Overseas sellers

[*loosegravel*]

I'm just wondering if other buyers on eBay are as frustrated as I am regarding overseas sellers. I've been purchasing items on eBay for about 20 years. As a buyer, I have consciously made the choice to purchase from US sellers only. This is mainly because if I have a question or concern regarding an item that I'm interested in or one that I've already purchased and have received, the delay for any kind of reply is simply too long. But also, because I wish to support US commerce. I realize that many of our consumables are produced overseas, but I still wish to support those sellers who reside in the US, thus supporting US commerce. For several years now eBay has allowed overseas sellers to have shipping hubs in the US, which makes them appear that they're US sellers when in fact they are not. So, as a buyer if I'm looking at any specific item for sale, I cannot differentiate between these overseas sellers or those who actually reside in the US. The only way to decipher overseas sellers versus US sellers is to open the store page for every eBay seller and then click on "about" which will show where the seller is located. This is very time consuming. eBay needs to allow us as buyers to enter that selection criteria in our searches period.

[*loosegravel*]

"I have done plenty of business with overseas sellers and have had great luck. In fact, some of my smoothest transactions were with sellers outside of the US."

My concerns are all about freedom of choice only. Remember...USA? I desire, I choose to do business with US sellers only. I've already outlined my reasons for my choice previously in this thread. eBay has taken away my freedom of choice. With technology today they have the ability to give us the search criteria to choose the location of the sellers. But they do not.  Instead, they only give us the criteria to search where the items are being shipped from. This thread is not about comparing the quality of these eBay sellers.

[*loosegravel*]

"In this day and age, there is no way to guarantee 100% you are buying from a US seller, period."

Once again, my concerns are all about freedom of choice only. Remember...USA? I desire, I choose to do business with US sellers only. I've already outlined my reasons for my choice previously in this thread. eBay has taken away my freedom of choice. With technology today they have the ability to give us the search criteria to choose the location of the sellers. But they do not.  Instead, they only give us the criteria to search where the items are being shipped from. This thread is not about comparing the quality of these eBay sellers.

[eburtonlab]

With technology today they have the ability to give us the search criteria to choose the location of the sellers.

That way eBay can provide you with the exact real-time global positioning coordinates of the individual eBay seller in Secaucus, New Jersey who is having your package drop-shipped to you from Hong Kong or Taipei.

[maksym_kozub]

@*loosegravel*, I do feel compassion for you. I have also been in situations, both on eBay and elsewhere, when I would really like to have some features that the site owners have not implemented etc.

However, I clearly understand that in some of those situations I am in the minority. I would put it in simple words. eBay is making money on the market volume. I suspect that the volume mostly comes from people whose wishes and preferences differ from yours or mine. I.e., most people just do not care about the seller's location as much as you do. I think eBay has calculated that if you (and all those other people with that sort of preferences) stop using eBay because of the lack of that functionality, eBay will not lose more money than it would have to spend to support such functionality.

They make their decisions based on the logic of the market, not on compassion towards you, or me, or whoever.

[spark-chaser1]

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@*loosegravel* wrote:

"In this day and age, there is no way to guarantee 100% you are buying from a US seller, period."

Once again, my concerns are all about freedom of choice only. Remember...USA? I desire, I choose to do business with US sellers only. I've already outlined my reasons for my choice previously in this thread. eBay has taken away my freedom of choice. With technology today they have the ability to give us the search criteria to choose the location of the sellers. But they do not.  

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I totally understand where you are coming from. It would be nice to be able to set personal preferences when buying online, and to  know exactly who you are buying from and where they are located. The problems in ambiguity of exact location  seen with dropshippers here in the forums underscore the issue of buyers who think they are buying from a seller one state over only to find that their item is coming from halfway around the world and over a month from arriving.

But the markets in general and online platforms in particular are totally pragmatic in how they choose to operate. They “ go with the flow” and whatever is trending is the determining factor in decision making. Apparently, until something implodes, the current state of affairs is the order of the day/ year/ decade.

[bonsaichristina]

What kind of reply is that? How about the fact someone wants to purchase item from USA and in USA? Just ordered item from Clewiston, Florida since I am in Florida. After sale, shows seller is in Taiwan. That is deceiving! Recent order from New Jersey and took 3 weeks from China! What is wrong with EBay for allowing this? I stopped selling on eBay due to international buyer scams and fees that are nuts! Done with buying on eBay! Too many wanting quick money for taking orders and then having third party do the rest. Not what eBay was all about. 

[*loosegravel*]

eBay has obviously become "too big for their britches." They're making money on every seller and every buyer. They've lost the ability (or the desire) to separate one country from the next. I've read all of the replies to this post which I began in September 2023. Most of the replies indicate to me that my frustration is shared. A few of the other replies are basically saying "just deal with it, nothing is going to change." Again, there are those who say that they've never had a problem buying from sellers who reside overseas. But those people have probably never sent a question to an overseas seller about the item that they're interested in, so they've never experienced the long delay before a reply comes back, or they've never experienced the language barrier. Those same people have never had to experience the frustration of returning items from overseas sellers. And finally, those same people who say that they've never had a problem with buying items on eBay from overseas sellers probably don't really care about supporting the commerce in the country from which they live. I do care. 

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

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

Thank you for understanding.