The risks of buying unbranded, cheaply churned-out, fake etc imports - not just Temu

[countessalmirena]

Children’s hoodies made of highly flammable material - bought through Temu

It’s resulted in serious injury to a child.

Hillcrest jumping castle tragedy - jumping castle bought direct from a Chinese manufacturer in 2015

The jumping castle was insufficiently tethered with only 4 pegs instead of the 8 for which there were star pickets on the inflatable. The owner of Taz-Zorb saved heavily by buying from a Chinese company who certainly weren’t accredited as meeting Australian standards … nor did she hire an engineer to assess the inflatable. Saving a dollar, killing a child…? Six children died as a result.

Oh - and the Chinese company appears to have assured the woman buying the inflatable that it met Australian standards. I’ve referred before to this practice of false assurance by Chinese sellers; “face” is gained by the seller because the foolish Australian buyer is easily persuaded to believe an unsubstantiated assurance that could relatively easily be disproved.

Please post any relevant news items here. If we can stop even a handful from not taking the risk…

[countessalmirena]

Toxic chemicals in items bought on Shein, Temu, etc.

Shoes, caps, nail polish - all containing carcinogens at dangerous levels - in spite of the spiel from representatives of Shein and Temu and AliExpress stating products are strictly tested to ensure they meet product safety standards. Ha.

Buy at your own risk.

[darko1961]

I recently read two articles on automated kitty litter boxes purchased on Aliexpress where the poor cats head got caught in the mechanism and unfortunately died.

[davewil1964]

Unfortunately?

[countessalmirena]

Bad davewil, bad bad bad.

 
Ichabod is meowing “Forgive him; he has not felt my paw on his hand”.

But back to business… 

Battery-operated items from Temu tested by Choice fail Australian safety standards

Choice tested the low-cost toys for compliance with battery safety laws after observing some products on the platform appeared “concerning”, [Andy Kelly, Choice’s deputy director of campaigns] said.

“The price point does make you wonder whether the products are actually compliant with the mandatory standards that we have,” he said. “When we did the test, it basically confirmed that all of them had failed at least one requirement of the button battery regulation.”

[davewil1964]

Bad davewil, bad bad bad.

Depends on one's paradigms

[the_dutchess_of_dork]

Hi Countess,

I have been appalled lately by the proliferation of listings for counterfeit items.  Ebay pays lip service to addressing the problem through the authentication program but that only covers luxury designer labels and sneakers.

These products are lower value.  Obviously they violate copyright and deceive consumers but you also have to wonder about safety standards.  For example, two of the items which come up again and again are Wednesday Addams Monster High dolls and Taylor Swift merchandise including advent calendars.  These items have small parts which represent choking hazards, particularly if manufacturing standards and materials are inferior.  Also, in the past cheaper toys were found to contain lead-based paints. 

It is extremely disappointing to see negative feedback accumulating while ebay continues to endorse the sellers.   One example of a seller described as "One of eBay's most reputable sellers" and "Consistently delivers outstanding customer service" has a feedback rating of 95.7% with 333 Negative and 345 Neutral feedback in the past 12 months.

These are the types of products grandparents are likely to purchase as Christmas gifts, "Oh, my granddaughter loves Taylor Swift".

Let the buyer beware is all well and good if you know what to look for but how is an inexperienced buyer supposed to know items are fake and potentially unsafe, particularly when many sellers use images of the genuine branded items?

Ebay is capable of developing the most sophisticated innovative systems so why can't they find a way to weed out dodgy items with a history of negative feedback?

[the_dutchess_of_dork]

Forgot to add, there's also some seller's misrepresentation of item location so buyers who are wary of purchasing from China may end up doing so anyway.

[springyzone]

👍

Best post I have seen in ages!

This has been a particular sticking point of mine.

Buyers who come to the forum are often told-why did you buy from a bad seller, why did you buy from a Chinese seller etc

How casual buyers are supposed to know a seller is 'bad' when they have the ebay endorsement

"One of eBay's most reputable sellers" and "Consistently delivers outstanding customer service",  I do not know.

A score of 95% can look pretty good in the real world.

Ebay could do a lot more to deal with some of these sellers. If boardies here can see a problem with a seller, ebay's system should be able to flag them too.

[the_dutchess_of_dork]

Thank you, springyzone

This infuriates me because it tarnishes the ebay "brand".  Too many buyers think ebay is a single entity rather than a collection of individual sellers.  When they have a bad experience with a shonky seller they think ebay is an untrustworthy marketplace.  It is an afront to the majority of sellers doing the right thing.  My own experiences with ebay sellers have been overwhelmingly positive.  I have encountered almost zero sellers who are incompetent or dishonest and many many sellers who are outstanding and go above and beyond.

I once had a listing removed - I think for keyword spamming - because in the description I compared one thing to another.  Yet these sellers are listing counterfeit items and misrepresenting item location while ebay not only turns a blind eye but leads buyers to believe they are reputable.   Even when listings are reported, ebay usually does nothing.  

Personally, I'm surprised copyright holders like Taylor Swift and Mattel aren't more proactive about inferior products being sold under their names but I guess it would be a full-time job shutting them down, only for them to return under a new ID.

These sellers are only likely to multiply in the leadup to Christmas so I suspect there will be a lot of disappointed kids on Christmas morning.