Risking Big Money on Bulk Orders from Alibaba... NOT GOOD!

today's video is going to be my second  and third attempt with ordering bulk   slate coasters from overseas and  working with the manufacturer in   a direct relationship for what I  hoped would have been a good result [Music]   everybody my name is Sam welcome back to the  channel this video is one that honestly is   going to start about two months ago bring you all  the way through that process that Saga and up to   today which kind of ends in some disappointment  this is my personal story my personal experience   with ordering large bulk slate coasters off  of Alibaba waiting a long time to get them   and working through some problems today is the  day that I have been working on for many many   months behind the scenes today is the day my bulk  order of slate coasters arrive from overseas it   is time to unbox these did I get what I paid for  are they exactly what I ordered do the samples   match this large quantity of vinyl product  I don't know let's open the box and find out foreign 's over here working on unboxing  everything poor guy let me go ahead and   talk to you and tell you what exactly  we have here so I placed an order for 1   000 slate circular drink coasters the same kind  of things that I've been engraving and selling   through my small business for about the past two  years up until this point and who knows maybe even   after this point I've been purchasing all of  my coasters from Amazon a local quick resource   something that was easy to get smaller quantities  and a little less risky stuff as far as a business   perspective goes having an established engraving  business now for about two years I know that   engraving coasters is going to be one of the  things that I just offer for the foreseeable   future so therefore I figure it's worth my while  to begin Communications find some coasters Source   them directly from the manufacturer and buy  them at the lowest price possible so I can   increase my profit margin and make this more  legitimate business last a long time I did try   and Source these from here in the USA I found zero  manufacturers that make these and then branched   out to Canada and local areas and found nothing  the only place I could find these was China if you   know of a resource in the US for True bulk orders  please let me know down below anytime I can I'd   love to support U.S companies and Manufacturing  or Canada or even Europe nothing against China   per se but they get a lot of the work so it  might as well spread the love around right sure foreign box for last because I figure if any of these  are going to have breaks issues missing pieces   or just problems in general this might be the one  the black tape you see on top of the box is what   I added to it I could barely even get it into  my workshop without it falling apart entirely   so I put the tape on it that way I wouldn't make  a mess didn't spill stuff out and I can keep track   of things better before unboxing it as you can  see it's not the best quality cardboard or King   Kong has thrown this around in the ocean maybe  they ran into Godzilla I don't know but this box   has really seen some action opening it up though  there's not a ton of surprises I'm not met with   a pile of powder that used to be slate coasters  everything looks about the same as all the other   boxes which is good yeah the Slate coasters and  their individual bubble wrap pouches you have   some other various foam bits as far as packaging  and buffering but otherwise it's the same as all   the other boxes this is one of The Coasters I  pulled from the pile that I received today and   this is one of the samples let me unbox or  unbag this one let you see it compare it to   the sample and see if you can see what is already  problem number one all right actual coaster sample see the problem oh yeah none of these coasters  have the rubber feet on the back of them or the   bottom of them all of my samples are ordered have  the rubber feet the product photos had the rubber   feet but when this allotment or shipment or mass  quantity of coasters made it here they don't have   any feet adding insult to injury they give me  the off cut waist pieces from the little feet   in the boxes but no feet so I got the trash from  someone else's feet but not the feet I ordered uh   so that's problem number one problem number  two is a little more nuanced as I was looking   at the boxes and load them in here I saw  that there were marker writings you know   Sharpie writings on the boxes one slash ten  two slash ten and thought okay box number X   out of ten in addition to that the UPS shipping  labels had box one of ten two of ten of all the   boxes I have all box two out of ten is AWOL it  never made it to my house so before I go and   contact the seller before I go and contact UPS  say what's going on I might as well go ahead and   get a count of my coasters see if I have all of  the quantity I ordered and maybe Box 2 of 10 was   just I don't know evaporated not likely but you  know given the benefit of the doubt at least at   that point I'll be able to say I have this many  quantity of coasters whether it be correct or   missing I can also say that I don't have any of  the feet like the samples had the product photos   had and I was totally expecting and then talk  about how you're going to fix it for me [Music]   thank you [Music] all right I have finished that  hour-long process of counting every single one   of The Coasters to find out did I get the  Thousand that I'd ordered and the answer   is no I am short 105 coasters so that means  if I assume by their box labeling X out of   10 and one of those is missing I'm supposed  to have 100 per box which means that one box   that's the hundred as for the other five no  doubt those fell out because these boxes I   did receive arrived busted open that's issue  number one to contact the company over issue   number two is to contact them because none of  these have feet on them just if we think of   the labor time alone the time that I'm gonna  have to put in man hours for sticking three   pads on the bottom of every single one of  these coasters that's a huge amount of work   so that's problem number two I'm gonna talk to  company about problem number three is that the   quality of the edge does not match the samples I  received after looking at all of the ones that I   received picking out random ones here and there  and looking at the samples it's pretty apparent   that someone has taken the time to sand over touch  up and make these samples look really pretty that   is not the same quality that I received with this  order that means that I've either got a cull a   lot of these coasters or yet again spend more  man hours labor touching up the edges sanding   them making them look better so that my customer  in the end gets a product they expect so those   are my three issues as far as breakage I only had  one coaster that was in the pack that was broken   that's pretty amazing so I guess I have a total  of 894 coasters out of a thousand I'm gonna go   ahead and contact the company I'm gonna see what  they say about the missing box see what they say   about the feet and the quality differences and  then go from there I can probably go ahead and   say that I'm going to demand and at least some  sort of a refund if not a complete refund but   let me wait and see what they offer first I'll  gather all that information probably take a day   or two but I'll be right back here to give you  guys the conclusion of this bulk coaster Saga [Music] thank you [Music] what has been months for me has only been  seconds for you guys congratulations you're   on the fun part of this Saga so far but I just  carried in all 10 boxes from my replacement   order the company did decide to just send me  a replacement they didn't try and reimburse   me they didn't try and get me to return part of  it they said you know what you sent the pictures   yep that's totally not what you bought paid for  it's not what we thought we were going to send   you so let's just send you a whole other order  no extra charge just replace it so it's taken   about a month if not a month and a half to get  these in I just carry them in the workshop and   it's time to start opening inspecting and the  most fun part counting from one to a thousand   out of all my boxes this one looks the worst if  any are going to be busted open or problems it's   probably going to be in this one so let's go  ahead and open it up foreign first impression   that looks good we have my items stacked in here  they're all bubble wrapped let's pull one out here I'm already really disappointed wait wait there is feet okay psych okay just a  little foot I was okay I gotta feel better for   the Nubs that's what I thought I did not feel  this is what I didn't have in my first order so   good they actually put the rubber feet on it as  far as quality the profile looks nice and smooth   I can tell that they did sand the edges that  was one of the other complaints of the first   batch and honestly first one out of the box nice  winner winner let's see if I got enough to make a   chicken dinner I'll pick one randomly from down at  the bottom see how this one looks not bad not bad nice clean and smooth face this one does have a  little bit of a chip there you guys can see right   here possibly so not perfect but at least that is  on the bottom the underside of the coaster that's   something I could probably clean up on my own  and honestly if it's that bad I've got extras   to play with and test with I use slate a lot for  testing whether it be different machines different   techniques different finishes different torture  tests it's a video I've been working on for a   couple months now that's coming out very very  soon is a slate torture test this would be one   of those that I put in the torture test pile so  that's okay as long as they're not all like this   it's okay so far all right I think the next thing  honestly for me to do guys is to go through and   count all of these I'm going to get my notebook  out I'm going to make a list of box one through   ten I'm gonna count the quantity of every single  box write it down and then I'm going to inspect   every single coaster in every single box all 1 000  of them and give myself how many are good how many   are bad so I can give myself a percent failure  rate for per box and also for the lot overall   box number one is done my total count was a  hundred so assuming 10 boxes a thousand order 100   per box we're good so far I had 81 that were good  19 that were bad so my percent loss is 19 loss now   I will say this I am being extremely picky I'm not  just sitting the ones that are broken or that look   horrible aside I'm sitting any of the ones that  I would not immediately give to a customer in my   bad pile that doesn't mean some of these are still  not fine to use for customers it just means first   glance as I'm looking if I saw a blemish I saw  something I didn't like put it in the bad pile so   this is my first cut sure if things get tight or  if I really go back and look at them close there's   probably some things that I can fix and finish or  maybe they're not as bad as I originally thought   but my first look 19 failure don't know if it's  good or bad so far but it is my results right now I have here box number 10. it's the  last one I have 10 boxes total this   is one when I opened this one up I was  like huh it's pretty packed tight nice   they did a good job packing this  and so as I went to pull these out something didn't seem right something was amiss  now I'm no expert I don't think but that's not   circular that is not what I ordered and that has  no feet on the back so an entire case of the wrong   product was sent to me and then an entire case  of what I wanted what I ordered never got to   me either so now I have a hundred square coasters  rough cut no feet on the bottom and I don't know I   think I'll stick them up on eBay I guess I don't  have a use for these I don't do Square coasters   I don't have any feet for the bottom of these so I  don't know that's another example how I guess this   company just can't seem to get it right the first  shipment I got was missing a box it never arrived   if I remember right and it did not have any feet  on the bottom and the quality the edge profiles   were really really rough they sent me this  replacement shipment is taken about a month if   not a little bit over to get it it arrived I got  all 10 boxes but one of them is not for my order   so someone out there somewhere did not get their  pack of square coasters with zero feet on the back   I wonder if they got some circular  ones with feet on the back interesting   either way um yeah I'll let me put this up and  I'll think about what I want to say about this all right so at this point you may think if I  haven't said it already um well Sam okay that's   one company try a different one there's many many  companies out there in Alibaba this is actually   the third or fourth one that I've tried I forget  it has been so long with this whole process I   started it probably back in October of last year  and it is April of this year so what is that six   months before I ever placed any large order I got  several samples from companies and for the ones   who sent me samples and they were just wrong I  just didn't do anything with them I'm like if you   can't get the samples right then you're not worth  it at all I went through a couple of those this   company sent me examples they look great so then  I decided okay I'll risk it I'll buy a thousand   coasters and ship them to me got the first order  you guys have seen this it's doing just taking a   dead horse at this point so I don't know I don't  know what I'm gonna do I don't know if I want to   stick with this company I mean outside of the box  that it completely wrong long my average failure   rate was about 24 percent so 24 out of 100 were  not passing to my initial standards my first test   they're still B grade I didn't have any broken  that was good I didn't have any missing their   feet that was good you know exclude this box  that was good um so otherwise quality was good   quality was there workmanship was there it's  just the wrong box was sent so it's like gosh   if I look forward to if I want to work with this  company my next order is going to be like five   to ten thousand order because I don't have that  much volume but my hopes were that I could import   these and I could turn around and sell them to  other makers people watching this video people   who find me on YouTube or just search for bulk  slate coasters and don't want to go through the   hassle of importing them paying import taxes Duty  fees and all of that waiting a month a month and   a half for an order to arrive to then go through  it and quality control and sort I was gonna I was   thinking I could do that for people to offer  a good product in the end but I gotta think   about it because if 10 of my order is lost that  means I've got to incorporate that 10 into either   another order from the company or just eat it or  pass it on to my customers and I just really hate   the thought of that either way this has been my  experience my I guess third experience now with   ordering bulk coasters the first one I did has  been a couple of years back that one went okay   this second one was the first shipment that was  horrible and I guess third could be this one today   here that I've unboxed and everything I'm still  on the fence I don't know if it's worth it or not I'll say this if I was in the market for the round  or Square rough Edge ones like this box that they   sent me that's wrong it's not what I wanted then  I wouldn't go through Alibaba I would just go with   Amazon which is where I've always gone with  for my orders but going for this other design   coaster the one that I've not really seen yet on  Amazon much or at least affordable for us makers   um I don't know maybe it's worth it I don't know  don't know I'm definitely still on the fence I   haven't decided so hey regardless hopefully you  guys enjoyed this hopefully you got to see what   a real life experience was with ordering bulk  from Alibaba or other sources like that how   long it's actually going to take you between  ordering receiving your product what could   possibly go wrong between now and then and  everything of the sort if you guys got any   questions or comments feel free to leave them  for me down below I really enjoy reading your   input and comments and everything so hey if  you got some thoughts type them down there   otherwise hopefully you enjoyed it take care  and I'll see you guys next time in the workshop

Channel: Samcraft

Views: 67,805

Keywords: laser engraving, slate drink coaster, laser engraving slate, samcraft, sam craft, bulk slate coaster, bulk slate coaster order, where to buy slate coasters, where to buy bulk slate coasters, alibaba review, alibaba slate coasters, alibaba laser engraving supplies, laser engraving supplies, laser engraving blanks, smooth slate coaster, smooth slate drink coaster, is alibaba worth it, real life experience with alibaba, importing goods, importing slate coaster, side hustle

Id: EAetQ7y-Jn4

Length: 18min 30sec (1110 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023