Buyer Possibly Lying about Australian Item location

[sabbirissocoollike]

Hi I recently made a purchase from a seller with 11,000+ reviews and around 98% positive, it was also listed as an eBay top seller. The item location was given as Sydney and I even messaged the seller to confirm. The seller did not provide a tracking number and the shipment has not arrived after 11 days, even though I live in a metro area in Melbourne and I usually receive things from Sydney in 3-4 days at the most.

However, I have an AusPost account and today received an email that I have a parcel coming, the sender is listed as “startrack int c/o aukeys”. As this has been my only recent purchase I think it is the item I was expecting and this makes me suspect that the seller just lied to me and is sending the item from abroad. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any ideas how best to proceed or confirm my suspicions?

[springyzone]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

Lyndal, it will be interesting to see what happens if/when a buyer tests the policy... probably without even knowing that the policy's been updated. One unhappy buyer getting onto the phone, angry at having purchased through means that allows a middleman to make a profit... Hmm. If the seller is buying bulk, surely all of the DVDs/CDs would be going to one address (the eBay seller's), and that would mean there'd be no direct third party fulfilment - or am I missing something? (It's definitely possible; I've only had one cup of coffee today thus far.)

That's a great point. I'd be interested to know how that is done too. I would have thought if a person bought in bulk it could only be sent to one address and then it wouldn't be arriving to the ebay customer direct through Amazon, but posted on through the seller.

But they may have some system in place for just this sort of thing. I haven't used Amazon so don't know.

It's a crafty move for ebay to stipulate the seller's details also need to be in the package. That would (I think) knock out the kmart onsellers but maybe not Amazon if they have a special handling system in place.

(Re bread and cakes and pasta - I've had to increase my repertoire to make sugar-free and low GI breads for one family member, gluten-free pasta (oh, for the stretchiness of normal pasta dough!) for another family member, not forgetting yet another who can't have eggs, and oh, yes, the lactose-intolerant one formerly known as dairy-intolerant. It's stretched my culinary imagination to the limit. For the life of me, I cannot use my Marcato Atlas machine to roll the GF pasta dough - it just breaks and crumbles, so I have to do it all (rolling and shaping the ravioli) the old-fashioned way, which is very difficult for me to do at the moment. But there's no doubt that the gluten-containing bread turns out by far the best, and I've learned the knack of getting a gorgeous golden-brown crusty top and a pillow-soft buttery-white interior I do use a bread machine for the kneading and the first rising of the dough and the knocking back of the dough, but after that out it comes into the baking cloche for the final proving. No choice. I have an injury requiring surgery which stops me from being able to knead effectively, so I rely on all sorts of gadgets.)

I have a friend who is gluten intolerant and she swears by her thermomix to make special gluten free flours & to knead the dough. I can't really say as I don't have one but I do have relatives who also swear by the thing. It could be useful for anyone who needs  a bit of help with chopping, kneading etc. They aren't cheao though. Magimix Cook expert probably does a similar thing.

Spoiler

Or perhaps I just love my kitchen gadgets.

Spoiler

It's not as though I have all that many.

Spoiler

Or if they are many, they are necessary.

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[countessalmirena]

A good friend of mine has a Thermomix and she also swears by it.

For me, it's just a step too far away from the artisan ideal.

[beerandpizzaplz]

nah the word is retailer -to dropship from a manufacturer is fine - from another retailer is not

[digital*ghost]

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@beerandpizzaplz wrote:

nah the word is retailer -to dropship from a manufacturer is fine - from another retailer is not

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Not really - in the policy, "when" is the qualifying word.

By which I mean, it indicates "if the following applies, it is not allowed". 

So:

You may not use a third party provider to fulfil eBay orders on your behalf, when:

The third party is another retailer or marketplace, such as Amazon. This includes third parties that are owned, directly or indirectly, by another retailer or marketplace; and the order is being fulfilled from within Australia.

If it was strictly limited to manufacturers, that would eliminate wholesalers who do not make what they sell, and there would be a catch-22 with regards to retailers who do make what they sell, depending on interpretation (eg made to order websites, where they sell custom printables). 

Re: how a seller can access better prices on Amazon for bulk but separate orders - I'm not sure how it would work for international selling, I know in the US, many eBay sellers have Prime membership so can access better prices than those who don't, and the one-off buyer wouldn't benefit from paying the membership price to get one item for $5-$10 less, but I'm not sure if international buyers can access similar discounts (I've not really looked into it, but always just kind of assumed the business model worked in the past because it gave access to items that otherwise wouldn't be listed on eBay AU, and a payment method not accepted on the other site. In my experience, Aussies really love PayPal, even when fully funded by CC). 

Re: the foodstuff, I used to love cooking, baking, and confectionary making, and was quite adept at most things, it was mostly the yeast cookery that I got stuck on. I think it's a patience issue, I discovered I don't like making something, and then having to wait for it to be ready to use to make things - if I'm occupied every step of the way, or I can keep progressing without waiting.....and waiting, or it only needs time at the very end, things tend to go much better . I also could never really do a sponge. (cake). I don't have the energy or time for it much these days, unfortunately. 

[davidc4430]

it all gets so darn complicated doesnt it?

[countessalmirena]

Now that I look over that wording again, it is clear that in strictly legal terms (and in strictly semantic terms), the phrase "and the order is being fulfilled from within Australia" does not affect the completion of the sentence that outlines when sellers may not use a third party provider.

It only affects the follow-on sentence which does not limit the scope of the previous sentence. The follow-on sentence only specifies something incluced within the broader scope because it uses the words "This includes" rather than "This comprises". This snippet explains it as well as anything else: The difference between “comprise” and “include” is scope. “Comprise” means “includes all of these and nothing else,” whereas “include” means “includes all of these and maybe something else, too.”

Hence - "You may not use a third party provider to fulfil eBay orders on your behalf, when the third party is another retailer or marketplace, such as Amazon. This [all-inclusive scope additionally] includes third parties that are owned, directly or indirectly, by another retailer or marketplace; and the order is being fulfilled from within Australia [so you cannot use a third party retailer or marketplace in Australia and think that you are not subject to this condition in the guidelines].

The words in square brackets are mine, to (hopefully) explain what I mean.

Also, note that the semi-colon applies to the second sentence, so the two closely-linked independent clauses are in the second sentence, not in the first and second. The two linked clauses are "This includes third parties that are owned, directly or indirectly, by another retailer or marketplace" and "and the order is being fulfilled from within Australia". (Hence it applies to third party providers that are other retailers or marketplaces such as Amazon, and just because the third party may be within Australia is no reason to be excluded from the requirements of this policy.)

Apologies - I know I'm being horribly pedantic here, but understanding this might save some sellers a world of grief. (I may be wrong in my reading of that policy, but only if eBay's policy is disastrously non-grammatical and contains wanton and cruel semi-colon abuse.)

I think it can be best explained with real examples. eBay are basically saying, "Australian sellers are not to use third party providers such as Amazon or Book Depository or any of those frequently used providers, to actually fulfil the order. Australian sellers are also not to use third party providers who are inside Australia to actually fulfil the order - for instance, no more of this K-Mart caper. Buy from them/place your orders with them, by all means, but you can't get those sellers to then on-send the order to your customer on your behalf."

[digital*ghost]

I am partial to pedantry myself - observe... (or should that be  ). 

It's not gramatically correct, if your interpretation is correct, because there's nothing that indicates it's in addition to the first clause.

If it was written "this includes includes third parties that are owned, directly or indirectly, by another retailer or marketplace; and [when] the order is being fulfilled from within Australia", there would be no doubt that you're correct, but as it is written, it could also be interpreted that the second part of the second sentence, is a qualifier to the first part, which in turn is clarifying the first sentence (or rather, providing paramaters - which is how I interpreted it).

If the first sentence was all-inclusive, there would be no need to add the "and the order is being fulfilled from Australia", bit, because it would be applicable no matter where the retailer was located. Not that that is anything conclusive one way or another, just an observation.

Of course, I'm also approaching it with the mindset that ebay is partial to vagaries and implying certain things, to get around not being able to state them outright (red herrings, misleadings etc), so that one's initial or immediate understanding of a policy is exactly what they want it to be, even if it's not a kocher policy for them to have, IYKWIM. 

[countessalmirena]

digital*ghost, valid points - and there's always that touch of Appleby in eBay policies.

Another factor which I didn't mention is that Amazon was referred to, rather than Amazon Australia. That might - again, in the muddied waters scenario - just be to make it a soup full of red herrins, vagaries, misleadings...