@carolepoppy,
The problem isn't that you're buying on eBay. There are some excellent huge name sellers on eBay - Myer, Peter's of Kensington, House, Byron Bay Trading Company, The Good Guys, Bing Lee, Appliances Online, Kitchen Warehouse, Shaver Shop, House of Knives, and many many more - and some excellent smaller (not small, just smaller than DJ for instance) sellers, whose names I won't even try to enumerate - and some excellent small sellers as well.
I'm focusing here on Australian sellers, although of course there are wonderful overseas sellers on eBay as well.
With good Australian sellers who are authorised sellers of their product range, and are registered businesses, you have the protection of Australian consumer legislation, full warranty, and the knowledge that the products are to Australian standards.
Of course, the prices are realistic rather than fairy-tale low. You will find bargains, but don't expect the ultra-cheap prices that signify fake, unbranded, unsafe, poor quality, stolen, etc.
Most of your purchases have been from sellers registered in China. You're saving on the purchase price, but it's a false saving as you have already experienced. If a vacuum cleaner blows up in your face, it's not a bargain... That wasn't bought from an Australian seller, right? Did you know that if that vacuum cleaner had blown up other appliances as well, or damaged your home, or injured you or someone else, it would not have been covered under your insurance? Buying that sort of thing from China is not the same at all as buying an Australian item even if the Australian item is manufactured in China. That is because the components of the unbranded Chinese-direct-to-Australian-public items are made of the cheapest raw materials possible, because in China the raw materials are the most expensive part of the items whose cost can easily be saved simply by not using the minimum quality required for safe and effective use.
Everything about Chinese unbranded items is all about making it cheaply. I'm not even going to address the issue of slave labour, although I would never - EVER - buy any garment whose cotton comes from Xinjiang. Instead, I want to focus on the general factory-made unbranded goods (including electronic/electrical items ... iPhones, watches, vacuum cleaners, foot and calf massagers, Nutribullet fakes, etc.). These are made to LOOK like the goods they're imitating. They're also made to function like the goods they imitate, but without the actual capacity and range of function and accuracy and so on - because all the item has to do is fool the buyer for, say, a few months.
That means that the items definitely don't meet Australian safety standards and product compliance. There's no warranty even if the listing says there is. They're unsafe to use, and they don't work as promised. However, a lot of buyers don't know that the item isn't to that standard... They don't ever try to store as much data as the device is supposed to have, for instance, so they aren't aware that it's got less than half of what was stated. They don't know how to work the device with respect to certain functions, so they don't know that the device can't do those things. They don't use the device often, so when it fails three months after purchase, they initially contact the seller and ask for the "warranty" to be honoured... which has the seller starting the usual "drag it out for as long as possible" dance. The seller will ask for video, for photos, claim no photos received, can you resend, request for replacement has been forwarded to head office, replacement is being sent out, please wait a little longer... and before you know it, six months have gone by and all of a sudden the seller is completely silent.
Why? Because the timeframe for even a PayPal dispute has now lapsed, and the seller no longer has to keep you sweet. You have no recourse at that point.
If you buy from an overseas seller, regardless of whether it's on eBay or on Amazon or directly from an overseas seller's website, make sure that you have solid reason for being confident about the seller. Do they have a global reputation for excellence and for good after-sales service? Are you happy with knowing that if you need to rely on a warranty, you must post the item yourself in a safe manner? And return postage is also your responsibility?
If you buy from an Australian seller, regardless of the above, again, make sure that you can trust the seller - but you'll at least have consumer protection if you buy from an Australian business. Always make sure the business is one of the manufacturer's or distributor's authorised resellers. Make sure there's a suitable warranty.
If you keep those things in mind, and of course make sure that you pay via a safe payment method, buying on eBay will no longer result in your getting shoddy goods.
(eBay won't weed out the Chinese sellers for you. You will need to exercise due diligence as a buyer, and check where the seller is registered before you part with a cent.)
