Changing Expected delivery date and other annoying eBay problems

[mark88880]

I have let it go many times, particularly when I thought I was helping a small home business during lockdown. Lately, its appearing much more common, probably due to my increasing purchase of home office and hardware items and for those items, the rise of drop shipping, sellers clearly lying about item locations and Ebay's tolerance of it .

I frequently buy items disclosed as located in China and that's fine, since I can base my purchasing decision and price on real information.

In recent months, in relation to alleged local items, I've come to realise the extent of seller dishonesty about item locations and delivery delays, e.g. item disclosed as located in Sydney or Melbourne, doesn't arrive after 3 - 4 weeks, you enquire with seller, Ebay postpones estimated delivery date (presumably because of something the seller did) and you get an answer from the seller like:

Covid related delays. Please be patient.

or

Your item is in a sortation facility. Please be patient.

or

Please ask the Fastway (sic) to check it for you.

or (my favourite for an alleged local item)

The delivery of the order may get procrastinated due to the arrangement and process from the local authorities.

or (close second)

Inbound international deliveries in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia may be delayed due to a covid – 19 disruption at our Melbourne Gateway facility. Would you mind waiting for it?

You look at the tracking information and see an entry from about the date of your purchase like "Your shipping information has been submitted" or "your item is in a sortation facility" and nothing further for weeks. That item's on its way from China, right?

In the meantime, I've had Chinese items (Ebay and non Ebay) and US Amazon items arrive in 10 days and interstate Amazon items arrive next morning after an evening purchase. The delayed items are mostly things I could buy same day at Bunnings or Officeworks. I want to support small local business and it would be nice if Ebay fixed the problem, but otherwise, what do you think I'm going to do?

[mark88880]

Because I came here yesterday after purchasing over 1,000 items (including a car) on Ebay over 20 years, with 100% positive feedback, trying to fix a problem, which many other seem to be having and which is becoming more and more common, clearly coinciding with the increasing prevalence of drop shipping. You dullards who are basically saying - "well  %$#$ off then" don't get it. My preference would have been to stay. All I asked was that EBay enforce listing page information accuracy.

I received a few useful comments, but mostly just attempts to stifle the criticism - perhaps from drop shippers, perhaps just from people who are the type who come to a meeting with nothing to contribute save for dropping a fart and think they're clever.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

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@mark88880 wrote:

Your comment doesn't make sense. You say yourself that the seller claiming the items as local could be anywhere, i.e. not necessarily registered in China. Also, I don't understand the assumption that I'm referring in all cases to a China registered seller. As I stated, I'm actually having less trouble with Chinese sellers who disclose they and the item are in China, than with sellers (who could be either Australia or China registered) who claim the item is local. I suspect the difference is that the Chinese seller is sending immediately and directly. I suppose my issue is a realisation of the extent to which local sellers drop shipping Chinese items dominates Ebay  now, at least for the items I mostly buy, hardware.

I came here today for the first time (with 670+ 100% positive purchaser feedback) looking for information on an issue I've been having repeatedly. I found a thread on it where others have raised the same issue at regular intervals over a several year period, indicating its not resolved. I commented, the thread was immediately closed and I received criticism and personal insults. On other forums, people get cross if you don't search and use an existing thread. My suspicion is that here, drop shippers now dominate and unhappy purchasers are not welcome. So be it, my future new item purchases will be retail, Amazon or Banggood, depending on urgency. I've had none of these problems there. I might stay here for used, but Gumtree is actually better for that.

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I don't see how my comment doesn't make sense. A seller can put any location they like when they create a listing, regardless of where they are in the world. I have seen listings saying the item is in Timbuktu, or beyond the black stump. It is a free text option when creating the listing, so you can put whatever you like.

I have bought from some awesome Chinese sellers over the years. All have said the items are in their location in China, and I expected the items to be sent from China. However, the Chinese are the ones who misrepresent item location the most. They love to say the item is in Darwin, or Sydney, or Chullora, or even Botany (both being suburbs of Sydney), so buyers will think they are buying local. Yet, the items are being sent from overseas.

If you are mostly buying hardware, may I suggest Bunnings or Mitre 10. At least you can see what you are buying.

Oh, mentioning that you have 100% for feedback as a buyer, that's all you can have. Buyers can only received positive feedback, so saying you have 100% really means nothing.

As for the thread being closed, it probably had a lot to do with it being an old thread. Ebay information changes constantly, so digging up old threads can give out the wrong information to new people who may be seeking help. Trust me, I was reading up lots of old threads when I first came to this group and could have very easily landed myself in hot water. I stopped reading after 3 years ago. It was pointless. Also, it's the moderators that lock the threads, nothing to do with the people here. No one here has the power to lock threads (unless I'm missing something!!!).

[mark88880]

You are missing something, but I'm not going to explain it in an open post.

Anyway, more constructively, I don't understand how I find myself arguing with you, because I  agree with basically all you say. What I seem to be not getting across is that my problem is not with (honest) Chinese sellers; it's with locals selling things that aren't local.

Also, you don't have to believe me, but my feedback really is 100% positive, i.e. I have never received a negative feedback in 20 years and I was here in the days when sellers could leave negative feedback. Weren't the days of retaliatory feedback great (not)? In any case, I sell things too, I'm just not a business.

[sugar249]

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@mark88880 wrote:

it's with locals selling things that aren't local.

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If we went by this,   there would be no (or very few), items on Ebay or any sales platform, or any shops really.  Australia doesnt manufacture much ourselves anymore. So 90% of what you buy from locals be it online or Bricks and Mortar, is not local.

[mark88880]

Reading comprehension levels these days! I said aren't. Present tense! As in not currently, when advertised, local! Nothing to do with country of origin. As I have said clearly in my posts, I have no problem with made in China.

[davewil1964]

I thought you were leaving. Why does it matter? You claim you won't buy here in the future, so your continued posts about things that are now irrelevant to you are, at best, spam. At worst, not spam. Something about bridges.

[****pro****]

Unfortunately with Covid, eBay has extended ETA's for items , That is a good thing for legiit Aussie sellers as it minimizes the "where's my item" , however, The downside has been the increase in these bogus claims of items being in Australia when they are being drop shipped out of Hong Kong. 

These BOGUS "Aussie" sellers are not receiving the barage of negative feedback they deserve that  "outs" them for not shipping from Australia that would have been seen in their feedback pre-covid.

The easiest  "Tell" is sellers listing the item location as "AU, Australia" or "Australia, Australia".

Another easy tell is by Clicking on their feedback profile to see if they are registered in Australia.

The not so easy is those that are supposedly registered in Australia and have item locations as "Sydney, Australia" or "Melbourne, Australia" or even obscure locations like "North Yunderup, Australia" or "Swan Bay, Australia" .  These are generally friends, family or even paid for IDs to make the story more believable or they could actually be in Australia but the item is not and they are just drop shipping.

The most fool proof give away that the item is being drop shipped is that there will not be an option for Aust Post Express for items that can clearly be shipped by that method should you so wish. A legit Aussie seller would have no problem shipping via Express Post as long as you were prepared to pay the extra. A non-legit does not have the facility to offer that as the drop shipping method they use to connect to the Postal network here in Australia does not facilitate it

Here are 3 examples of "bogus" Australian located items . 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/393518193619

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/334151033105

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/393630000754

Ebay are not interested in policing this sort of thing unfortunately and members have to report for eBay to look into it.

In some instances, such as when location says "Australia, Australia" you can report item using directly from description  Report Item>Listing Practices>Other Listing Practices>Item Location Misrepresentation then writing There is no suburb as "Australia".in Australia. Seller is using 3PL drop shipping out of Hong Kong"  , Ebay will then investigate

In the other  instances, it is impossible to report even though you can tell.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

I give up. You simply don't get it and I'm not going to try any more. You said you were leaving ebay. It sounds like it's the best thing you can do. Be sure to come back and tell us how you get on with the other platforms.

[springyzone · Accepted solution]

I agree with you completely. I also have no problem buying from a seller who is upfront about listing where an item is located eg Chinese seller and item listed as coming from China. I don't buy from China often but haven't had trouble with Chinese sellers.

But this business of some sellers lying about location is a constant problem on ebay. The fact is, item location is right there in the listing when you open an ad but buyer registration is not. Sure, if you click to check feedback etc you'll find it but in my opinion it is time ebay started to list seller registration right next to item location in the listing.

From my point of view, I would rather support a local business where the owner is also local. But buyers then could make their own choice. Of course it wouldn't solve the problem of whether the seller is lying but it would be a heads up to double check feedback.

I'd like it even more if seller registration and item location had to match. If a Chinese seller had a warehouse in Aust, they could presumably get a worker in Aust to do their listings.

The main thing for you though is if an item doesn't arrive in time and you suspect the seller is a liar about item location, don't put up with the rot, go straight into an official ebay claim, get a refund. And if/when the item arrives weeks later, too bad, let the seller lose out. Consequences might help such a seller to set a more honest ETA in future and you can often pick a lie about location if the ETA is months away.

[springyzone · Accepted solution]

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@mark88880 wrote:

All of this is just telling me to buy my new items elsewhere. It seems simple, if I want to buy a hardware or office product produced overseas (what isn't these days) but located here when I buy it, I can buy that direct from retail, another platform or a seller I had a good experience with on Ebay. Why would I do that through Ebay if I can't rely on the listing page information and could be waiting a month for the item to save a couple of $?

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The information isn't actually telling you to buy all your items elsewhere.

But what you can take away from it is that there are certain categories of items that are better bought elsewhere.

IMaybe office equipment/supplies is one of those categories, I don't know as I haven't bought much in that area except thimblettes recently and they were definitely local (as in from Australia).

I am pretty sure quite a few of the other boardies here would add some other categories to that list-things such as phones, electronics, anything where you need a proper guarantee. Not that they can't be bought safely on ebay, just that you need to exercise extreme caution  and maybe choose a reputable retailer.

It may be you will need to take your office supply business elsewhere but ebay might still be good for other things you might be interested in. I have found it is still a good place for quality second hand goods, local spices, home made items etc. Often when you read those types of ads, they will tell you where they are based in the actual ad, they are proud of their businesses. 

So don't write off ebay completely.

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