The fact is, many of these supposed Aussie sellers are actually in China. The order is sent to China and the seller sends the items from China. I complained to Ebay on 3 occasions. more than 6 to 12 months apart and they answered with "That should never be happening" and "We will act immediayely" Nothing ever happened.
We have sellers in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China all pulling the same stunt. If you ask them where they're based they answer an entirely different question (Play Dumb) A few Chinese sellers do have outlets in various places around Australia and you're right, Chullora is a popular place. Many of these sellers have multiple IDs. One who said he ran a warehouse in Darwin had at least 10 IDs that I found. I gave them all to Ebay and nothing happened.
I believe you're also right about drop shipping. A Chinese person (never an Aussie) runs a business from home and holds a lot of smaller items as stock. If he runs out of an item or something listed isn't in his stash he tells China to send it over. This is where the complaints come from. Look at his Negatives, sometimes 4- or 50 per month and you'll see "He's not in Australia" but look at the postive feedback and you'll see the "Very fast deliveries" True Aussie sellers are almost extinct because of these sellers. The Chinese cheaters can undercut their prices all day and the Aussie can't hope to get anwhere near them.
I've spent many hours trying to find items actually within Australia, but with many in my area of buying are Chinese or some other Asian country. I believe Ebay is being told by these people that they have genuine warehouses in Chullora etc. That's why we're not paying GST when we buy from them. Of course they don't mention a lot of their sales are coming from China. I'm no Einstein and I know this, Ebay must know it as well, but they know if they close them down they'll re-register in China and start again PLUS and yes it's a big plus, have you seen the 5 figure sales they've made and of course Ebay is happy to let them operate.
I believe the only way to fight back is to do it en-masse. It needs a lot of us to let Ebay know our Aussie sellers are being puit out of business. The biggest problem with this is Aussies aren't the types who get together in these instances. They're pefectly happy to see us lose our sellers get taken over by other nationalities. Personally I think it stinks, but I've tried and nothing happened. By the way, try to find one of these sellers who doesn't have at least 5 figure sales. They always pop up with a heathy sales record ???
Who else has found a seller who boasts an Aussie, US and UK address and registred in China. I've heard from a reliable source that big Chinese sellers in China are reruiting Chinese immigrants to sell for them. It appears logical and from what I've seen it's very likely. Whilst they would be seen as Aussie sellers, everything is OK. I just had a fight you wouldn't believe with one of them, A camera which was had major issues with it's sensor, brand new and I asked for a refund. He pulled every trick in the book to put me off, but just on principle I refused to back down. $3 refunds became $6 refunds, a full refund if I was willing to wait 15 days. Why would an Aussie seller have to wait 15 days to pay a refund? Judging by his sales he wasn't broke.
These days I do everything, including paying more if the person is registered in Australia, but at times no Aussie is selling what I'm after. Rather than support these cheating sellers I'll go direct to China to buy it. Ay exactly the same price as the local cheater.
One final thing. Don't expect this to stop, but I'm betting on a big price hike once they've got rid of all Aussie sellers of New Chinese goods. It has to happen, I've been dealing with Chinese sellers for 23 years. They will do anything to make more money and once one does it the rest follow suit. Exactly what happened across China in January of last year and has been going on ever since.
