topic Re: Fake Australian sellers in Buying

Fake Australian sellers

osf2005 — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 00:55:17 GMT

Maybe it's just me, but when are eBay going to do something about sellers in Asia claiming to be in Australia! If I want to be something directly from China I'll do it, but when I put the Australia only filter on and I have to check every sellers details to see if they are really Australian it's frustrating! Fraudulent and about time eBay steps up and does something...

Re: Fake Australian sellers

cezm — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 01:37:13 GMT

I think the Australia only refers to items sold only to Australia not from Australia. I have seen some users saying they select a postcode in the middle of Australia and search 2000+kms from there. Sorry, I don't recall the postcode or the kms but a search of the discussion forums could find it.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

osf2005 — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 04:50:56 GMT

Nope I just checked. The filter says "item location: Australia only"

Re: Fake Australian sellers

ircinic-7 — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 05:09:32 GMT

What on earth is a ' Fake Australian Seller ' ????????????????????????????????????

Re: Fake Australian sellers

digital*ghost — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 05:11:57 GMT

eBay reps have responded to these kinds of issues by stating that eBay AU can't sanction Chinese sellers, due to in-house policies, that they "say" they're working on changing.

To me, that's a bit like a smoker going "I'm working on finding a way to quit, but I don't know how to stop the tobacco companies from selling me cigarettes, so there's nothing I can do at the moment."

Re: Fake Australian sellers

osf2005 — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 05:11:59 GMT

Sellers that they are Australian but in reality typically post from Hong Kong or China. eBay should put a stop to it.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

lyndal1838 — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 05:49:04 GMT

Ebay don't know unless the listings are reported. Have you reported any of the listings in question?

Re: Fake Australian sellers

malleewest — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 10:29:23 GMT

There are at least 9 in a couple of categories I look in frequently, but I would say it is only ONE seller because they are all "supposedly" in Darwin, but judging by the Neg & Neut comments all the items come from China.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

lyndal1838 — Tue, 27 Dec 2016 10:39:48 GMT

A lot of Chinese sellers list their location as Darwin....you cannot decide they are all the same seller based on that.

The only way ebay will do anything at all is if the listings are reported.....every one of them. Ebay will not cross reference just one listing to see what other listings the seller has and their location.

The problem is that a lot of Chinese sellers do have warehouse facilities in Australia and until you actually have an item delivered from China which was listed as in Australia, ebay will not do anything.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

hcr2010 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 00:46:15 GMT

I am so sick of sellers claiming the stock is in Australia when its not.
The vast majority of them claim to be in Darwin, but they arrive late with chinese shipping details.

There are also SERIOUS LEGAL IMPLICATIONS related to this and I am amazed that Ebay is allowing this to continue.

If you buy anything on Ebay to resell - if it comes from overseas, then you are, as the importer, legally liable for that product - so if, it catches fire, explodes, kills someone, etc, then you are legally liable for that.

As an example, say you buy a cheap aftermarket laptop power supply from China. You sell it to your customer. They take it home, during the night it catches fire and burns their house down. They, or their insurance company will sue you. You may be able to countersue the company you purchased it from overseas, but good luck with that.

Now, if you buy something that is listed as located in Australia, but it arrives from overseas, then it gets a lot murkier legally.
I suspect that Ebay would have liability for failing to police and enforce sellers to state the correct location....
Perhaps a lawyer could provide their thoughts on the implications for Ebay themselves, and the buyer.

Anyway...

Three ways I use to check is:
1. See how much they charge for express shipping, if its a lot higher (say $25-35) for a small item, then its coming from overseas.

2. Add a filter to your search based on how far they are away from your postcode. I'm in Hobart, so I select 2000Kms - the largest option. It does however rule out Perth and Cairns sellers as well.

3. My new, prefered method, is essentially the same as 2, but instead of your own postcode, use the south australian post code 5717 (remote south australia), and set distance to within 2000KM.
That will exclude any Darwin seller, but will include Perth sellers. Unfortunately, Cairns sellers just miss out.
Perhaps someone can find a postcode where Cairns and Perth are both within 2000KM, but Darwin is not.

Ebay seemed to be experimenting with an option to go aussie sellers only, but it seems to have disappeared since xmas, and it didnt seem to come up with every search.

I really wish that Ebay will make the option to search for aussie sellers only permanently available.
Ebay would probably make more money from it, as I always happy to pay a little bit extra to get it from an australian seller, as refunds, returns are easier, communication is usually easier, and I don't have the same legal liabilities.

Sorry by the way to any legitimate sellers from Darwin. 😞
All I can suggest is complain to Ebay.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

lyndal1838 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 02:46:57 GMT

I believe the accepted postcode for a distance search is Innaminka 5731

Re: Fake Australian sellers

davewil1964 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 06:33:49 GMT

That covers almost all of the continent. Definitely includes Darwin.

I doubt there is anywhere in Australia within 2000km of both Perth and Cairns, but not Darwin.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

lyndal1838 — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 06:52:32 GMT

I have never used the distance search Dave....I am just quoting what I have read on the boards.

It is usually pretty easy to pick the Chinese listings with location as Darwin.....really it is just Buyer Beware.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

woodduck*2012 — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 00:25:32 GMT

Yep well its still going on and getting worse, as soon as you find a product to sell and all goes well, it would seem that before to long other listings start to slowly appearing at super cheap prices untill they flood the 1st page with adds for the same item, pushing Real Aussie sellers to the second page in some cases 3rd or forth page, Check out Koala-ok in darwin plus there is another five at least that state Darwin Australia.

Under cutting Australian sellers by selling at china prices, for example and 6 arrow heads in china are around $1.10 each + free postage = $6.60 all up, when you put in Australia only up come a whole page of sellers claiming to be Australian sellers in Australia selling the same 6 arrow heads for under $10 + free post.

Funny that most are in Darwin or sydney, melb and have massive bad feed back.

Firstly with Australia post Just one of these arrow heads because its over 2cm thickness is $7.60 to send + EBay fees etc, you do the maths they are either seller at a loss (not likley) or arent in Australia (extremely likley).

They are hurting Australian sellers, most items by these chinese imposters or drop sellers, would be costing them dearly at the prices they sell at, if in fact they were in Australia.

Its seems the Aussie poeple dont read sellers feedback and just jump at a cheap price, then winge and wine, after it takes 6 weeks to arrive they realise they have been scammed, Hence the NEG feedback they leave.

Read some of the huge amounts of NEG feedback these sellers receive in a 1 month period and its extremely clear.

EBay doesnt give a **bleep** due to the massive amounts of sales these chinese factories have, can you just imagine the amounts of money EBay is making from them in final value fees etc.

Aussies need to read the feedback, understand Australian postal cost, EBay fees and all would be clear, they are not supporting Australian sellers simply because they are being tricked by the fraudulant and mostly chinese sellers.

**bleep** me off to no end.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

rechargelife — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 02:14:46 GMT

This is bloody true! We bought an item last month ago from a location in Australia & address in Australia but then I doubted it when the item arriving a bit longer. When the item arrived I checked my history purchase and that item bought or the seller location changed to Shenzen China - now it changed to HongKong!

Not to mention the item is dirty with a smudge of ink and a cat hair like inside the item that is declared new item upon selling!?

Why can't eBay have the technology to detect location or put restrictions screening for a valid ID or something?

Re: Fake Australian sellers

digital*ghost — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 03:30:21 GMT

@rechargelife wrote:

Why can't eBay have the technology to detect location or put restrictions screening for a valid ID or something?

Because seller location and item location are two different things.

There are a lot of legitimate sellers who are located in one place (be it city, state or country) while the item ships from a completely different location. The item location is what matters because that's what affects delivery time and so forth, and so of course it is what some sellers will lie about, and is also something that is unverifiable.

I would say this issue could come to a head when GST starts being charged on all imports, but not if they go with the vendor collects model (especially if ebay is deemed the vendor under those regulations), or they find some other way to hide it in the initial costs (probably easier to do with the UBI line postage option).

Re: Fake Australian sellers

levethane — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 21:50:57 GMT

Good to see nothing has been done... Paying extra because the item is listed in Australia only to have it turn up 4 weeks later with Chinese stamps all over it.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

lyndal1838 — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 23:55:28 GMT

If the GST is charged on an item that is supposed to be in Australia then you know it is actually coming from overseas.

You don't have to complete the payment if this happens and you believed it was in Australia.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

woodduck*2012 — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 03:53:50 GMT

I just tested your GST theory, seller based in china came up as the best match for me in Australia, checked the account and is based in china with supossed AU stock comming from sydney, NO GST WAS ADDED TO THE SALE.

So EBay has just directed me an Aussie in wollongong to a China Based seller, the seller is also getting out of the GST, it would appear that EBay has a very big interest in the dollars and nothing more, the China Based seller is getting out of charging GST and turning up as BEST MATCH, there is seriously something wrong with EBay allowing these sellers to not only rip off australians but also rip off and get around the ATO laws.

This is getting much worse with many more China Based sellers basically taking over EBay Australia, flooding the pages with fraudulant and duplicate adds, how is an Aussie seller to compete when your own countrymen and women are being steered by EBay to the Best Match being China Based.

It seems the Chinese own EBay world wide, they getaway with item location miss representation, Duplicate listing until they take over the first 5 pages of any search, and they might as well take away these stupid miss leading choices like "Australia only" you still get 5 pages of Chinese frauds.

Re: Fake Australian sellers

lyndal1838 — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 04:51:04 GMT

Not all Chinese sellers are shonks. There are a number who do have stock in Australia and it appears that the one you are looking at is one of those.

And just to be quite clear.....the seller is not avoiding GST.....it is the BUYER who is responsible for paying GST. In the case of ebay sellers, ebay is responsible for forwarding the GST to the ATO. There must be some way of ebay knowing that the goods are in Australia....most of the Chinese items I have bought have had GST added by ebay as per the rules.

Before getting up in arms, wait till your item arrives and see where it was sent from.