@remsrems11 wrote:
@springyzone wrote:
Why on earth would you pay maybe 3 or 4 times more for a product that had exactly the same estimated arrival date of maybe around 4 weeks?
Sorry, I probably wasnt clear enough.
What I mean is when you buy an "Australian" item located in Chullora or Alice Springs for example, with a 4-8 day postage, and it sometimes ends up taking 2 or 3 weeks to arrive, or more. In that instance you have paid several times as much for the "Australian stock" as you would have if you bought it directly from a foreign seller who's item is honestly listed in China. That's when you end up with the same delivery time for the "Australian stock" as you do for the same item listed in China, but the China listing is far cheaper.
Obvioulsy once you're aware of these sellers you would know to open an item not received claim once the ETA passes, or not buy from them at all in the first place. That comes from experience. But in the meantime, the unaware buyer has paid $20 for a "local" item that he would have bought for $5 from China if he knew it was going to take weeks to arrive, not the estimated 4-8 days. Then the sellers attempt to offer a 30% or 50% refund or whatever and they are still making money off you.
Semantics aside, yes, eBay needs to do a lot more about dishonest sellers who misrepresent item location and any other parties involved in allowing this to happen. Also blatant education about it from eBay aimed at the buyers wouldn't hurt, rather than buyers having to learn this themselves the hard way going through it numerous times, or having to visit forums to read about it, or reporting sellers with eBay doing nothing about it...
No doubt the undercutting by these sellers also hurts legit Australian sellers.
I agree with you that an inexperienced buyer might not realise that an item location has been misrepresented.
Not every buyer is going to think to click through to check on a seller's registration location. Most won't realise which Australian cities figure most commonly in the lies either.
They shouldn't have to. What they see in the ad when they read that opening page should be what applies.
But one thing that is in the ads is the estimated dates of arrival. That is clearly marked.
Once the estimated date of arrival has passed, I think any buyer, new or not, should at least start looking for information about terms & conditions and what they can do if they are having problems. In the "My ebay' section where the purchases are listed, there is even a tab with a drop down menu that says "I didn't receive it".
What it comes down to unfortunately is that new buyers should not be too patient. They should not wait for 4 weeks if an item was due to arrive in 4-8 days.
I have seen plenty of ads where I suspect the item location listed is an outright lie but usually i find the ETA is not a lie, it is what gives the game away, because sellers can't really afford to lie too much about when a buyer will receive a product. Too many of them would open an ebay claim.
