Chinese seller product showing as located in USA

[pudly123]

Why do so many seller, that are located out of the country, have their products show up as located in the USA? How can this be possible?

[pudly123]

That makes sense. Wow...if only the USA had free shipping on products and could produce goods as cheaply as China. As I stated earlier, we need some sort of sticker or something on our listings as verified USA sellers. Or if anyone else has another idea, I am very open to that. I know many Americans would like to support their fellow Americans by purchasing from them.

[khetzel]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@pudly123 wrote:

I don't know about that. Look at this listing and check out where the seller is.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126001575570

If it is coming from China, how could it get to a destination in US in 2 days? 

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When I look at the listing, I see that the seller does not ship to Canada and that the item location is Dayton, New Jersey.

Besides not shipping internationally, the seller doesn't ship to PO boxes or to Alaska/Hawaii.  Actually, I'm surprised that they can even ship within the United States as North America is also on their exclusion list.  

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I noticed all that, did you also see the center hole is 2.5cm but allow +/-2cm due to manual measurement 😉

To the op, I have no idea where the seller actually lives, but that "product"

sure looks like it ships from Dayton NJ.

[marnotom!]

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@khetzel wrote:

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I noticed all that, did you also see the center hole is 2.5cm but allow +/-2cm due to manual measurement 😉

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Yeah, saw that too.  That little tidbit plus the note that the colour of the weed trimmers may not be as pictured makes me wonder if the seller has actually seen and handled these items.

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@khetzel wrote:

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To the op, I have no idea where the seller actually lives, but that "product"

sure looks like it ships from Dayton NJ.

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Possibly from here.

[pudly123]

Perhaps we should just call that logistics company and see what their charges are to store and ship items. Then we would get an idea how Chinese goods are sold so cheaply. Or perhaps we are in the wrong business and should all start a logistics company. The middleman makes the money.

[ittybitnot]

The best "tell" I can see right now on listings is the estimated delivery date.

@khetzel 

That is always a good thing to check as well!  Good catch! 

[pudly123]

Unfortunately that doesn't work too well because half of them are using the logistics companies that store and ship their items for them. The only way to solve this is if Ebay would put some sort of message on the listing stating "Seller based in..."  One of the best ways to tell if the seller is from overseas is that, in their main product photo, their will be a flag and the words "Ships from USA" or "US Shipping". They don't say they are from the US, just that they ship from here.

[mudshark61369]

@pudly123,

Because ebay helped many China based sellers register in the U.S. it can be hard to determine if a seller is really a domestic seller or not. Many of the chinese sellers ebay helped register in the U.S. rented a private P.O. box, to give them a Street address with an office/suite number.  Often when shopping using Price: Lowest or Best Match. most of the first results will be chinese sellers. Trying to weed them out takes a bit more time but below are indicators I use to do that.

On Listing pages:

• Items priced below brand named prices.
• An item location address that does not give a city and state Ex: USA / United States, New Jersey / USA
  
• Some China sellers still use cities located near ebay's old Global Shipping hub Erlanger, Ky.  Some are now using cities near the new hub in Glendale Heights, ILL.  Soon an L.A. hub will open if it already hasn't.
• The use of U.S. flag symbols and several mentions of being a U.S. seller.
  
• Seller's username sometimes. Some end their username with "-USA or just -US"
  
• Selling items listed by many other sellers, often using the same stock photos.
•  High volume seller with a feedback percentage below 98.9% Some with higher percentages still have hundreds or over a thousand of combined non positive feedback.
• Item descriptions that have wording in them that doesn't seem like it was written by a person whose first language is English.
• Item titles giving a brand name, and photos showing a brand name label, but in the Item Specifics it says Brand: Unknown or no brand given.
  
• Items for sale with no name or an unrecognizable Brand Name.
• The use of metric and standard measurements.
• Photos with Asian models in them.

On a Feedback profile page:

• The seller's country of registry, sometimes.
• High volume seller registered between 2011 and now.
• All or most feedback is for Private listings.
• Hundreds of neutral and negative feedback. Some may still have a percentage over 99%
• Neutral and Negative feedback saying items came from China. That took a long time to arrive. Missing items from multiple quantity orders.  Cancelled purchases.  Poor communications. Clothing smaller in size than normal.  Many mentions of poor quality items.  (click on the numbers of neutral and negative feedback received, to read only those comments).
• Responses to negative feedback written by someone whose first language does not appear to be English.

It may take a little time to learn to use use the above lists, but after a while it becomes second nature, and in the long run can save time and possibly money. 

You've asked how chinese sellers can keep their prices so low and ship for free. That's not hard to figure out.

• Chinese workers are paid a pittance. All of their sellers are drop shippers using huge warehouses owned by the Chicom Govt. (there is no private property in China)  Some are located in the U.S. but most are in China. Meaning they do not have to pay warehouse workers,  pay for storage, or shipping depts. transportation... etc. so they have no overhead to pay.
• The Chinese govt. subsidizes the international shipping of their products.  The domestic final destination delivery portion is regulated by the Universal Postal Union (UPU)  a U.N. sponsored treaty that gives very low domestic delivery rates to "developing countries" to help them grow their economies.  They rate China's economy as being the same as Botswana's. Which is why our last president wanted to pull out of the UPU, when they voted to keep China's economy rated as that of a developing nation. 

[tdaddy05]

Here’s an interesting one:

-seller says from US

-product (NFL Jersey)  says coming via USPS but waiting receipt from shipping partner

-USPS lists shipping partner as “Ding Hong” (yes I chuckled)

-seller repeatedly states item coming from US, not China and communicates in a way no American would

-item arrives and states it is from US. Excellent quality but is a counterfeit/bootleg jersey 

-I request a return and get an actual return address different from the address I received from

-looked up person and he appears to be a legit American 

- got a response from the seller in poor English asking me not to return the item and instead they would give me a small amount of a refund 

I believe Chinese sellers are paying Americans to use their addresses for returns or perhaps are using fake return addresses. They ship their items from China but USPS is pushing them through and it makes it look like it ships from the US. Insane

[mudshark61369]

@tdaddy05,

Your example is not unique at all. It is typical of many china based supposedly U.S. located sellers. Read my earlier post on how to avoid them in the future the one just before yours. The use of U.S. flag symbols and ads saying U.S. seller are a dead give away for chinese sellers posing as domestic ones.

The chinese are not paying anyone for the use of their domestic addresses for returns. Chances are they picked a name/address out of the phone book or from a previous sale. They woupd probably have to pay more to have items returned to China than they sold for.  NEVER accept a partial refund, File an item not as described dispute, to get a full refund. The seller will have to provide a return shipping label within 3 days, and once tracking shows Delivered a refund will be initiated. If they do not issue a label or full refund within 3 days of filing the dispute, on day 4 ask ebay to step in. They will issue the refund from the seller's account.

[tdaddy05]

Thanks for the reply. It’s insane how things have gotten with Chinese sellers on eBay, Amazon, Walmart, etc

[tdaddy05]

Thanks for the reply. It’s insane how things have gotten with Chinese sellers on eBay, Amazon, Walmart, etc.  I already requested a return and got a label but it’s clearly not the sellers address.  Seller trying like crazy for me to not return. Can’t file a dispute I don’t think since I received a return label. Advice?

[hfgsr]

Well, previously, if a seller was physically outside the US, that would show up in their about info on eBay.  No longer, and I do not yet know what eBay has done, what rules they changed, to allow a seller to claim they are in the US when they are physically in China.  .  .  Very disappointing as I was previously able to avoid a Chinese seller by looking at they location in the about info.   Not any more.   This item will probably be deleted by the seller by the time anyone reads this  235401711933   That listing states the item is in NY and they seller, jame-584934 is in the US.  Neither is true.  In messages they stated the item is coming from China and they only respond when it is night in the US.  .  .  as Chinese sellers do.  .  .

[simba6]

Some do keep stock in the US and others just lie.  You have to check the delivery date to get an idea of when it will arrive.

[kh-stanley1]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.