Should I be worried?

[sewells_of_victoria]

I purchased 100Pcs  Plastic Disposable 3ML Graduated Transfer Pipettes Eye Dropper Set on Sunday and paid with Paypal immediately. On Monday I received the following email from the seller into my private email not ebay....

Thanks for your order of on 2013-09-01 from  our eBay store.

We feel so sorry to bother you here. You may find your order on eBay still waiting for dispatch. We get a notice from our storehouse that we temporarily run out of stock of this item at the moment. We have been making every attempt to maintain stock of every item we offer on eBay, but on rare occasion that we meet the inventory management problem. We did not remove the item link on eBay, because to remove the item link would empty our sales records and lower our sales rank. We greatly appreciate your understanding on this matter.

We are contacting our provider to see when the item will be available again. The reply from them would take some time. We would arrange dispatch of your order within next 2-3 days if the new cargo arrives, otherwise we will contact with you again if the product is not available in a short time.

Your attention to this notification would be highly appreciated.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if any question.

But they are still selling them Buy it now on Ebay even though they know they have none in stock. On the description it says ship within 1 business day. Are they in violation of ebay policy selling things they don't have and if so should and how long before I report them?

[pinktoedannie]

Unfortunately ebay is partly to blame for sellers doing this.   If a seller ends the listing they can lost their 'best match' ranking, which severely effects sales when they go to relist the item.   Because of this they choose to keep it going, often increasing the price to discourage buyers from buying the item until new stock arrives.

In this case, you may find it isn't long before the new stock arrives, I'd give it a few days before worrying, or accept a refund.  At least the seller was upfront, contacting you promptly.

   From  memory I think ebay policy is that you can presell things provided you have the date of arrival on the listing and it doesn't exceed 20 days approx. 

[thecatspjs]

Pre-sale listings have very specific requirements.

Running out of stock of an item is a different issue.

If they are unclear on exactly when they will get stock, they are not only in breach of ebay policy, but the Australian Consumer Law if they are a business.

[sewells_of_victoria]

What worries me is in the description it states ship in 1 business day. And they still have the item for sale even though they are now aware they have run out. Also they contacted me outside of ebay on my personal email.

The actual item is cheap so I am not concerned if I loose out, I am more concerned (as I am starting to sell on ebay ) that they are allowed to get away with this sort of dodgy behaviour and putting people off buying on ebay.

[michellebartley]

I totally agree with you and I have had the same problem my goodness it is so frustrating. I entirely sympathise with you. Good Luck

[sewells_of_victoria]

Well 7 days later and they eventually gave me my money back through paypal and an email as follows

"Dear friend,

Thanks for your order.

And thanks for your time and sorry for concerns caused in this order.

As stated in the previous notification about the out of stock item, our provider cannot fulfill the requirements of the item within a short period.

As promised, a full refund of this item would be completed as soon as possible. Would you please check your PayPal account about the refund within next 48 hours? We would also send a transaction cancellation request after we process refund so that eBay won’t send you invoice of this order again. Please answer the request to cancel the order.

You may find that we raised much the item price. We take this strategy in order to stop buyers purchasing during our out of stock period. We did not remove the item link on eBay, because to remove the item link would empty our sales records and lower our sales rank. We greatly appreciate your understanding on this matter.

If possible, your positive feedback will be highly appreciated, thanks for your kindness and understanding.
If there is anything we can help with, please feel free to contact us any time."

They still have this item for sale and have not raised the price as they say in this email, they did not send a previous email to promise a full refund. And looking at their feedback this is not the first time they have done this! This is the very first time I have ever given bad feedback to anyone.

Question is should I report to eBay and if I do will they do anything about it?

[davewil1964]

You could possibly report them as a non-performing seller but, anecdotally, eBay don't take action these days.

I doubt they are in Australia anyway. Their messages are very Chinglish. In which case you would have little chance of pursuing legal remedies, especially when they refunded you.

[sammydavis0424]

Australian consumer law does not apply to other countries

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@thecatspjs wrote:

Pre-sale listings have very specific requirements.

Running out of stock of an item is a different issue.

If they are unclear on e

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[sammydavis0424]

Hopefully the Liberals will do something about new consumer laws to stop the rip offs from overseas. The local liberal member told me recently that there will be a reveiw if they get in!! But who knows!!! 

[sewells_of_victoria]

They are now offering me $2 to revise my negative. I have not replied. I gave them a negative as I felt their business practice was unethical and the offer of a bribe just reconfirmed IMHO