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?

[repentatleisure1952]

I have not experienced this.

However I do look at feedback to see where the seller is registered & then make a decision.

[mark88880]

So do I , but what if:

The item listing says "located in Sydney".

The feedback page says seller is registered in China, but also "nearly all our products are sent from our local warehouse in Sydney or Melbourne".

The estimated delivery date is BS.

You're still waiting weeks later for an item to get to you in Sydney from Sydney.

Don't believe these sellers, i.e. assume a China based seller will be delivering from there?  Isn't that a bit unfair to truthful sellers?

[padi*0409]

Chinese registered seller + truthful = Very large handful of salt.

[mark88880]

Agreed, but how do I know that an Australian registered seller is actually Australian if I can't believe the information on Ebay? The Ebay policy seems to say its ok for me to have something delivered to you from China, if I have an arrangement with the supplier. Isn't it then very important that my advice about item location is accurate, so you can choose to purchase locally or not?

[davewil1964]

You're comparing apples and oranges.

First you say you look at registration location, then you say location. The bit that says China is likely to be most accurate.

[mark88880]

No. I referred to item location. You referred to registration location. The bit that says China is irrelevant to me. I can't be **bleep**d researching a seller (beyond looking at item location and feedback score on the listing page) for a $5 or $10 purchase. If I can't rely on accuracy of Ebay information, then I won't.

[davewil1964]

The registration information is on the same page as feedback. If the accuracy of that information (if you even access it) isn't worth your attention, then you deserve what go get. Or don't.

eBay provide buyers with tools. If buyers don't use those tools, there is a symmetry.

[mark88880]

Smart - blame the departing customer.

In any case, what you say is misleading. The listing page contains a description of the item, including its location, postage details and the sellers feedback score. If I tunnel down to the seller's store page, I can get a registration location, which means nothing, because you don't need to be in China to sell Chinese products advertised as local.

Ohhh, I just got the hostility to criticism of false item location descriptions, as well as why "local" sellers are posting anonymously (in the sense of without link to their store). Wasting my time here, I'm off.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

A seller can put any item location they like, regardless of where they are registered. I am registered in Australia, but can put the item location as, Sydney, Darwin, New York, Moscow or Kiev. It doesn't mean the item is actually located in any of those locations (which they aren't, as I don't reside in any of them). It's done to trick buyers into thinking they are buying local, when the items are actually being sent from overseas. Most commonly done by Chinese sellers.

As already mentioned, check where the seller is registered and that will give you the best indication of where the item is being sent from. Just because they say the item is being sent from a warehouse in Sydney, usually it means it's not. Maybe 1 out 1,000 might be telling the truth, but most aren't. If you are too lazy to click on a seller's feedback number to see where they are registered, that's on you. It's not like it really takes any extra time out of your day.