Ebay Sellers Location is a Lie!

NicolaC

I wasn't sure where to put this thread, so feel free to move to somewhere more relevant.

A couple of months ago I bought some bits from ebay and the sellers address said "Preston, UK". However when the item arrived it had been posted from Hong Kong. The item was fine, but I wasn't happy about it. (and neither are quite a few people on the feedback that I should have read before!)

This week I was looking for an item as I needed it in a hurry... I found the perfect item and it stated that the sellers location was my home town. I contacted the seller to see if I could buy and pick up the item but they replied with "that is our correspondance address, we are overseas"

Is this becoming common practice? Personally I don't want to buy from overseas for many reasons, so I would like to know where my item really is coming from.

Can I complain about it to ebay? I don't think it is fair that buyers are misled in this way.

knowledgeman

NicolaC wrote: »

I wasn't sure where to put this thread, so feel free to move to somewhere more relevant.

A couple of months ago I bought some bits from ebay and the sellers address said "Preston, UK". However when the item arrived it had been posted from Hong Kong. The item was fine, but I wasn't happy about it. (and neither are quite a few people on the feedback that I should have read before!)

This week I was looking for an item as I needed it in a hurry... I found the perfect item and it stated that the sellers location was my home town. I contacted the seller to see if I could buy and pick up the item but they replied with "that is our correspondance address, we are overseas"

Is this becoming common practice? Personally I don't want to buy from overseas for many reasons, so I would like to know where my item really is coming from.

Can I complain about it to ebay? I don't think it is fair that buyers are misled in this way.

Yes its very common

It may be racist to say foreigners are conners/scammers but the majority on ebay are

They do this to try and catch out the people who have deliberatly filtered them out get conned

I dont buy from abroad because the products are always a cheap rip off brand, and once you add postage costs and waiting costs your better off buying a genuine product

maninthestreet

Report them to Ebay for false contact details.

v0n

Except the "minimum item value" overuse (where an item, regardless how small, is sold for minimum available value - usually 99p, to push it up the BIN list, but is subject to outrageous £19.99 Postage and packing charges which are not visible when you filter by "Price: lowest first") false item location is one of the most annoying things eBay refuse to fix for years.
It now got to the point where you can no longer filter UK only items because far eastern and US sellers now specify either "Anytown, UK" or "Fast shipping, UK" as their location specifically to appear as local sellers while most still have "Member since DD-Mnth-YY in Hong Kong, Registered as business seller" under their name on right hand side panel. Unfortunately filtering sellers by "Member registered in" field which is not available as an option.

GreyPilgrim

Is it possible that the seller is scoping out cheap good abroad, posting them as his 'own', then when you buy them, he just places an order with the overseas company?>

A friend of mine did this with some designer label stuff. Don't think it's unethical is it? (maybe against eBay's rules)

Stan_Morris

knowledgeman wrote: »

Yes its very common

It may be racist to say foreigners are conners/scammers but the majority on ebay are

That's a bit of a sweeping statement, innit.

I've brought a lot of stuff from HK ebay sellers, cellphone batteries, computer bits and bobs etc, and I've always had excellent service.

The only people who've ripped me off have been some english people and a german.

NicolaC

It's not about that.
I just would rather buy stuff that came from the UK.
Lots of reasons... carbon footprints and all that stuff.

If my item is coming from overseas I'd want to know about it.

Stan_Morris

NicolaC wrote: »

It's not about that.
I just would rather buy stuff that came from the UK.
Lots of reasons... carbon footprints and all that stuff.

If my item is coming from overseas I'd want to know about it.

Most things sold by HK sellers are the same as those sold by UK sellers (ie made in china).

So little is made here now.