pricing advantage from the products available at the store although they are in fact quite competitive on the global market. Let’s take the prices for wedding dresses as an example.

• FTCline.com: $69.99—$215.99 (see details)
• Lightinthebox.com: $79.99—$999.00 (see details)
• Milanoo.com: $49.99—$441.99 (see details)
• Dinodirect.com: $27.69—$400.99 (see details)
• Aliexpress.com: $23.99—$22,900.00 (see details)

Comparatively, the luxury wedding dresses available at FTCline.com are cheaper than the rest. Whatever type of wedding dress you are looking for, I would personally suggest you browse all these sites to find the best style as well as the best deal instead of sticking to one supplier only. It is time-consuming but definitely worthy.

 

Which payment methods do they accept?

As they indicate on their site, Paypal is their accepted way to make the payment. This is good as Paypal is a widely acknowledged as a safe and trusted payment method. More specifically, you can use Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express), Debit Card, or E-check through Paypal to pay for items purchased there. In the case that you encounter a scam, you can report the case to Paypal for an unbiased ruling or to your credit card company for a chargeback. That way you can better protect your money.

 

Are they reliable?

Days ago I posted an article introducing how to avoid FTCline scams. Based on my findings, the company does exist and do serious business with buyers around the world. Their office addresses are real and their live chat operators do answer my questions, in a friendly and professional way. From my tests, they seem to be quite helpful.

However, I noticed that they’ve posted the logo of the website security authority McAFee Secure while  it is actually not clickable. This may mean that they are not really protected by the latter. Based on my knowledge, many small online Chinese suppliers simply copy such logos from more reputable websites such as Lightinthebox.com, Dinodirect.com or Aliexpress.com without getting truly verified by the authorities. They are doing so trying to enhance their company images and to strengthen customers’ confidence in doing business with them. On the other hand, this may simply be caused by the fact that their update on their site is delayed due to a lack of manpower while their website security is really verified on a daily basis. For instance, the other day I noticed that their Norton Secured logo (powered by VeriSign) was not clickable but when i tried it again just now, it worked pretty well.

 

The Verdict

Although FTCline.com is not highly recommended as they are not widely known yet among global customers and their credibility turns out to be a little weak, they can be used as an alternative to shopping for cheap fashion products from China. They are not as professional as the big names but not necessarily a scammer, either. They are small but may have the stuff of your desire at prices you are happy with. If you do see something you are interested in there, just give it a try.

Please note that this FTCline review is completely based on my personal research. I never buy anything from the site so I don’t know exactly how they are in terms of product quality. Anyway, I did try their checkout process and it worked quite OK for me. Also, I tested chatting with a few service sales people there and was satisfied with their help. If you find any errors in the review or misrepresentation of the company here, please drop me a line in the comment box below.

Is FTCline.com a legitimate company?

Every time when I decide to write a review of an online store, I try my best to find out whether it is legitimate or not first. I discovered a long list of job offers posted by the FTCline.com at Zhaopin.com, one of the most famous job hunting websites in China. From the positions they are advertising, I rest assured that they are a truly online store for international trading.

Their head office is located in Fengchenhaiyue Plaza, a well-known building in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Considering that scammers usually disappear overnight after they take our money away and do not stay at the same place for a long time, especially not at a place for which they have to pay high renting rates, I believe FTCline is legit.

Unfortunately I didn’t find any phone number on their contact page although they do provide live chat service. Based on my knowledge, if a legitimate Chinese international online shop does not indicate a phone number on their site, being short of service representatives to answer the phones should be the major reason. As a private corporation with about 100 employees, it is more than reasonable for the store use live chat, Skype and email only to provide customer service. When they grow to a higher level in the future, like some mature China-based shopping websites do, they may provide phone call support.

On the other hand, most Chinese online shops don’t provide customer support by phone call simply because their service people are not good at English listening. This may cause many unnecessary misunderstandings and as a result the issues or inquiries of the customers will not be handled properly or efficiently. Instead, live chat or emails can help the service representatives understand and handle their customers’ need in an accurate way as they are generally proficient in reading or writing English. For instance, even the most famous Chinese online fashion stores like Lightinthebox.com or Milanoo.com don’t provide phone number for customer service.

I also noticed that the store is certificated as an Upfront Merchant, which further proves that they do exist.

Continue reading How to Avoid FTCline Scams?

Confusing Store Name

When you see the website domain name, you may, like me, think that it is definitely a wholesale website, no matter what it sells. However, the site states clearly in its company info introduction: ”wholesale4ever.com is a B2C e-Commerce website serving Chinese sellers and global buyers.” This is really confusing! I was wondering how the Wholesale4ever.com staff could use such a weird name while the site is intended for retail business. The only explanation is: they are not professional.

Anyway, today on the Chinese international e-commerce arena, it is very common for websites to do wholesale and retail business at the same time. Many famous online shops do this way too: Lightinthebox.com, Dinodirect.com, Milanoo.com, Chinavasion.com, Focalprice.com, to name just a few. The only difference is: they won’t use such a confusing domain name or store name for their business! If I were the boss of Wholesale4ever.com, I would at least revise the company description in order not to mislead potential buyers.

Legitimate or A Scammer?

I searched Google as well as Baidu (the biggest Chinese search engine) for related information about Wholesale4ever but found almost nothing. The site is ranked globally 2,463,050 at Alex, which means it is a small site with few visits. Like Fangtrade.com (click to see review), it should be owned by an individual businessman instead of a company, if it is legitimate.

Based on my research, Wholesale4ever has set up a store at Aliexpress.com, the famous Chinese international trading platform connecting countless suppliers and buyers. This further proves that the site is an individual-owned shopping website. In China, such websites can be found everywhere. While a few of them are scammers selling nothing or crap quality products to steal people’s money, most are doing serious business with global buyers by offering products whose quality is worth or even exceeds the pricing.

Continue reading Wholesale4ever.com Review: Wholesaler or Retailer?