Queensland Knife Restrictions do not align with state law and are discriminative

[ozzyleo]

The new policy that eBay have imposed meaning any buyer residing in Queensland can not purchase any knife is not aligned with the actual legislation changes.

The only thing that has changed is that you need to be 18 to purchase a knife.

Ebay should just implement age verification and stop this ridiculous heavy handed policy that prevents legitimate users such as myself from purchasing legal items.

[stormboy04]

The National Retail Association says that replacement scalpel blades are exempt, meaning they can be sold. EBay are stopping people from buying them, which is an issue.  I didn't see chocolate milk on the list, but you can check. 🤣

[gutterpunkz05]

And ebay says no, their perogative, there is no law compelling anyone to sell or permit the sale of such items.

Buy them in store and stock up while you can.

[stormboy04]

Ok. Here's an update folks. I spoke to a person at the Office of Fair Trading today. I told them I wanted to purchase a box of replacement scalpel blades, but Ebay was blocking me from buying them as I lived in Queensland. I sent them a link to the National Retail Association website below which indicated that "Replacement blades for box cutters or scalpels," were in the 'Exempt' restrictions category. They checked out the link and could see they were indeed exempt, but told me Ebay were probably not aware of the exemption. They said to phone Ebay and speak to someone there, which I did. When I spoke to a customer rep at Ebay, I sent them a link to the National Retail Association website. I asked them why are they preventing people in Queensland from purchasing replacement scalpel blades on their website when they are exempt from restrictions!? They told me, "our system is designed in such a way that the keywords like "blades" mentioned in the item title or descriptionare automatically gets restricted for QLD addresses. I request you to kindly wait for some days and the issue will be resolved. They said their team was aware of the issues and were working on fixing the problem. I then asked them for a timeframe when the issue will be resolved. They told to try purchasing the replacement scalpel blades in 5-7 days, and the issue will be resolved. I never asked them if this also applies to knives, but they are aware of the issues, and I assume they are working on an age verification system. 

[stormboy04]

Here's a link to the National Retail Association website. 

https://www.nationalretail.org.au/app/uploads/2024/06/QLD-New-Knife-Sale-Laws-National-Retail-Presen...

[trevor5869]

Thank you for all the work you have put into this.  I was shocked this afternoon when I tried to order some Swann Morton blades that I use for my hobby work, and a big red sign came up to say I was not allowed to purchase them because of the QLD Legislation.

Anyway, if things go as stormboy04 reports above, we may be able to order them in about a week's time.  I can wait a week.  Otherwise I suppose its a case of finding a local surgical supplies store or a hobby store than stocks them.

Best regards to all.

[sugar249]

And in all the time you wasted you could have gone to a Bricks and Mortar place and bought some.  And there are better things for fair trading to worry about.

[gutterpunkz05]

I am guessing you have been blown off.  CS are not employed by ebay and what they say and what actually happens are 2 different matters.

[stormboy04]

 When you're at university studying Professional Writing and Publishing, it's actually not time wasted at all, but rather valuable research I can use in my papers. The ombudsman was actually very helpful and thanked me for bringing it to their attention, and I got a positive outcome.  A friend has already purchased some scalpel blades for me, so I didn't need to drive around looking for them, but thank you for your concern. 😂

[stormboy04]

You guessed wrong once again. 😂 Wow, I didn't realise CS employees don't work for Ebay! 🤣 What actually happened was that I got a positive outcome, so that was fantastic. The Ebay rep was also more than helpful admitting that their 'system' got it wrong, and that they are working on fixing the issue. 

[stormboy04]

You're welcome Trevor. As the Ebay rep told me, "try to purchase them again in another 7 days," and let me know how you went? I'm also going to let one of the Ebay sellers I tried to purchase the scalpel blades from know that Queensland customers should be able to purchase from them in another week (fingers crossed).