Chinese Sellers with UK addresses?

[richardsuperstar]

how come there is at present so many Chinese sellers on here who are allowed to put their despatch location as here in the UK?

I've found loads of items which are undercutting most UK sellers and they all show their location as in the UK but then have their registered company address details as in Hong Kong.

its pretty clear that these sellers dont have offices in the uk and are just putting this to stop them being filtered out when someone clicks on show uk only.

surely there should be some check done by ebay to ensure that if a company claims to be in a country the address needs to be verified..

[wyntersemporium]

Try Box Displays, they're uk based

[elmo7676]

---

@elmo7676 wrote:

---

---

Just because the seller is Chinese, there's no reason to think that it'll be dispatched from China when the delivery estimate is a few days.

Tonight I needed to buy a few sizes of heat shrink tubing, so faced this issue as I'd really like to have it in a few days. First thing I did was search UK only, which narrowed the results considerably. The first few listings I then viewed were showing delivery from 11th-15th of January, which sounded suspiciously like it was being dispatched from China, but where it's dispatched from isn't so much of an issue as how quickly it'll arrive, so I disregarded these listings. I noted with interest that ebay no longer allow buyers to filter for listings which qualify for fast and free (and they've never had a filter for express delivery), so I ran through the listings in order of price and selected the first suitable listing which displayed fast and free. The delivery estimate is for Saturday 5th or Monday 7th, so there's no way such a cheap product is going to be dispatched from China on an express service and therefore it would be reasonable to assume that stock is indeed being held in the UK.

As previously mentioned, there's no reason why Chinese sellers shouldn't dispatch from the UK (provided they comply with tax legislation), but the real issue here is the messing about that buyers need to put themselves through in order to find a suitable listing. If ebay were to allow buyers to filter listings by estimated delivery dates, this whole discussion would be at an end. @robinet_uk has previously suggest that ebay should allow buyers to search for items offering express delivery, but I'd like to see something which allowed filtering for estimated delivery within a chosen number of days - that way you could work upwards rather than being offered all or nothing. Maybe ebay could have this up and running by next week 😄

---

Quick update on this...

Order placed late evening of Thursday 3rd January, dispatched Friday 4th and received Saturday 5th via RM 24 from a Chinese seller who dispatched from the UK. There may have been other sellers dispatching from the UK at a lower price but, without ebay allowing me to filter by delivery estimate, I'm going to keep looking for the fast & free logo for items in very cluttered categories, which I need reasonably quickly. Not ideal, but better than beating my head against a brick wall in frustration.

[recasterrelicingsupplies]

That's a hardly a victory for consumer choice. But it serves eBay and their 'Fast and Free' agenda.

[elmo7676]

---

@recasterrelicingsupplies wrote:
That's a hardly a victory for consumer choice. But it serves eBay and their 'Fast and Free' agenda.

---

I'm not suggesting any different, but it served my purposes as buying the same item elsewhere would have cost significantly more. Maybe you could suggest something better? I'm all ears.

[recasterrelicingsupplies]

We all know what would be better. eBay are the one's with corks in their ears!

[smashngrab141261]

just been caught out bought an item stating uk after i paid said will recive within 3 - 4 day

 then after 1 hour get an update its now going to take 2 weeks as its coming from bloody hong kong come on ebay make them state china if its being shipped from there as im thinking of no longer bothering with this site..2 weeks for a fish tank pump i would have been better paying the extra £9 and got it from the shop.............

[elmo7676]

I'm not sure how ebay could have prevented this if delivery was showing as 3-4 days. This delivery estimate was due to a combination of the seller's declared dispatch time and their stated delivery service. Either the seller was trying to lure sales or, more likely, their UK stock ran out. Either way I'd be asking for an immediate refund and if they cancelled for any reason other than 'out of stock', I'd also report the seller.

[elmo7676]

---

@recasterrelicingsupplies wrote:
We all know what would be better. eBay are the one's with corks in their ears!

---

I mean something better that works right now.

[price.dropuk]

With all due respect elmo7676 I highly doubt eBay would do anything if you reported this it seems there just not bothered any more.

[elmo7676]

They most certainly won't do anything if people don't report such behaviour. 

[roxcalibur]

---

@robbosgems wrote:

.....most probably approved by some tory toff on the take.

---

There's no doubt about that. That's how everything works in this wretched excuse for a country.

[elmo7676]

---

@roxcalibur wrote:

---

---

There's no doubt about that. That's how everything works in this wretched excuse for a country.

---

You say that as though any of the options would somehow be better.

[recasterrelicingsupplies]

a very good explanation and probably accurate conclusion. As far as many independent UK sellers are concerned, eBay UK is on a Chinese built Bullet train to oblivion (something else they reverse engineered).
What we need to do is focus on what the Chinese cannot copy (impossible) or focus on what is not worth their while copying. Which is pretty sad. eBay open the door for individuals to access world markets, then flipped it.

[hosky4]

Seems taxes being evaded by many foreign sellers on eBay and Amazon who claim they are UK based. eBay does nothing despite knowing all to well it's going on. I am not legally trained but that smells of fraud to me. The powers are clamping down on this according to BBC news site today.

[wyntersemporium]

Especially when they put their address as Aberdeen tax office as searched on the hmrc site

[recasterrelicingsupplies]

I think for HMRC it's like playing whack-a-mole. What HMRC need to do is make eBay responsible. They will not do it voluntarily: corporations and national governments have conflicting interests. However, to operate they must follow the rules. Governments need to get tough with transnational corporations otherwise we will find this kind of thing is the tip of the iceberg.

[4_bathrooms]

---

@recasterrelicingsupplies wrote:
...What HMRC need to do is make eBay responsible.

---

They do. Well, they made online marketplaces responsible in 2016 then got a kick up the backside themselves from the Public Accounts Committee of MPs for not holding them to account.

[recasterrelicingsupplies]

Fair enough. Then why are they still carrying on like they are above the law? Is it because they don't pay enough tax to fund the people who need to hold them to account? HMRC need to actually do it. It's all well and good for PAC to haul HMRC over the coals, but the government cut funds to HMRC .... which is insane, like the last people you get rid of the are the ones who get the money in for you! David Ike thought politicians were all lizards, they're just self-interested, self-serving strata of the human race who have more in common with corporations than the people they are supposed to represent. I know this contradicts what I previously said, but then I meant 'government' in the sense that it was doing what it was elected to do, not doing what it actually does.

[skell10]

i agree , wonder if they are paying import duty, and income tax,???   go on ebay uk and the first 20 sellers are based in china- "that makes sense"???

[best.buy.items.limited]

I have officialy launch the complaint against chinese seller to Ebay

till now No Response...

I have mention at least 3 accounts from chinese seller which he is just operating from a room in a building in china.

MY Arguments were

on which bases they are allowed 

to sell products on ebay.co.uk

they should sell in china not here...

it is not fair trade they just get VAT Number and dont even have register office in uk..

while uk seller paying heavy rents on storage pay vat paying taxes.......

if they dont stop then we will out of this ebay then they should make ebay.china not uk///

we should get togather and make one plateform to raise our voice,

please all uk seller make official complaint against chinese seller who have not officialy 

any register office in uk and not any ware house in uk...

i know 1 person who start from 1 account and within a year he has made 3 accounts

and continuoulsy copy product designs and contents and exact wording.....

Please dont be silent and raise your voice against this unfair trade

my next step will be to report HMRC about their vat number wothout having any register office in UK