Item not arrived, seller gives no apology and just says be patient.

[digger_man3]

I'm in Victoria, and bought an item that is SUPPOSEDLY in NSW.

Purchased on the 24th June, got an email on the 25th saying it was posted. Come 5th July (the latest expected receive date) and it still hasn't arrived. So 10 days from a neighbouring state and no arrival.

Contacted the seller and this is the response a couple of days later:

Hi dear customer.

Thanks for your message.

Your item is now on its way to you.

I just urged it for you, plz kindly wait in more patience.

Hope you have a nice day.

Any problems plz contact with us.

Best regards.

Well that response just got my back up. No apology, no explanation why it's late, and to top it off I'm then told to be more patient.

So I emailed back to ask when I can expect it to arrive. I said if the expected arrival time is too long I'll ask for a refund. OR if I accept the new expected arrival time, but it does not arrive by that time, I'll demand a refund.

3 days later and no reply from the seller. Based of the "English" in the message shown, I'm guessing this item is not even coming from NSW and that's why it's taking so long.

There doesn't appear to be any tracking on this item, so does this mean I'm entitled to a refund. I don't really care if the item is on its way or not. I beleive this is yet another seller lying about their products being in Austalia when they are probably coming from China.

If we simply accept this deception, we only deserve more of it.

[lyndal1838]

Why could you not leave feedback.....you have 60 days for that.

[davewil1964]

You got your item, so you can hardly claim you were shafted. You could always have opened a INR case if the time was 'too long'. An eBay policy that favours the buyer. And got your money back without question. Another eBay policy that favours the buyer. You would have then had the opportunity, but no eBay obligation, to repay the seller. If you didn't, you would have had the goods and the money with no repercussions. Another eBay policy that favours the buyer.

Feedback, anecdotally at least from buyers who only read it post-problem, isn't always read by people before purchase, and doesn't directly affect the KPIs affecting seller performance

[digger_man3]

See message 21 & 26.

I was simply told once Ebay removed feedback, they can't reinstate it.

[digger_man3]

Obviously your idea of shafted and mine differ. Of course there are different levels of being shafted but as far as I'm concerned I was shafted to some degree.

I wanted the tool I bought by a certain time, so I chose a "local" seller. The seller was fraudulent and did not have a local item. Therefore I didn't get it in time.

Then there's the unnecessary hassle of going back to Ebay to try and get your money back, etc. I can do without that rubbish.

Just because I got my item eventually does not mean I wasn't shafted. There's plenty more ways to be shafted than simply not receiving your item.

Sellers who do this bull deserve to have buyers "pay them back". If sellers are going to lie to buyers just to try and make a sale then I seriously hope buyers will return the favour. If a fraudulent seller ends up not getting paid, I'm seriously all for that, because it seems that's the only way they'll stop doing it.

It's quite obvious Ebay aren't doing anything about it.

Why should a buyer have to go to the bother of returning an item because it arrived late, simply becaue it came from overseas instead of local as was advertised. The seller drew first blood and deserves what he gets. 

The way I look at it is if the seller plays honest, then the buyer should too (and visa versa), but if one party screws the other, they need to get screwed back.

And to be honest, I don't really understand why you come to this thread talking about buyers being given all sorts of favours and protection. I've been the victim in this and it's the seller who is the dishonest one. Are you a seller who doesn't like it when a buyer gets lied too and isn't happy as a result.

I also don't care about whether feedback is effective or not. It's part of the Ebay system and a buyer should be allowed to leave feedback once he recieves the item. Moreso in a case like this.

[countessalmirena]

@digger_man3,

Buyers on eBay do hold all the cards...

(I'm a buyer only, not a seller, so I'm not speaking from a perspective of "let's do wrong to the buyers"... Not that davewil is that sort of person, by the way.)

I know you didn't receive the item you wanted in time - and the seller will (I hope) have been punished for that. There are consequences to sellers' accounts if an item does not reach the buyer by the latest date in eBay's estimated delivery date range.

Was the item at least as described? I hope it was.

I will absolutely have to disagree with you about "If a fraudulent seller ends up not getting paid, I'm seriously all for that" - if by that you mean that the buyer gets to keep an item (genuine item, not a fake) and the seller is not paid. To my mind, that's theft. Even if the seller lied to me about the item location, I could not keep both the item and my money. (The worst I'd do would be to report the seller for misrepresenting the item location.)

Re the feedback - did you mention a refund or dispute in the feedback? If so, that would be why it was removed. It's frustrating to buyers when they find their feedback has been removed. Ah well... At least you know now how to avoid Chinese sellers who are falsely claiming that the item location is within Australia, while in actuality it's in China. I hope you have much better look with future purchases!

The second thing about which we'll have to disagree is the concept of paying the seller back. I want to enjoy life rather than focus too much attention on people who have attempted to take advantage of me, or who are being dishonest, etc. I believe in justice... but I try not to have vengeance in my mind and behaviour. Particularly on eBay where the scales are weighted on the side of the buyer, it doesn't seem to me to warrnt any additional turns of the rack for the seller. But over and above that, I do not want to feel my soul burn with a permanent sense of injustice. I'd rather follow the "Fool me once" creed - and never be fooled again. I'll report criminal behaviour; I'll give fair negative feedback on the rare instances when I encounter a bad seller in my buying; I'll obtain a refund if an item hasn't arrived; I'll certainly not accept shoddy fakes or poor quality... but having remedied my situation, that's it. I won't become Nemesis.

ALTHOUGH... I will add one caveat. Because your seller is Chinese, he is immune to much of the punitive eBay actions we've mentioned for sellers on eBay. Unfortunately, Chinese eBay sellers do appear to be largely untouchable, and this is because eBay.cn (Chinese eBay) where these sellers are registered will apply actions in a very different way. The misuse of "listings with variations", the location misrepresentation, the listing of fakes and non-genuine items, and the false claims of warranty - they are practices to be abhored. Yet Chinese sellers appear able to frolic gaily among these policy abuses...

I firmly believe that as a buyer, I have a very powerful tool - and that's to never, ever, ever buy from any Chinese seller who abuses policy in any of the ways I've mentioned. I hope more Australian buyers on eBay will follow this example. Really, the only way for buyers to influence these pernicious listing practices is to do as I do - don't buy from these sellers.

(I'm glad that you took action in good time. There are many unfortunate buyers who are strung along by Chinese eBay sellers in the manner I've described earlier in this thread... some even beyond the timeframe for a PayPal claim! I am always horrified by those cases, although inside myself I can also hear a voice saying, "Why, why, why did they wait so long?")