How much easier do you want it to be?

It takes one click

ALL the information you could want or need is right there

It sounds like you feel buyers should take no responsibility for their own buying choices 

The seller you left neutral feedback for recently , clearly shows they are registered in China, clearly shows their terrible feedback . It was your choice to go ahead and buy a dangerous item from them and leave feedback saying 'protective it ain't'

Of course not, it is potentially deadly piece of junk from a random in China who is not authorised and flogging products that are not up to Australian safety standards 

Just looking at random sellers who have left you feedback, again and again you choose to buy from sellers with absolutely terrible feedback, often registered in China or dodgy sellers registered in here and drop shipping from China

Your choices

What do you find 'not easy' to check?

eBay is 99% about the buyer

You have other buyers leaving neg after neg warning other buyers not to deal with certain sellers

You decide who you buy from

Stop supporting dodgy sellers and then saying 'ebay made it too hard to check' 

@urilabob wrote:

You are right, there are ways to check. _But_ Ebay has access to those ways to check as well. They _could_ make it easy to check. They don't. A fair guess: their profit basically comes from the sellers, they have an incentive _not_ to provide this information. So they don't.

Ebay could make some things clearer in their ads, for example, seller registration location could be shown under item location.

But I don't think it will be, or not any time soon.

If you look at other sites such as Amazon, you'll notice the same thing there too, but to an even greater extent.

The focus is moving towards showcasing the items rather than the sellers.

On Amazon, the seller's name is in small print to the side, you will not see a feedback % next to the name at all there, and if you wish to see further details about the seller, you'll have to click on their name to check % and feedback.

Nowhere did I see on Amazon any place saying where the seller was located. I assume though that if it is overseas, that will often be obvious in the ad because of the delivery date & the info that sometimes comes up eg this item is being shipped from USA etc

So on any site, you need to do a few of your own checks.

I agree that for new ebay users, they may not always know what extra information is available.

But that's the same on Amazon too.

So, you have to do a few clicks past the ad if you want to see all the information available.

On ebay, it pays to check out the feedback. That is not hidden, it is a very clear link in the ads.

Then check seller location. It is pretty easy, just click the seller name and go where it takes you. 

@roann13 wrote:

This reply is not helpful.  I do know how to use eBay correctly.  This seller in fact lied to me. Please see my reply to  @twyngwyn

The seller was registered inside Australia.  I suspect they are drop shipping and the items are coming from overseas.  I have shopped on eBay for a long time and I have found this happens regularly!  Looking at their feedback does not necessarily give you this information unless you see feedback to says it.  I use the  search criteria for "item location" and "Australia only" often and have found there are sellers who still sell you items from outside Australia even when using these search criteria.

 

That's right, but unfortunately ebay doesn't view the terms the same way a lot of buyers might.

Many buyers think it means they are only being shown items from Australia.

In fact, they are being shown items available to Australia.

All it means is you won't be shown things from overseas that the seller will not ship to Australia.

I had no idea of this either till I started reading these boards.

You can't trust ebay in a lot of areas.

They'll praise some very dodgy sellers as some of 'ebay's most reputable sellers'. They'll show you as many items as they possibly can, because that way, you might be tempted to buy.

They will make you work to discover a seller's registration area.

If you want to use ebay, you have to look out for your own interests, as opposed to ebay's (which is to facilitate sales). You need to look at delivery dare range, feedback and seller registration.

I know feedback won't always tell you everything, but sometimes you can pick up trends-are the items often late or the seller won't communicate etc

And this is where you come in. If you buy something advertised as in Aust and it comes from overseas or is late, do you give detailed feedback to warn other buyers? be careful how you word it though so it can't be removed.

It is a factual response and how eBay works

Your use of Australia only does not mean what you want it to mean

The feedback page clearly shows where the seller is registered 

The comments from other buyers (neg feedback) shows if they seller has lied to others about where an item is sent from

The length of estimated delivery date, if their photos are lifted from other sites and 'odd' prices (such as $14.82 as an example) are also clear, dead giveaways as to if the seller is a drop shipper

Granted 🙂

The regulars here are well aware

Are you saying the seller in question in your case did not have any neg feedback for doing this?

@aurheaki wrote:

 sellers will say the item is in Sydney when the order is actually sent from China.  

 

Yes, it is very annoying but as others have said, that's why you have to check things out a bit yourself before you buy.

The best indication might be where the seller is registered.

If that is not Australia, be suspicious, be very suspicious.

And go through that feedback, most especially the negatives and neutrals as they will often show a pattern if there are problems.

The other thing to check is the expected delivery date. If the item is in eg Sydney and you're in a big metro area of maybe Sydney or Melb, the delivery date should only be a few days away. If it is showing as 2 weeks away or more, that's a red flag too.

Your comment is incorrect - the search criteria on the left hand margin says "Item Location"

The comment is correct.

You have the option to search by distance.

However, seller's country of registration is, or should be, the relevant factor.