I bought a screen from a supplier on Alibaba and while the screen works, it has two faults, neither of which the supplier was prepared to do anything about. It is to be mounted on a Brateck TV wall swivel mount bracket (LPA16-224) so the back of the screen is flush with the wall and it can be swivelled out to face the user in the kitchen. Other apps can also be installed on the RPi 4 and have been.
The power cord supplied is illegal in Australia not having the live and neutral pins partially sheathed. I haven’t encountered this before with Chinese suppliers on other platforms but this supplier claims to have no knowledge of this requirement.
The second fault is the USB socket which provides for the capacitive screen feed to the RPi. The socket is so loose that when the screen moves, the USB plug moves and is disconnected. It has also dropped out of the socket. The solution offered by the supplier was to bend the socket to tighten it up. Needless to say, I was appalled at this suggestion.
I lodged a dispute which rendered no solutions or recompense for the faults. Below is my feedback to Alibaba after the the dispute was terminated;
I> will never use Alibaba again and will recommend to the few hundred thousand members not to either.
I provided evidence of two glaringly obvious faults; a loose faulty USB port and an illegal power cable. The supplier did not offer anything to fix these problems, instead telling me to buy a power cable and bend, yes BEND, the USB port to tighten it up. Why should I need to buy something to replace a faulty supplied item? The bending of the port did not work so I am left with a USB from which the USB cable falls out or loses contact.
I uploaded three videos, a zipped Word document, a written submission and the Alibaba web page said they uploaded. I uploaded on three separate occasions but Sunny has said I did not offer any evidence. He also said I did not respond to the supplier’s offers, both of which are untrue.
Not only was/is Sunny totally incompetent, he seems to have great difficulty in understanding simple English. I would label him/her as an imbecile who should not be working in that area.
The Alibaba web pages are difficult to use, hard to navigate, unclear about the products, and look to be designed by a 10 year old. Alibaba does not hold suppliers to account for faulty products and is a totally unsatisfactory medium through which to do business.
When I tried to cancel the purchase, the supplier, essentially, blackmailed me into proceeding because a “shipping cost” even though I was not advised the item had been shipped. I was also offered a $25 discount if I proceeded.
It is this $25 that Sunny has awarded as compensation for the faults, but it has nothing to do with the dispute I raised. Alibaba has only protected the supplier and does not care anything about the consumer left with a faulty product on which I must spend money to fix. The supplier offered a refund if I returned it but excluded the shipping costs, so I would be further out of pocket.
Alibaba is a sham and a scam, and I will having nothing to do with your shonky company ever again.
I wanted to share this abysmal experience to help others avoid mine.