When will ebay stop overseas sellers listing their products as in Australia when they are based over

[masterlay]

When will ebay stop overseas sellers listing their products as in Australia when they are based overseas,?? It is easy to check, click their feedback and then negative feed back and it shows, based in china,singapore,etc. If I can do it why can't ebay?? Totally undermining confidence in the intergraty of ebay listings and unbelievably frustrating.

[*tippy*toes*]

Never. The Chinese are the untouchables. Just keep doing what you're doing by checking feedback and also where the seller is registered. That's about all you can do.

[tower951]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

Never. The Chinese are the untouchables. Just keep doing what you're doing by checking feedback and also where the seller is registered. That's about all you can do.

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Ebay is operating in Australia has the means and responsibility under local law to reign in sellers who are making false statements.  What's lacking is (at least I've been unable to find) a mechanism by which buyers can lodge a formal complaint to Ebay.

I was recently bitten by what appears to be just such a seller - charging several times the going ex-China price on the basis the item was located in Australia.  There was even an AustPost tracking number issued (suspicious as the item was under $10) but no further activity recorded.  Of course the item never turned up.  When I contacted the seller I was given the option of a refund or waiting 35 business days - despite the seller allegedly having another five items located in Australia.  No point taking my business to the several other 'local' sellers advertising on Ebay as they all appear to be the same seller!

Australia has great consumer laws.  Unfortunately there is nobody to enforce it. 

[davewil1964]

eBay don't sell anything and therein lies the problem.

If the seller is overseas and lists stock as in Australia, other than a blanket ban, it would be very expensive to check every possibly non-compliant listing. As some (many?), particularly Chinese, sellers DO in fact keep stock here, a blanket ban would probably be illegal.

On the other hand, if the seller is overseas, Australian consumer law does not and cannot apply.

[padi*0409]

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@tower951 wrote:

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Ebay is operating in Australia has the means and responsibility under local law to reign in sellers who are making false statements.  What's lacking is (at least I've been unable to find) a mechanism by which buyers can lodge a formal complaint to Ebay.

Australia has great consumer laws.  Unfortunately there is nobody to enforce it. 

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What Tippy says is unfortunately true, ebay Australia has no control over ebay China's actions, and neither does Australian Consumer Laws. Where the seller is registered is what counts, you can see that location by looking at their feedback.

Edit. Got slack and missed your post dave........................

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

The Chinese sellers are a very lucrative source of revenue for eBay so they are not going to bite the hand that feeds them.

[digital*ghost]

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@tower951 wrote:

Ebay is operating in Australia has the means and responsibility under local law to reign in sellers who are making false statements.  What's lacking is (at least I've been unable to find) a mechanism by which buyers can lodge a formal complaint to Ebay.

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eBay's care factor is really the only thing that is lacking here - formal complaints have been made numerous times, and eBay trot out the same nonsensical excuse every single time.

According to eBay, even though the sellers are listing on eBay AU, because they are registered in China, they are under eBay CN's jurisdiction, and if you need to raise a complaint about a seller registered in China, the complaint has to be directed to eBay CN, not eBay AU, and only eBay CN can take action against the sellers. eBay says internal policies are to blame for this situation, and keep promising they'll do something to fix the "loophole"

It's clearly absolute hogwash -even if eBay AU can't reprimand the sellers (i.e. take action against their accounts) they 100% do have control over enforcing the AU site's policies on all items that are specifically listed here, as all sellers have to agree to / abite by the policies of the site they list on. eBay AU could demote their search rankings, or end listings in breach of policies...

But they don't. They are like a glutton sitting at a neverending sushi train. They could walk away from the feast, but they just sit there stuffing their face, shrugging their shoulders and going "we're trying to stop the train, but we don't have the off button, so what else can we do?"

[countessalmirena]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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 They are like a glutton sitting at a neverending sushi train. They could walk away from the feast, but they just sit there stuffing their face, shrugging their shoulders and going "we're trying to stop the train, but we don't have the off button, so what else can we do?"

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Oh, digital*ghost, that is delightfully phrased.

I am now thinking of eBay as ebāo, e-包 (or to make it properly Chinese, 电子包). It all makes sense if we think of eBay as a bun or dimsum, and the eBay management people doing an all-you-can-eat of e-noodles.

[tower951]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

eBay don't sell anything and therein lies the problem.

If the seller is overseas and lists stock as in Australia, other than a blanket ban, it would be very expensive to check every possibly non-compliant listing. As some (many?), particularly Chinese, sellers DO in fact keep stock here, a blanket ban would probably be illegal.

On the other hand, if the seller is overseas, Australian consumer law does not and cannot apply.

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The seller yes - not Ebay.  Ebay is a business operating within Australia and is bound by local laws.  It can certainly act on breaches of Australia consumer law occuring on its platform in the same way it would be required to act were Australian criminal law being broken.  If complaints to Ebay Australia prove difficult or unsatisfactory, lodge them with the ACCC instead.  The ACCC has an easy webpage just for that.  With enough consumer complaints they may act.

[lyndal1838]

The Chinese sellers are in China, listing on the Chinese site.  There is nothing that the ACCC can do about them.

Complaints made to ebay Australia are referred to ebay China who do nothing.

Plenty of members have complained in the past and nothing happens.