Reporting deceptive seller - eBay won't provide outcome of reporting process or refrence of report.

[geoffsr22]

I bought car suspension for around $350AUD from a high volume seller with great feedback. They were advertised as brand new (they're not) and would fit my model of car (they don't). There were 2 attemtpted deliveries by the courier before we noticed the seller had put the incorrect adddress on the box so the courier was trying to find a house that didn't exist.

When they arrived there was obvious evidence of previous use (scratches and scrapes around all the bolt holes and general wear and tear). I messaged the seller with this information andf photos and they immediately sent an apology with an offer for compensation of $45. I then tried to figure out why they were returned by the previous buyer and discovered the bolt mount points to the hub assembly had been incorrectly welded  in the factory so they didn't fit.

I messaged the seller with this information and told them to get stuffed I want a full refund, they tried to rip me off. They then sent a new compensation offer of $150. I left negative feedback, opened a return case and the seller agreed to refund the return cost ($100, the suspension is 29kg) The return arrived last week and I was just refunded minus the agreed cost of shipping. I messaged them and they didn't reply so I called ebay. After the customer service assistant reviewed and agreed to message the seller and request the shipping refund I asked about making a compaint about the deceptive conduct/fraud this seller decided was a good business practice. She told me that she could lodge a compaint but I would not be notified of the outcome nor was there any reference number of the complaint.  Now I look and this same item has been relisted by the seller.

Is eBay serious? By the sounds of this they take a valid compaint and do absolutely nothing about it. Is there any better way of doing this?

[enigmabear]

I find it very unlikely a ground level CS staff member is going to message a seller registered in China and tell them to refund the shipping charges (despite what they told you) this person would have been reading from a script and, as almost always with the call center, staff tell the caller what they want to hear to get them off the line as fast as possible

But the offers of 'compensation' of small amounts is very common among such sellers and is usually a stalling tactic so the buyer runs out of time to open a dispute via eBay

You don't mention opening an item not as described dispute in your post. did you do this?

eBay is all about the buyer 99% of the time, but eBay Australia can't and won't do anything about sellers registered in China 

[lyndal1838]

Every listing has a Report button that you can use.

Opening a dispute is also a way of reporting a seller.

No matter what way you report an item or a seller you will never be given a reference number and ebay NEVER tells you of the outcome of a report.....privacy reasons.....

[4channel]

These high volume sellers have to employ more people to get things running smoothly. Too many sellers are are up late and getting family members to do packing and despatching. If they want to run a business, they should act like one.

[springyzone]

I agree with what you have written and I think the fact the seller is registered in China is a problem. 

But I also think a lot of buyers, especially casual ebay users (which i think may be the case here), could be forgiven for thinking they had been dealing with a reputable firm located in Australia.

I opened one of the ads, it looks fairly professional, the English is not too bad. It's certainly not a dead give away or anything.

The feedback is 99.8%, which would probably strike most people as pretty high, and the location is listed as Regent's Park, NSW.

The shipping details give every indication the items are located in Australia too.

The buyer has already been refunded the item cost, I just hope they can still open some sort of claim in ebay and be refunded the rest of the amount under dispute.