Seller with false item location on listings

[chiccaloca]

Hi everyone

Is there an avenue and do Ebay even care if a seller is listing an item as located in NSW when it is actually coming from overseas, most likely China?

I have purchased two items from a seller, they were both listed as located in NSW, I was only looking for items located in Australia when I did my search, I haven't received the items yet but I worked out fairly early on after the seller was playing dumb about when the item was sent, giving a tracking number etc and not actually answering my questions but giving me info that I already knew, that it was clearly not coming from NSW.

Do the sellers think we are not going to find that out when we get the item?

It's **bleep** that they advertise this stuff as located within Australia when it obviously isn't.

[chiccaloca]

No not books, they were little girls dress up costumes - yes they send them from China to NSW then post them from there to me.  I am in the ACT so coming from NSW parcels always take a maximum of 3 working days.  The seller sent me an email on 4 August to say the had posted the items, I just received them today, 16 August - yep definately not directly from NSW.

[springyzone]

That was quick compared to my books.

Mind you, the product was good but I do wish some sellers would be a bit more upfront in their ads.

[redders_60]

I don't know Dave; All I can say is they start up with PU cash only (that's how I found them using nearest search first) 

When I went to the places they were all setting up to sell things from Chinese sellers from an Aust address. 

The items I bought were various :- Baby cot set (Campbellfield) Bathroom basin for renos (Fawkner) Clothes folder (Epping) & rug hall runner (Thomastown) All locations in Vic. Northern Suburbs. The one in Epping Vic is now up & running fully - with Chinese sellers same item price type stuff as I saw in their warehouse. All ads look very similar! Same location too! Melb AU

[audistarelectronics]

I am finding that there are more and more Chinese sellers doing the same thing, usually with smaller, cheaper items that are heavily postage subsidized by the Chinese govt. Aussie sellers simply cannot compete with them because they have to buy their stock from the Chinese in the first place, and then put their profit on top. So, the Chinese seller will always be able to undercut the local seller everytime. You will find with larger heavier items, that, even though they probably come from China, the aussie seller will have a better chance because he or she will have to have purchased in quantity and is better able to compete because the Chinese dont like shipping the larger items to Aust for free. You will note that the postage charges on those items direct from China is never free as with the small cheap stuff. I find that any larger Chinese made item that I have purchased, is being sold by an aussie seller, or at least a seller who is based here and holds stock. It will always arrive sooner than a small item.

[woodduck*2012]

The trouble with EBay Au is its selective blindness to Chinese fraud or misrepresenting an items location as being in Australia, the American's are complaining about the exact same thing.

Any search you do on any item within EBay Australia is rife with Chinese sellers fibbing about their items location, at least the first 5 pages or more are flooded with it, sucking in Australian consumers and disadvantaging real Australian sellers.

Australian sellers are relying on repeat business and the Australians that are savy to this and that the buyer also realizes the postal costs, Ebay and PayPal fees within Australia.

Also most chinese in China arent all that bright when it comes postal costs and pricing in Australia and mostly advertise items between a real Au price and a China price.

An example might be a pair of shoes, Selling from China with free post $9.00 the dodgy chinese add in EBay Au might be $12.00-$15.00 free post and with little tags on the main image to try and make the consumer beleive its actually in Australia, like an ozzie flag, Au post symbols, Au stock bla bla bla.

Now the postal cost in AU for shoes is $7.95 minimum, then EBay and paypal fees along with packaging, to sell at $12.00 is to sell at a loss, obviously the seller is in china trying to make more by staight out misrepresenting the items location and this should be very obviouse with a quick look at the amount of neg feedback and the comments.

The same shoes within Au would be at least triple the china price not half way between or it simply would not be worth selling.

EBay allowes this and i beleive it to be due to the huge amount of sales these fraudulant sellers are makeing and the final value fees EBay is making from them would be massive, its a prize example of a corrupt system where money changes rules.

Generally buyers will get burned a few times before they wake up and start to look into things.

[thebossesaccount]

"I am finding that there are more and more Chinese sellers doing the same thing, usually with smaller, cheaper items that are heavily postage subsidized by the Chinese govt. "

In reality it is not the Chinese government that are subsidising the postage - it is the Aussie citizens throught the outdated Postal Agreement.

[lyndal1838]

---

@thebossesaccount wrote:

In reality it is not the Chinese government that are subsidising the postage - it is the Aussie citizens throught the outdated Postal Agreement.

How do you work out that the Chinese government is not subsidising the postage for the Chinese ebay sellers?
Australia Post/Australian citizens are certainly not subsidising it.  AP has never received any money from overseas countries for delivering their mail in Australia.

[online4profit300]

Every country has postage agreements look it up.

---

@lyndal1838 wrote:

---

@thebossesaccount wrote:

In reality it is not the Chinese government that are subsidising the postage - it is the Aussie citizens throught the outdated Postal Agreement.

How do you work out that the Chinese government is not subsidising the postage for the Chinese ebay sellers?
Australia Post/Australian citizens are certainly not subsidising it.  AP has never received any money from overseas countries for delivering their mail in Australia.

---

[maranock]

Lyndal does already understand the UPU agreements and is mostly correct. Yes, we get terminal dues but it doesn't cover the whole cost of delivery, just like other countries.

[bargainquilts]

Its frustrating for us as a seller. One of our competitors has their store location as Adelaide when they are in Melbourne! They have done this specifiaclly to confuse buyers into thinking they are us and end up buying their item instead. A PO Box should not consitute an item location. They also have another store/item location in Bright, again they are in Melbourne. Why and how can they keep getting away with this?

I have reported this issue continuously, eBay policy is they will investigate it but wont inform us of the outcome, they wont gice us the address they have submitted for us to check (I guess if there is no addres you cant give it)?? Once they have the outcome, the result is nothing is done and they continue to mislead consumers. The is deceptive behavior and seems the only way to have them sorted out is with the ACCC. A work in progress!

We have 2 eBay stores bargainquilts and shaneg1507 we are in Adelaide only if you ever look to buy a quilt and want to get the product you purchased.