topic Items not arriving in Buying

Items not arriving

gav1615 — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 00:59:24 GMT

I have tried 3 different sellers to buy an item over the last 9 weeks, same story.

1. Item marked "sent untracked".

2. Does not arrive, commence Ebay process.

3. Seller claims lost by courier, will refund within 2 days and item now out of stock.

4. Ebay intervenes and issues refund.

On my last attempt my message to seller was

" do not accept my order if you do not provide tracking number",

All 3 never had or sent the product, they claim they are now out of stock but continue to offer it for sale.

What is this nonsense ?.

My honest negative feedback was deleted.

GOOD NEWS - I tried Amazon for the first time. Same item.

1. Ordered Sunday 21st December

2. Arrived Wednesday morning 24th December.

Within 2 business days Xmas week !

One thing left to say - Goodbye 👋

Re: Items not arriving

sandypebbles — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 01:07:24 GMT

See ya

No need to tell other members you are leaving

Just a random look at feedback left for you shows how many dodgy sellers you choose to support

One had 39 negs in the past month alone, as well as 116 neutral in the past month alone

What is this nonsense?

That would be your choosing to buy from dodgy as sellers and expecting not to have an issue

Not sure why you complain about your honest negs being removed (which they will be if you mention a dispute or refund)

But given you ignored all the negs the dodgy sellers you chose to support already had, why would another dodgy seller supporter take any notice of *your* neg ?

Re: Items not arriving

*casey* — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 05:53:44 GMT

"I have tried 3 different sellers to buy an item over the last 9 weeks, same story"

They're generally shonky dropshippers and much of the time , it's the same shonky seller with multiple IDs.

"My honest negative feedback was deleted"

I noticed you wrote this in one of your feedback.

"Worst experience ever. Seller advised item out of stock and requested i cancel, they then declined the request"

Shonky sellers like this test the unwary buyers to see if they know the rules.

If a seller cancels a transaction due to being out of stock, they receive a defect from eBay.

If a buyer requests a cancellation, they don't receive a defect and any negative feedback will be removed if the seller reports it.

For a lot of buyers these days, it's getting all too hard and time consuming to find good sellers (even though there are plenty of them) and eliminate bad sellers.

The site is flooded with scams, dropshippers, Chinese sellers etc

Check their feedback, rearrange feedback from relevant to recent, check their country oif registration, check the item location although much of the time that's a lie etc etc

With so many online places to shop, buyers are fed up....and they're leaving.

I wouldn't want to be a new buyer these days.

In regards to Amazon , I can only speak from my own experience of buying with Amazon delivery only.

Search the item you want.

Narrow down the search on the left hand side of the page - easy examples:

Prime - Ships from Australia or

Free Delivery by Amazon

Seller - Amazon AU

Choose the item/s, add to cart, pay, delivered quickly.

All too easy !

Re: Items not arriving

gav1615 — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 06:38:14 GMT

Thanks Casey, well said and excellent advice for Ebay and Amazon.

The seller feed back for one of my disaster buys was only 1 negative (quality related) and over 400 positive. ( funny they had 1.7 k transactions ?). This was the one where my feedback was deleted, I think.

I live rural and online buying is important.

It's a shame it has got to this, Ebay use to be brilliant, trusted, I hope they can get back there.

Sweet regards.

Re: Items not arriving

skyrider12-au — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 08:58:09 GMT

Dodgy sellers in almost every category trading in Ebay, you seem to have had contacts with quite a few of them. Your decision to leave Ebay and give your business to Amazon is an excellent one, I have never encountered any problems during the several years of buying from them. Good luck to you.

Re: Items not arriving

springyzone — Thu, 25 Dec 2025 23:29:39 GMT

I still use ebay but before you pay over a cent to anyone, you need to check prices and on ebay, you also need to check out the sellers very carefully. It's not as if you are actually buying from ebay itself, you're buying from a seller who is just using ebay as their place to list their goods.

Ebay is not the best spot to buy quite a few things, especially electronics or anything electrical from China.

But it is still great for some items. If you're wanting an out of print book, for example, you might find it here.

Amazon is a collection of different sellers too but the difference is I think Amazon actually stores the stock from a lot of those sellers. And it is responsible for the postage and delivery, which means it has a lot more control over the whole selling/packaging/delivery syystem. If Amazon says delivery will be on X day, it is almost guaranteed that is exactly when it will be. That's why buyers love it-quick and reliable.

But do your homework and if an item you have been searching for is cheaper on ebay, don't be afraid to buy if the seller checks out as ultra reliable.

Re: Items not arriving

gav1615 — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 00:54:40 GMT

Thanks for your response.

I'll still be using Ebay, mostly for used items offered for auction. I've had no issues whatsoever with private type sellers. I hope Ebay do sort out the issues with others.

Warm regards.

Re: Items not arriving

countessalmirena — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 02:57:01 GMT

The online buying options are global nowadays, and buying some items from here and some items from there isn’t an either/or situation. eBay is fine if one knows what to but on its platform and how to use it to avoid issues - but I agree there are some goods I’d not buy here (from some sellers).

Re: Items not arriving

clockwork_planet — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 09:38:22 GMT

Ebay won't get back there, they are well into their death spiral. Same as PayPal. Losing buyers hand over fist, trying desperately to squeeze every dollar out of everyone involved while providing awful service.

Their MO used to be genuine people selling used items to each other. Then they got greedy and wanted to be the world's marketplace selling everything to everyone. It was a cash cow. A computer program staffed by a handful of uni graduates who fiddled with fees and store structures to maximize profit. Squeezed genuine small scale sellers out of business (ask me how I know). Bent over backwards for the Chinese category flooders.

The buyer's experience on Amazon is so much better they don't even compete. I live in a rural area and can order stuff at 9pm and have it arrive the next day, FREE. Issues are resolved swiftly and smoothly, directly with Amazon. I hardly ever need to deal with the seller directly.

I'd love it if eBay could return to the peer-to-peer, used item marketplace, but it's too late. Facebook et al have that stitched up now. So what's left? A few decent sellers and millions of spammy, scammy dropshippers that can't deliver and have your money for days or weeks at a time while you do the dance of trying to get a refund. And eBay don't have the resources or the desire to fix it. They'll just continue to milk it til it's dead.

Re: Items not arriving

sandypebbles — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 21:21:02 GMT

And buyers who don't have the desire to check basics like feedback, supporting the scammers and ensuring they stay in business

No dancing required

Buyers don't have support them in the first place

Buyers don't play games when them if they do

Buyers are shown the estimated delivery date before they buy, so no waiting weeks unless they have chosen to do so

I am not aware of any site that babysits customers and then gives special treatment to those who think the site's policy won't apply to them

But of course, I don't choose to support dodgy sellers so I do not face those avoidable problems

Re: Items not arriving

springyzone — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 21:50:28 GMT

I think every buyer these days should be checking things out carefully before they pay a cent anywhere, whether ebay or not.

There are a lot of scam sites around, the so called 'ghost shops' are rampant, there are a lot of Chinese sites trying to pass themselves off as Australian, people should not take it for granted that just because it is on ebay, it will be fine. They really do need to double check feedback and recent records.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of buyers who just let things go. My own daughter was almost one of them years back when something didn't arrive. We're talking a cheap item, but her attitude was-I don't know how to do that (open a claim), it's only a few dollars, I haven't got time for complicated stuff (as if she is some tycoon or something).

I pushed her to make a claim. If buyers would just take the time to read up the help pages when things go wrong and follow up on things, it would soon make an impact on some of the dodgy sellers, I am sure.

Re: Items not arriving

sandypebbles — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 21:59:57 GMT

So, so true

A Facebook friend posted this morning about fake sites claiming to be Dusk

And last year (I think it was) there were numerous warnings about fake Peter Alexander sites

People can only be warned so many times about the need to check and care about what they are buying and from whom

My friend said the fake 'Dusk' site looked 100% fake but people were still saying 'But it's Dusk'

No, it ain't

Re: Items not arriving

*casey* — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 11:24:58 GMT

@clockwork_planet

"while you do the dance of trying to get a refund"

You were extremely lucky to to receive a refund as quickly as you did.

In the cases of fake tracking scams, eBay always sides with the scammer / criminal first.

Buyers have to jump through hoops to prove the fake tracking scams and very often, even after fighting to the end,

still don't receive a refund.

We see it here from time to time but the US boards are flooded with fake tracking scam threads.

The difference between now and the early beginnings is that now eBay constantly aids and abets fraud.

Needless to say, I could fill all the forums with examples but here's just one very small example of a fake tracking scam which is fairly recent. The fake tracking was reported to eBay well before the OP of the thread left negative feedback,

which was the first of many.

What did eBay do ? Nothing. They left all the listings up for many others to be scammed .

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/Am-I-being-scammed-Seller-sent-cheap-item-and-is-now-desperate/m-p/2633264

These buyers not only leave eBay, they tell everyone they know how much fraud there is on this site.

I remember the early beginnings here well. There were still plenty of scams but back then they were dealt with.

In fact on the very first New To eBay Board , which was always busy, we were able to to get examples of scams pinned to the top of the Board.

We had a team of members reporting fraudulent listings to great Trust and Safety Teams who removed the listings.

BUT the team of members were kicked to the curb and Trust and Safety no longer exists.

Comparing fake sites on Facebook and elsewhere doesn't really compare.

A few months ago, someone else said " If only they'd work with us"

Because when I personally report 30 individual hijacked Italian accounts, each with 12,000 listings and hijacked by Chinese scammers who send the items from AliExpress .. and eBay does NOTHING..

Then eBay are aiding and abetting FRAUD.

Let's not forget the Chinese criminals can and will pass on all the buyers' details to other criminals.

Re: Items not arriving

safunskinbeauty — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 21:24:19 GMT

I just searched for "Mullein Gummies" under Item Location "Australia". I am THE ONLY seller in Australia on this item. Every other listing is a seller faking Location. That's 98% of sellers faking location on 1 item. That's disgusting.

Re: Items not arriving

springyzone — Sun, 28 Dec 2025 21:39:12 GMT

I agree with you 100% that there is far too much fraud on ebay and ebay not only fails to stop some of it, but it positively praises quite a lot of very poor sellers, leads buyers astray.

But I do think comparing fake sites on facebook does compare or has compared to ebay fraud, for one simple reason. I suspect more people use facebook than ebay.

I joined a facebook group about scam alerts and it is scary just how many people are seeing these ads. The problem is, if you do see an ad and click to have a look, that ad or similar ones will keep popping up.

So far, I have had 3 people I know who bought, thinking they were dealing with an aussie company. Two received shoddy goods from China and the other received nothing.

There is an absolute deluge of ads where the company gives itself an aussie sounding name eg Bentleigh Boutique, announces it is closing down after 20 years and has 80% off sales.

I was suspicious of them after I looked at one then tried to find it on google maps. Didn't exist. But loads of people are reporting being caught up in it, paying money, then receiving nothing or else goods that are not as described in the ads and that are a tenth of the price on Shein or Temu.

Same in almost every category of goods, as well as other scams to make you think you're dealing with authorities. The scams are getting better.

I personally would never buy direct from an ad on facebook, although I do see ads there that are for perfectly legit companies too.

But I would always access them myself, not via facebook.

The only thing I will say for facebook is that recently I saw what I was pretty sure was a scam ad so went to check it out and up came a warning that it may be a scam site. That never used to happen on facebook but I think they are working on identifying potential ghost sites.

I am not sure how much ebay is trying to stop ebay scammers. The trouble is, ebay collects commission on each sale and it benefits each time a disappointed buyer just lets things slide or gives up instead of opening a claim.

I do think ebay is being used less and less by younger people, they have moved to Amazon.

Re: Items not arriving

countessalmirena — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 01:40:07 GMT

One helpful way to avoid the faked shop closing down scam: reverse image search. Copy-paste the image (of an item supposedly being sold by a respected Australian shop) into Google, and see where else it is being used. It will almost certainly pop up in Temu or similar.

Also… assume a closing-down sale ad is fake… unless you’ve verified it.

If the ad has a video announcing the closing down sale, you can probably still detect the AI nature of it. Same or similar script, voicing a bit off, some details not quite right visually… but this will all get harder to detect as AI develops further. However, for now it’s still a useful barometer.

Check when a website was created or domain name was registered (websiteage.org, WHOIS). Most fake sites will be recent as fake sites are taken down in the vast and ongoing battle to cut down on these scams, so new ones will pop up all the time.

eBay needs to do more. In the case of fake tracking, where a buyer on eBay has their claim denied, and it can be proved that the listing or seller was reported to eBay but eBay failed to take sufficient action, well… there is a pathway there for an outcome that eBay would not like.

Re: Items not arriving

*casey* — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 07:45:30 GMT

"The only thing I will say for facebook is that recently I saw what I was pretty sure was a scam ad so went to check it out and up came a warning that it may be a scam site. That never used to happen on facebook but I think they are working on identifying potential ghost sites"

That sounds like a very positive move to help prevent Facebook scams.

.............................................................................................................................................................................................................

It's also important for new buyers to know that if they see a (linked) eBay item on Facebook, in order to be covered by eBay's Buyer Protection - MBG , the item needs to be paid for through eBay's official checkout.

Re: Items not arriving

springyzone — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 20:43:47 GMT

@*casey* wrote:
"The only thing I will say for facebook is that recently I saw what I was pretty sure was a scam ad so went to check it out and up came a warning that it may be a scam site. That never used to happen on facebook but I think they are working on identifying potential ghost sites"

That sounds like a very positive move to help prevent Facebook scams.
.............................................................................................................................................................................................................

It's also important for new buyers to know that if they see a (linked) eBay item on Facebook, in order to be covered by eBay's Buyer Protection - MBG , the item needs to be paid for through eBay's official checkout.

The one thing I noticed with several ads that came up on my feed was that the wording was somewhat similar eg 'After 20 years, we are closing down etc'

The name would be completely different, location listed as different but it would usually be a site with few or no followers.

Now I am no expert at picking scams, so if I can see some warning signs, then I am not sure why facebook could not have picked up on them much earlier.

As I said, absolutely the only reason I think it is as big a problem as ebay is because of the sheer volume of people who use facebook on a regular basis, compared to ebay.

I have been extremely impressed with the way you have been able to identify scam accounts on ebay & to be honest, shocked at the volume too. I guess I don't know your background & skills and I don't mean this in the least rudely, but if you, a private person, can in your own time pick up on these, then I am astounded ebay, with all its resources, has not been able or willing to, if only to protect its brand.

Re: Items not arriving

clockwork_planet — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 07:52:12 GMT

Ebay removes any negative feedback if the seller asks for it. There's no point leaving feedback, and there's no point checking it. So many sellers fail to supply these days. Even if you refuse their request to cancel (so they have to cancel), if you leave a neg with "supplier cancelled order" it will get removed.

It's a cess pit.

Re: Items not arriving

lezned-toycollector — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 08:20:27 GMT

Of course such a comment would be removed - and rightly so. You have absolutely no way of knowing whether the supplier cancelled the seller's order.

As you are aware, leaving feedback that doesn't relate to the transaction is grounds for removal. What else would you expect?

I would suggest taking a little more care when wording your feedback comments in future. I suspect you actually wanted to write "seller cancelled order", which is an entirely different scenario. Unless you purchased directly from the manufacturer, your seller and the item supplier are totally different entities.