Misleading US stock in listing yet still ships from China

[sos13]

Been an eBayer, both buyer and seller since the start of eBay. When a listing shows that the item is in US stock but still ships from China, why does eBay allow this deception? I've been scammed before by this practice and buy less and less as I have lost confidence in the truth and honesty of so-called US stock sellers. I just purchased an item and then got a China logistics Speedpak number. Buying here has become very frustrating and scary.

[ebooksdiva]

EBay has no way of knowing where the item actually ships from all they “see” is the items location in the listing. 
Feel free to report the listing.

[pcobra93]

Ebay does not care where the item ships from....just that it arrives by the date in the listing, which is a whole different matter when shipped from China. If they cared then they would not allow sellers to put a different shipping address in than their legal address. You could put in that you item ships from "JoJo's empty skull....Washington DC" if you wanted....

[mudshark61369]

@sos13,

According to your feedback profile, one of the last three sellers you have bought from in the last 90 days is recognizable by their username as being chinese.  If you look at their feedback profile pages it shows them to be registered in Hong Kong and China respectively.  Neither has a feedback percentage that is a good one.  Both have listings that say US Stock in many places.  One has as a location of US, United States which is an improper item location. It should say for example;  Stockton, California.  The other's item location is given as GA, United states which is also improper.

Because ebay helped many chinese sellers register in the U.S. it can sometimes be hard to determine if they actually are located here or not.   Below is a list of things I look for to keep me from buying from chinese sellers.

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
  
• The use of U.S. flag symbols and several mentions of being a U.S. seller or US stock.
  
• Seller's username sometimes.
• Selling items listed by many other sellers, often using the same stock photos.
•  High volume seller with a feedback percentage below 98.9%
• 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 2012 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 use the above lists, but after a while it becomes second nature, and in the long run can save time and possibly money. 

[eburtonlab]

The "US only" item location filter selects items that are listed as being in the United States; however, as you may have seen, not every seller that lists items in the US ships from the US as they should. You can report such sellers for item location misrepresentation, but until eBay actually cracks down, your best course of action is to avoid such sellers entirely.

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.

[ittybitnot]

why does eBay allow this deception? 

@sos13 

Short answer:   $$$$$$$

[sos13]

The photos of the listed item have "US Stock" embedded on the photo so one would think it would be shipped within the US even if the seller is registered from another country - it's not so much what I have bought already but having to spend so much time doing due diligence before buying something especially with misleading photos and wording within the listing. My husband got scammed twice by this on his account never receiving the items. The first time was fairly easy to claim under the money back ebay offers because the seller didn't have a delivery confirmation. However, the 2nd one took me months to untangle because the seller had a USPS DC which was for a little envelope weighing less than a 4 oz for an item that was well over 35 pounds.  He got a foamy guitar keychain with a Wal-Mart packing slip. From Start to finish I had to document every step of the way to prove our side of the story as the seller kept insisting that the item was shipped and received. Anymore using eBay is like going down the rabbit hole. It is both sad and frightening.

[mudshark61369]

"it's not so much what I have bought already but having to spend so much time doing due diligence before buying something especially with misleading photos and wording within the listing".

@sos13,

When shopping online one has to do their due diligence no matter which 3rd party online site they use.  Scammers do not use ebay exclusively to perpetrate their scams.  As I wrote about using my list after awhile it becomes second nature. 

"However, the 2nd one took me months to untangle because the seller had a USPS DC which was for a little envelope weighing less than a 4 oz for an item that was well over 35 pounds. He got a foamy guitar keychain with a Wal-Mart packing slip.

The fake tracking number scam is a difficult one to beat because ebay and other site's automated systems can only look at the tracking information to see if there is a Delivered scan.  They cannot access the label information because of the various shipping carrier's privacy policies. The sites them selves are not considered as a party to the shipping transaction so carriers will not allow them access to the label info. 

"Start to finish I had to document every step of the way to prove our side of the story as the seller kept insisting that the item was shipped and received. Anymore using eBay is like going down the rabbit hole. It is both sad and frightening".

Unfortunately, it becomes incumbent on the buyer to prove that an item was not sent to their residence. They have to go to the Carrier with proof, (on ebay their Order Details page) that they were to receive the item at their address and often that the package type/size/weight info does not match what they should have received.  Often the Carriers balk at giving that info out, but it can be gotten.  Once a buyer has it, they can win an appeal, which is looked at by a real person not a computer.  FYI, Payment services and card providers require the same proof in order to issue a refund.  

[sos13]

Times are different I'll give you that however eBay should bear some of the responsibility. It took me many tries to resolve that problem with ebay even after I had all of the "evidence" the appeal kept getting denied even with the all the letters and proof. I buy less and less at ebay because so many items are fraudulent or part of a scam. At least Amazon is a bit more cooperative.

Telling me I shouldn't have bought it is not the solution.

These scammers should be held accountable instead of grilling the buyer.