Low price high postage stuff from Hong Kong

drstonk

I am increasingly annoyed by sellers, listed as being in britain but actually shipping from hong kong, with low prices and no reserves but due to the shipping distance high shipping costs, try looking for an MP3 player and see what i mean. I contacted Ebay about this and was told that there is a way of discarding individual sellers from a search but you have to do this manually for each seller, when there are 25 this is a bit of a pain.

Am i the only one who is annoyed by this?
I have suggested to Ebay that there be provided a checkbox to opt out of these distance sellers but don't hold out much hope.
So join me in my campaign to do something about this.
Which i suspect is commercial selling with multiple Ebay accounts, it sure as hell goes against the spirit of the thing, but Ebay are probably making a lot of money on these sellers and will be reluctant to act

LongDongDave

drstonk wrote:

I am increasingly annoyed by sellers, listed as being in britain but actually shipping from hong kong, with low prices and no reserves but due to the shipping distance high shipping costs, try looking for an MP3 player and see what i mean. I contacted Ebay about this and was told that there is a way of discarding individual sellers from a search but you have to do this manually for each seller, when there are 25 this is a bit of a pain.

Am i the only one who is annoyed by this?
I have suggested to Ebay that there be provided a checkbox to opt out of these distance sellers but don't hold out much hope.
So join me in my campaign to do something about this.
Which i suspect is commercial selling with multiple Ebay accounts, it sure as hell goes against the spirit of the thing, but Ebay are probably making a lot of money on these sellers and will be reluctant to act

I've bought a lot of items from HK registered sellers without problem. They've all had the "Location: Hong Kong" in their profile. Although, i would consider it sneaky if they tried to give the location as UK, then ship from HK...but there's an easy way to find out..read their feedback! Delivery charges are high, but the items finish the auction at very low prices. Two weeks ago i bought a Bluetooth dongle (for mobile phone) from a HK seller. The auction ended at the starting price £4.99 + £5 P&P and it arrived in just over a week. Similar items from UK sellers are £12.99 to £17.99 + £2.99 P&P. Other items i've bought have sold for 1p plus £5 postage, these are £20 to buy in the shops. So if you buy something, you've got to consider the overall cost, not just the item cost then moan about the postage charge.

Sofa_Sogood

This one really baffled me yesterday

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50659&item=4975194997&rd=1

Bit cloak and daggerish wasn't it?

gromituk

It's not just the initial postage charge you need to worry about: these sellers make you responsible for the cost of posting the thing back again if it's dead on arrival! If there's an alternative UK supplier, it's worth quite a bit more to me. You also get it a lot more quickly.

And another thing - some of these sellers only leave you feedback once you've left them positive feedback. That is against the spirit of the feedback mechanism and eBay shouldn't allow this either. But the sellers hold the purse strings...

RACHIE77

Sofa_Sogood wrote:

This one really baffled me yesterday

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50659&item=4975194997&rd=1

Bit cloak and daggerish wasn't it?

Sofa_Sogood - Its a bit worrying if they dont know where they live! LOL! They are all private auctions too! Very mysterious!!

I think ebay should require you to put in your location correctly via postcode as it is annoying if it says they are based in UK but actually are based in HK/Singapore etc... I've had to send stuff back too and the postage costs make you wonder if its worth doing, also for an extra pound occasionally I'd prefer to get something quicker rather than wait a week - its not a big deal just a tad annoying when I am expecting a UK seller and then see at the bottom 'this item will be shipped from singapore' etc...

Sofa_Sogood

The combined shipping discount was iffy too Rachie - there was nothing to combine it with



Strangest one I've seen so far.

Sofa_Sogood

Forget that last post - there is

I'll give it a miss though

biblejohn

gromituk wrote:

It's not just the initial postage charge you need to worry about: these sellers make you responsible for the cost of posting the thing back again if it's dead on arrival! If there's an alternative UK supplier, it's worth quite a bit more to me. You also get it a lot more quickly.

And another thing - some of these sellers only leave you feedback once you've left them positive feedback. That is against the spirit of the feedback mechanism and eBay shouldn't allow this either. But the sellers hold the purse strings...

Ive always watched out for this and not bought from hongkong sellers, but got caught by a US seller the other day. Item took 3 weeks to arrive which was longer than i wanted, but even though i paid instantly via paypal, the seller wouldnt leave me any feedback till id left them some.

drstonk

Yeah i've bought a few things recently and dont get feedback till after i'd left some

Lazy_Ike

gromituk wrote:

It's not just the initial postage charge you need to worry about: these sellers make you responsible for the cost of posting the thing back again if it's dead on arrival! If there's an alternative UK supplier, it's worth quite a bit more to me. You also get it a lot more quickly.

Then there is potential Customs Duty and VAT. If the duty (not value) of the item is £7, it may be charged. Duty rate varies dependant on item, but I almost sure that the value includes the cost of posting to the UK. In addition regardless of the duty, if value is over £18 you will be subject to VAT, and if held up at the Post Office for customs you will charged a fee by the PO. The Buyer (importer) is responsible for the correct valuation on the Customs Declaration, even though it is filled in by the Seller. So beware if a Seller offers to undervalue the item on the declaration.
I know a lot of items do not qualifiy in the above figures, and a lot get through regardless, just it is worth knowing.
Also on 20/02/05 Ebay announced: "Changes to the Search and Browse defaults on eBay.co.uk
Following after this change, we will also be extending our Proper Category Listing policy to cover Item Location. From June 1st, the location stated in an item listing must be the location from which an item will be shipped to the buyer. Sellers outside the UK may not misrepresent their items as being located in the UK when they are not."

g33za

It might also be worth using the -hong -kong in your search (titles and descriptions) and that should remove any items with the words hong kong in the description.