Deceptive seller marketing

[enterprise7024]

How is it that ebay allows sellers to deceptively list their items as a USA Seller or USA Stock with a location like Gardena California when in reality they are China based with no other connection to the USA but a company called Ding Hong? Long story short, I shopped for a set of valve covers using Google. Several listings were ebay and in many instances "from China" came up. So I switched my search on the ebay platform and searched there. Multiple listings seemed possible but I narrowed down a few that had USA Seller and/or a location on the west coast. It took nearly an hour to find one that was from Gardena California, USA Seller and fast free delivery. And although free, delivery was not fast. The next day I get an email confirming the purchase and a tracking number. But when I accessed this on the USPS website it said it was picked up by shipping partner Ding Hong and knew then I had been deceived.  I believe I understand that it might be some advantage for a China seller to deceptively state they are located in California, it goes along with fast delivery, but doesn't this also violate ebay policy as well as the law?

[eburtonlab]

Some sellers registered in China may actually ship from US warehouses. And some US registered sellers may be drop shipping from overseas.

While sellers should provide accurate information about where items are shipping from, not all sellers do. You can report sellers that provide misleading info for "item location misrepresentation", but you may be better off avoiding such sellers whenever possible.

Before ordering you should check the estimated delivery dates -- that is usually a good indication of how far away items actually ship from. Also, going to a seller's profile page or feedback page will tell you where the seller's account was registered. If a seller is registered overseas, that raises the likelihood of an item shipping from outside the US, particularly for multiple quantity commodity items. Checking seller feedback will often reveal if there are problems with long shipping times, canceled orders or other supply chain warning signs.

[enterprise7024]

That's really was what I was trying to do this time, avoiding China sellers, to avoid any delays. But my question remains, why isn't Ebay doing more to prevent such misleading listings? And it seems that reporting it only lends itself to a response from Ebay justifying their lack of action.

[evry1nositswindy]

When I shop, I click on US only.  Yes, it still shows me items in the US, but not for sale by sellers in the US.  I go the extra step to click on their ID to check their location.  If it says US stock but the seller is in China, I do not buy. 

[eburtonlab]

I agree that eBay could do more to put limits on sellers that have have been caught using deceptive practices, but eBay has no way of knowing in advance where a seller might ship an item from. eBay relies on complaints from actual buyers and reports from users. Feedback is not part of that, though users are welcome to judge sellers based on feedback. Did you report the sellers that you had problems with to eBay directly, citing item location misrepresentation specifically?

It is entirely possible for a seller to build up a reputation for quick delivery by shipping domestically and then suddenly sell out all the local stock and decide to fulfill new orders from overseas rather than cancel as out of stock. Sellers shouldn't do that, but some do.

If you see indications that a seller might be shipping from overseas, find another seller to purchase from if you are in a hurry. Use the tools that eBay provides to avoid the obvious cases; and report the deceptive sellers if you do wind up purchasing from them.

eBay can't penalize a seller for something the seller might do; but as a buyer, you can certainly choose to avoid a seller based on what you think the seller might do.