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.

[goose_mcbruce]

yeah i got hit with one of these scams, worst part was that i was buying a Gelball blaster, which are legal in my state but can't be imported from foreign countries! so next thing i know i get a letter in the post from customs saying my item got seized at the border. thank **bleep** it was the first time so i didn't get a fine! from my experience do NOT trust it if it says it's coming from "Australia, Australia"

[lyndal1838]

Did you check where the seller was registered?

If the seller is registered overseas it is fairly safe to assume that the item will be shipped from overseas.

[fantastichour]

Apart from the seller is originally registered in a location outside AU (etc. China. UK. USA) 

That's what I found:

1. Go to the "postage and payment" part, if the seller is not able to provide "Express shipping" option or extremely high postage like $999, then the item is very likely to be dispatched outside of Australia.

AU POST does working with the overseas seller to ship the item using AU POST eParcel system, hence the seller claim to be "LOCAL", but not able to provide express shipping due to the cost.

2. The seller has mixed feedback with the buyer all over the world (e.g. UK, US....) then the item has a very low chance of getting the ship from OZ.

Hope this helps

[maranock]

It doesn't really help because your presumptions are wrong. I sell (on another account) and I don't offer express shipping, and I have buyer feedback from other countries. Very high shipping costs can be due to a number of factores unrelated to the country you sell from.

[bobw67443]

I dont know about speed, it was OK but when I returned it to the seller's address as stated on the parcel, and returned it unopened, I got the runaround and told to return it AFTER I got it back from Australia Post to a different Address.

Australia Post confirm it WAS delivered to Botany and signed as recieved by one L Eric??

I referred this to Ebay, my case was closed in the seller's favour, as was my appeal

.

So no item and no 90 odd bucks!!

If anyone in Sydney is interrested I can provide locations for both warehouses the sddresses refer to.

So no more ebay for me. 

Caveat Emptor reigns!

[papermoon.lady]

I just fell for one of these sellers for the first time because the item was listed in Australia, but of course I would have been cautious if it had not been that they had express postage with guaranteed 1-day delivery. It was supposed to arrive today and has just been sent from China. Because it was guaranteed delivery, I will get my money back (only postage though), but I need the item and it will be late.1-day guaranteed delivery with Toll express and it has just been sent from China. (Winit tracking) Quite horrible,

[papermoon.lady]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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

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You are right, but this also allows them to misrepresent locations even easier because they find some excuses for delays and still won't admit that the items come from China.... I have been told that Toll Express needs longer than indicated because they can be slow...

I know that the seller is located in HK, but I thought with 1-day guaranteed delivery they might have a warehouse here? Well, lesson learned. 

[lyndal1838]

It will be interesting to see how long it does take to arrive.

Most of my Chinese purchases have delivery times of 4-8 weeks and have arrived in 3 weeks or less.  Five days was the best.

I must admit none of my sellers tried to pretend they were in Australia so I was more than happy at the delivery times.

[*tippy*toes*]

The few times I bought things from China, where the seller sent express, they arrived in 3 or 4 days. I was VERY surprised. Especially the 3 day one. I'm not in the express network, so it can take 3-4 days to get something express in Australia, let alone from China!

[papermoon.lady]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

It will be interesting to see how long it does take to arrive.

Most of my Chinese purchases have delivery times of 4-8 weeks and have arrived in 3 weeks or less.  Five days was the best.

I must admit none of my sellers tried to pretend they were in Australia so I was more than happy at the delivery times.

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The delivery times of 4-8 weeks are for economy, but they also have standard postage, at least for parcels that are not really tiny (they are usually sent with WinIt and then handed over to a carrier once they arrive in Australia). And most of my items sent with economy postage have arrived in 3 weeks or less too.  Usually if it takes longer than 6 weeks even if it is still within the delivery frame they don't arrive at all, or if they arrive they arrive after 6 months or so because they have been misplaced at some post office.

Standard postage is pretty good. It usually takes 7-10 days (basically like from other countries overseas, for example the UK or Germany). Sometimes I wish they had that option more often, as I wouldn't mind paying a couple of dollars more instead of free economy postage.