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.

[*tippy*toes*]

I've bought quite a lot from China that was listed as being shipped free postage "economy", where postage is 2 months. I don't mind, I don't need it in a hurry. If I needed it in a hurry, I wouldn't buy it from China! Yet, it's rare it takes longer than 2 weeks. Occasionally if I buy something in October it can get waylaid and take longer (not sure what events take place in October?), and of course Chinese new year where everything stops for weeks will blow things out. Any other time of the year though, "economy" shipping usually arrived within 2 weeks.

I had one item that never arrived, the seller refunded within minutes of me sending a message (no dispute needed). Another item I was refunded for, eventually arrived after 4 months. I sent a message to the seller and sent them the money for the item (which they promptly sent back because of my honesty).

I know when I'm buying something, that I'm buying from a Chinese seller. I accept the risks of buying from a Chinese seller. That said, the items I buy are not subject to being scam items, or fakes. They are genuine sellers just trying to make a living. There are 4 that I regularly buy from. All are medium to high volume sellers. 3 have 100% feedback and have had for years. The other is currently 99.9% due to one neg from someone who didn't like the colour of the item.

If I'm buying something local, it's not hard to see that it's coming from a Chinese seller. Not only due to the wording in the listing, but the fact there are 8 listings with identical photos and very similar descriptions. Despite them saying they are in Australia, their location says otherwise, and often their feedback says the same. Depending on what the item is, I will still sometimes buy it, knowing that despite what they say, it's NOT being sent from Australia.

An item I bought recently was $18 with free postage, from a seller registered in China, that stated in the listing they were in Australia (I knew they weren't), compared to the cheapest identical item from a seller registered in Australia being $49+postage. I wasn't in a hurry for the item. It arrived exactly as I expected it to, with the same quality I would have got from the Australian seller of the same item. It arrived in 10 calendar days.

[papermoon.lady]

I agree that usually it is clear when an item is not really located in Australia, but with "next-day ugaranteed delivery" I thought they might have a warehouse here... I also thought that in case the item does not arrive by the guaranteed delivery I can get my money back (for postage), as eBay provides a refund of postage when an item with guaranteed delivery arrives late. The other sellers  from China had very similar listings, but not a guaranteed delivery. 

https://pages.ebay.com.au/shipping/guaranteed-delivery.html

The item has alredy arrived in Australia, but the Toll tracking is a bit weird, as it says:

Business unit    Toll Priority

Service type   B2c Economy

The number to call if there is a problem is "Toll Priority".

I am not sure what B2c Economy means? I will have a look at their website to see if I find an answer. I haven't used Toll much, but I don't remember seeing Priority and Economy together when I used it. Maybe they have different priority services.

[lyndal1838]

Toll and Toll Priority are run as 2 separate companies as far as I know......they have different levels of service (and prices).

[papermoon.lady]

From the Wikipedia:

Toll Group, part of Japan Post Holdings, is a transportation and logistics company with operations in road, rail, sea, air and warehousing. It has three principal businesses, Global Forwarding, Global Logistics and Global Express Services, with some 1200 sites in about 50 countries, mostly in Asia and the Pacific.

[lyndal1838]

But you are talking about Toll courier services in Australia.....you will not get much joy looking up international services when you need local road services.

[*tippy*toes*]

I agree that it's a bit silly offering guaranteed next day delivery when the item is coming from offshore. I also agree with you that it would be easy to assume that the item is local given the delivery estimate. Maybe they do have a warehouse here, but stock ran out, so they have sent from overseas? I've had that happen before. I'd bought several times and the items did come from Australia, but there was one time it came from overseas.

I've had items sent via Toll Priority before and they have always arrived overnight. I have found them to be very efficient, regardless of where the item was from sent from in Australia. With any luck your item will arrive tomorrow.

[papermoon.lady]

But it says they are represented in about 50 countries, so I assume Toll Australia in just a branch so-to-speak? I really don't know, I just guess so. I didn't know it was a Japanese company until today to be honest.

[papermoon.lady]

---

@*tippy*toes* wrote:

 Maybe they do have a warehouse here, but stock ran out, so they have sent from overseas? I've had that happen before. I'd bought several times and the items did come from Australia, but there was one time it came from overseas.

---

Yes, it is possible. I bought my Nikon DSLR camera in 2011 from an eBay shop that stated exactly this (that if they are our of stock locally they will have to order from overseas).

It still works perfectly and was quite a bit cheaper than the same camera here. Some leaflets in the box were in Chinese, but you can download them in English from the net anyway.

[*tippy*toes*]

Then there are the dodgy sellers, who I guess this thread is about, who make that statement saying if stock runs out, items may be sent from overseas, but ALL items regardless are sent from overseas! That's where checking the sellers location comes into play I suppose.

[papermoon.lady]

That's it:

https://www.smh.com.au/business/not-so-little-meet-the-340m-winner-in-japan-posts-takeover-of-toll-2...

I cannot edit the other post.

It was founded in 1888 in Newcastle.