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.

[haicim]

*bump*

I've got so tired of this that I've made a macro that notifies me if the item I've clicked on is not Australian,

basically it will cross check the info of item location with the location of the seller,

aside from that, ebay has become a last resort for me lately, otherwise I scout other websites, especially actual Australian businesses, many are often cheaper too.

ebay won't last at this rate, you might as well go to Alibaba/AliExpress to get products directly from chinese manufacturer and skip a few ebay middlemen.

This is nothing against Chinese nationals, whom I have great relations with, I just don't like inaccurate information and potential drop-shipping risks which can lead to time-wasting.

[padi*0409]

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@haicim wrote:

*bump*

I've got so tired of this that I've made a macro that notifies me if the item I've clicked on is not Australian,

basically it will cross check the info of item location with the location of the seller,

---

Yet nearly half of the sellers you've bought from in the last month are based in Asia (check their registered location in feedback) - and have questionable feedback......

Members here recommend being wary of high-volume sellers with less than 99.5% feedback.

[350z900ss]

This is still going on and is completely relevant, even today.

They are scamming buyers by pretending to be LOCAL and charging a higher price, when in fact they are shipping from CHINA and shipping times are usually more than 2 weeks!

I could have paid considerably less money by buying from an HONEST seller that clearly states shipping from China or Hong Kong, rather than a DISHONEST seller with AU-STOCK plastered all over their listing, but shipping from China anyway.

it's a complete SCAM!

[davewil1964]

As has been mentioned on most of the many threads about this issue - CHECK WHERE THE SELLER IS REGISTERED. If it is China, the odds are the item will be shipped from China.

[daviradisic-0]

From a legal perspective:
If it is a private seller, ie not a company, there is no legal issue nor are eBay obliged to do anything
IF however they ARE a company they are in breach of s18 & s29 of the Australian Consumer Law and is a Commonwealth offence. eBay should be notified (I would mention the breach, the ACL is sch 2 of the CCA (Cth) 2010 should you need to know) in which case they should act immediately to remedy the situation. Regardless of whether they do or not the ACCC if notified will investigate and if the problem and prosecute our Asian friends, if the issue proves to be endemic, eBay will be taken to court and prosecuted. Their penalty would be insignificant however it will change their practises in regard to such matters to avoid bad press and further scrutiny of the ACCC.
Hope that helps.

[lyndal1838]

I hate to burst your bubble but if the seller is registered overseas the ACCC can not do anything at all about it.

As for items being in Australia when the seller is registered in China/Hong Kong.....surprisingly, there are some sellers who are honest and do have storage facilities in Australia.   Some sellers use logistics companies based in Botany for example.  The items are sent from the logistics company storage facility....unfortunately rather slower than buyers may hope.

Some years ago I was looking for some plastic DVD storage sleeves.....they were a very common item from China and Hong Kong and most were roughly the same price....many with "Make and Offer" on the listing.

Because of the number I wanted my criteria was CHEAP....I did not care where they came from or how long they took to arrive.

I finally found a likely looking listing, supposedly in Australia.  Due to the Chinglish in the listing and a few other giveaways I was pretty certain I would be waiting forever for them to arrive from overseas.

My offer was accepted and I paid for the order about 5pm and sat back to wait for them to arrive from overseas.  To say that I was surprised when they arrived via Australia Post contractor at 7.15 next morning was an understatement.   That is one seller I bought from a number of times and the service was always as fast.

[6o7o8o]

On the positive side there's no GST applicable and that's a good thing given how much tax we pay

[ereal666]

I am tired of being "scammed" about location of items, and tired of paying for items athat are not as described and then having to waste my time and energy either complaining and returning item.

Pretty much all the problems seem to be with China based sellers.

I have decided that I will no longer purchase form Ebay Chinese sellers, and will deal only with independent retailers who perhaps have their own site or have a bona fide business that might also operate on Ebay as well as having their own site.

Ebay's guarantee doesn't come down to much when you have to do teh ehavy lifting ane get dierected to a robot/self help site to find your own answers.

Buyers need to vote with their feet..........and Amazon is coming.

[imastawka]

Amazon is already here and hasn't made a dent so far.

[lyndal1838]

Amazon is already here and from what I have heard it is not all that impressive.