Sellers not having items they are selling

Question

I'm starting to think that ebay needs to have people who are drop shipping disclose it. I purchased an item(which was more expensive than another company) because the other company shipped from China and I didn't want to wait. Now been over 3 weeks and no item. What a pain! So now I have money out for item and half to order original company I looked at first. This has been happening more and more so I may just order from China in first place and not even look on ebay.

eburtonlab · Answer

Even if eBay requires such a disclosure, there will be folks drop-shipping illicitly from retail sites that will not disclose that information because they don't want to admit they are breaking the rules.

Because of that, buyers will always have to look for signs that the seller does not have the item on hand, and take steps to avoid such sellers by examining seller feedback closely. Otherwise buyers run the risk of purchasing from illicit drop-shippers or scammers.

gator08041971 · Answer

@eskeeler51

I have ran into this myself occasionally when buying odd computer parts. I will search for the item, find a ton of them in China, then narrow the search to the US, buy from a US listed seller and end up getting it drop shipped from China anyway.

Though its been awhile since I went through one of those scenarios, I had ended up requesting a refund of it, they refunded it, and the item still showed up weeks later. I would recommend that, before your 30 days are up. eBay should allow you to setup a return for no item received once its past its original expected delivery date. Have you reached out to the seller about it yet and if so, what was their response?