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..

[4_bathrooms]

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@dawnandpaul7 wrote:

Hopefully if they are fake then Ebay will be told to do something about this...

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eBay will remove the items from sale if they are asked to by Trading Standards.

Then, the seller will simply relist them under a different account. The substandard CO detectors I linked to in my earlier post were previously removed from sale in 2016 after independent tests by Which? proved the detectors to be useless. The two big marketplaces are notoriously poor at preventing such items being sold in the first place, or even preventing them being sold in the future after being informed they are dangerous.

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@dawnandpaul7 wrote:

...I have also purchased something else from another Chinese person which is not as described and I am having a problem getting my money back, first they offered 30% refund, but as they are no good to me I said no, and now they are offering 70% but I want all my money back as the items are useless to me. I see a complaint to Ebay coming on here......

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All you need to do is open a case for the items not being as described. You can refuse any partial refunds that are offered; if the seller refuses to arrange collection and a full refund you can escalate the case and automatically receive your refund.

[preciousjewellerygifts01]

omg can you imagine the uk sellers offering people half their money back, they would think we were having a laugh!!

[i_failed_my_dna_test]

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@talkinpeace wrote:

Interestingly just had an ebayer discussing on another forum how Ebay had removed all his listings until he put his VAT number in

and ebay saying HMRC had told tem to

I got them to call HMRC and confirm that was piffle

now turns out, chinese seller had hacked their account and linked itto a Chinese business 

sneaky

and ebay are still not dealing with it properly 

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There is a simple answer to this problem .

Lets say Mr Wun Hung Lo has 250,000 items listed , each item has minimum quantities of 5 .Thats 1million plus items.

He states Item Location "Little Snoring UK" He has UK seller plastered all over his listings .

He gives his registered address as an empty office block in Aberdeen .

His VAT number belongs to a Chinese cafe in sunny downttown Strangeways .

He has received over 60 negatives in the last month complaining about delivery time ....................from China .

He has over 300 feedback revisions in the past 12 months . And nearly 500 negatives in the past 12 months.

So all ebay has to do to put a stop to these sellers is insert the following words in the Terms & Conditions ..........

"ebay can , after giving 24 hours notice inspect the storage facility and stock levels of any seller who is suspected of not being in compliance with current consumer legislation ."

Perhaps ilona_uk@ebay.com   or sarah_uk@ebay.com  would like to comment on this before they pass it upwards to a senior ebay staff member .

[4_bathrooms]

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@i_failed_my_dna_test wrote:

So all ebay has to do to put a stop to these sellers is insert the following words in the Terms & Conditions ..........

"ebay can , after giving 24 hours notice inspect the storage facility and stock levels of any seller who is suspected of not being in compliance with current consumer legislation ."

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I don't believe anyone willing to commit VAT fraud will give a fluff what eBay put in their Terms & Conditions.

Besides, it would be an empty threat at best. eBay are not going to send any of their token UK workforce to check if storage facilities comply with current legislation nor if they even exist in the first place.

[elmo7676]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

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eBay will remove the items from sale if they are asked to by Trading Standards.

Then, the seller will simply relist them under a different account. The substandard CO detectors I linked to in my earlier post were previously removed from sale in 2016 after independent tests by Which? proved the detectors to be useless. The two big marketplaces are notoriously poor at preventing such items being sold in the first place, or even preventing them being sold in the future after being informed they are dangerous.

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I recently bought two FireAngel CO alarms through ebay. They were from a UK seller but, given reports I'd read about counterfeit units, the first thing I did was test the sensors. Happily they were genuine and worked as expected. If they'd been fake, I'd have ridden Trading Standards until the seller was prosecuted.

[robinet_uk]

@elmo7676

My suggestion was to be able to sort by delivery time - not specific postage option/service 😉 the same way as it can be sorted by "nearest first" - but maybe with sub-option "lowest first" - so "delivery time, cheapest first".

[preciousjewellerygifts01]

just found this seller, also claiming to be in the uk but check out this address they have given, yeap you can really see from this that ebay are really on the ball when doing checks!!

Shaomei Li

Futianqushatoujiedaoshennanxilutairangongyequ210dong2E,2F-59

518000 深圳

China

[elmo7676]

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@preciousjewellerygifts01 wrote:

just found this seller, also claiming to be in the uk but check out this address they have given, yeap you can really see from this that ebay are really on the ball when doing checks!!

Shaomei Li

Futianqushatoujiedaoshennanxilutairangongyequ210dong2E,2F-59

518000 深圳

China

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That's a registered business address (or should be) and doesn't mean that the seller isn't dispatching stock held in the UK.

You also have UK residents correctly displaying their UK registered address, on ebay, but drop shipping items from an overseas supplier. If they state that dispatch is from the UK, then they're also part of the problem

The issue is not where a seller is located, but that they are dispatching goods from where they claim to be and it's important that this distinction be understood. It is misrepresentation of an item's location, not where the seller is located, that is the issue. In theory delivery estimates give a clear indication of where stock is likely to be dispatched from, but there is no way to determine that without looking at individual listings, which is why ebay's option to filter buy UK, EU or worldwide is becoming redundant. If ebay fail to grasp the enormity the problems caused by frustrated buyers, it's going to seriously hurt their bottom line, hence the suggestion of filtering by estimated delivery

[elmo7676]

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@robinet_uk wrote:
@elmo7676

My suggestion was to be able to sort by delivery time - not specific postage option/service 😉 the same way as it can be sorted by "nearest first" - but maybe with sub-option "lowest first" - so "delivery time, cheapest first".

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Apologies! I remember you once mentioning an option to filter express delivery options, but it's impossible to keep on top of the huge number of posts here.

I'm think filtering by delivery estimate is preferable to sorting the search order as it would still allow buyers to sort by price or distance etc, with results then displayed within their chosen criteria.

[preciousjewellerygifts01]

True but you would still think the business address showing should be a valid address as well.

[robinet_uk]

@elmo7676

No problem 😉

Oh, you mean "filtering" - but then there would need to be few thresholds... Should work as long as we could select few at once.

[elmo7676]

Sort of how some filters currently work: Show popular options such as 1, 2 or 3 days, then a 'see all' option which opens up a greater range for those less popular items.

If you were buying a single roll of tape then the fast options would display a large number of listings. If you felt the prices weren't what you want, then you'd have the option of wading through larger numbers of listings. On the other hand, a search for something with less availability might require searching longer delivery options - or may not even require such filtering. Some categories don't seem to pose the issue of location misrepresentation, but in others it seems to be a big issue.

What is clear is that ebay need to get their heads around this problem and that a half assed solution isn't goint to cut the mustard.

[robinet_uk]

@elmo7676

There is only one problem - eBay will lose 50% (?) of income as no one will buy from China anymore 😉

[elmo7676]

Maybe or maybe not.

Many items are available from China at excellent prices and a lot of people find they aren't in so much of a hurry when it comes to price. Chinese sellers have been doing well on ebay for many years, but it's only recently that we're seeing resentment from buyers who can't find what they're after in cluttered categories, which can not be sorted or filtered in any meaningful way due to gaming of the system. I don't mind waiting, but I don't like being lied to (even if the lie isn't of much importance) and I think that's the reason why many people react badly. When I search UK only it's not because of nationalistic nonsense, but because I want an item quickly. When UK items are displaying 10-14 day delivery estimates, I might end up buying elsewhere.

[robinet_uk]

@elmo7676

I know 😉 that's why I wrote 50% - if you are not in a hurry - at least 2-3 weeks - same item can be bought from China 3x-4x times cheaper.

[elmo7676]

I doubt it would be so high as many of those leaving bad feedback about this seem to have a history of purchasing very cheap items.

If it was a high figure, you'd simply see more Chinese sellers availing of UK held stock, which I doubt UK sellers would still stand any chance of competing with. Misrepresentation of location is definitely a serious issue, but I suspect many UK sellers would still be complaining about Chinese competition if this was resolved. People can not hope to sell sell Chinese made goods more cheaply than the Chinese - those days are history.

[tmw4bmw]

I am currently searching for a paintless dent removal kit. I'm in page 5 of listings with "UK Only" clicked. 

EVERY single item I look at has a business address in China, Singapore or Hong Kong!!!! And I mean Every single one. I cannot find a single kit like the one I'm looking for with a business address in the UK! 

[preciousjewellerygifts01]

that must be so frustrating!!

[elmo7676]

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@tmw4bmw wrote:

I am currently searching for a paintless dent removal kit. I'm in page 5 of listings with "UK Only" clicked. 

EVERY single item I look at has a business address in China, Singapore or Hong Kong!!!! And I mean Every single one. I cannot find a single kit like the one I'm looking for with a business address in the UK! 

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Have you any experience of paintless dent removal? If not, can I watch you try to learn?

I once worked with a mechanic who decided that they could do this after spending some time (when they should have been otherwise employed) watching an expert. They were so confident of their abilities that they never considered the idea of practising on a scrap panel and instead destroyed an expensive door 😄

[preciousjewellerygifts01]

Trying to find gift boxes today and came a cross a shop called UKBEADSTORE.............................based in Hongkong!!  with 3 week delivery, so how is that allowed, surely the name is misleading.