Chinese Sellers Cheating eBay Customers

[mal8ter100]

Many sellers of electronics products are lying about their real location.

I will happily buy a product located in China if they're honest about it and I can determine the amount of time it will take to reach me. I'd rather this than be lied to.

For instance, they put the US flag on their product photo, thern list their location in the USA as "California" or "New Jersey", for example, and SOMEHOW avoid showing any actual delivery date. Then, when you order the item, it often takes over three weeks to over a month to arrive, and if you contact them about it, they lie to you again and say things like "The post office lost the package. We will send you another one."

These sellers are lying to eBay buyers and misrepresenting their products. Why doesn't eBay do something about this? This type of activity only continues to lower customer expectations and is giving eBay a really bad reputation. 

[mal8ter100]

I'd also like to know why eBay has removed the "Report This Seller" button from the seller's product page.

[eburtonlab]

Every listing has a "Report item" link in the body of the description on the right side of the page, and item location misrepresentation is one of the categories you can use to report an item.

Until eBay cracks down on location misrepresentation, probably the best way to deal with such sellers is to avoid them. The "US only" item location filter selects items that are listed as being in the United States; however, as you have seen, not every seller that lists items in the US ships from the US as they should.

Before ordering you should check the estimated delivery dates -- that is a good indication of how far away items actually ship from since eBay calculates that based on actual past shipping times for that seller. Going to a seller's profile page or feedback page will tell you where the seller's account was registered. Some overseas sellers actually do use US warehouses to ship their items (and even some US-registered sellers may employ overseas drop-shippers), but 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.

When faced with a long list of search results that you want to narrow down to sellers that can ship quickly from nearby, using the "Guaranteed Delivery" filter will often help; very few sellers that ship from overseas qualify.

[eburtonlab]

Until eBay cracks down on location misrepresentation, probably the best way to deal with such sellers is to avoid them. The "US only" item location filter selects items that are listed as being in the United States; however, as you have seen, not every seller that lists items in the US ships from the US as they should.

Before ordering you should check the estimated delivery dates -- that is a good indication of how far away items actually ship from since eBay calculates that based on actual past shipping times for that seller. Going to a seller's profile page or feedback page will tell you where the seller's account was registered. Some overseas sellers actually do use US warehouses to ship their items (and even some US-registered sellers may employ overseas drop-shippers), but 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.

When faced with a long list of search results that you want to narrow down to sellers that can ship quickly from nearby, using the "Guaranteed Delivery" filter will often help; very few sellers that ship from overseas qualify.

[mal8ter100]

Selecting "USA Only" does no good when they lie about their location. And, have you ever selected "Guaranteed Delivery" and received the, "We're checking with the carrier to find out why the delay" and a load of other **bleep** excuses. Apparently, once they lie about their location, it also qualifies them for the 'Guaranteed Delivery' status.

If you think about it, eBay makes its money anyway, so overlooking this dishonesty by these China-based sellers is probably policy.

I see the "Report Item" button now--thanks for pointing that out, but it is now different from the past report option and less obvious.

[eburtonlab]

@mal8ter100 

Selecting "USA Only" does no good when they lie about their location.

Yes, that is precisely why I said "not every seller that lists items in the US ships from the US as they should". Too many buyers rely on a seller's assurances without checking further. Luckily that is not the only tool at your disposal for identifying slow-shipping sellers.

And, have you ever selected "Guaranteed Delivery" and received the, "We're checking with the carrier to find out why the delay" and a load of other **bleep** excuses. Apparently, once they lie about their location, it also qualifies them for the 'Guaranteed Delivery' status.

That has not been my experience; typically "Guaranteed Delivery" shows me listings from sellers that have a track record of delivering to my area in four days or less.

Shipping delays can happen to domestic sellers, too, of course. It is certainly possible that you ran across a US-based seller that ran out of local stock and decided to drop-ship an item from farther away to fulfill your order, but sellers that are in the habit of doing that will find their shipping estimates changing from days to weeks, and their feedback taking a turn for the worse.

What does the seller's feedback page show? Is that how they typically operate?

[donsdetour]

And what feedback did you give the seller if you purchased such an Item??

[theloni-10]

"Until eBay cracks down on location misrepresentation, probably the best way to deal with such sellers is to avoid them. The "US only" item location"

The problem is that the seller says they're from Kentucky!

[xrk195]

It's because if they don't do that they will 'vanish' by the CCP. And I mean actually vanish from earth in a way I won't dare describe on here.  Of course they will voluntary 'donate' body parts for the cause of science.  🙂 

[xrk195]

Unless it's a small item I am not buying here anymore.  The world is really upside down now and Ebay unlike the other store has no backing. Sadly the other store is slowly slipping to this places standards now. 

[downunder-61]

@xrk195  Please stop spamming the boards and dragging up threads from years ago - check the date before posting, this is a 2020 thread.

[xrk195]

I didn't say not to buy from here anymore I just said do so in smaller amounts so if you DO get scammed it will be far easier to take care of such as a game/CD or other small packages.  There end of message. 

[kh-cathy]

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.