Sellers from overseas pretend to be in Australia

[mdgli]

It is getting worse.

It seems that most items are sold by overseas vendors.

in the located in : it will state a place in Australia but actually the item come from China.

The order will be marked as "posted" while the tracking shows "Shipping information received by Australia Post" yet the actual package shows up at Australia post two weeks later.

In many cases the delivery miss the ETA by far.

As eBay do not sanction against this kind of practices it become the norm.

It come to a situation that you can't really trust the ETA.

[xstumac2]

yup...that's what happens...in the past I have bought plasma cutters etc from china,that arrived in 3 days....If need it in soon now,no ebay,just buy locally.

[xstumac2]

The item will be from "mortlake" or some obscure place,the time for delivery will be 2 weeks (austpost is a lot quicker)....tracking will say tracking number received but nothing has actually happened (its just administrative,if in australia it should move and update after a few days)....it will take up to 7 weeks if you wait (which is fine if you have decided that is ok up front)....seller will play email ping pong with you....best solution is wait till estimated time to arrive has passed,put in a "I did not receive item"....seller is obliged to refund and dishonest sellers will lose money and go away.

[xstumac2]

only way is to make it unprofitable after ETA....put in a did not arrive refund....I use to wait,no longer.

[xstumac2]

the rascals find ways around the feedback through ebays own procedures.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

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@xstumac2 wrote:

that's true...but they have just wasted weeks of buyers time as well as buyer loses confidence in ebay.

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And to think, those wasted weeks could have been saved if you'd only done that one click onto the seller's feedback to 1. see where they were registered, and 2. check what negative feedback had been left. A whopping 5 minutes of time, instead of wasting weeks. 

It's really not hard to find the info you need. One lousy click, yet that seems too hard for so many buyers. 

You mention buying plasma cutters........plural, from China. Why would you buy multiple? Do they fail quickly? We bought our plasma cutter locally from Gasweld, not made in China and were able to take it home on the spot. It freaking ROCKS! No plural, it will definitely see us out. It's built like a brick S house and didn't cost the earth. The same one on ebay is actually a few bucks dearer, then has postage on top.

[davewil1964]

5 minutes? 5 seconds if their internet is slow.

[repentatleisure1952]

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@xstumac2 wrote:

only way is to make it unprofitable after ETA....put in a did not arrive refund....I use to wait,no longer.

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An even better way is to vet your sellers before you buy.

The neg you left for a seller where you complained they were not in Australia... they clearly show as being registered in China!

[rwm1964]

I agree with everything mdgli says in this message 100%. I used to buy a lot on Ebay as long as it's in/from  Australia that is going to change. Starting to get tired of hearing that shipping is taking longer due to Covid, starting to wear very thin.

[repentatleisure1952]

How hard can it be to click on feedback to see where the seller is registered?

The last seller you left a neg for saying "not in Australia"... well NSS they CLEARLY show as being in China... that information was available to you before purchase.

[anwsmh]

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@daddykool-123 wrote:

 .... It might be advisable to ask the seller where their stock is prior to purchase.

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I concur with your advice. Also, I think questioinng a seller before purchase is good universal advice for dealing with an eBay seller one has not bought from before. A timely & relevant reply indicates interest and may validate or otherwise the sellers truthfulness.

A good general question is to ask about provenance. Something like "how did you get this item when it is hard to get locally?" may flush out scam sellers before a buying experience becomes a nightmare.