Is alibaba.com Safe?

The site is secure, without any doubt. Basically I am quite inspired by Jack Ma and what he has done to the world. He is a visionary like Elon Musk but in another sphere and it's not sur[rising he is one of the richest men in the world. Retail & e commerce has never been so developed before in my opinion. Of course, the merit also goes to Jeff Bezos, but if it's about Alibaba Group then it's only about Jack Ma. I love how they approach global, B2B trade and exchange of goods.

A supplier on Alibaba violated the terms of our shipping agreement by adding and trying to hide extra fright charges that should have been included on the freight we already paid for. We weren't too worried though as we had paid through Trade Assurance. Costing us quite a bit extra. Unfortunately we experienced that even after supplying clear evidence that we were scammed, Alibaba decided to side with the supplier. We have talked to others as well, and they all confirm that Trade Assurance will always side with the supplier. It's completely useless, and maybe a scam in itself.

I have unfortunately decided to trade on Alibaba.com. I placed an order with them and paid by TT, but the order was closed. To win the time I placed a new one and paid via Visa Card. Regardless the torture I've been through with the new order, that's not delivered until now while it ,supposedly, has been shipped expressly with Aramex. The lady on the chat or the sales manager, refused to approve the order and asked for 56USD more, for shipping. Why? Cuz they are willing to ship via Air and not via Sea lol!! That's what she said. She does not speak English and it is obvious she is using some translator, but whatever!! I paid the extra fees so my order gets through, and after a month and until now, I still did not receive that Air Express Shipment! Anyway, back to the closed order that I paid via TT, I asked them to reopen it if possible but they refused due to their polices. I, then, asked for a refund. They said contact the Supplier. I knew the nightmare that was waiting for me, by having to contact the Supplier as she does not speak English. Long story short, after a week, she has finally contacted Alibaba and they have obviously confirmed that she has to create a new order of the amount where I can request a refund. I did request a full refund of 207USD, and got only 177USD. 30USD were deducted for handling fees, what handling!?? This is a refund request!! They even lied and said this deduction was implemented by your bank. I therefore contacted my bank (Commerzbank.de) and they replied by a bank statement via post, where it shows that the deposit for this refund was originally 177USD from Hong Kung. This is a big evidence about their lie that the bank is behind this deduction! I did not mind paying 56USD extra for lolly Air Shipping bla bla, but I extremely mind the 30USD deduction fees which is for nothing. It is not acceptable at all!! They refused to give me back the 30USD after all the attempts. Therefore, I will file a case with the consumers rights EU. Try to find another trading platform, this is my advice.