Chinese seller with 15 Ebay IDs and 1000 items lists 15,000 times

[dp_30]

I recently discovered 15 Chinese Ebay IDs who are "collaborating" by submitting multiple listings for the same items at the same price.  Their store database is almost identical and sell nearly 1000 of the same items. Technically they have 15,000 Ebay listings and this is all through one company or individual which puts my honest, paltry 65+ Ebay listings in the lowest ranking on Ebay's search engine.  Their user IDs are fake and are purportedly selling from Sydney, China, US and Germany.  In some instances, even the Ebay user IDs have been created on the same day and the same physical location in Sydney!  They tweak the photos and headings, use JPGs instead of product descriptions to avoid the Ebay BOTs but are still silly enough to list these duplicate items at the same price.

My sales for February have been significantly lower and although this is traditionally by low season, I can't explan the drop in my "bread and butter" items.  My listings were near the top of search listing a few weeks ago and have dropped to about 20, even though my prices are competitive.  I could move my item to other online selling sites and use the fees I would ordinarily pay to Ebay to pay for additional advertising for my website.

These guys are seriously undercutting my business as they are selling similar products and I will need to close my Australian Ebay store if Ebay does not address this.  I realise that 15 sellers and a potential 15,000 listings is just a drop in the ocean, but it's my drop.  I see this happening everywhere on Ebay and have asked the US discussion boards for their advice.  In the US, when a seller is banned, their IP is also banned but this is not the case in China.  Sadly, these sellers will reregister as soon as they are removed.

I submitted very comprehensive evidence to them on 2nd March 2016, called a "human" today and they said I'll have a response in the next 24~48 hours.

I'm sure the media would be interested.

[dp_30]

Yes, admittedly Ebay are making decent money from 15,000 listings and that would probably deter them from tasking action but if you don't try, you don't run a chance of succeeding.  When your income is threatened, you tend to take things a little more seriously and do a little more research than you otherwise would.  We Aussies love a good story about multinationals exploiting us - allegations of tax avoidance and selling out to foreign interests.  SMH loves these stories.

[ourphonecase]

I doubt being registered on the same day is enough proof for anything to ban an account. Unless it's all under the exact same seller name with the same address registered, then action would be taken. What if the seller was crafty and used different names and addresses, like grabbed his family and friends names and addresses from different location. Would that be illegal too? What if he collaborated with his mates and decided and they agree to storm the market in style? That sounds perfectly fine too.

I think you'd only get something done if it was all registered linked to the same Paypal. Plus I hear something called stealth account that apparently is easy to do these days that apparently changes IP and makes multiple fake accounts.

[amber-eyed-girl]

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@247newdeals wrote:

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@davidc4430 wrote:

lets hope you have a win with ebay with this, i for one will be watching in 2 days time for your thread update claiming victory over the chinese. then we can let the USA know how its done.

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Somehow I doubt it EBay.au is very much a market place for the Chinese I was going to buy a garlic press and even something as simple as that it is hard to find a seller who is Australian I think I will just grab one from the local supermarket at least they employ Aussies (even though I doubt much of the profits stay in Aus)

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Wesfarmers owns these: Wesfarmers has around 500,000 shareholders to share in the profits, here

So try to get your garlic press from one of those 😉

[amber-eyed-girl]

They're based here so they're paying Australian tax too.

[ourphonecase]

Isn't 80% of those companies getting stuff made from China anyways?

[digital*ghost]

Some of the sellers I have bought from (who also happen to sell in a lot of the same categories as me) have 40k+ listings each (all the same items, slightly to significantly different price points, some are on different sites - between them they have 1 or 2 stores on all the main eBay sites), so as a whole there's probably several hundred thousand listings between them. And, if I bought from more than one of them around the same time, I got a single package, with a single invoice, containing all purchases. 

The IDs have to be registered to the same person for it to count as a duplicate listing, and even when that is the case, eBay wouldn't do anything about it unless it became illegal rather than annoying / unethical (unless you're one of those pesky smaller sellers who respect the policies, and the user / buyer experience, but happen to make a mistake, or are in the wrong place at the wrong time...). 

The Chinese often compete via sheer volume and price, so when you can't match that, the only thing you can do is find other ways to stand out from the crowd (not saying it's easy, necessarily, but it's definitely possible). 

[ourphonecase]

That's how I do it. It's impossible to compete with price for our categories (ie: phone accessories but we were able to do well in this category) so we have attempt to stand out. How? Well for my example I bough a machine from China (how ironic) and use that machine to manufacture in Australia on your own. I churn out screen protectors which would be much cheaper than buying from a supplier (still have to buy raw resources from them) and let the machine do the work in my garage all day.

Then make your own pictures that looks good and slap an Australian sticker. I don't know if I'm allowed to slap the Australian made sticker since the sheets and magi Rs are from China (but produced here).

[dp_30]

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@ourphonecase wrote:
That's how I do it. It's impossible to compete with price for our categories (ie: phone accessories but we were able to do well in this category) so we have attempt to stand out. How? Well for my example I bough a machine from China (how ironic) and use that machine to manufacture in Australia on your own. I churn out screen protectors which would be much cheaper than buying from a supplier (still have to buy raw resources from them) and let the machine do the work in my garage all day.

Then make your own pictures that looks good and slap an Australian sticker. I don't know if I'm allowed to slap the Australian made sticker since the sheets and magi Rs are from China (but produced here).

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Congratulations on finding a niche and I'm sure you conform.  Unlike the requirements for food, it probably depends on whether they bear the "Australian Made" sticker or if you're rebadging with your own logo (courtesy of FindLaw Australia):

"The rules of country of origin representations

Part 5-3 of the ACL sets out the regime in determining whether a good or product which claims to be Australian, can make such an assertion, or whether the claims are actually false, misleading or deceptive.

The country of origin representations regime as outlined in the ACL, interact with ss 18 or 29(1)(a)(k) as well as 151(1)(a)(k). In order for a person not to contravene the country of origin representation provisions, there are certain general requirements that need to be met:

• the goods must have been substantially transformed in Australia
• 50% or more of the total cost of producing or manufacturing the goods occurred in Australia, and conform to the s 256 calculations under the ACL
• Australia was the country of origin for each significant ingredient or component
• all, or virtually all, of the processes involved with production or manufacturing happened in Australia."

[dp_30]

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@ourphonecase wrote:
I doubt being registered on the same day is enough proof for anything to ban an account. Unless it's all under the exact same seller name with the same address registered, then action would be taken. What if the seller was crafty and used different names and addresses, like grabbed his family and friends names and addresses from different location. Would that be illegal too? What if he collaborated with his mates and decided and they agree to storm the market in style? That sounds perfectly fine too.

I think you'd only get something done if it was all registered linked to the same Paypal. Plus I hear something called stealth account that apparently is easy to do these days that apparently changes IP and makes multiple fake accounts.

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I'm unsure if Ebay Austalia uses IP blocking as in the US but as you said, it's easy to circumvent.

I'm afraid Ebay and PayPal are the only ones with sufficient information to determine if Ebay IDs have been registered to the same person and address but given the scope of the problem, it's a needle in a haystack.  I'm certain their Australian family and friends use their registered Aussie addresses but may not directly participate.  It's hard to separate those corrupting the system from umbralla companies like Banggood/Amazon or genuine franchises, so just need to rely on Ebay/PayPal to unearth more information.  With 15,000 listing and inestimable seller fees, Ebay are taking an expensive punt removing corrupt sellers without concrete evidence.

FYI, I've just checked "all" of the sellers on Ebay and they're still there.

[*tippy*toes*]

EBay Australia most certainly uses IP blocking (amongst other things). That's one of the ways family members find themselves suspended if another family member gets shafted. These forums also use IP blocking.

Yes, there are ways to get around it. One way is moving house (expensive!). Another is changing internet providers. That is still not a guarantee though because they would still have all your details on file, so it wouldn't take long until they realise that it's really you with a new IP address. Changing providers AND moving house would take them longer to work it out, unless you keep using the same ID, then they would find you almost instantly.