Changing Expected delivery date and other annoying eBay problems

[mark88880]

I have let it go many times, particularly when I thought I was helping a small home business during lockdown. Lately, its appearing much more common, probably due to my increasing purchase of home office and hardware items and for those items, the rise of drop shipping, sellers clearly lying about item locations and Ebay's tolerance of it .

I frequently buy items disclosed as located in China and that's fine, since I can base my purchasing decision and price on real information.

In recent months, in relation to alleged local items, I've come to realise the extent of seller dishonesty about item locations and delivery delays, e.g. item disclosed as located in Sydney or Melbourne, doesn't arrive after 3 - 4 weeks, you enquire with seller, Ebay postpones estimated delivery date (presumably because of something the seller did) and you get an answer from the seller like:

Covid related delays. Please be patient.

or

Your item is in a sortation facility. Please be patient.

or

Please ask the Fastway (sic) to check it for you.

or (my favourite for an alleged local item)

The delivery of the order may get procrastinated due to the arrangement and process from the local authorities.

or (close second)

Inbound international deliveries in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia may be delayed due to a covid – 19 disruption at our Melbourne Gateway facility. Would you mind waiting for it?

You look at the tracking information and see an entry from about the date of your purchase like "Your shipping information has been submitted" or "your item is in a sortation facility" and nothing further for weeks. That item's on its way from China, right?

In the meantime, I've had Chinese items (Ebay and non Ebay) and US Amazon items arrive in 10 days and interstate Amazon items arrive next morning after an evening purchase. The delayed items are mostly things I could buy same day at Bunnings or Officeworks. I want to support small local business and it would be nice if Ebay fixed the problem, but otherwise, what do you think I'm going to do?

[digital*ghost]

One issue with this problem is the fact that while eBay is a single entity theoretically, in practice it is made up of a lot of different sites that are run individually and with differences in how (or if) policies are introduced and enforced. These kinds of discrepancies are most notable when sellers in other countries breach eBay Australia policies but there are no consequences. There is a power imbalance there, because the collective selling power of some countries is stronger than the buying power of others. 

The second problem is that eBay (the single entity version) don't see just in time fulfilment as item location misrepresentation (which is actually against policy), so this version of it isn't just tolerated due to that power imbalance like some policy breaches are, ebay themselves created the slippery loophole that allows it to skirt the item location misrepresentation policy - in a nutshell, no matter where the shipment originates from, if it lands in Australia and then ships from an Australian location to the buyer, rather than ships directly to a buyer from a different location outside Australia, then it doesn't count as misrepresenting where the item ships from. It's a fair bit of mental gymnastics on eBay's behalf, and quite obviously caters to the stronger of the two aforementioned powers. 

It's true there are some things you can do to avoid sellers taking advantage of the loophole, and in a situation like this, where things are only likely to change if that power imbalance shifts, it might be the reality of the situation where only the buyer can take proactive steps to try and avoid purchasing from sellers using this system, but the blame for the creation and perpetuation of the system lies squarely with ebay and where their priorities lie. 

That is to say - the years of complaints haven't made a difference, the number of buyers who now look elsewhere to purchase items hasn't made a difference, because eBay don't want to make a difference, and the buyers who come and / or stay and purchase aren't the ones to blame for that - the sellers who want to do it, and more so  eBay's willingness to cater to that, are to blame. This doesn't help right now, I just think it needs to be remembered. 

[mdgli]

I fully agree with you and even opened quite similar post not long ago.

From the responses I got here I concluded that if I want to increase my chance to work with reliable seller I need to do the following:

- Check the Based in on the seller's page. If it is not Australia, Assume the item is not in Oz either.

- Check the % positive - Deal with only above 10,000 feedback and above 99%

- Have a look at the "Revised Feedback:" on the feedback page. If it is high don't buy.

It is an inconvenience added to the shopping experience but it will reduce dramatically the   % of disappointment.

I may add that in some cases when I don't need the item urgently I buy items that located overseas (mainly PRC). But then I know to set the expectations right.

And BTW as per "small home business" on ebay. The are as rare as rocking horse droppings

[sugar249]

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@mdgli wrote:

And BTW as per "small home business" on ebay. The are as rare as rocking horse droppings

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What evidence do you have of that?  Thats one thing that is as rare as rocking horse droppings on here, evidence of big statements

[davewil1964]

The are as rare as rocking horse droppings

Not particularly. depending on category. And your 10k feedback requirement means you are almost certainly not dealing with 'small home business'.

A self-fulfilling prophecy.

I qualify as a small home business, and only have 2700 all positive feedback. Not good enough for you, apparently. Which is good for both of us. You don't need to be nervous about my credentials; I don't need to deal with you.

[mdgli]

Yea, unfortunately I don't buy crochet and the likes so I'm not aware of what trend in the category of knitting

[*sons_and_daughters*]

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@mdgli wrote:

I fully agree with you and even opened quite similar post not long ago.

From the responses I got here I concluded that if I want to increase my chance to work with reliable seller I need to do the following:

- Check the Based in on the seller's page. If it is not Australia, Assume the item is not in Oz either.

- Check the % positive - Deal with only above 10,000 feedback and above 99%

- Have a look at the "Revised Feedback:" on the feedback page. If it is high don't buy.

It is an inconvenience added to the shopping experience but it will reduce dramatically the   % of disappointment.

I may add that in some cases when I don't need the item urgently I buy items that located overseas (mainly PRC). But then I know to set the expectations right.

And BTW as per "small home business" on ebay. The are as rare as rocking horse droppings

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I think you may have misunderstood your point two. From what I've read here, regulars say if you are buying from a high volume seller, to only buy from someone with over 99% positive feedback. It's absolutely OK to buy from low volume sellers with low feedback numbers, but if they have received one negative, it could make their percentage look pretty bad. So, for those people, look at that one negative. It could just be a difficult buyer (we've all had them), which means it's perfectly safe to buy from them.

I have a regular job. My ebay selling is classed as a small home business. You might be surprised just how many fall into that category.  Far from being rare as rocking horse droppings.

Spoiler

Remind me to tell you about my rocking horse. He refused to go outside to toilet. Always left a mess in my room. Those droppings could get really hard to remove off the carpet. Made mum really mad.

[digital*ghost]

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@mdgli wrote:

- Have a look at the "Revised Feedback:" on the feedback page. If it is high don't buy.

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This is contextual - unlike feedback, which only shows the last 12 months worth of ratings, the revised feedback count is for the life of the account. 

i.e. If an account was opened in 2005, shows 2 negs and 14 revised feedback, it means they've had 2 negs in the last year, and 14 revised FB over the last 16 years. (Of course, some sellers have a count in the hundreds, which is not a good sign - the main issue is you can't judge the time period they apply to if the account has been around for a long time; eg they might have had a particularly rough patch several years ago but managed to fix a lot of buyer's problems for them and things have been smooth sailing since then - current negs and seller location remain the best signifiers for item location misrepresentation; the other factors have a bit more nuance to them and are not hard and fast rules). 

[mdgli]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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they might have had a particularly rough patch several years ago but managed to fix a lot of buyer's problems for them and things have been smooth sailing since then

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I assume I could uncover a whole universe in researching every seller's history.

I'm also sure there are some great sellers I miss using those rough filters. I take it as collateral damage.

Until not long ago I never went beyond the item page to decide on a purchase.

Unfortunately, now days,  I have to run a little research for every item and I rather not elevate it to a PhD level.

It may not be the best/correct/fair way of buying on ebay it is just my way to minimize the annoyance described by @mark88880.

[digital*ghost]

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@mdgli wrote:

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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they might have had a particularly rough patch several years ago but managed to fix a lot of buyer's problems for them and things have been smooth sailing since then

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I assume I could uncover a whole universe in researching every seller's history.

I'm also sure there are some great sellers I miss using those rough filters. I take it as collateral damage.

Until not long ago I never went beyond the item page to decide on a purchase.

Unfortunately, now days,  I have to run a little research for every item and I rather not elevate it to a PhD level.

It may not be the best/correct/fair way of buying on ebay it is just my way to minimize the annoyance described by @mark88880.

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Sure, and if it's what's working for you, great, but my actual point was that you can't research it. There are no explanations to be found anywhere as to why a neg or neutral was revised, and even if you scoured through every feedback comment a seller has ever received to find the revised ones, it won't tell you when the FB was left (it'll just say "more than a year ago" for every one that was left over 12 months ago), it won't tell you what the original comment was or what the colour of the dot was. All it will do is give you a count. 

But, this does perfectly exemplify why as a seller, I refuse to ask for FB revisals lol. I'd rather have a neg that disappears from my record after 12 months than a revised FB count that causes (some) buyers to judge / dismiss me forever 🤣 I do have one, unfortunately the buyer insisted because they left me a glowing positive but used the app to do so, which sometimes results in the FB accidentally being selected as a neg (this was really common for a long time, as the app copies the same FB that was left previously and a lot of people don't pay attention to what they're doing, so the same neg for one item ends up being copied and left for every seller after that). 

[mark88880]

I have been trying what you suggest with good results. Specifically, if an item is described as "Location Sydney" and that isn't supported by the tracking information, I make a "return - item not as described" request, message the seller to expect negative feedback and (if required soonish) purchased an alternate item other means. That seems to spook this kind of seller. In each case (about 1/month over the last 3 months), I've received a "refund/keep item" offer, coupled with a plea for positive feedback. No need to actually pursue it with Ebay. I usually leave negative feedback anyway, depending on the seller's honesty level, but it usually "disappears".

However, I've also altered my use of Ebay. Obviously, I'll continue using it for certain things, but I've shifted most of my purchases to other methods and avoided the forum (you soon work out whose posts aren't worth reading, but it's still a time sink sifting for posts from people who actually have something constructive to say - back today because I received some supportive PMs).

What do I mean by certain things? I sell items. I've previously described my purchases as "hardware" for shorthand, but it's mostly car and bike related, like after market parts, bearings, fasteners and specialty tools and Ebay is not the only option there. Some examples to illustrate:

*Bought some used bike parts from an interstate wrecker through Ebay. The guy called me to discuss item condition/suitability and delivered within 2 days. Now my preferred seller for such things.  I have other preferred sellers for things like car parts, bearings and fasteners.

*Bought through Amazon a set of specialty sockets located in Melbourne - the sort of item I would previously have bought through Ebay and likely discovered was coming from China. Ordered Sunday night & arrived Tuesday morning.

*Bought through Ebay a specialty motorcycle tool claimed located in Sydney, but turned out to be located in China. Needed soonish for a necessary repair. Refund application and purchased alternative from online motorcycle parts store. Picked up next morning.