Item return to China issue.

[audistarelectronics]

After being awarded a refund for an item not up to scratch, we were instructed to post it to China by Paypal, when we were led to believe it was located in Sydney. On phoning Paypal, we were informed that the item must go to China, as that is the address that they have for the seller, nothing in Sydney. I disputed this, but was told there would be no other option. Paypal said they would pay some money towards the postage, but we would have to cough up upfront and wait to get re imbursed with the refund. We consider this to be an absolute fraud as the seller lied about the item location and they are let get away with it. It was going to cost 70% of the items value to send it to China, so we told Paypal to just forget  and we would give the seller some ''lovely feedback'', which we did.

The seller replied to the feedback by saying that as the item had been used, it must go to China, well, how are we supposed to know it was faulty without at least trying it. What a joke and a shonky seller. My question is, would Fair trading, or the FOS have any juristiction over the seller if their office is offshore? As they are trading in Australia, and saying that stock is held here, surely buyers must have more protection than what we are being dealt out. Paypal has now closed the case because we couldn't afford to post it overseas within the timeframe given, and then just wait until the seller coughed up the refund.

[kopenhagen5]

Unfortunately for you, genuine sellers do have accounts abroad and then stock locally using a warehouse facility that pick n packs for the seller. That means in order to check your allegations of a faulty item it needs to be returned to the seller.

It may also be that at times an original item comes from Sydney but no more are available here so the new supply is from China and the return to China.

I personally am not happy with the behaviour of the Chinese not just on ebay but in many facets of business.

I would have pushed for the refund even if it means some money in your pocket as you won't have any joy by other means being offshore. Even to simply peeve the seller off.

[horizon1907]

You read about your exact situation on here all the time and I feel for you. You are basically caught between a "Rock & a Hard Place" 

Maybe another more knowledgable person may give you the information you need. I really feel that Ebay as the Company, has to do something about this sort of situataion. I personally think, that if you were led to believe that the item was onshore, then, YES, Fair Trading should be informed.  Ebay just basically wipe their hands and says " Computer says No."  

[cq_tech]

At the very least you should report the seller to eBay for "Item Location Misrepresentation". It won't help with your current issue, but it may give you a small measure of personal satisfaction.

[cassie135]

Yep speak to the Office of Fair Trading and here's some info http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/selling-products-and-services/fair-trading/Pages/warranti...

There's too many sellers who claim their item location is in Australia and it's only when you look up their id do you find out the item might be but they are not and it's always the Chinese.

[phorum_junkie*]

When you rang Paypal did you ask to speak to somebody further up the food chain? If you get far enough up the ladder you usually find them much more reasonable. I would try calling again. OFT would probably not be helpful however calmly telling a high level rep that if you do not receive a full refund or at least a domestic address for the return you will be contacting the FSO.