Will ebay eventually have a filter to indicate which country the seller is from?

[mialosa2008]

I purchased an item which ended up being faulty. Before purchasing I read the feedback and narrowed down my search to items located in Australia. In the end the seller and I could not come to agreement so he requested the item be returned at my cost but have the item sent to China before I get a refund. I read the return policy and happy to pay postal cost, however nowhere does it state he was from China. I only choose to purchase from Australia as I know what my rights shoudl situations like this occur but it turns out he's in China. Which means it could take forever to get my money back which isn't fair because I pay for all my item straight away.

[lyndal1838]

That is exactly what Clarry has described.

[curraone]

sorry, I mean, wouldn't it work by just choosing "located in Australia"   rather than using the kilometre option?

[lyndal1838]

But that is what the discussion is all about....you cannot choose item located in Australia.  Australia Only means the seller only sells to Australia.

[curraone]

??  I think we're talking at cross purposes here

[digital*ghost]

---

@clarry100 wrote:
Tippy I am very sure you are correct in the way you describe this search function.
I'm quite sure I recall some lengthy discussion and indeed experimentation done here on this board maybe 18 months back which showed that it works exactly as you describe.

---

I remember the thread some... but my memory isn't quite photographic. 😄

I don't know if this will help clarify things or not, but I just wannna say....

What I do remember is that some members were getting odd results when using the filter, and one phoned eBay CS (sorry, I'[m not 100% sure who this was) and was advised by the rep that the filter shows "post to Australia", and ever since then people have been saying that's how the filter works.

If that is how the filter works when someone uses it (and I'm not saying some members don't experience this, because while I know eBay CS will provide incorrect information all the time, I also know that site functions can be dysfunctional), but, if that is what is happening then the filter is not working correctly, because that is not what it was designed to do.

It is not a "post to Australia" filter.

It is an "item located in Australia" filter and is exactly the same filter as the distance one (see pic), and like englishrose, that is how it has always worked for me. 

[*tippy*toes*]

---

@curraone wrote:

what about the advanced search option?   would that work?

---

I hadn't seen that option before (I don't use advanced search that often), but that one could give the results that DG and English Rose are getting, that are different to most people. That is, getting items that are physically located in Australia, not just showing sellers who post to Australia only.

As an aside, I never see the option at the top of a search to search for Australian sellers. I have no idea why. Mr Tippy uses my account and he always seems to have the option on his computer. I might have a look on his computer at some point and see if an Australia Only search shows items that are physically located in Australia, or sellers that post to Australia only (which is what I see).

It's so typical of eBay to have it cocked up like that, where nothing is standard across the board.

[clarry100]

Tippy I get those exact options when I click on the "Advanced" link in the very top right corner of screen next to the big blue search button. As follows:

However, If I've already entered a term in the Search Box then I get a slightly different set of options when I scroll down thru the search filtering options.

I'm wondering if you choose selections from these two different areas then that could explain be the differing results that people are seeing.

[englishrosegardens]

Some of what people see when they click on Australia Only could be from overseas sellers who put the item location as Australia.

I do know that when I click on Australia Only I always see plenty of listings that are located in Australia but they're available worldwide.

[digital*ghost]

I never use advanced search options, just the tick box from the left-hand menu. As soon as that's ticked, the results refine to items where the seller has listed the item location as Australia, while the shipping destinations can vary between Aus-only to worldwide. To be honest I've never seen an item located overseas but the seller ships to Australia only (or at least, never noticed one, though I'm sure there are some local dropshippers who do this). 

I get the 'see X item from Australian sellers' thing on limited searches, and haven't paid too much attention to figure out if there's a pattern or something specific that triggers it. If memory serves it links only to new items, so it will filter out pre-owned items, (i.e. it's effectively meant to be "Australia only" + "New" filters applied together in once click...unless "Australian" is based on the seller's location instead, which is definitely possible too).  

[englishrosegardens]

---

@digital*ghost wrote:

I never use advanced search options, just the tick box from the left-hand menu. As soon as that's ticked, the results refine to items where the seller has listed the item location as Australia, while the shipping destinations can vary between Aus-only to worldwide. To be honest I've never seen an item located overseas but the seller ships to Australia only (or at least, never noticed one, though I'm sure there are some local dropshippers who do this). 

I get the 'see X item from Australian sellers' thing on limited searches, and haven't paid too much attention to figure out if there's a pattern or something specific that triggers it. If memory serves it links only to new items, so it will filter out pre-owned items, (i.e. it's effectively meant to be "Australia only" + "New" filters applied together in once click...unless "Australian" is based on the seller's location instead, which is definitely possible too).  

---

I've seen a couple of sellers who are in the US but post only to Australia, but they have other IDs so they've obviously created new IDs just to sell to here, possibly because they think/know they'll be seen in more searches here.  I only saw them because I was looking for specific items that are manufactured in the US, and I noticed their other IDs have different variations of the same product (and different prices).  One of the sellers has the same ID for both the US and here, except with an added -au on the end of the Aussie one.

I've occasionally used the advanced search but usually only when I'm looking for something that I know is manufactured in the US or UK and I want to filter out a lot of rubbish that's similar (but not exactly what I'm after) in Australia.  I can't see the point of using advanced search for items in Australia when the bit on the left works fine for Australia only.

Some categories have very few overseas listings showing when you do a basic search.  I always figured this was because there are enough listings in the category that it doesn't need to be padded out with overseas listings.  A lot of the cross stitch categories are like this, and it was there that I was looking for a particular fabric and saw the seller with -au on the end of their username.  If they hadn't listed on ebay AU, their products may not have ever been seen unless buyers clicked on worldwide.

I'm hoping that the message across the top about finding items from Australian sellers means eventually they'll only show items located here unless someone specifically clicks on worldwide.  What their default is I have no idea because obviously it isn't Australia Only or they wouldn't need a button for it.