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Ebay does not remove reported sellers lying about location
There are thousands of listings on Ebay where sellers from China list an item with a US location (sometimes three or four of them) when the item is actually drop-shipped from China and takes two weeks to arrive.
It's at the point where when I order electronic parts I have to ask the seller first whether he's lying about the location and judge by his answer.
I report these items to Ebay multiple times and they do nothing about it. It's in their business interest to keep sales going even though it's defrauding the customer.
10 comments
tenbigdogs
Mentor2 years agoHi @a_golden_ruler You may have a really good reason for not wanting to buy from China. Unfortunately, whether you want to accept it or not, everything that has been posted here by the others is true. You are correct that eBay is a computer program that can be manipulated many different ways, but the people that run it aren't going to spend millions on software modifications to resolve every problem. We know this first hand because the responders here wrestle with eBay all the time over various issues that could use updating. eBay has a few search feature modifications available to members, and apparently they deem that enough to get the results a member wants.
If a business has a presence in a state, it can legitimately name that as its location and shipping address. If the anchoring domestic warehouse is out of stock, it can ship from another location. That system may be problematic, but that's how it is. So many items are manufactured in China and are originally shipped from there to US sellers that it's challenging to boycott China. Good luck!
gosimus
Mentor2 years ago@a_golden_ruler
< the item is actually drop-shipped from China and takes two weeks to arrive >
The Estimated Delivery date stated in the listing should tip you off that the item has to travel a long distance. When you see that an item has an ED date two weeks out, don't buy it. If the seller somehow manages to falsify the ED date and it's shorter than it actually will be, then when the item doesn't arrive, open an Item Not Received case.
< I have to ask the seller first whether he's lying about the location >
That's a novel way to win friends and influence people, I must say. Do you do it very often, and how does the seller answer? If somebody asked me that question, I'd smell trouble brewing down the road, and preemptively block him. As a practical matter, if a person is in fact a liar, how do you believe the answer? Remember the old "I always lie." paradox.
a_golden_ruler
OP2 years agoThis reply is absolutely typical of what you get from Ebay sellers in these forums.
1) It's a violation of ebay's policy to falsify the location of an item. It's not my job to play 20 questions with sellers about it. The items get reported to Ebay and they refuse to take action. This indicates where Ebay's economic interests lie. I buy from other sources (Digikey, Mouser) these days.
2) I'm not here to make friends, are you? I'm here to do business. I ask sellers whether the item ships from New York and they hem and haw, avoiding stating the truth, in the typical Chinese fashion. They won't say "it ships from New York." That's how I know it doesn't ship from New York.
Thanks for letting me know that you'd block a buyer for asking whether the item ships from the location you claim in the listing. Good to know.
house*of*paws
Mentor2 years agoHi @a_golden_ruler
Anyone answering you on this forum is an eBay buyer and/or seller who is volunteering to help fellow members navigate eBay. [I happen to be a buyer only.]
Many eBay sellers living in foreign countries use dropshippers in the US … so eBay has no way of knowing whether the listing’s stated Item Location is accurate. eBay usually will NOT remove a listing based on a single buyer’s report.
The best way I know of to weed out foreign sellers is to avoid ALL listings where the seller’s feedback profile shows that the seller lives outside the US.
The 2nd best way is to check the estimated delivery date of the listing … and avoid listings where the EDD is longer than 10 days.
I happen to agree with @gosimus that asking a seller whether they are ‘lying’ is an ineffective way of getting an honest answer. I’ve managed to avoid Chinese sellers (on eBay anyway) without ever having to ask them directly where their item will ship from.
I’m really sorry you’ve been having a difficult time eliminating foreign sellers from your Searches. With 1.7 billion listings at any given time … we eBay buyers need to be mostly self-sufficient in avoiding shipments from foreign countries. It can be done.
a_golden_ruler
OP2 years agoThanks for your reply. The point of the posting is just for ebay to see it and reply. They have ignored the reports on countless sellers.
I only disagree with you that Ebay has no way of knowing - the clue is in the very fact that it shows the long expected arrival time. An ebay seller in China can't select that they're dropping it at the Post Office by Priority Mail. Ebay knows what shipper they are using (China Post, etc). Therefore, ebay knows they are not located in NY.
Ebay is doing this intentionally to juice sales. I sort sellers by item location (US) but there's no way to sort items by estimated arrival time [less than 3 days] (as it would be by standard post in NY).
The point is just that ebay is one of the many tech companies for which fraud is baked into the business model.
house*of*paws
Mentor2 years ago@a_golden_ruler
eBay doesn’t read this forum … so won’t reply to your posts.
I’m afraid you’re stuck with us experienced ‘mentors’ … who generally know more than the average eBay CS rep, since we actually USE the platform.
When I said that eBay has ‘no way of knowing’ … I meant that they don’t have the staff numbers to investigate 1.7 billion individual listings. That is NOT eBay’s job to do that.
eBay tells us that sellers, alone, are responsible for the accuracy of their listings. eBay can only help buyers get refunds after the fact.
Many members expect eBay to do things it never said it would do. ‘PRECHECKING item locations with shipping methods with seller’s locations’ is definitely one of those things. I’m very sorry your expectations aren’t being met.
a_golden_ruler
OP2 years agoEbay has loads of automated systems in place to insure that the site runs the way they want it to run. Among them is the shipping fields of that database. They have SQL queries to handle that kind of thing, not a guy in a visor in a basement somewhere riffling through 1.7 billion little pieces of paper.
I'll leave y'all to defend a multi-billion dollar company's collusion with China to defraud its customers in a way that does not benefit you or comply with US law and ebay's own policies.
Have a great day.
house*of*paws
Mentor2 years ago@a_golden_ruler
You are alleging to know more than I about eBay’s workings … as well as who it is colluding with illegally … yet still can’t seem to avoid buying from China. [I have never purchased anything from China on eBay.]
I’m afraid I can’t help you … but do have a good one!
gosimus
Mentor2 years agoActually, what I said was that I'd block a buyer for asking me if I were lying. This was in response to what you stated, "I have to ask the seller first whether he's lying" I'm surprised at all your misunderstandings; there are so many that I have to resist the impulse to believe that they're deliberate. I wish you good luck.
a_golden_ruler
OP2 years ago>If somebody asked me that question, I'd smell trouble brewing down the road, and preemptively block him.
Of course you would. Because if I have to ask, it means you're be lying about the location, and if the answer isn't "yes of course it ships from New York," you'd have to block me in order to avoid the well-deserved negative rating.