SCAM - Chinese sellers misrepresenting item location - Equick

[offroad7400]

So here is the latest 'SCAM' many Chinese sellers are now using in their listings to convince you to buy from them as their stock is supposedly located in Australia and you will get the goods quicker.

'AU STOCK' is big and bold in their listing heading.

In fact 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.

Around 4-5 days after you make your purchase you finally receive the tracking advice from Australia Post, which makes you think the items are in Australia, but in fact they have not even left China.  Around 10-14 days later you finally receive the goods.

This activity is clearly misleading and a breach of eBay's 'misrepresenting item location' rules and needs to be stopped.

[lyndal1838]

I am not finding the delivery times from China to be particularly long.

I bought and paid for an item from China on the night of the 8th March.  I received a tracking number on the 9th long with the notification that the item had been accepted by the shipping company and was in transit.

The next tracking event was on the 14th.....the item was in Australia and had cleared Customs.   The next tracking event was a card in the letterbox to pick up at the PO.

My parcel took 6 days to arrive in Australia.....and a further 6 days for AP to deliver it.        

That is pretty good in my book.

[offroad7400]

Catch 22 - with the abolition of the $1,000 threshold on GST for imported items, the item location representation starts to look even more grey.  eBay collect GST on items purchased from overseas sellers and remits the 10% to the ATO on behalf of the buyer.

Chinese sellers who are drop shipping items in bulk could be exploiting a GST loophole to make their items cheaper.

We know for a fact that bulk orders are not being charged GST at the border if the consignment is under the old $1,000 threshold.

Online marketplace websites like eBay, Amazon and all the big retailers have to collect that GST or they cannot operate here now.  The (ATO does not have the capacity to police the smaller sites).

So if sellers make the item location in Australia eBay will not charge the buyer GST, in effect this is tax avoidance and maybe the ATO need to be made aware of this.

[lyndal1838]

I think you will find that Chinese sellers who ship to Australia in bulk and use warehouse facilities here are paying GST on the bulk shipments.....they don't send poncy little packets of less than $1000 value....they send whole container loads.

[johnni26]

Came to this forum after purchasing item which claims to be in Botany, NSW. Australia Post are verifying a label for the item has been printed with tracking number and shipping information, but no tracking movement a week later, needless to say the item has not arrived within it's estimated time frame and I am still waiting.

I contacted the seller who claims Aus Post have not updated their tracking system. Australia Post says the item has not being scanned and I should request the seller open an enquiry with them regarding my parcel.  The whole process of Australia Post giving out tracking numbers legitimised the local aspect of the transaction for me, but I then find that nothing has been sent and it is just data entry into a delivery system.

Looking at the fine print of the seller after following this thread, they are registered in China.  They do have a 98.8% approval.  If I took the time to read all the negative reviews I would have chanced upon one rewiew stating "AVOID! NOT IN AUS. Slow postage. Sent from china!"

Time has been wasted. Lesson has been learnt. 

[*tippy*toes*]

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@johnni26 wrote:

Came to this forum after purchasing item which claims to be in Botany, NSW. Australia Post are verifying a label for the item has been printed with tracking number and shipping information, but no tracking movement a week later, needless to say the item has not arrived within it's estimated time frame and I am still waiting.

I contacted the seller who claims Aus Post have not updated their tracking system. Australia Post says the item has not being scanned and I should request the seller open an enquiry with them regarding my parcel.  The whole process of Australia Post giving out tracking numbers legitimised the local aspect of the transaction for me, but I then find that nothing has been sent and it is just data entry into a delivery system.

Looking at the fine print of the seller after following this thread, they are registered in China.  They do have a 98.8% approval.  If I took the time to read all the negative reviews I would have chanced upon one rewiew stating "AVOID! NOT IN AUS. Slow postage. Sent from china!"

Time has been wasted. Lesson has been learnt. 

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A good lesson to learn is always checking a sellers location on their feedback page, not in the listing, and always check negative feedback. If the seller is a high volume seller, then 98.8% is absolutely atrocious and should be avoided.. Great that you have learned this early and will never make the same mistake again.

Now, the time has come to open an item not received dispute and get your money back. If the last ETA date has passed, then you only have 30 days from that date to open a dispute. Don't let the seller string you along by saying they will send a replacement. That is a common delay tactic with the Chinese. Get the refund and if you still really want the item, you can rebuy it.

If you are unsure how to open a dispute, come back here and someone will talk you through it.

[johnni26]

Hey *tippy*toes*

I have been in dialogue with the seller and as you have already predicted, they are asking me to wait till at least the weekend due to the circumstances being "unluck". There was no other explanation. I suggested they express post another item to me so I will receive it the next day and if the other parcel does arrive, I will send it back. They didn't entertain that idea. They tried to offer a $5 discount, and if still the item doesn't arrive by the weekend, a full refund. Waste 2 weeks of my time and I should be happy with my money back.

There is still no item scanned in my Aus Post tracker. I did ask Aus Post when I tried to find out more info why they have "Your parcel is coming" when they issue tracking numbers when they don't have the item and in this case, it truly "ain't" coming as it is not scanned which puts it in transit. It seems this is a handy loophole that this seller has used to blame someone else. I was told by Aus post that only the seller could raise an inquiry against my tracking number which according to my tracker has been raised after I asked the seller to. I would assume that Australia post are looking for a parcel that doesn't exist in the system.

[padi*0409]

You are probably wasting you time "being in dialog" with them, the chances are they are stalling you and hoping you won't open a dispute with eBay's MBG.

If as you say it is past the last ETA for the parcel, then open a dispute but DO NOT close it before you have your refund, Chinese sellers can promise you the earth to get you to close a dispute - which cannot be reopened.

[*tippy*toes*]

I agree with Padi. Open the dispute and do NOT close it until you have a refund. Chinese sellers will try to tell you that in order to receive a refund, you must close the dispute. Don't fall for it. It is 100% false. Once you can escalate the dispute to a claim (ask eBay to step in and help), do so. If the item does end up arriving, you can repay the seller.

[offroad7400]

"AVOID! NOT IN AUS. Slow postage. Sent from china!" - that sounds like one of my feedbacks - and I started this thread LOL !

In answer to the question about Chinese sellers throwing small packets into containers and still paying GST, this is incorrect.  China Post do offer a 'poverty pack' seamail service and it is surprisingly fast.  We recently shipped items (prohibited by air) using this service for $3/kg and the goods took 11 days Shenzhen port to Sydney port.

However it sat in China outbound Customs for 7 days before departing and another 10 days from Sydney to our location.  So 25 days for door to door delivery.  The defacto standard for 'FREE' shipping by Chinese sellers.

Once again we were not charged GST at any point in the process and the eParcel label (initiated in China) had no tracking information until it hit the Sydney International Mail Centre in Alexandria.

Australia Post partner with Sai Cheng Logistics in China to offer this service to any Chinese merchants.

http://en.saichenglogistics.com/a/news/gsxw/

[lyndal1838]

I assume you were referring to my post ....nowhere did I say the sellers "throw small packets into containers and still pay GST">

I stated that sellers who have warehouse facilities in Australia ship whole container loads (or shared container loads) and do pay GST and other import charges before the containers are released from Customs.