eBay

lenny0303 · ‎06-12-2019

Bought an inexpensive item from a China seller selling from the US (a USB meter). It kinda works but only reads up to .5 amp out of the box. (likely a poor connection and allows legacy USB 2.0 Charging).

Took the time to send pic and video.

Seller says they only give partial refunds, they said they will forward to their supplier. Ok, it is a $6.99 item, they want to give 4 and told me to keep it, because it partially works. At first they wanted to give $1.

I'm surprised though in the auction they say:

1.In our store, you will enjoy 30 days return/refund guarantee (Excluding misuse of the item and damaged item).
2.If the item you received is faulty, damaged or incorrect, or any further problems, you can return it for replacement or refund, please contact our customer service on eBay within 30 days from item received.

I think I'll take that and give negative feedback. Don't care about $3 but lately I'm having lots of trouble with ebay. Scammers, slow delivery, etc. Mostly with China Sellers.

orangehound · ‎06-12-2019

@lenny0303 wrote:
Bought an inexpensive item from a China seller selling from the US (a USB meter). It kinda works but only reads up to .5 amp out of the box. (likely a poor connection and allows legacy USB 2.0 Charging).
Took the time to send pic and video.

Seller says they only give partial refunds, they said they will forward to their supplier. Ok, it is a $6.99 item, they want to give 4 and told me to keep it, because it partially works. At first they wanted to give $1.

The eBay Money Back Guarantee supersedes whatever refund or policies that the seller might state or offer. If the item is defective, then you can file a claim with eBay to get a full refund plus whatever shipping you paid. You activate this claim either from the resolution center or your My eBay >> Purchase History (select the button that says "return this item" and "doesn't work or defective"). The seller is responsible for either providing you with a return shipping label (a china seller will not) or funds to your PayPal account after you send a message to them with a quote of how much it costs to send them the item back with trackable shipping (very expensive, much more than 6.99) ... when they provide neither in about 2-4 days, escalate the Money Back Guarantee to eBay informing eBay that the seller is not accommodating return shipping for a defective item.

There is no need to engage further with this seller.

Also, activating this Money Back Guarantee adds a negative service mark on this seller as far as eBay is concerned, and too many of these will lead to restrictions and higher selling costs for the seller. Negative feedback does not do anything except perhaps warn customers ... but most customers only care about the price and not the feedback.

Don't care about $3 but lately I'm having lots of trouble with ebay. Scammers, slow delivery, etc. Mostly with China Sellers.

Continued buying from sellers who have a reputation for selling poor quality products, counterfeit products, and poor customer service has impacts beyond your experience .... it is adding many burdens to USA based, honest sellers (e.g., higher shipping costs, restrictive rules, etc), and causing many of them to go out of business. Over the last two years, I've seen a mass exodus of honest USA-based sellers with quality products who can't compete with dishonest sellers of junk products.

Soon, these will be the only sellers left on eBay unless buyers realize that it is better to pay a little more to get better products and customer service that has integrity

lenny0303 · ‎06-12-2019

Thank you for clarifying and telling me the procedure.

I agree. Many US sellers have gone above and beyond for me, shipping things on SATURDAY and the price was very good. I almost felt like PP'ing them $10 more.

Some items though are just not available though from US sellers. Also, China sellers ship from US warehouses(this one from Central Jersey, used to live around the return address :lol;), why wouldn't they just let you ship back there?

orangehound · ‎06-12-2019

@lenny0303 wrote:
Some items though are just not available though from US sellers. Also, China sellers ship from US warehouses(this one from Central Jersey, used to live around the return address :lol;), why wouldn't they just let you ship back there?

If the original shipping address is a USA-based address, then the return address should be to a USA-based address.

Some items though are just not available though from US sellers.

That's true. Because eBay has allowed (and promoted) these poor quality sellers of poor quality products, it has already put many US sellers out of business for many products that typically sell under $10. A US seller just can't make a profit, typically because of the shipping advantage that a China-based seller has over a US seller.

lenny0303 · ‎06-12-2019

And the scary thing is identical items from China sell for less than items from the US. I am certain that is subsidized somewhere, hopefully not by the US.

Sometimes substantially.

And sometimes the deal is too good to be true and you never get it.

I bought something from China, for three weeks the SpeedPak says "Order Cancelled." Seller is unresponsive. He sold 1000s of those items, I guess ebay will be ponying up soon.

Done with China, I'm sure I can live without most of that junk anyway.

dtexley3 · ‎06-12-2019

@lenny0303 wrote:
And the scary thing is identical items from China sell for less than items from the US. I am certain that is subsidized somewhere, hopefully not by the US.

Sometimes substantially.

And sometimes the deal is too good to be true and you never get it.

I bought something from China, for three weeks the SpeedPak says "Order Cancelled." Seller is unresponsive. He sold 1000s of those items, I guess ebay will be ponying up soon.

Done with China, I'm sure I can live without most of that junk anyway.

Shipping is heavily subsidised. Asian sellers pay pennies to get the items in bulk to the US and then only pay about $0.87 per POUND to ship. So 4 4oz items only cost them $0.87 total for all 4 packages (ie 21 cents per item). We pay and average $3+ PER PACKAGE. Trump ordered the US out of the agreement by this November (2019) unless rates were renegotiated. You can be sure that our rates continue to rise in order to cover these ridiculously low rates for sellers in other countries.

Member of the Grumpy Old Man crew

lenny0303 · ‎06-12-2019

So the USPS is giving such a sweet deal to China????

I figured the Chinese gov't is reimbursing them to stimulate the economy.

I wonder who got greased.

orangehound · ‎06-12-2019

@lenny0303 wrote:
So the USPS is giving such a sweet deal to China????

I figured the Chinese gov't is reimbursing them to stimulate the economy.

I wonder who got greased.

The cheap rates China enjoys are part of a treaty through the International Postal Union (I think that's the name). Basically, once a package arrives in the US from a 3rd world country, then the USPS will deliver the package from China for pennies because of this treaty ... the Chinese government likely gets the package from mainland China to the US for no cost at all to the Chinese seller. The treaty was mostly to accommodate 1st class letters.

In the past, this was not really a problem for the USPS since they weren't delivering much from 3rd world countries, and thus not losing any money on the deal.

Then, about 4-5 years ago eBay lobbied for and got a service approved by the USPS called e-Packet ... it is a tracked service that is slightly more expensive than the non-tracked service mandated by the treaty. The USPS figured, I guess, that they could make a few more pennies on the service.

But, boy did that turn into a mess. Since that time, internet business and the resultant packages from China have skyrocketed in volume and the USPS is now losing millions - the USPS' only recourse to recoup this loss is to charge US-based sellers more money to subsidize the ridiculously priced China shipping services.

So, US-based sellers are not only screwed because of the low-prices China sellers enjoy due to ultra-low shipping costs, now we get inflated shipping costs to basically pay for them putting us out of business.

Well done eBay.