Sellers breaking the policies.

[jurgensjason]

When is eBay going to clamp down on sellers misrepresenting where items are being shipped from.

Almost every recent transaction I've had, the item has been shipped from overseas but the listing states that the item is within Australia. I'm over the deception.

[springyzone]

I think eventually there will be changes of some sort as ebay is well aware of the issue. Not that they care if a seller is based overseas but they are dead keen to have items arrivign quickly to customers. Or they were. I think when Amazon announced it was coming to Australia, it must have worried ebay because Amazon had a reputation (in US) for quick delivery.

But I don't think Amazon has taken off here as quickly as people thought it might, so it may be a while till ebay makes any changes.

Just a question to jurgensjason: Do you look at feedback or seller location? And if seller location was listed right under item location on the main ad page, and you saw something like:

item location: Sydney

Seller location: China

would you hesitate to buy?

[danieh_6]

Alright, bring some pushback? How is this an EBAY issue? The item is located in Australia but seller is not, as the item is drop shipped from an Australia warehouse. Australia post gives contracts at insanely cheap to these drop shipping companies, which only makes this method possible.

Shows YOUR lack of understanding.

[sugar249]

I'm not here to educate you in business 101,  if you want that go and enrol in a course

[danieh_6]

Then don't post if you don't know what you are talking about.

[jurgensjason]

Hi springyzone, thanks for your reply.

To answer your questions, yes and yes.

However, feedback can often be misleading as there are tricks some sellers use to boost positive feedback.

And, unless the item can only be found from an overseas seller, I will only buy from local sellers.

I do understand that for most items on eBay, they are manufactured in China, but at least I am supporting an Australian business if it is shipped from within Australia.

What I would like to see is that eBay enforces honesty in the listings to ensure the decision I make from whom I will purchase is based on the truth rather than a lie.

[sugar249]

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@jurgensjason wrote:

Hi springyzone, thanks for your reply.

However, feedback can often be misleading as there are tricks some sellers use to boost positive feedback.

oh tell me more,  

[digital*ghost]

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@jurgensjason wrote:

When is eBay going to clamp down on sellers misrepresenting where items are being shipped from.

Probably never. They are onboard with it, kind of. It's against policy to say an item is located in Aus, but then it ships from China directly to the buyer. But it's not against policy for it to ship from China to a warehouse in Australia, and then ship to the buyer from the warehouse, because technically the item ships from an Aus location with an Aus Post label.... 🙄 This is called just in time fulfilment, and eBay are 100% fine with this (all they care about is that delivery timeframes were met - they don't care about other choices buyers like to make when purchasing).

I don't blame Aus Post or buyers for any of this.

Aus Post were in a bit of a pickle, you could say, considering the massive volume of mail they received and delivered from China, which increased year after year. Offering services where inbound packages would get domestic tracking is kind of their "if you can't beat them, join them" solution. It's actually a really good system, and I always select it if a seller I am buying from offers it - it's faster than regular China Post, and AP have less to whinge about 🤣 (there are a lot of sellers who are honest about where they are, and provide multiple shipping options).

If buyer's spending habits were the force that polices the site or dictates what is / isn't allowed, there would be nothing but scammers here, selling diamond rings for $1 etc. 😂

Seriously, though - this is a systemic issue, if bottom-up action was the best way to solve those kinds of issues, boycotts would work more often than not, and the opposite is true. Top down action is the only thing that works - it is super-convenient for eBay when everyone else says "well if buyers would just stop spending their money with sellers who do the wrong thing, things would change", then buyers keep buying and eBay has an excuse to not change / enforce policies. 

Remember how quickly eBay introduced the 3rd party fulfilment policy? It wasn't because buyers stopped purchasing from sellers who were using K Mart as dropshippers, it was because of the massive outrage it caused after buyers realised where their purchase came from, they all felt they had been scammed and were very vocal about it, which was not great for eBay's reputation. eBay is the one who needs to be held to account - they make the policies, they choose if / how to enforce them.