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..

[acme_universal]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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@acme_universal wrote:

...claiming to have stock already in the UK, whereas (as shown by their feedback) they're actually sending from China.

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Such sellers should be reported to eBay for violating their Item Location Policy.

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I've reported tens of such listings to eBay using the report "button". Result, ONE listing removed - which shortly thereafter reappeared.

From my perspective it seems to be a futile exercise, unless you go to the trouble of ringing CS perhaps?

[4_bathrooms]

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@acme_universal wrote:

I've reported tens of such listings to eBay using the report "button". Result, ONE listing removed - which shortly thereafter reappeared.

From my perspective it seems to be a futile exercise, unless you go to the trouble of ringing CS perhaps?

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As I understand it, eBay will only take action if you can prove the item location was misrepresented. In my case I sent a picture of the package with the CN22 attached; the seller had helpfully put their eBay shop name and logo in the box reserved for the sender's signature.

I would also imagine there is a threshold before eBay will take action. One or two reports may be recorded without any action whilst multiple reports may prompt eBay to ask the seller to provide proof of the location of ther items. Of course, only eBay would know what their threshold for this is and what they would accept as proof.

[acme_universal]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

As I understand it, eBay will only take action if you can prove the item location was misrepresented.

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As it should be.

But when said sellers have many tens of negs left by dusgruntled buyers, complaining that their items were sent from China rather than the UK as the seller claimed, then you'd think that eBay would take notice?

[Anonymous]

Ive emailed ebay numerous times and opened a chat about chinese sellers on ebay stating they are uk based but then it turns out it takes a month to be posted, I used to spend a hell of a lot of money buying on ebay, but when I didnt get a answer from ebay they lost my business to them.

3 wks ago was the last straw, I ordered a item that was based in leicester, 2 wks later it hadnt arrived, i got a email from a chinese seller saying it would follow in a wk, I replied saying i was going to report him for breaching ebay rules, Within an hour he had refunded my money, A week later i got the item. which i didnt pay for.

Msg to ebay...You must start listening to your UK ebay customers as you are being compared to gumtree (NOT a good thing believe me) you are giving UK businesses and sellers a bum deal, you are fast becoming a site that sells fake/copied goods

[robinet_uk]

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@Anonymous wrote:
[...] Msg to ebay...You must start listening to your UK ebay customers as you are being compared to gumtree (NOT a good thing believe me) [...]

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Not sure if you are aware 😉 but eBay owns Gumtree 😉

[Anonymous]

wow so suprised that ebay owns a site for knocked off goods,  All the lads down at the station look on gumtree when something is reported stolen lol....

[elmo7676]

A company I used to work for successfully recoved stolen goods which were advertised on there and the culprit was proscuted for that offence and a host of others.

Nothing that the platform could have done to verify ownership of said items.

[samanthasean25]

Absolutelly in agreement with you.

Unfortunately I have fallen foul to one of these Chinese sellers. Silly me, didn't got right to the deepest darkest depths of the sellers information to check if they were truly UK based or Chinese based.

Frankly as the buyers we shouldn't have to. Luckily Paypal have found in my favour and returned my money. But the whole thing really had me in a panic, as it wasn't just £10 I paid to the scammer it was a large amount. 

I had ticked UK only. I saw the name and thought "That looks chinese" so went in to the site and it said sending from the Midlands area, can't remember exactly now. It was at that point I should have been a detective and searched for bloody ages till I found something to proove the seller was lying.  Not good enough Ebay, to let a buyer be duped in such a way. Even if Ebay wrote unconfirmed UK seller that would be most helpful when scrolling through looking for items.

This experience has really put me off buying anything over a tenner from there now. If Ebay want to continue they need to put some effort into how their customers are treated.

[acme_universal]

Generally speaking, all you really need to do is to look at their feedback to see if there are negs complaining about items being sent from abroad.

Ticking "UK only", on the surface at least, appears only to show UK registered accounts rather than filter on item location as you'd expect. Though these sellers lie about item location anyway so it wouldn't really help!

[4_bathrooms]

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@acme_universal wrote:

Ticking "UK only", on the surface at least, appears only to show UK registered accounts rather than filter on item location as you'd expect. Though these sellers lie about item location anyway so it wouldn't really help!

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The filter does exactly what it says - it filters by the item location as provided by the seller. It does not filter by seller location; a seller registered outside the UK can have (or claim to have) UK held stock. In countries where eBay does not have an active domestic marketplace (i.e. China) sellers must register an account on eBay UK if they wish to sell to UK buyers.

I believe many inexperienced buyers completely miss this distinction - they see a box labelled "UK only" not realising they could still purchase from a seller that is registered outside the UK. This also has consequences for the buyer's consumer rights as these only apply when purchasing from a business seller registered in the EU. For example, any multi-year guarantee or warranty advertised in the listing is unenforceable for purchases from non-EU registered sellers. Once eBay's 30 day Money Back Guarantee and PayPal's 180 day claim limit have passed the buyer has no recourse.

Also, a business seller registered in the EU must ensure any goods they sell to a buyer resident in another EU country can legally be sold in the buyer's country. This does not apply when the seller is registered outside the EU (regardless of the stated item location). This is why I never purchase certain types of items from sellers that are registered outside the EU.

I think the real solution is for eBay to introduce a new seller location filter in addition to (or instead of) the item location filter. At the very least, the seller location should be shown alongside the item location in the "Postage" field so the buyer can make an informed decision. 

[elmo7676]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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I think the real solution is for eBay to introduce a new seller location filter in addition to (or instead of) the item location filter. At the very least, the seller location should be shown alongside the item location in the "Postage" field so the buyer can make an informed decision. 

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The second option is probably more realistic, but I'm not sure that sufficient incentive exists for ebay to do this. I guess it's all down to buyer opinions and how many tick particular boxes in surverys.

One thing I will give credit to most overseas sellers for is their honesty in declaring themselves as businesses. Shame that more people in the UK couldn't be quite so honest and up front with their prospective customers.

[robinet_uk]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

[...]
I think the real solution is for eBay to introduce a new seller location filter in addition to (or instead of) the item location filter. At the very least, the seller location should be shown alongside the item location in the "Postage" field so the buyer can make an informed decision. 

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Delivery time would be much better filter 😉 and much easier to implement.

[acme_universal]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

The filter does exactly what it says - it filters by the item location as provided by the seller. It does not filter by seller location; a seller registered outside the UK can have (or claim to have) UK held stock.

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And thus we're right back to square one...sellers lying about the item's location and eBay doing naff all about it.

[magpiecorner1]

Though business sellers in China do get free listings and free fvfs. All sellers in fact. Or at least this is what they were getting recently. And sellers of used items don't generally use Ebay China. The biggest online China site have a sister site for collectibles.

Of course, on ebay.com there is no distinction between business and private sellers - there are just sellers!

Now that ALL sellers have to accept returns for other than change of mind, it would make sense to just do away with 'no returns' as it is clearly misleading, then add names and addresses, remove the business/private distinction, and you have happy campers.

Ebay could then give free listings to everyone, charge over a certain number. As they do in the US. A level playing field.

Of course a level playing field would take away all the advantages of being a business seller, such as increased visibility, promoted listings, etc if any and all advantages indeed exist. All in it together.

[elmo7676]

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:
Of course a level playing field would take away all the advantages of being a business seller, such as increased visibility, promoted listings, etc if any and all advantages indeed exist. All in it together.

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I know you are of the opinion that business accounts are more visible and that you have some experience of this, but it's something I've never noticed.

These days it's rare that I list anything on private accounts, but occasionally I'll throw up a dozen items. The very act of listings items seems to encourage a flurry of activity, just as I find with my main account, and if I don't list more items that activity dwindles away to nothing. List another item or two and often those forgotten listings being to sell.

I do like the other ideas in your post, but doubt we'll see a level playing field like ebay.com, due to the high number of very active business accounts in the UK. There is no incentive for ebay to make such changes and I think we'd need to see a significant shift in the business/private account balance before ebay start to look at any such measures.

[magpiecorner1]

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@elmo7676 wrote:

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:
Of course a level playing field would take away all the advantages of being a business seller, such as increased visibility, promoted listings, etc if any and all advantages indeed exist. All in it together.

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I know you are of the opinion that business accounts are more visible and that you have some experience of this, but it's something I've never noticed.

These days it's rare that I list anything on private accounts, but occasionally I'll throw up a dozen items. The very act of listings items seems to encourage a flurry of activity, just as I find with my main account, and if I don't list more items that activity dwindles away to nothing. List another item or two and often those forgotten listings being to sell.

I do like the other ideas in your post, but doubt we'll see a level playing field like ebay.com, due to the high number of very active business accounts in the UK. There is no incentive for ebay to make such changes and I think we'd need to see a significant shift in the business/private account balance before ebay start to look at any such measures.

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I quite agree.

I think my activity does show different results, but I keep close tabs and it makes for interesting reading.  But for me, got shot down in flames by another poster last time I alluded to differences.

I can't see any of my ideas coming to fruition, ebay uk does seems to be moving the goalposts further and further apart and cause a lot of discord.  Pity, as far as I can tell on the other platform I am on, it doesn't seem to be an issue at all.  

I have a market survey to complete, trouble is they want my opinions only on the aspects of the business they decide they want my opinions on - so they are ulikely to even be aware of many of the issues affecting the site.  Twas ever thus!

[elmo7676]

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

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I quite agree.

I think my activity does show different results, but I keep close tabs and it makes for interesting reading.  But for me, got shot down in flames by another poster last time I alluded to differences.

I can't see any of my ideas coming to fruition, ebay uk does seems to be moving the goalposts further and further apart and cause a lot of discord.  Pity, as far as I can tell on the other platform I am on, it doesn't seem to be an issue at all.  

I have a market survey to complete, trouble is they want my opinions only on the aspects of the business they decide they want my opinions on - so they are ulikely to even be aware of many of the issues affecting the site.  Twas ever thus!

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The greatest difficulty in trying to ascertain what differences do or don't exist would be that it is impossible to replicate identical conditions on two separate accounts, given that so many factors are used to determine search placement.

Your more regular use of a private account should help you spot patterns, but my limited use of private accounts helps to highlight the major impact a small amount of activity can have. It's a question that none of us will ever be able to answer with empirical evidence.

[magpiecorner1]

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@elmo7676 wrote:

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@magpiecorner1 wrote:

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I quite agree.

I think my activity does show different results, but I keep close tabs and it makes for interesting reading.  But for me, got shot down in flames by another poster last time I alluded to differences.

I can't see any of my ideas coming to fruition, ebay uk does seems to be moving the goalposts further and further apart and cause a lot of discord.  Pity, as far as I can tell on the other platform I am on, it doesn't seem to be an issue at all.  

I have a market survey to complete, trouble is they want my opinions only on the aspects of the business they decide they want my opinions on - so they are ulikely to even be aware of many of the issues affecting the site.  Twas ever thus!

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The greatest difficulty in trying to ascertain what differences do or don't exist would be that it is impossible to replicate identical conditions on two separate accounts, given that so many factors are used to determine search placement.

Your more regular use of a private account should help you spot patterns, but my limited use of private accounts helps to highlight the major impact a small amount of activity can have. It's a question that none of us will ever be able to answer with empirical evidence.

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Even my use has only been regular since last year - just checked, sold 6 items for a total of £60 from January 2015 to Dec 2017, all my boys stuff - as it was a buying account, the feedback meant I didn't start from zero though.   For many years before sold all my personal stuff on various business accounts, which mortifed the tax man.  I still find it swings and roundabouts for me - though I could always sell my stuff into the business and then sell as business stock, tax man obviously wasn't keen on that as I wasn't about to sell to myself cheap.  Who would?  I do though regular keep checks of where my listings sit in various searches, (in my experience some accounts work very differently to others) which I would recommend everyone to do, it throws up some very interesting information.  Of course no information can be judged in isolation, but there are patterns.

[mtwwearinc]

Hi Guys, We are looking for dispatching services from UK to UK, We r amazon seller. Regards Nizami

[4_bathrooms]

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@mtwwearinc wrote:

Hi Guys, We are looking for dispatching services from UK to UK, We r amazon seller. Regards Nizami

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I think the OP should mark the previous post as their thread solution...