The current situation with China based eBay sellers

[kaibacorp*]

Looking at my purchase history over the past 60 days:

Purchases made: 25

Number of purchases made from Chinese sellers: 6

Number of purchases from Chinese sellers that have not arrived yet: 4 (For some reason eBay allow 2 month postage times.)

So I have two items from China.

One of the items I bought from China that has arrived was supposed to be an Xiaomi Mi robot vacuum (costing hundreds.)

The seller instead posted me a piece of asian lego. I'm in the middle of chasing this up through eBay.

The other item I bought from China was as described.

From that information 50% of purchases from China are scams.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.....

Also I have 4 cancelled orders.

Two of the 4 cancelled items were sent from China.

They were not technically "cancelled" orders, they sent me fakes/different items.

I took it up with eBay and for these items I got my money back.

I have no issue here except my wasted time.

But, I can make a few comments on the Chinese sellers selling fakes/not as described items.

Item 1 was a solar porch light with a momement sensor. Instead I got sent a solar porch light without a sensor.

Item 2 was a 5GHz Dual Band WiFi Wireless Adapter Dongle. Instead I got sent a  2.4GHz WiFi Adapter.

So, you can kind of see what's coming out of China. They are not exactly fakes but not what they have listed the item as being.

Also, both sellers argued the point, they at first refused a refund saying that the items were as described.

If you include the so-called cancelled orders, the percentage of scams/items not as described coming from China is 75%.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

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@kaibacorp* wrote: (in part)

Is there a rule on the forum that you cannot post (in this case) limited statistical information?

Is there anything wrong with it?

"if ebay can provide better statistics." Will eBay provide this information? I highly doubt it.

The reason why I posted the information; a small survey is better than no survey. It's just about sharing information, it may be useful to someone down the track.

I think I will just probably stick to posting if there's something at stake. Like if I stand to lose money through eBay or something like that.

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there is no rule stoping you from posting about your buying experiences, but they should not be represented as typical.

In future, it would be prudent to avoid generalisations like:

- From that information 50% of purchases from China are scams.

- If you include the so-called cancelled orders, the percentage of scams/items not as described coming from China is 75%.

- and thread title of “The current situation with China based eBay sellers”

Because of the wording you use it comes across as you believing it is a fair representation of the experience of every buyer who buys from China.

“a small survey is better than no survey” . . . . . . but you didn’t run a survey, you just reported your recent experience.

”Is there anything wrong with it?“ . . . . . I would describe it as flawed.

[digital*ghost]

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@kaibacorp* wrote:

The reason why I posted the information; a small survey is better than no survey. It's just about sharing information, it may be useful to someone down the track.

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I was going to post something pretty much the same as what sir sales has already posted - the problem isn't posting a personal experience, it's with translating that to a percentage and labeling it a statistic.

Statistics are problematic at the best of times, even when they involve a large pool of samples and can be considered moderately representative of the average experience - a small survey is arguably worse than no survey because it can misrepresent the average experience. 

Take for example the first purchase I ever made on eBay, which I never received. If that was translated into a statistic, "100% of orders made on eBay never arrive" would actually be a truthful and verifiable stat, but a grossly misleading one. Even if I included a few subsequent purchases which did arrive, and the statistic was "25%" instead, it would still be highly misleading. This kind of information, presented this way, can be damaging rather than helpful.

New members and contributions are valued here, at least by me and I'm sure by others, and my posts in response to yours are intended to be constructive criticism - you have no obligation to agree with it, or change your posting methods, opinions etc, but I hope it's at least taken the right way, and / or into consideration. 

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

New members and contributions are valued here, at least by me and I'm sure by others, and my posts in response to yours are intended to be constructive criticism - you have no obligation to agree with it, or change your posting methods, opinions etc, but I hope it's at least taken the right way, and / or into consideration.

I will second this.

[maranock]

I also buy a lot of items from China. Last month I bought an item for hundreds of dollars that is not made in Australia and felt quite safe doing so because the seller has a good rep, communicated well with me about the adaptions I had to have made to this item as well as the extra wait for postage due to making those adaptions.

I can't remember tha last time I got the wrong item or something went wrong with the order, and usually items arrive within 3 weeks.

As long as you are careful and vet your sellers I think your experience is not typical.

If you are buying something expensive you have to do some homework yourself and if you are buying an inexpensive item you have to limit your expectations. Or you can buy off an Australian seller, pay a bit more for peace of mind, and have Australian safeguards.

[tangledstitches]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@kaibacorp* wrote:

I have eBay and PayPal's magical armor on.

Chinese sellers cannot harm me. 🙂

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Armour is nowhere near as good as common sense. 

And before you take offense to that (if you haven't already), I'm not suggesting you don't have any nor that you don't use the sense you have, but since we're going with an armour analogy, would it make more sense to A) don some armour and go walking through a minefield, hoping that no shrapnel makes too much of a dent or pierces it, or B) keep the armour in pristine condition, put a little effort into researching where you travel through, and bring said armour out only when absolutely necessary so that it can do the best job of protection possible? 

Purchasing indiscriminately "because PayPal" etc is a surefire way to all but guarantee you get hit sooner or later, because neither eBay's nor PayPal's protection is foolproof (nor particularly magical). Not only that, buyers who open too many claims can very easily find themselves barred from using the services entirely - I'll call that "death by over-protection". 

Buyer protection isn't an armour, it's a tool - but, just like armour, it can easily break or fail, especially when over-used.

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Magical armour might get your money back (at least some of the time) but it won't protect you against the many wasted hours spent getting it back, or the stress you go through in the process.  If you don't experience any stress when trying to get these things fixed then you must be truly naive in your faith in magical armour.

Yes, it takes time to do a bit of research before you buy but it definitely saves time and stress in the long run.  An ounce of prevention is worth pounds of cure.

[tangledstitches]

Sorry, directed at kaibacorp* but I wanted to include digital's comments.

[*tippy*toes*]

I have literally bought thousands of items from China. 2 didn't arrive , which the sellers immediately refunded when I sent a polite message. One arrived broken. Again, the seller refunded immediately. Most Chinese sellers are decent people who really value the feedback system. Most will bend over backwards to avoid getting a negative. 

That said, I would never buy anything electronic or electrical from a Chinese seller. The risk isn't worth it. If you do encounter a dodgy seller, it is usually a seller of electrical / electronic type items? There are also the ones that hijack an account, list the expensive item cheap to suck people in, list it in an automotive category that don't qualify for a refund,  then either not send anything,  or send a scarf (or a piece of Lego).

Some of my sellers I've been buying from for years. Most have maintained a 100% feedback score. I will continue to buy from them.

As for the baby formula thing, Australian mums are not missing out. The Chinese are buying up one brand to onsell in China. I believe it's the most expensive brand. There are dozens of other brands that all have to meet certain standards, just like the expensive brand. I guess they aren't deemed to be as good because they don't have shiny, colourful labels.

The supermarkets currently have limits but it doesn't stop someone going in 5 times a day to buy up.