Where are the UK sellers!? (rant)

Flyonthewall

soolin wrote: »

I've all but given up on Amazon, having been stung more than once with false estimates and a false location I won't use marketplace any more. As above, I look at Prime only first, and then usually go to ebay and buy there on price. At least with ebay I can double check exactly where seller is, on Amazon it is hidden. The worst example was an Amazon seller who had the 'buy box' showed a delivery estimate of 5 working days, a dispatch address of Portsmouth . I bought it and a week later I checked the status, the delivery estimate had passed but when I checked the tracking it showed as coming from the Far East with a 5 week estimate.

Complained to Amazon who said the delivery estimate was just that and nothing could be done as seller obviously had to bring more stock in from overseas (or something) but of course I would be entitled to return it at my own cost once it did arrive.

I looked at something last night, Amazon had a seller with a week or so delivery estimate but feedback suggested this item actually took a month as it came from China. Did a search on ebay instead and paid about the same price (we are talking a sub £3 item here) for a UK TRS seller. I think it was something like £2.65 on Amazon and I paid £2.75 on ebay and my delivery estimate is Friday/Sat.

Part of me wants to give up on it, but it's a case of finding things elsewhere. I'm certainly checking far more before buying anything. You're right though, Amazon do hide things more than ebay and it's certainly misleading.

Amazon has always been known for great customer service, but they seem to be slipping. I've heard a few bad stories recently!

Flyonthewall

Slightly off topic, but urrently I'm looking to buy an item (won't say what, not going through that again lol) and have have two choices.

1. a Chinese product with really good reviews. Not sold by any retailers (not up to standard electronically maybe?). Sold almost entirely by Chinese sellers.

2. a product that has excellent reviews but has a bad chemical in it, banned in Europe from what I've read. It is sold by UK retailers, including direct from Amazon, and UK marketplace sellers. There's no mention though of whether that chemical exists only in a US version of it or whether they're just not mentioning it over here.

I'd prefer product 2 and it'd be far easier to get but knowing unsafe items do get sold how do I know that's not one of them...?

soolin

Flyonthewall wrote: »

Part of me wants to give up on it, but it's a case of finding things elsewhere. I'm certainly checking far more before buying anything. You're right though, Amazon do hide things more than ebay and it's certainly misleading.

Amazon has always been known for great customer service, but they seem to be slipping. I've heard a few bad stories recently!

Sorry bit Off Topic.

I was always a huge fan of Amazon, bought loads on there and still have some listings there myself. It does appear to be developing the same sort of issues as ebay now though, I nearly gave up entirely with them when trying to register my selling account properly. I felt I was hitting my head against a brick wall, I was restricted for not supplying info, yet when I did supply it they changed the requirement to such an extent it was impossible to provide proof- they , for instance, wanted a bank account in the name of my selling ID, not 'my ' name, but the actual name I used for my selling account , for instance 'Soolin's shop' .

Then of course recently the seller boards had the thread about the hover boards- regardless of whether they were the safe ones or the imported ones Amazon refunded every buyer (apparently) and told them to destroy the boards. Sellers were losing thousands of pounds with no chance to defend their product and show the safety certificates, the money was gone and Amazon were billing the sellers.

In answer to this thread title, no I don't know where the UK sellers are, they don't appear to be on Amazon anymore and if they are they are completely hidden. Foer me now my only Amazon purchases are via Prime, which now often seems a bit slow as well!

Flyonthewall

soolin wrote: »

Sorry bit Off Topic.

I was always a huge fan of Amazon, bought loads on there and still have some listings there myself. It does appear to be developing the same sort of issues as ebay now though, I nearly gave up entirely with them when trying to register my selling account properly. I felt I was hitting my head against a brick wall, I was restricted for not supplying info, yet when I did supply it they changed the requirement to such an extent it was impossible to provide proof- they , for instance, wanted a bank account in the name of my selling ID, not 'my ' name, but the actual name I used for my selling account , for instance 'Soolin's shop' .

Then of course recently the seller boards had the thread about the hover boards- regardless of whether they were the safe ones or the imported ones Amazon refunded every buyer (apparently) and told them to destroy the boards. Sellers were losing thousands of pounds with no chance to defend their product and show the safety certificates, the money was gone and Amazon were billing the sellers.

In answer to this thread title, no I don't know where the UK sellers are, they don't appear to be on Amazon anymore and if they are they are completely hidden. Foer me now my only Amazon purchases are via Prime, which now often seems a bit slow as well!

Yeah, I remember reading on another thread the hassle you went through with that. It's one thing trying to make sure they have genuine sellers, but the hassle they caused many genuine sellers wasn't the way to do it.

I tried searching for Prime items and still got all the Chinese sellers so I don't even trust items that say Prime.

Thought I'd finally found a way out of the search when I found the product mentioned in my previous post as it's mostly UK sellers and UK retailers, but now the issue of the chemical is putting me off. It sells amazingly well but people over here are probably clueless of it (and who knows if it is in the product sold here!), half of the US buyers are probably clueless and the other half wrongly think it only has an effect if you eat it.

Sometimes the Internet is a great place...other times it drives you mad lol.

The_Last_Username

Again slightly off-topic; apologies.

Amazon will very likely eventually put buyers off by being so sneaky. I know it has put ME off buying anything more-valuable than a few quid unless I am POSITIVE it will arrive when I want (i.e. Prime).

Like Soolin, A few times I too have been caught out

with false estimates and a false location

and Amazon are making it increasingly difficult to spot when a seller is actually NOT UK-based.

A recent example is a small purchase (£3 or £4) from a company whose name ended "B2C UK" ( - and the Amazon business address stated Florida - ) with estimated delivery from one week to three weeks. Item ordered, and would you like to guess where the product is being shipped from?
Yup, China.
The very first time this dispatch source was evident was with the "Your order has been dispatched" email, where - in minute print, mind, it stated :

Your item(s) is (are) being sent by China Post. Your tracking number is 1181389****

! :mad:
Very, VERY sneaky.
(And that is without mentioning the tracking number; I won't even GO there! )

It's not (sadly) that nowadays I don't expect this from Amazon BUT surely it can only go on as a practise for so long before customers object and vote with their feet/purses/wallets.

Flyonthewall

The_Last_Username wrote: »

Again slightly off-topic; apologies.

Amazon will very likely eventually put buyers off by being so sneaky. I know it has put ME off buying anything more-valuable than a few quid unless I am POSITIVE it will arrive when I want (i.e. Prime).

Like Soolin, A few times I too have been caught out and Amazon are making it increasingly difficult to spot when a seller is actually NOT UK-based.

A recent example is a small purchase (£3 or £4) from a company whose name ended "B2C UK" ( - and the Amazon business address stated Florida - ) with estimated delivery from one week to three weeks. Item ordered, and would you like to guess where the product is being shipped from?
Yup, China.
The very first time this dispatch source was evident was with the "Your order has been dispatched" email, where - in minute print, mind, it stated : ! :mad:
Very, VERY sneaky.
(And that is without mentioning the tracking number; I won't even GO there! )

It's not (sadly) that nowadays I don't expect this from Amazon BUT surely it can only go on as a practise for so long before customers object and vote with their feet/purses/wallets.

Ah dear. Like 90% of names that have UK in are not from the UK I've found.

With one order I thought it was a UK seller. Said free UK shipping, didn't say China anywhere. Wasn't until I looked back at the dispatch email that I noticed it said China in really small print, like you said. The order history was then updated to say China, sure it hadn't said it before!

I agree, people will soon go elsewhere.

I have some Amazon vouchers - thinking I want to be spending them ASAP while I can find a few UK sellers!

RFW

Flyonthewall wrote: »

I agree, people will soon go elsewhere.

I have some Amazon vouchers - thinking I want to be spending them ASAP while I can find a few UK sellers!

There are still plenty of us around. In certain markets they are China heavy, many aren't.
I've heard that Amazon are sorting this out this year. To sort out their tax issues they are making it more clearly defined where sellers are, hopefully this will work its way to the item pages.

Flyonthewall

RFW wrote: »

There are still plenty of us around. In certain markets they are China heavy, many aren't.
I've heard that Amazon are sorting this out this year. To sort out their tax issues they are making it more clearly defined where sellers are, hopefully this will work its way to the item pages.

Good to hear! Although sadly it seems you're not selling what I currently want lol. Usually I buy a lot of video games, no Chinese sellers there. Right now, it's electronics though and there's a lot of Chinese sellers there.

I hope they do sort it.

sportsarb

Flyonthewall wrote: »

I try not to be rude or sarcastic on these forums, but sometimes...

I think it was justified in all honesty.

I'm on a lot of forums but that person missed the point and spirit of the thread more spectacularly than I have seen in some time.

Amusing in the end.

Flyonthewall

sportsarb wrote: »

I think it was justified in all honesty.

I'm on a lot of forums but that person missed the point and spirit of the thread more spectacularly than I have seen in some time.

Amusing in the end.

Thanks I know right.

I've had people misunderstand me and I've had people argue their opinion and thoughts against mine, but never have I had someone completely ignore me like that, nevermind continue to have a go at me/be rude and then tell me I'm completely wrong and should change my own thread!

Really sad part is that, despite being on money saving forums, they gave me a price that was more than 6 times what I paid :rotfl: