Is it legal for the seller to say they are in Australia and they are overseas

[jackster83]

I only like to buy from Australia, where I live. It is too risky to buy from overseas especially China. But lately sellers from China are saying they are in Australia, and I am not getting my items. Yes, I do get a refund, but the time delays and hassle is making Ebay lose it's charm. How can I tell a fake?

[enigmabear]

Look where the seller is registered and look at their feedback are good places to start

It may say the item location is Australia but if you go to the seller's feedback page it shows they are registered in China and they will have many dozens of negs to say the item was sent from China (often the item 'location' will say Chullora, Sydney or Darwin seem to be the top favourites)

If the item is super cheap and if the descriprtion is Chinglish with generic photos can also be clues

[padi*0409]

 Go to the seller's feedback page and look at where they are registered.

Edit. A slow Padi today bear.........................

[tazzieterror]

Jackster, I'd actually say there's very little risk in buying from China thanks to both eBay's and PayPal's buyer guarantees; it might just take a while to arrive.

But on the issue you've brought up about sellers in China advertising an item as being in Australia when it's not, yes, it's very frustrating and ideally eBay would penalise those who do this. They don't, however, due to the revenue it produces.

Best thing you can do is leave appropriate feedback to warn others buyer, and as suggested above take a good look at a seller's feedback before purchasing.

[comptrub]

I posted this in another thread about the same thing, which explains why they say they have Australian stock, when in fact they don't...

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Buying/SCAM-Chinese-sellers-misrepresenting-item-location-Equick/td...

In short, this is what is stated, 

"...the item is in China and they use a re-fullfilment service called Equick.cn who consolidate many sellers parcels on a daily basis and ship them to Sydney. Equick then despatch them using Australia Post from their warehouse in Botany."

And as I mentioned there, that post was from four years ago and nothing has changed. Ebay is completely compliant with this and doesn't care about buyers being misled. As a previous poster mentioned, you just have to check their profile.

[atomitronic]

One scam to avoid is listings with UBI smart parcel as the carrier and the item location in botany sydney.

This forwarding service is being used by some chinese sellers to fool australian buyers into making purchases that they think are local by sending the goods from china to UBI who are apparently printing off austpost labels ahead of time so the seller can falsely enter a tracking number into ebay and mark it as sent even though theres no package in transit yet. As a result you order first sits in limbo (in my case for 10 days now) without any tracking updates until the package arives in botany australia to be re-sent via the normal australia post causing a long delay to orders that normally should only take a few days. This dishonest (and totally inefficiant) practice has been going on for quite some time and it seems not ebay, paypal, nor UBI is doing anything about it despite thousands of complaints.

[countessalmirena]

The only way to stop this practice is for Australian consumers to stop buying from Chinese eBay sellers, even if the item location is represented to be in Australia.

But demonstrably Australian buyers won't stop doing this. They buy from Chinese sellers even if the item location says China.

I follow these practices:

• no buying a brand name item from a seller who is not confirmed by the manufacturer/local distributor to be an authorised seller
• no buying electrical items from any seller other than a known Australian business, with an ABN, warranty, and adherence to Australian standards
• no buying items (where the item is not a one-off unique item, or a second-hand collector's item) that are listed at a price that is simply too low for a legitimate item
• no buying some items online at all
• always checking where seller is registered
• always looking through seller's negatives and neutrals to see if there is a pattern about location or quality of items
• trusting my judgement and walking away if something just doesn't seem right.

But I have seen many people post that they'll buy even if something just doesn't seem right, because they're using eBay's MBG or PayPal's Buyer Protection as a substitute for due diligence, especially if the item price isn't high.

[davewil1964]

But I have seen many people post that they'll buy even if something just doesn't seem right, because they're using eBay's MBG or PayPal's Buyer Protection as a substitute for due diligence, especially if the item price isn't high.

That makes sense. Many people have been brought up to believe that they can do no wrong, that any problems they have are caused by others, and that they should take no responsibility for anything they do that doesn't come up roses.

In pursuit of the almighty dollar (and knowing it is generally not them who foots the bill) eBay bow to this unrealistic attitude. Paypal not so much.

[tazzieterror]

in reply to countessalmirena

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@davewil1964 wrote:

But I have seen many people post that they'll buy even if something just doesn't seem right, because they're using eBay's MBG or PayPal's Buyer Protection as a substitute for due diligence, especially if the item price isn't high.

That makes sense. Many people have been brought up to believe that they can do no wrong, that any problems they have are caused by others, and that they should take no responsibility for anything they do that doesn't come up roses.

eBay have set up a framework and set of "rules" to govern how trading is done on their platform, and avtively promote the safety measures they've put in place to avoid buyer disappointment.  It's hardly the fault of an individual's upbringing if they choose to take advantage of a system geared towards making them a repeat user.

In pursuit of the almighty dollar (and knowing it is generally not them who foots the bill) eBay bow to this unrealistic attitude. Paypal not so much.

Keep in mind PayPal are now offering eight free returns per year, whereby they refund the buyer return postage costs under certian conditions.

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[davewil1964]

it is however the fault of the buyer when they deliberately ignore warning signs, fail to conduct due (or even any) diligence and rely on eBay's MBG to compensate them for their poor choices. The MBG should be the last resort, not the first.

I was maybe a bit obtuse for you, but eBay's MBG is generally funded by sellers, not eBay.