misleading origin of sender

[rousey_54]

I bought an small item on the 21st March and the only reason that i selected the seller(as all the prices were basically similar) was that they lived in an Australian suburb that was basically about 10km from where i live.

The reason being that I though I would get a quick local delivery.

I have just got a notice from Australia post today that it will be delivered on approx 6th April.

So that is a wait of 16 days for delivery.

The item I bought looks like it is made in an Asian country presumably China.

So I think in reality that it is being delivered from China to Australia hence the long delivery time.

So seeing the seller was living not far from me was really misleading or deceptive business practice as it led me to believe I would get it quicker.

So this actually is breaking Australian consumer law.

I would like to see Ebay regulate this and show the point of origin of the item so that i the buyer can take this into account when purchasing.

[sandypebbles]

Buyers can already mostly know by checking where the seller is registered and their feedback before buying

Did the ad say the seller lives near you, or did it show the item location was near you?

What did the estimated delivery date say before you bought the item?

What is the item number?

Where does the feedback page show the seller is registered?

[katistrophik]

Remember also EASTER - 4 days of no delivery, so the 6th sounds reasonable to me

[katistrophik]

No idea what went wrong there, ^^^^ but at least now your parcel must be in Australia, so you will receive it, but I agree it sounds like an off shore seller for sure.

I would mark the stars accordingly to reflect this and mention in feedback, but I wouldn't leave a neg, I would leave a neutral saying along the lines of "Seller not based in Aus as claimed, item took xxxxxx to  arrive.

[cezm]

If you haven't already, sign up for MyPost and you'll be able to see when and where the parcel was lodged

Not sure what the seller's handling time /date of postage/estimated delivery time was when you purchased, but 10 business days doesn't sound extreme

Not saying this is so in your case, but when we left our old place I redirected mail to our new place 12kms away. It would go to the mail centre in Brisbane to be sorted to come all the way back (130kms each way) - so mail doesn't always take the most direct route! 

[springyzone]

I agree that this sort of thing- misleading item location- goes on a lot and ebay could do more. A good start to make things more transparent would be for seller location to show in the ad, just above item location.

But the estimated delivery date is your best guide. What date range was outlined in the ad?

I've usually found that Chinese items have at least a 3 week delivery estimate at the earliest and usually longer. For example, I just looked up a small item I knew would be sold by some sellers in China and ETA is 4th May to 16 June (today being 2nd April). Similar (but better quality) item located in Aust was a bit dearer but with an ETA of 12 April.

So for a purchase on 21st March, if your item was in China, I would have expected the ETA to be around 21 April and beyond.

Look up where the seller is located. Just click on the number after the seller user name and that should take you to their feedback & show seller location too. It may be your seller has misrepresented item location but he may not have. A lot of oz based items have a 7-10 day wait, which would take you to 31 March & something would only have to run a day or so late with delivery to make it April 6th as it is Good Friday today and Easter break.

If you do find it arrives and you have been misled & it came from overseas, I'd definitely do as Katistrophic suggested and reflect it in feedback. If it is OVER the ETA and you find the seller is overseas and suspect the item was too, open an item not received claim immediately.