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]

How is it tax avoidance?

Ebay will not do anything.....they can only report it to ebay China who ignore it.

[south.coffee]

Nothing has changed in 6 years and nothing will ever change in the future. eBay don't enforce Item Location and near impossible to police. It all comes down to the buyer making an informed decision by due diligence of the seller.

Buyers are slowly working this out and usually after a false start waiting weeks or months for a delivery (especially during a pandemic) they will learn that Cheap + Fast = Impossible.

eBay add and collect GST in the selling price on items from outside Australia in accordance with ATO regulations and remit accordingly.

If an item is already 'located' in Australia it is the responsibility of the Freight Consolidater to collect the GST at import, and I can comfortably say this rarely happens based on the enormous volumes of small articles.

The Governments GST $1,000 threshold was abolished so Jerry Harvey can become more richer, but the collection system in place is aimed at the big online portals. The smaller stuff still gets through GST free as it's simply too hard and not worth the effort to police and collect.

[retroragsaustralia]

Good point offroad - i have noticed this false advertising also. Ebay should be sorting through these retailers and get them to take down their misleading advertising, but being a multimillion dollar company, they really dont care about consumers

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

I reckon they should open a separate forum board for this issue

[francescaran0]

Not nice what you are saying about the kids. It is not a solution to make fun of people.
Chinese scams very frustrating

[offroad7400]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Not sure if I get your reply though '..kids' ?

When you hit Reply on the last page you are replying to the person directly above. I make that mistake all the time.

[imastawka]

If they're on a mobile, they just reply to the OP - you.

Who knows who they meant.

[davewil1964]

If was in response to anything posted when the thread was current, the kids are probably at least teenagers now.

[4bytes]

Not sure if this is the right thread but it ties in with the whole "misrepsentation" of item location. I ordered on Monday evening 5 face masks and the item location was clearly listed as "Sydney" I purchased them thinking they'll at least be here by the end of the week and I've been waiting for them to arrive so I can safely go out in public and get my nessscary business done. However out of the blue tonight I was provided my tracking number and the item location was shown to instead be coming from Sunshine west Melbourne, not "Sydney" and last update being on Tuesday at 4:50 PM for "We've got it" (Australia Post) 

I did check the sellers profile before purchasing but things can become complicated and yes their profile said "melbourne based" however the items location said "Sydney" so I figured they've also got a warehouse in Sydney and my order will be dispatched from there and sent to my address and arrive by at least the end of the week but as stated above this isn't the case. 

These are items people are going to really be waiting on (no different to other packages) however to misrepresent item location is very very poor and I won't be purchasing from this seller again (also they also keep continuing to rise the price on masks). I have purchased from other Sellers before who use the vauge "Sydney" listing and all have come from an area that is within the Sydney region. 

It'll be helpful if Ebay would step in and tell sellers to stop being vague and be as open as possible however the fact this topic is a good 5+ years old and nothing has been done (if at all)  to rectify the problem proves Ebay couldn't care about the problem to any level of degree. This is still going to be a problem in 2025 and again in 2030. 

I'm a little bit worked up because I was expecting my item to be coming from Sydney and knowing the current state that Victoria is currently under, If I knew my item would've been coming from there I would've looked harder for another Sydney based seller. 

[davewil1964]

You are correct. This isn't the correct thread.

This thread is about Chinese sellers misrepresenting item location. Given your items are coming from Melbourne (with AP tracking) rather than Sydney, it is unlikely that any Chinese are involved, unless they actually have stock in Australia.

You have stated that AP now have your item. Except for Express, AP rarely send stuff by air, so a truck is a truck is a truck, and you will likely get your masks (which you should have been able to purchase from a local pharmacy anyway) early next week, if not tomorrow.

In the meantime try a bandana or balaclava. I got accused of being a bandit at Woolies earlier this week. I wasn't upset, I've been called worse.