Misrepresentation of item location

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

The issue of Chinese sellers misrepresenting items to be located at false Australian locations has been a long standing issue with Ebayer's. 

Ebay Australia must be well aware of this issue, but notwithstanding never-ending complaints have chosen to turn a "blind eye". 

Forget the fact it may disadvantage Austyralian sellers,  they dare not alienate some of their biggest fee payers.

HOWEVER, now EBay are required to impose a 10% GST on purchases made from overseas sellers it is going to be interesting to see how things evolve.  My suggestion is that whilst they have been able to put the issue of location misrepresentation into the too hard basket (after all, it only upsets the Aussie locals)  the Australian Government will carry a lot more weight.

That is, I have no doubt the Government would launch proceedings against EBay to claw back the GST payable on the sale of any items they could prove EBay should have known were not located/shipped from (for example) Darwin, but Beijing.

EBay have tried to cover their "a**" with the following comments in todays email about the introduction of GST.....

"We take item location misrepresentation seriously on eBay. As part of eBay’s Selling practices policy, we have deployed technology to prevent and detect violations across listings and transactions. Sellers found in violation of this policy are may be subject to listing removal, warnings, suspensions by eBay, and may be at risk of compliance action by the Australian Tax Office."

My suggestion is that best they do indeed stop the item location misrepresentation becuase if they don't then I am sure that many Ebay sellers (including ourselves) will not hestitate in raising the matter officially (with the Government. 

The resultant fallout could/would be a costly nightmare for EBay.

ABOUT TIME

[tcrenhartofohpwa_9]

I think Australia Post should also  take action against those overseas   sellers ( pretending to be Australian) for  wrongfully  using Oz Post tracking systems & using tracking   numbers  that are totally false . 

With the mounting complaints about false Australian locations, sooner or later Ebay will have no choice but to do something about it. OR,its users will take it to  the Australian Govt.  and they will  do it for them . The issue will not go away!!! 

Perhaps Ebay has now become so big it simply no longer cares about their  brand.

[davewil1964]

If the tracking numbers are false, they are demonstrably not using AP tracking systems, so I'm unsure what actions AP could take.

YOU could always bring it to the government/AP's attention if you feel so strongly about it.

[swamp-stalker]

The last thing Ebay take seriously is item location. Its not in their best interest to take it seriously, as the chinese sellers are their biggest cash cow.

None of the items sold by the chinese sellers that flood the Au ebay market will get hit with he GST, as long as they have their location based in a Aus city/town.

Ive spoken to numerous people who have complained about fake locations and items taking 6-8 weeks to arrive covered in China Mail stickers and the sellers are still up and running with their Aus location.

[lyndal1838]

It is not the Chinese sellers who get hit with the GST....it is the Australian buyers.

It would be sheer madness if ebay allows the Chinese sellers to get away with misrepresenting their item locations and do not charge the buyer the GST.   If the ATO gets involved the proverbial will hit the fan.

[brerrabbit585]

It might be difficult for ebay to prove where the Chinese sellers' items are located.  Yes, they might find out from buyers that some of their items are listed as being in Australia but they're sent from China, but some sellers might supply some of their goods from China and others from a warehouse in Australia.  How does ebay prove which ones are sent from each location? 

The only way they can really stop the Chinese getting around falsifying their location for gst purposes is to add it to ALL the items of a seller registered in China (or any other country), regardless of where the products are actually posted from.  For a lot of Chinese items an extra 10% wouldn't make enough difference to stop people buying them.  The reason people buy them is because they're a LOT cheaper than anywhere else.

If the Chinese import them to a warehouse in Australia to be sold, they may or may not have already paid customs/gst on them.  How they prove that to ebay or the govt is anyone's guess, so this isn't going to be an easy problem to sort out.

[3415len]

not only do the Chinese sellers, do this there is many Indian sellers who also have been doing the same thing, Australian location but weeks if not months for delivery, if eBay were strict on the rules they all would be rubbed out by now with the amount of negative’s they get, and delivery time, which concludes there is a rule for one and not the other. If the GST is scrutinised by the Government correctly, all the Chinese and Indian sellers will have to register for GST in Australia, which they will find it hard to do unless they have a ABN

, if all works out correctly , should be a win win for Australian ABN sellers who have always paid GST on sold items on EBay and the Australian Government , who will capture millions in GST and about time , to top it off , it would be nice if AP charged the International sellers fees for delivery once they land in Australia , if they  went on their weight and volume , like all we have to comply to it would really even the playing field.

[lyndal1838]

If the items are already in Australia ready to be sold then they would have already had all Customs charges paid on them.   They would not be released by Customs until all charges were paid.

As for the rest of the items....I agree that it is not going to be easy but ebay is going to have to find a way or things could get very messy with the ATO.

[lyndal1838]

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@3415len wrote:

not only do the Chinese sellers, do this there is many Indian sellers who also have been doing the same thing, Australian location but weeks if not months for delivery, if eBay were strict on the rules they all would be rubbed out by now with the amount of negative’s they get, and delivery time, which concludes there is a rule for one and not the other. If the GST is scrutinised by the Government correctly, all the Chinese and Indian sellers will have to register for GST in Australia, which they will find it hard to do unless they have a ABN

Overseas seller cannot get an ABN (Australian Business number) and the ATO cannot force an overseas business to do anything.  Overseas businesses would have to volunteer to collect GST and I doubt that it will ever happen with the Chinese.  I can't comment on the Indian sellers because the only time I have bought from India the goods were correctly described as being in India and did not take all that long to arrive.

, if all works out correctly , should be a win win for Australian ABN sellers who have always paid GST on sold items on EBay and the Australian Government , who will capture millions in GST and about time , to top it off , it would be nice if AP charged the International sellers fees for delivery once they land in Australia , if they  went on their weight and volume , like all we have to comply to it would really even the playing field.

It is never going to happen....AP is a signatory to the same postal agreement as the rest of the world.  They are obliged to deliver overseas items at no cost, just as the other countries dliver Australian mail items at no cost.

It is nothing to do with this arrangement if overseas items are subsidised by the governemnt of the country....think China here.

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[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Except if the Chinese seller had sent the goods to Australia with a declared value of less than AUD1,000 - then there would have been no Custom charges on the shipment.

Let's face it, for AUD1, 000 that could represent a lot of $2 items!

Regardless, as I said in a post a couple of weeks ago, the Chinese will find a way to rort the system, someway.